Alxamdoolilaay!

I love this phrase. Not only is it incredibly fun to say, its meaning is something that has made me think about the ways in which I rely or fail to rely on God. It means "thanks be to God, or praise God", and its French equivalent is "Grace a Dieu", which is heard much less often. It is easy to say Thank You Lord for answered prayers, or when we've been fortunate, when we've been granted favor. But what about when our sister comes home from work at night? Do we thank God? The Senegalese certainly do.

Just about every night when I come home, my mom says, "wacc nga?" (you're coming back?). When I say waawaaw (yup), she says, alxamdoolilaay, and so do I. Here, we thank God for a good night of sleep, for having peace, for our family being well, for learning a lot at school...for pretty much all the blessings, big and small.

My host sister caught me singing "Savior to Me" (Sing Glory) by Kerrie Roberts. She's learning English, and is curious to know about things in the US. As far as popular music, I'm out. She knows more about Rihanna and Akkon than I ever will. But she asked me to explain the lyrics, so I began the slow process of explaining and English worship song to a Muslim in French (I actually used some Wolof too, because sometimes it really is more convenient).

Before the break of that first dawn
You wrote the secrets of the world
And filled the ancient skies
With Your voice and light

Before the world began to spin
You knew the heart of broken men
And how to save our lives
With Your perfect sacrifice

What words could tell
What song could sing?

And bring
Glory to God above
Full of truth and endless love
He who is and was and always will be
I surrender to the one
Gentle and most powerful
Of all the things You are
You've chosen to be
A savior to me

You have made Your light to shine
Through the darkness of all time
And that light was life
In the face of Jesus Christ

You've caused a dawn within my soul
My heart no longer is my own
I want to praise You now
With every breath that You allow

What words could tell
What song could sing?

And bring
Glory to God above
Full of truth and endless love
He who is and was and always will be
I surrender to the one
Gentle and most powerful
Of all the things You are
You've chosen to be
A Savior to me

And I sing glory to God almighty (3x)

Glory to God above
Full of truth and endless love
He who is and was and always will be
And I surrender to the one
Gentle and most powerful
Of all the things You are
You've chosen to be
A Savior to me

And I sing glory to God almighty
And I sing glory
And I sing glory

And I sing glory
I sing glory
I sing glory
I sing glory

We probably spent close to an hour, with all of her questions - not only about the grammar and definitions, but also about what the purpose of the song was. I had to explain what different things mean and where they come from in the Bible. This was naturally terribly confusing for her, and so in the end I said, it's essentially a song to say "Alxamdoolilaay" This helped a little, though I could tell the whole alxamdoolilaay song thing didn't really make all that much sense.

She also asked me something interesting about the Bible she saw I had. It was my French one, and she asked, "Is that the true/real Bible?", which confused me at first because I'm so used to being around many different translations, with the knowledge that it's in many different languages. As she re-iterated herself, It clicked for me. Muslims only trust the Arabic Koran (and many Muslims can't even read Arabic....). So I told her that half of the Bible was originalyl written in Hebrew (which took some more explaining) and that the other half was originally in Greek, but that its been translated carefully into many languages, including Wolof (New Testament only, which makes sense because Muslims are supposed to study the life of Jesus. In their beliefs, He's the second most important prophet. For many people who eventually convert to Christianity from Islam, the first step is realizing that Jesus did a whole lot more than Mohammed did!). This prompted another unconvincing "d'accord" (ok...) and a subject change. Well, it was fun while it lasted. She's very curious about my faith; she asks about fasting, and Christmas and Easter, and about church, and prayers, and now the Bible.

Long story short, alxamdoolilaay, alxamdoolilaay, alxamdoolilaay! God is good!