The year we were in Mali we participated in an exciting weekend at the ocean in Senegal. This was organized by our Regional Director as he invited all Africa Field Directors and their wives to participate in a week of meetings and fun and relaxation at a resort beside the sea. Talk about idyllic - that was it! Isaac Keita and his wife were also invited and he spoke to us each day - inspiring! He was also so blessed to be invited to attend such a gathering, the first time for him as an African leader. Dad and I each had had to prepare papers to share, but otherwise we were just there to learn and participate and relax
The hotel where we stayed was outstanding, Class A. Lovely rooms with private baths, a large swimming pool, the whole beach at our disposal. The meals were wonderful, sometimes on a terrace, often in the dining room and one night everything was moved down on the beach where we ate with the ocean waves rolling in close to us! Coming from dry, barren Mali, this seemed like a paradise. We also enjoyed being with our colleagues from all over Africa. I guess these kinds of gatherings are par for the course now - but this was the only time we had participated in anything of the kind. Our only sadness was that it was only for those of us in leadership - our faithful workers in Mali remained in the dry, barenness of the sahel, battling the heat, winds and sand! Reflecting upon this occasion - and the fact that this seems to be a regular event now - we don't have to wonder why the Great Commission Fund money is stretched to the limit these days! Anyhow, we enjoyed it.... And I know you girls who are international workers and your spouses have also participated in such events in the same place.
Since we were going to this conference by the sea, we also accompanied the MK's returning to Dakar after their Christmas vacation in Mali. The flight was at night, very non-eventful. The kids were met at the airport and returned to their dorms and someone also took us to the SIL compound where we stayed overnight before going to the conference the next day.
One other time we flew Air Senegal (which we found one of the most comfortable flights we ever had) and that was when we got news that the first copies of our printed Bible had arrived in Ouagadougou. The day we heard that news, Dad booked us a flight to Ouaga on Air Senegal. We got there in the afternoon and the next morning went to the Bible Society office in Ouaga. There they were - the first two copies of our beautifully bound Bobo Bible. I almost felt numb when I took it in my hands. It represented the totality of many years of hard work - from committing the words to a written form in Bobo and on through the long process of not only translating the Scriptures, first the NT and later the whole Bible, but also producing the tools to teach the Bobos to read their own language, training language helpers, raising a great deal of money to make the whole thing possible, working night and day, both us, to produce this precious Book!
Later in the year in Mali, once the stock of printed Bibles arrived in Bobo, the church prepared a dedication celebration in the city of Bobo. We were invited to come, kept informed of what was going on, but they had an inter-church committee to plan the Big Day of celebration. We had been informed of the date of the dedication and also the date when we were to meet with the organizational committee. Robert Sanou was the chairman of that committee and he had a gang of Bobo shakers and movers working with him, from the Protestant and Catholic churches. Our only act of participation was to be there and give a very few words to the crowds gathered.
The Big Day arrived, and the church had received permission to rope off the whole open square by the Bobo City town hall. Hundreds of chairs were set up in the open square, we used a covered bleacher set of seats as well. Traffic was directed elsewhere for those hours of celebration. Everyone was decked out in his best, people were invited from everywhere. We were so glad Steve and Debbi were there to participate as well as some of our missionary colleagues. The Bible Society people were there from Ouaga and Côte d'Ivoire. All church denominations were represented. The representative of the president was sent to present us with medals, decorating us for our work in translation and also helping out during the famine years, trucking grain to villages where hunger was rampant.
The church during their committee meetings beforehand had discussed what they could do which would be totally Bobo and understood by the crowd. Finally, they lit on a great idea. You all remember the masked dancers of the Bobos. The grassy costumes they wore, and the long swords some of them carried and waved around.... the Christian Bobos decided to use this figure to show that the Sword of the Spirit (the Bible) conquered the fetish sword which made people afraid. A priest came out dancing towards the end of the ceremony, waving the Bible in his hand as he danced around the crowd. The Bible was the sword of the Spirit which we now had in our language. The Bobos loved the symbolism, although others in the crowd didn't get the root meaning of that dance. The ceremony and service was outside in the town square but the reception was held in the town hall building. Catholics, Protestants, there was no distinction that day - we were all Bobos. It was truly a day of celebration for our people and we were delighted to be able to be a part of it.
We had another exciting (and totally unexpected) event in the States - at Alliance Theological Seminary. Darrell and Cheryl, you will remember you were MIR's at the College that year. We were invited to be present at the ATS graduation as they wanted to confer honorary doctorate degrees on both Dad and me. What a total surprise that was for us! Mark and Katy and children and John and Jennie went with us on the plane trip to Newark. Jacob was just a baby. We all stayed there on the Nyack College campus with Phenicies. What a fun time we had. Tite was there for the ceremony and we walked with the faculty and then had the honorary degree conferred upon us. (Our hoods remain in our hall closet, never to be used). Tite was there for the ceremony and helped with it. He often addresses us as Dr. It was an honor and we appreciated it, but there are certainly others who accomplished as much or more than we did and we felt humbled that we had been chosen by ATS.
Phenices' Syrian pastor friend was also studying at ATS and graduated that day. His family was there from Syria too. Cheryl prepared a big party at their home after the cerremonies...it was wall to wall people. And all kinds of lovely things to eat. We were Arabs and Burkinabe and Americans all celebrating together and it was a great time for us all! Just one more of God's unexpected surprises in our lives!
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