Mango Tree Bread Lady

The lady in the center with the scarf on her head is our "bread lady."  She sells her bread under the mango tree out in front of her house so we call her the "mango tree bread lady."  We learned about her from some friends who said she had the best bread in town.  We tried it and agree with their accolades, so we buy bread from her exclusively.  She bakes bread daily in this large clay oven you see behind them.  


We were there to buy bread one day and we asked if that was the oven, so they quickly invited us inside their home to show us the oven and explain the bread baking process.  She doesn't speak much english and we speak even less (much less) mampruli so we basically talked with a little english and a lot of charades.  But we really enjoyed our visit and they seemed to be thrilled that we were interested.  


We've developed a really good customer-baker relationship with her and she gets so excited when we stop by -- she just waves and smiles and greets us profusely in mampruli.  Today, Cindy stopped by to get bread and they were rolling out the bread on a large table and preparing the fire.  They told Cindy that about 3 a.m, the fire inside the oven is taken out and the dozens of bread pans are placed inside on the oven's concrete floor to bake.  Then a large round metal pan is placed in the opening of the oven to help keep the heat in.  (If you look in the picture, you can see the pan near the ground just behind the bread lady.)


The bread lady (we really need to find out what her name is) told Cindy that she considers us friends and that she SO appreciates our business as it really gives her credibility.  We think that she and her family are muslim, but she asked Cindy to pray today for her and for her business.  Don't you just love it when God just lays an opportunity in your lap and says "Here, I want you to do this one."  It's almost like when you are a teenager and your Dad says, "You want to drive?"


Please pray for our bread lady.  Pray that our relationship will continue to develop and blossom.  Pray that we will get more opportunities to share the gospel even with our limited  language .  We know that the Holy Spirit is able to communicate in any language to us AND through us.  We pray that the bread lady will come to know our Savior personally.

"For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world."

Johns 6:33

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