MEHANNA ROAD

We started our morning (only 75 degrees!) with a great breakfast at the Womble's consisting of homemade peanut butter granola clusters and raspberry jam cake from the previous night.

Sally and Brad led our orientation during the morning hours to give us more information about the Songhai people and culture. We wrote down the subjects from A-z, literally, while making our own "bingo cards" for our trip on the road tomorrow. (The first person to get a "bingo" on their card while observing the Songhai wins a small prize.)

At 11:30 AM, one of our translators, Hama, came by to help us rehearse our drama and we practiced out in the front yard. Hama is a fine young Christian man with a giving spirit and a passion for spreading the gospel to others. He read from our English script and confidently translated everything into Zarma "on the fly" while we acted out our roles. His ability to communicate the Word is so well is an answer to prayer for our team. We rehearsed for about one hour until lunch.

Our meals this week are being prepared by Heather from Fort Worth who is visiting the Wombles to help with food preparation for the various mission teams. Her assistance in the kitchen is invaluable to our team's efforts to prepare ourselves for our "road trip" by preparing our bodies with excellent food. Her efforts also allow Sally to spend more time with us to get us mentally and spiritually ready to minister to the Songhai.

The sun was out in full force after lunch as Brad took us shopping to various locations around Niamey. We were able to purchase some really great items at very good prices. Having Brad along helped us communicate with the vendors, who spoke little or no English, and also prevented us from paying too much for our items.

Markus came back about 4 PM to the Wombles to instruct Sally how to manage the new Seeking the Songhai Web site at http://www.seekingthesonghai.net/. This will allow Sally to maintain the content of the site herself and give her the ability to make updates as needed for prayer requests and other time-sensitive information.

The rest of the team continued their shopping excursion by purchasing anything from jewelry to musical instruments to clothing. After a few more hours, the team returned to the Wombles for a fantastic Lebanese-inspired dinner and fellowship. We then returned back to the guest house and met with Hama to complete our drama rehearsal for tomorrow's visit to one of the villages.

Please continue to pray, especially tomorrow as we head out to the villages for our first day on the road that the Holy Spirit will go before us and move in a mighty way in the hearts of the Songhai who see our performance. Pray that they will come to know the saving power and establish a personal relationship with our Savior, Jesus Christ.

In His service,
"The Seven"