We are home!

We are back in Atlanta! We left the SIL compound at 2:30pm US time yesterday and arrived in Atlanta today at 2:4opm. We are happy to be home! More pictures and details of our last day in Bamako coming soon!

Last day with the children.

We had a special day with the children as we prayed that God would bless our last day and He truly did. Our energy was low when we first woke up but our day with the children ended up to be a very special day! We had great fun dying Easter eggs and hiding plastic eggs full of chocolate! Each egg they decorated was a treasure and one child gave their eggs to us as a thank you for teaching them the last two weeks. We did a teaching with jelly beans and each jelly bean was savored as these are rare treat for these children. We had a great time teaching them how to eat pixie sticks!

It is bittersweet as we say goodbye for each one of these children have found a special place in our hearts!

The performance last night was a hit and the parents loved it! The children did a great job reciting their bible verse - Hebrews 12:1-2. Some of these children are homeschooled in remote villages and rarely have an opportunity to stand on a stage and sing and act. They proudly wore their tie dyed tshirts and did a terrific job!

We are packing tonight for our trip home. We had dinner at the apartment of a sweet missionary family. Tomorrow we are sleeping in and then going to an Artisan market. We will be tourists as we walk around getting our last Malian souvenirs. We fly out tomorrow evening.

We had a "special" visitor tonight in our apartment! A lizard greeted us in the kitchen when we came home from dinner. We aren't sure who scurried faster - him or us! We called a "seasoned" missionary friend and received the "411" on the lizard and what we should do! After some noises in the kitchen, we have not seen him since! That is very good!

We are looking forward to seeing everyone when we get home! We've had a wonderful time. Your prayers have availed much for us and these missionaries! Thank you!

We'll try to post photos tomorrow! It's bedtime here.

Dina, a nanny to one of the children, is decorating her pillow case.

The children colored their pillow cases today. Our friend, Laurel, helped us find white fabric and a tailor in Bamako made the pillow cases for us. We wrote Psalm 143 on each one. We wanted to give them a keepsake that they could use daily.

We finished tie dying the shirts and these look great! (Will post picture tomorrow of their shirts.) The children learned more about the Resurrection today. They played bible trivia, had a water balloon fight, ate Fruit roll ups (a big hit), and made clay animals.

We have our presentation of "The Easter Tree" tomorrow night. We practiced with the children today and they are going to do a great job! The children made invitations, for their performance, and put them on the lunch tables today. We can't believe that our time is almost over. We are excited about the "big finale" tomorrow night.

A view from the submerged bridge at the Niger River.

Our friend Catherine, from England.

Our friend, Laurel, who helped us with all of the details of our trip. She has been a great hostess.

Mangos on a mango tree.

Mrs. Crawford taught on the Walk to the Cross today - Matthew 27

We tie dyed shirts. The children will wear the shirts for their musical presentation, "The Easter Tree".

The children are rubbing banding their tshirts for tie dying.

Working on the vases for the Easter lillies.

We spent our Sunday morning worshiping the Lord, together, in our apartment. We had an opportunity to sleep in and took it!! We ate lunch at a wonderful restaurant Tin-boctou with our new missionary friends. The pictures below show some of our friends and the beautiful mango trees which are in season right now. Did you know that mangos grow on a tree and hang from a long stem? Well - they do!! :) For lunch we had lamb and chicken and a very nice man at the restaurant washed our hands probably like they did in Jesus' day. Speaking of Jesus' day - we now see how dirty the feet were that Jesus washed and have a new found understanding of what a humbling experience that was for the disciples.

After lunch, we were taken on a once in a lifetime tour of a bottom of the Niger river - SERIOUSLY! There is bridge that is underwater that we drove on. This time of year the water is low so the road/bridge is used by people. Bridge is an interesting term - it is narrow and there are no sides or shoulders. We were amazed as we saw that the bottom of the river is all rock. It was amazing to see and quite an experience to travel on. Just an FYI - we took the NEW bridge home from that side of town.

Later that evening we went to an English speaking church service at the local Christian church in Bamako and met other missionaries from other organizations. We even met a couple that resides in Congo and one from Toccoa Falls, GA.

Today we had the children for the entire day. They decorate vases for the Easter lillies and watched an animated video about Jesus and the Crucifixion and Resurrection. We spent the afternoon at the pool. Perfect activity for a 100+ degree day.

We will be practicing for our Easter Tree performance this week and continuing to teach on the significance of this week between Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday.

Thanks for continuing to pray!

The children are making Easter Lillies (thank you Miss Judy - the children loved making them) for the table for the day of the Easter Presentation.

The children are doing great in practice!

Dr. Boardman celebrated her birthday in Bamako. She was treated to some delicious French pastries and the singing of Happy Birthday in French by the children.

