Joey Update Vol. 23

"And after Ali Baba uttered the magic words, 'Open Sesame', a door that no
one would have seen opened right onto the face of the rock wall, revealing a
cavern within the mountain. As Ali Baba entered, his eyes widened to circles
as big the sun, for what he saw was a treasure trove as if all sultans and
rajas had combined their wealth in this one place. Gold and silver dripped
from the walls and jewels of all kinds lay in piles scattered about the
cavern."

Now, I know the power of a good story and I happen to like telling good
stories. It is after all, what first got me interested in this ministry. But
what, you might ask, does a story from medieval Persia have to do with what
I'm doing here? Well, I'll tell you.

I and my teammate had just set off for another village outside our town. It
was a nearby village and the 5K distance away did nothing to dissuade us.
The hot sun was more of a deterrent but we had curtailed this by covering in
kadmul and ball cap respectively. A thing about directions here: having no
street signs as we would think of them gives a great importance in the point
of a finger in a general direction. Our common question, "Where is such and
such a place?" gives us a common answer of "hinak" (over there) with a point
of a whole hand (the usual way of pointing here) in a general direction.
Sometimes, they give us more detailed information such as, "See that big
tree? It's the right of that, far away. Keep going straight." Fortunately,
there is usually no lack of people to ask where we are going and to give us
a friendly nudge in the right direction.

So it was, only a few days ago, our quest to find another village where N.
is the primary spoken language, was successful. We did considerable
wandering through considerable fields of millet (nicely growing I might add)
and also passed through fields of tall grass where plenty of spiky little
stickers lay concealed, just waiting for the chance to hug you with their
spikes.

Upon arrival to the village, it turned out to be larger than we expected, we
were met with a boy coming from the fields. We asked if this was the village
we were looking for. Yes, he replied. He led us down the brier-lined path
into the center of the village. There was a large group of men sitting
there, some sleeping, the rest labouring at threading straw mats or baskets
together. So, we sit down to join them, gingerly for the spiky stickers had
yet to be plucked from our clothes, and the meeting went well. They seemed
pleased that we could speak N. and pleased that we wanted to speak N. with
them. We were pleased that they spoke primarily N. and even one of them a
little bit of Eng. from some time spent abroad. A few of them were working
on an impressive sized basket. I asked its name in N. and he told me. He
said it used for storing a certain kind of small seed, found in the wild and
used, I think, for making couscous. That's when I remembered a story about
another seed.

I launched into the story of Ali Baba, a favourite of mine for its mix of
complexity and simplicity, and seemed to hold the attention of many of them.
After I was done, one of the men retold a part of it, in better N. than I
probably did, to someone else who also was present for the first telling. I
do not know why this is, only it is probably due to my thick Am. accent or
strange use of words in their ears. Still, I was delighted to see it. After
all he retold the story I told, and in a group too!
I think we made a favourable first impression and we were even invited back
to celebrate the Feast after Fasting is done.

Even though I like the Ali Baba story a lot and wish frequently that there
was some magic phrase to open the treasures of N. culture to me, I have not
found it yet. In the place of an easy magic phrase, there is the slow,
though rewarding, task of meeting people where they are and investing my
life in them. I am not so practiced at this as I hope to be, but I am
learning. And the treasures, though yielded slowly and in small quantity,
are not some lifeless gold and silver, but a living relationship that is
able to strengthen (or weaken) over time. So, I will continue investing
myself in the culture of my people until I find that perhaps one day, the
Relationship I am a part of with the Father is introduced seamlessly into
their culture. That is my Request and that is my Hope.

Hamdu's:
-Further opportunities to get out into outlying villages
-Good first impressions all around
-A promising traveling season to come as the rains and Fasting ends

-I found out today that a package from 2007 (read that again) is coming
tomorrow on a plane! How's that for speedy?

Du'as:
-Please lift up Col., my teammate, and I in these next weeks to come. Lift
us up above discouragements, as there have been many since the start of this
project and do continue. I've shared a few of these with you in previous
letters.
-Please lift up changes in our team. Certain members of our team will be
leaving the country for a while, so this will be a big change. I am
confident that we will be able to continue strong but also fairly confident
that there will be some tough times ahead. Pr'y for our advance against the
sprtual darkness in this place.
-We have around 6 weeks left in our town before we head to training in AMS.
Pr'y for remaining time here that it would be a focused time on G0d and the
work we are here to complete before we head for training.
-Lastly, but not leastly, continue to lift up our request and need for able
and willing and available people to work with as we craft stories with them.

I am certainly thankful for you all, loving your email responses which are
so encouraging and your pr'yers are priceless, truly known in value only to
the One we direct them to. I am still learning to be thankful in the small
things, to worship in the everyday, and to praise in the ordinary. This, I
believe is the living way of real saints. And real saints are His specialty.

-Youssef