50 years – The Fourth Decade: ’93-2004

Getting My Feet Wet – Dans le Bain

This is the fourth blog post in this series and it treats my fourth decade. We pick up the story when I was 29 and headed to French Study

Places lived:

• France (July 1993 - Sept 1994)
• Cameroon: Sept – Dec 1994 – Africa Orientation Course
• Mali
• Cote d’Ivoire (part of 1995)
• US (fall of 1996 –recruitment on the Dayuma tour, home assignments: 1998, 2002)

Verse:

Deuteronomy 31:8 The Lord himself goes before you and will be with you. He will never leave you or forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.

This verse is actually one that I counted as a “life verse” beginning back in college. But it seemed particularly appropriate as I set out for France and Africa.

Life-Shaping events:

One of our Advanced French classes.

I am on the back row with Hannu Koskenranta just right of me.

Amy Fields is bottom Right. 

French Study – I set off for Chambéry, France after 4-years of teaching ESL, somewhat apprehensive but I remember thinking that if those 18-year old Japanese girls could come to Oklahoma to study English, then I ought to be fine in a foreign country on my own at 29.

My 30th Birthday was in France and had a Tintin theme.

In addition to being a francophile, I am also a "tintophile".

It has been 20 years since I learned French and I simply cannot imagine life now not knowing French. To say that I fell in love with the language and country is an understatement. I am a true Francophile and enjoy French music, TV, books, culture. It is more than just a “tool” that I use to communicate with people but an extension of me, a different window for viewing the world. I think if I went home to the US forever, I would find some way to continue to be involved in French.

30th birthday party with friends from church

Administration:

I went overseas to do linguistics and Bible Translation, trained with a degree in linguistics.

It was in April 1999 that I received an email telling me to “sit down before reading this”. The email then proceeded to tell me that in a few weeks time, I was going to be nominated “from the floor” to be our director.

I took this before God and felt led to allow my name to stand and accept the outcome of the election. This meant that in June 1999, I moved out of language work and into Administration as Assistant Director, eventually to become Director on April 1, 2004 (the end of this decade).

A verse that God gave to me at this time was 1 Chronicles 17:16-18:

The King David went in and sat before the LORD and prayed, “Who am I, O Lord God, and what is my family that you have brought me this far? And now, O God, in addition to everything else, you speak of giving me a lasting dynasty! You speak as though I were someone very great, O LORD God. What more can I say about the way you have honored me? You know what I am really like.”

I could relate well to David’s surprise that God had chosen him, especially since God knew what I was really like.

I really did not know what I was doing at the beginning and learned a lot on the job and from Eddie Arthur and Phil Davison, both of whom were Director while I was Assistant Director. On furlough, I had some management training and orientation and the privilege of working under Bob Creson.

In any case, the work was one of stretching and growing and above all, asking God for wisdom.

Crises:

Rick Warren says that, "Your greatest ministry will most likely come out of your greatest hurt." In this time period I begin to deal with painful crisis events. In retrospect, I can see how initially these touched others directly, with me trying as best I could to manage the situation and create normalcy for them.

One of the evacuation groups

preparing to (not) leave Cote d'Ivoire. 

Their chartered plane was turned around mid-flight. 

In October of 2002, our folks evacuated out of Cote d’Ivoire and we hosted them. This was the beginning of my Crisis Management work. I was involved in evacuating folks out again in January of 2003 and November of 2004 as well.

Also in my early years as director, we dealt with the death of an employee from cancer and I oversaw the first and probably most intense of 8 med-evacuations I would do through the years.

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Roommates:

At last count there have been 60+ guys with whom I shared a living space for at least a month. In this decade I had 21 different roommates. 9 in French study, 3 in Cote d’Ivoire, 4 in Mali, 5 on furlough.

Roomies that stand out in this decade:

• Hannu Koskenranta: Finnish guy who was my roommate during French study.
• Ed Bussa: Short-termer in Mali for 2000-2001 who stayed with me for half of that time and has been a dear friend ever since.

