Ethnologue: Sierra Leone Language Map

Check this out! It's a language map of Sierra Leone. (Perhaps just anthro majors are interested in this stuff...) Jonathan House which of course is in Bo...is in the Mende section (#10). Roger will be visiting the Vai people (#16). I misspelled it in a previous post. There is a link above the map to a listing of all the different language groups.

SIM: "But Why?"

I found this great article in the magazine SIM (Serving in Mission) publishes. It was written by a missionary in Ethiopia. What a great look at poverty. Sometimes (or most of the time) poverty just seems like such an insurmountable "battle"--where do we start? I'm including the entire article instead of just a snippet--because it's just that important. You can go to the article by the title link. The rest of the magazine is also good and is available online.

"But Why?"

by Clare Meckler, Ethiopia16 May 2008

Today the two-year-old child died.
“But why?” we ask.
Because he was severely dehydrated.
But why?
Because he had diarrhea.
But why?
Because he drank dirty water.
But why?
Because his ten-year-old sister was too weak to fetch clean water from the distant spring.
But why?
Because she’s extremely anemic . . . because of intestinal parasites . . . because of unsanitary conditions.
So why didn’t the older brother go and get clean water for the family?
Because he didn’t know the nearby muddy water harbored disease.
And why didn’t he know?
Because he never had a chance to go to school and learn about microbes . . . because he had to work all day to eke out a meager crop for the family’s food . . . because erosion depleted the soil . . . because the trees were cut down for cooking fuel.
And why didn’t the mother take the sick child to the clinic?
Because she had no money for medicine.
Why not?
Because her husband had died . . . because of tetanus . . . because he stepped on a thorn . . . because he had no shoes.
“A God who cares cannot be served by those who don’t.”

You get the picture. The endless questions, the illusive blame, ever probing deeper to try to get to the true cause of the unrelenting cycle of poverty and disease. Be it war, hunger, drought, or any of the problems that plague our planet, “quick fix” bandages do nothing to heal the hemorrhage.

So fragile is the coping mechanism of struggling people that whole communities are vulnerable to events like variations in climate or deteriorating health status of family members. Our various ministries of compassion endeavor to bring better health and brighter hope to the daily lives of hurting people.

There is Someone who can save them from an endless cycle of “whys”—a God who cares deeply about their suffering. Many years ago this statement deeply impacted my life: “A God who cares cannot be served by those who don’t.” May we all learn to care as he does.

Happy Memorial Day!

Greetings! Here are some of the latest updates.

1. The kids (minus Mary Ina) at Center Street Baptist sang this morning as part of special music. Perhaps I'll put a video up of that soon.
2. Pray for the team that is leaving Tuesday (the 27th). They are flying out of Cedar Rapids in the afternoon. This team will be tackling different projects that the members have each chosen.
3. Roger will be on this team and is looking forward to visiting a part of Sierra Leone that is unreached. Pray for safety for him and those who will go with him. Pray for the receptiveness of the people. We're looking forward to seeing pictures! This is a very spiritually dark place in the country--many secret societies' influence.
4. Pray for Kayla, Rachel and Dylan who have been there for a week already. Pray for their outreaches and travels. Dylan will be spending a week in Mattru with Pastor TY.
5. Pray for Christie who has been there a month already with five months to go. God is using her in amazing ways and allowing her to learn Mende at an incredible pace. Pray for her as she continues to grow in her relationship with the Lord during her quiet times. Pray for her relationships with the staff and children.
6. Pray for the staff at JCC! This is an ongoing request.
7. Pray for Christie's family who will be visiting the next couple of weeks.
8. Pray as the next team forms...possibly in March. If you're interested, leave me a note and I'll pass it on to the right people!

Those are the biggies for now. I'll try to get up some video and photos from recent presentations.

Marshalltown E-Free Church Jonathan House Presentation

May 18th, 2008

The presentation went very well. All nine children from Jonathan House in the area were able to come along with most of their families! It was a great time. Roger did well. The kids sang beautifully! The video clip included is from this morning. Pray for those in that congregation who might come alongside the ministry. There are already several families that support JH. Praise God! Oh, and Mary Ina is the one in the middle of the video (I think the first time she's been involved in a presentation since she's been here--all three weeks).

