I wish you could have seen the surprise and delight on the little girl’s face when Lily shook her hand. Her joy was contagious, and in an instant, all the boys and girls wanted to shake Lily’s hand. Soon Sonya and I were surrounded by the eager, happy faces of children who wanted to shake our hand.

We were in the village of Manikura for the first time. Though the village is less than 15 miles as the bird flies from Kangaba, where we live, we are separated by the great Niger River, and the nearest bridge across it is over two hours away. The fastest route to the village, if you are in a four-wheeled vehicle, is to go to the village of Bancoumana and take a ferry across. So we reached Manikura after about three-and-a-half hours.

In the beautiful and bright colors of their African dress, the village elders and their wives awaited us in a village square under the shade of a large tree. They gave us a most gracious welcome because we are friends of brother George and Theresa Tooray, who has been working in that village for some time. They were very happy when they heard we wished to help them with their medical needs. Their ancestors told them to welcome strangers. This they did, and they even invited us to come and live in their village! We didn’t know what to say to this gracious offer. We said we could not promise to come to live there but that the village had been on our hearts since we first saw the AFM video about the beginning of the work there.

We praise God for this opportunity and pray that He will use us to reveal the wonderful love of Jesus to the people in Manikura.

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