Loving Under a Different Sky
Two Texans live in an African village to tell about Jesus

By Jeslyn Lemke

NIGER, West Africa -- The long wail of the Muslim call to prayer breaks with the dawn. Roosters are crowing. HandsOn missionaries Kelsi Kelso and Brittany Breedlove awake in their hut in a West African village.

Walking around on their sand floor, they make breakfast from scratch on their gas burner. The only electricity is two light bulbs. Breedlove sometimes takes a run out through the rice fields as the sun rises, watching the scintillating colors reflected through the water of the paddies.

Life is beautiful and rough here for these two Texans, but they knew that when they signed up for the HandsOn West Africa program. And that's why they came -- to speak the name of Jesus in hard places.

"Living out here without running water and just one light and cooking from scratch and living in sand isn't the ideal life for me because I'm American," said Kelso, who recently recovered from malaria. "But this is life for them [the Zerma people], and for me to understand who they are, I have to become like them."

Kelso and Breedlove are part of a five-month International Mission Board program that places people aged 18 to 29 in different ministries around West Africa. While there are currently just two HandsOn programs, this one in West Africa and another for Central, Eastern and Southern Africa, HandsOn will open up worldwide next year.

HandsOn is part of an IMB effort to raise up a younger generation of career missionaries. The program challenges these missionaries to take up the Great Commission, leaving behind their American life.

"I think one thing about this region that is distinctive is that people really want to have a spiritual conversation about God," said Greg Sharpe. He and his wife Laura are the coordinators for the HandsOn West Africa program.

While West Africa is known for being a difficult place to live, people love to discuss spirituality. This opens the scene to spreading the word about Jesus. Most HandsOn missionaries live directly among the people and often find ample opportunities to share Christ as they experience life in Africa.

"You get to put your whole mind, body, soul and spirit into what that feels like," said Greg.

Culture in an African village is often comparable to culture in Bible times because time has, relatively speaking, not changed this place since the days of Jesus.

"It's like being in a time warp," said Greg.

For example, Kelso is in the process of witnessing to a woman who draws water from the well near her house, just like Jesus spoke with a woman at the well in the Bible (John 4:7).

The girls studied the African language of Zerma for three weeks before beginning their ministry. Now their hard work is paying off.

Kelso, 23, is getting to know the women her age in her neighborhood. Most of them already have a baby or two.

"At first I thought it would be hard to relate to them, but it's not," Kelso said. "Right now we're just trying to get to know what they like to do."

One of their host mother's goats ran away to give birth. Breedlove was out running when she saw the woman and her daughter looking for the goat. She spent the next two hours helping them search.

"The people here aren't so different from you and me. I feel like I'm a part of their family. I have friends here like I have in America that I can talk with and joke with just like I would in America," said Breedlove. A man found the goat and the new kid later and brought them back to her host mom.

And then there was the night that a little boy cut open his toe outside their house. The girls cleaned the cut, bandaged it and sent him home. The next day, four or five people showed up with more cuts, wanting help.

"We had a little clinic under the tunda [Zerma word for porch roof] outside our house. We were fixing people and teaching them how to wash their sores and giving them Band-Aids," Kelso said.

Their missionary supervisor, Kanesa Snow of Borger, Texas, said these ladies have blown away her expectations. "I'm really amazed at what they can do after being here only for such a short time. And it really gives me a desire to mentor more people all the time," Snow said.

Each evening the two meet with the leader of their compound -- a grandfather who recently gave his life to Christ. They share Bible stories with him as night encroaches. Then when the rouged African sun turns it head toward night, the girls go back to their house in the sand. Darkness finds them sleeping.

"I have been stretched more beyond measure on this trip than I have ever been in my life. Nothing else matters than serving the Lord. No matter what you do," said Kelso. "Whether you're sitting back at a desk back in the States or being a real missionary in Niger. You need to be a missionary wherever you're going to be."

To find out more about HandsOn, visit www.hands-on-africa.com.