Francois goes home

After 7 long months Francois has gone back to his village of Zamblala. Since Alan was here we decided to all go along and take him back home.

Before we left, Francois rode one last time on Dawson's bike.

His grandfather learned to play corn hole. :)

The bridge we had to cross. It felt like we were driving on water as we passed in the car because all you could see on both sides was water but in dry season there is no water. amazing.

Francois ran to see his grandmother when we first arrived.

We went to the church service where they introduced us and talked about Francois and his healing.

This was the second church of Zamblala as they had grown out of the first and then this one as well.

On the way to Zamblala we asked the grandfather why there were so many Christians in this town as it is not the predominant religion in Mali. He told us that the town used to be quite large. They were animists. Francois' grandfather's father was actually the priest of the main, most powerful fetish god in the town. One day the spirit came out of the fetish and entered a man, as was the common way for the god to speak. The spirit itself said that a man was coming who was going to bring news of another spirit that was more powerful than him. Soon after a man came bringing news of Jesus and His power. How neat that the evil spirit itself spoke of the one more powerful than him! Makes me think of James 2:19, "You believe that there is one God. Good. Even the demons believe that - and shudder."

Me with Francois' mom and siblings

We had a wonderful time in the village aside from Silas having diarrhea. A two year old with diarrhea in a village using a nyege (just a hole potty) is not fun. But we made it. :) Even though the boys played a lot of DS games or watched the iPod, I am still thankful that they came along and at least get more used to visiting others.