We are preparing for our presentation of The Easter Tree next week.

Today was a day of rest for us. We relaxed around our apartment this morning and made our usual egg salad breakfast. We visited the local Christian School. Their facility is very nice. We were impressed! We then went to the American Club for swimming and lunch. The children had a wonderful time playing in the pool and we all enjoyed watching "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory". Dinner was a frozen shepherd pie which was wonderful! We look forward to another relaxing day tomorrow. Again thank you for your prayers! Please continue!

This is the entrance to the local Christian school here in Bamako. Our new friend, Kim, has graciously taken us all over Bamako! She teaches kindergarten at the school and we very much enjoy her company. We think she should come back to Atlanta with us!!! We want her on the basement floor at the Heiskell School with us!!

The playground at the school.

Cows in street as we drive around Bamako.

Entering the American Club in Bamako.

An afternoon at the pool!

Today we took the children to a pool next door to the SIL compound.

We have had two wonderful helpers! Two amazing young Christian ladies who are tutors for some of the missionary families. Emma is from Ireland. Mirjam is from Germany. We are thoroughly enjoying their company. They are fluent in Bambura and help us communicate to the Malian people. They barter for our food and crafts.

Children wore their clothes backwards and inside out in order to celebrate Les Poissons Jour (April Fools Day). We did many fish activities on that day.

Lunch - Yam Stew and Rice.

Painting clay pots. The children were taught about being The Potter's Hand.

Dina is a Malian nanny for a missionary family. She is learning about Jesus and learning English while she attends our sessions.

On April Fools Day (Les Poissons Jour), the children wore their clothes backwards and inside out!

Fun with the children!

The children are coloring the banners for our Easter production - The Easter Tree.

Our Three Musketeers - Josiah, Jonah, and Caleb.

The girls taught us how to make grass jewelry.

Julie with her finished grass ensemble!

Another nice day in Bamako.

Our last two days have been busy, busy, busy! We have been working with the children on their upcoming Easter presentation, The Easter Tree. The children have been creating artwork, playing outside and learning to "fix their eyes on Jesus". We start our day off with devotions and have found that the children have a heart for the Lord. They are grounded in the Word and are able to share their thoughts on the teachings. We have the children from 8-5 daily.

The missionaries have been gracious enough to invite us into their homes and we have shared some delightful food and fellowship.

We've been around the streets of Bamako and today we got fitted for our African skirts. It's pretty funny to have to have the goats move so you can park in front of the tailor. The Malian people are so kind and friendly. The Malian children wave as we go by and everyone tries to speak a little English to us. They ask us how we are doing? How is our family? And if we slept well last night.

We'll post some more pictures soon. Tomorrow we have an early day - followed by an afternoon with the children at a local pool.

We are SO glad that we like rice! We have rice two times a day! The fruit is WONDERFUL! The mangos are the best we have ever tasted and mangos are growing on trees right behind our apartment. The Malian children pull them off the tree and eat them like apples.

We are adjusting to the "special" food cleaning routines and keep a good stock of bottled water in the fridge. We learned how to scorch our bagettes in order to kill the bacteria. Something we thought that we would never have to learn.

We are acclimating well to the heat. It feels like hot days in the south. Instead of perfume, we smell like bug spray ALL the time! We don't a single mosquito bite! Yes!

We appreciated your continued prayers. We know that is why we are doing so well! We miss our families dearly each time we get an email (more emails please!) but we are really enjoying this unique experience and it is a blessing to be here.

Our day and the children.

Our door!

The theme of our Children's Program.

Hebrews 12:1-2.

All of our activities are focused around this scripture.

Fun in our room.

Our Missionary Children. Ages 2-13.

We had our first full day (8:15-5:30) with the children. It was a great day! What a privilege it is to serve this community.

This week the conference is entirely in French (for the adults!) as there are guests from the Ivory Coast. So every lunch and dinner is African food. Today's lunch was rice with peanut butter sauce. Dinner was a variation on what we would be our spaghetti and meatballs.

Both very good!

First Full Day of the Conference

We are learning a great deal about safe food preparation. We must bleach all of our fruits and vegetables before using them. All water must be filtered or bottled in order to prevent Malaria.

We purchased the fruit at a local fruit stand. The mango is the best that we have ever tasted!

Fruit is very inexpensive in Bamako. Meat, cheese, yogurt, and other "staple" items are very expensive here. Mr. Heiskell would be SO pleased to know that there are only Coke products here. We haven't seen a Pepsi product in all of Bamako!!!

These are banners that the children are coloring. Julie drew these as backdrops for the production that the children will present next Wednesday. The banners tell of the walk of Jesus.

Shopping in the Markets of Bamako

Sewage is not underground or closed in Bamako

Shop Entrance.

Fabric Shop

Us with fabric shop owner.