{"id":1860,"date":"2022-11-14T06:51:00","date_gmt":"2022-11-14T11:51:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/susie-l\/?p=1860"},"modified":"2022-11-14T12:08:23","modified_gmt":"2022-11-14T17:08:23","slug":"culture-is-broken","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/susie-l\/2022\/11\/14\/culture-is-broken\/","title":{"rendered":"Culture is Broken"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s noon and *Ibrahima calls, asking if I\u2019m home.  I say yes.  He follows it up with, \u201cI\u2019m nearby.  Can I stop over?\u201d  (I think he adds that question because I\u2019m white.)  I say yes again.  And I quickly think \u2013 hmm, when *Adama called a little after 11 saying he was coming over, I heated up leftovers.  Now we\u2019ll share them three-way.  We won\u2019t all get full, but at least I have something to share with people coming over at lunch time today!

So soon Ibrahima comes over and joins Adama and I in our meal.  After Adama leaves, Ibrahima sticks around for a bit, but wants to reassure himself that I wasn\u2019t needing to go anywhere.  I tell him that I wasn\u2019t planning on going anywhere until maybe later in the afternoon, when I may go visit an old guy from his village who is sick and in town. (Here, when you hear someone is sick you go and visit; people aren’t afraid of germs.)  And that\u2019s when I learn more culture.

Ibrahima tells me that he never, or at least rarely, goes to visit old sick people.  Young sick people, yes.  But old sick people, no.  He said that they can do something to make the sickness come off of them and onto you, and you\u2019ll die and they\u2019ll get better.  He said that they do it especially when young moms come to visit with their babies; if you hear that a baby dies in the extended family of an old guy who was sick, you\u2019ll automatically know that the old guy is better, since the baby died instead. 

And from there we get into a conversation about sorcerers, \u201cmedicine\u201d and \u201cprotections,\u201d how you have to watch out for these kinds of things, who you have to be careful of because they could try to harm you, etc.  I even bring the conversation back to the city, and he says that these are things you have to watch out for in the city, too \u2013 ways to for sure get a job at a job interview through \u201cgood sacrifices\u201d, medicine you can use to make sure that if you were fired, the person who replaces you won\u2019t be able to succeed either, etc.

As I hear Ibrahima tell stories and explain things about how this works, my mind wanders to comments I\u2019ve heard from those back home: \u201cThey\u2019re better off the way they are.\u201d  \u201cThey\u2019re happy the way they are.\u201d  \u201cThey all live in peace and unity.\u201d  \u201cWhy are you going in to change their culture?\u201d  And my heart breaks again at the bondage that Satan has them in.  By the end of Ibrahima\u2019s 1 \u00bd-hour visit, I\u2019ve heard of broken relationships; pregnancy out of wedlock; disillusionment with the system because of \u201ccheating\u201d through bribery and sorcery; fear of even those close to you, not knowing what \u201cmedicine\u201d or special powers they have; ways to try to protect yourself against the powers of others; etc.  And I long for the day when the gospel will break in and offer real, deep change on levels that as westerners we often don\u2019t even understand.  Freedom from fear and bondage.  Peace and joy, not suspicion and distance.  And a power that is greater than the power of any of the \u201cmedicine\u201d that they can use.

Would you pray with me for that day?  Satan isn\u2019t going to want to let them go, and even now I see him trying to stop what is going on.  Pray that God would tear down strongholds, and that He would open their hearts.  Pray that my language ability would continue to grow, and that the other steps would be taken that need to get done before we can start translating.  Pray for the few believers already among My People, that they would be bold and strong and courageous, and that their lights would shine brightly and break through this ugly darkness that is just under the surface.  This is a spiritual battle, and we need you to stand with us in prayer. 

Thank you for your part in bringing light into the darkness!
 
*Names changed for security reasons<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s noon and *Ibrahima calls, asking if I\u2019m home.  I say yes.  He follows it up with, \u201cI\u2019m nearby.  Can I stop over?\u201d  (I think he adds that question because I\u2019m white.)  I say yes again.  And I quickly think \u2013 hmm, when *Adama called a little after 11 saying he was coming over, I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":945,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1860","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-uncategorized","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/susie-l\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1860","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/susie-l\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/susie-l\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/susie-l\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/945"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/susie-l\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1860"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/susie-l\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1860\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/susie-l\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1860"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/susie-l\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1860"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/susie-l\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1860"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}