I'm back! We finally have internet again - with one small problem; we can't seem to SEND anything. I have a newsletter all ready to go, but am unable to send it. So, for those of you who follow this blog, you are the only ones I can reach. It has been an interesting month. I just got back from going with some of the women to the village of Yifin to hold a women's conference. I wish I could have blogged it daily because it was quite an experience. I lived with the women and learned a lot about the culture and the people. I even learned some Kuranko. I now understand how missionaries used to learn the language by emersion. We traveled to Yifin on Tuesday, spent Wednesday and Thursday visiting and greeting people. Thursday evening all of the women from Yifin walked together to Tilikoro where the meeting was to be held and women from many other villages walked in as well. Friday morning, as we were starting the meeting, a messenger came to ask one of the leaders, who is a nurse in a nearby village, to come and help with a delivery. A woman had come in who was having trouble delivering. I offered to come and help so we found two motorcycle drivers to take us to her village. When we got there we found that she was having twins, but had a uterine complication probably because it was her 10th pregnancy. However, when we advised her to go to the nearby hospital for assistance, she and her husband stated that they did not want to go, so they walked home instead. I later heard that the woman died. It is very unfortunate, but often happens. We spent the rest of the afternoon seeing children for immunizations, sick children, and pregnant mothers. I discovered that afternoon as I looked through her records, it is not at all unusual for a woman to have had 8-10 pregnancies with only 2-4 live children resulting. I saw children so malnourished that we would have rushed them to a PICU if we could. The need is so great!
I returned to Tilikoro that evening and went to the services. To see the women praise God is such a beautiful thing. The joy of the Lord lights up their faces. They work so hard and most of them are one of 2 to 3 wives. Sickness is always just outside the door and there are no guarantees, but they praise God with total abandon. I was so blessed to have been there. Please pray for them as often as you can. Satan is fighting them, but they seek God with their whole hearts.