Thieves

In 2009 when we were at home in the States our home in Madina Bafe was broken into. We had mostly moved out but there was still some odds and ends that we had left there. The thieves were caught and their names made known to us. They are young men between the ages of 19-25. Our co-worker understandably did not want to deal with it so she left it until we returned. We we returned in 2010 I never found all the thieves in the village at the same time... so I waited. Finally at the very end of '10 I found all there at home on Christmas break. So I called the fathers together and explained that we needed to settle the matter. They (the fathers) were very willing to do this and ready to accept whatever consequences we decided would be appropriate. I had prayed that the Lord would give me wisdom and help me to be both loving and just. He led me to offer the thieves three choices.
1. public caning. (This is the traditional Jalunga response to thievery.)
2. go to town and visit the judge and probably do some prison time.
3. come to Kedougou and live with us for 2 weeks while I teach them God's word and they work in our fields.
They unanimously chose the third option. So they will be here in a month or so after school lets out. Please pray that the Lord would be gracious to change their hearts from their sinful ways and that we would also be able to demonstrate his love and forgiveness to them.
Some may be concerned about having thieves live with us. It is funny that this never occurred to us. You may ask, "how could that never occur to you?" By their own testimony they readily admit (and we believe it to be close to the truth) that all Jalunga are thieves. The only difference between these 4 and the rest is that they got caught.
Here is a picture of on of our future guests.