Otherwise, pray for Kayla, Rachel & Dylan as they left for Jonathan House this morning. They will hopefully be there tomorrow. Pray for connections and their time in airports and in travelling. Pray for their health. All three have been there previously, so pray for the many reunions that will transpire tomorrow. :-)

Roger and a group will live next week. Pray for them also and all the travelling and health. Some of them will be able to go into an unreached area--an exciting opportunity! Pray for that time (essentially pray throughout June).

Enjoy the video! It is part of Roger's part of the presentation.

Sunday, May 18th

Let's pray for Roger as he will be giving a short presentation at Evangelical Free Church in Marshalltown. If you live in the area, feel free to come. Service starts at 10:15. Some of the JCC kids might sing. We're still ironing out details. If you are not able to come, please pray for Roger to have the right words and know what to focus on since it will be a shorter amount of time than he has for other presentations. There are several individual supporters of JCC that attend E-Free.

Sierra Leone Connection: Featured People

While many of the people featured are fascinating, I would encourage you to read the biography of the January 27, 2008 person--Michaela DePrince. It's a pretty cool story of an orphan from Sierra Leone. So....just wanted to share her story with you.

Happy Mother's Day!

Nothing big at JCC (that I've heard) lately. Mark & Ashtyn are back from Africa and they were able to get some important files documented at the Embassy in Dakar for John's adoption. Praise God for that! The field investigation will soon commence. Pray for everything to go smoothly as there were some possible issues. While they were at JCC, Ashtyn was very sick but was better before they left. Praise God!

Many of the kids wrote letters back to their supporters and friends here in America. I worked really hard last fall and wrote all the kids and several staff letters for a trip some friends were making in November. I had been working on replies for the first few months of this year until Solomon passed away, which stopped the momentum in its tracks. I was able to get a few written for Mark & Ashtyn to bring, and just received the replies today. How incredible these kids are! Many of my letters to several of these kids whom I had become very close with and others who had helped me with Solomon while I was there. He was a special little bond that helped me get to know several of the women staff and older girls especially so much better than I probably would have otherwise. And many of the letters from those kids and Aunty Fatmata (his mama after I left) had incredible words of encouragement. We could all learn a lot from the kids and staff about faith! Wow! Perhaps on one hand they're just more accustomed to losing loved ones than I or really they have an incredible faith in our wonderful, loving God! I really believe it is the latter after spending 6 months worshipping God with them. Do you know that sometimes some of the older kids will decide to hold a prayer meeting and recruit other kids to join them?! How joyful the sound of children praising their Heavenly Father!

Pray for the trips coming up:

• Kayla "Boi", Rachel & Dylan will be leaving in about another week to spend five weeks at JCC.
• Two weeks into their trip (or thereabouts), there is a larger group leaving to join them. Roger (int'l director) will be joining them but is glad that he won't be leading this team. Many of the team members on both these teams have been there before. But pray for those who are going for the first time--it can be overwhelming!
• Pray for Christie who is just in her first month of six! She has had a smooth transition thus far and took care of Ashtyn while she was sick. I was able to call her last week and we were able to talk about her first few weeks. There is a lot to get used to--especially being a house mother. I know she is glad that there will be other Americans there for several weeks soon. Some family members will be visiting her soon, too. And then she will have several months "alone" or at least the only American. From experience, it could be challenging during those times, but it was also a time to get to know my African brothers and sisters better--and of course that sweet little baby. :-)

COMING SOON:

• I have a Picasa web album nearly set up--wanted to get the blog up and running before making the web albums public. If you have any pictures to share, please send those to JHM.Salone@gmail.com. I am hoping to have pictures from past teams--looking for former members of those teams to help "create" the album. :-)
• The offer still stands for anyone to share a story! Feel free to email a short story or testimony to the email address in the last bullet.

That's all for now....have a great week!