Ed Bussa and Me at the Chutes de Guina

Friends: 

There were many - here are some who made the journey better. Thank you all!

• Bill and Julie Johnson, 
• Peter and Sandy Jorgensens
• Phil and Cathy Davison
• Brad and Sue Smeltzer
• Jeff and Elizabeth Jansen
• Bamako Singles group: Janet Souster, Shari Anderson, Kim Nelson, Carina Saarloos

Languages:

language survey in Malinke

In addition to learning French for 1 year in France,

I learned the basics of Bambara, Mali’s trade language.
And I did a year of language learning in another language. (see this post on language learning). 

I did linguistic survey in several dialects of Malinke in Guinea, Senegal, Mali and Cote d'Ivoire. 

Matthias Liebrecht and  traveling in a cattle car on survey.

Testing for Comprehension under a big tree

Rides:

In France I had two bikes. The first one, I assembled in the parking lot of Carrefour before riding it home. That one was stolen and I bought a used bike. This was the first time I had a bike as my only means of transport other than the bus and the first time I was riding my bike a LOT.

In Mali, I bought a bike within the first few months, just to ride around town. It was during this period that I began riding somewhat for fun but not long distances. Also during this time frame, I bought the much maligned "Snow Bike" which was made in Dubai and a bit too small for me.

Tim and Bob the Tomato (Robert Tomaticɛ)

In 1996, I bought a red Suzuki Vitara (Similar to US model Sidekick) and this served me until my 2006 furlough. I made a “Bob the Tomato” tire cover to go on the rear tire.  This car and I had several adventures, the most exciting of which was crossing the Niger river in Guinea on the back of 2 pirogues (canoes).

crossing the Niger River in Guinea with my Suzuki riding on 2 pirogues. 

Gadgets: 
Someone commented the other day that I was one of the first people they knew with a cellphone in Mali (and it was due to my job). I think I must have gotten a basic Alcatel phone. No one else had a cellphone except the pilots. 
Also in this phase, I got my first Palm Pilot and quickly grew to love having notes, contacts, Bible at my fingertips. 

Reading:

This was back before Amazon and certainly before e-books and Kindle apps, and so reading material was limited to what you could borrow from friends and missionary guesthouses. Bookstores in Africa are pretty few and far between.

• Frank Peretti
• Stephen Lawhead
• John Grisham – I had a tradition of reading a new Grisham thriller on cross-atlantic trips.
• Tom Clancy
• Clive Cussler: Dirk Pitt Novels
• Ellis Peters: Father Cadfael Mysteries (in both French and English).

French books:

One of the joys of learning another language is reading their literature in the original language. Suddenly instead of one list of classics from English, you have TWO and a whole new world of creativity to explore. 

• Les Miserables – all three “tomes”, unabridged, in French.
• Notre Dame de Paris
• Les Trois Mousquetaires. (The 3 Musketeers).
• Le Petit Prince (The Little Prince).

Tunes:

This was pre-itunes and getting CDs overseas was not easy. I ordered quite a bit from Mount Carmel, a service for missionaries.   CDs that I wore out:

• DC Talk: Jesus Freak
• Ashley Cleveland: BigTown, and Lesson of Love
• Harry Connick, Jr.: She
• Patrick Bruel: Bruel (French)
• Margaret Becker: Simple House
• Rich Mullins: the Jesus Record
• Jars of Clay: Jars of Clay

Movies:

• Lord of the Rings
• The Matrix (trilogy) - (I frequently pondered the "Why, oh why didn't I take the blue pill?" question with regards to taking on the administration roles). 
• Pirates of the Caribbean
• Amelie (wonderful french film)
• Knight’s Tale
• Dodgeball
• Zoolander

TV:

• Star Trek:TNG, Star Trek: DS9 – videos people sent overseas
• X-files (also on videos)
• Simpsons
• Friends