Snapshots

Visiting Deba's Children with Pastor Moussa 

David, Francis Lisse and Rachel Flying a Homemade Kite

Samba with Paul's daughters - Camie and Mary Madeline 

Samba is doing great! Thank you for all of your prayers!  Her wound is healing well and a doctor in the village checks on it daily. She is staying with Paul's family and hopes to go to school in a few months. Sadly, she is too old to go back to public school unless a judge changes her age. Here it is actually possible to go before a judge and ask them to lower the age on a child's birth certificate so he/she can continue his/her education. This can be complicated and expense, and there are private schools in the area that Samba can attend. There is also a center near Paul's house that provides practical skills for young girls who dropped out of school. Right now this looks like the best option for her. We walked by the center as I was leaving the village and Samba started talking about all the different classes they offer. She would love to go back to school. Please continue to pray that God would provide all of Samba's needs. Many of you have already given generously to Samba's medical expenses. Thank you!  She still has some expenses that need to be covered. If you would like to help out, please drop me a line. Thanks!

Needing Faith

This week I spent time with four pastors each in different regions of Senegal.  I ate fish and rice or millet and talked about different aspects of their ministry. They each have different visions and challenges in their work but share a passion to advance the Gospel in their communities. We talked mostly about development projects - since this is my focus of work, but also talked about their struggle to make ends meet.

The support they receive is not sufficient, neither is their church capable of taking care of them.  They desire to be self-sufficient and to provide well for the needs of their family, but their present conditions do not foster this. At the same time, they carry the burden of responsibility for their church members and mercy needs in their community. As I talk with them and they ask me for assistance, I join in carrying their burdens, but I also do not have sufficient means to satisfy their requests. 

This afternoon I went with Pastor Moussa to visit a widow who recently moved to Mbour. She lives with her children in a squatter community near the church. When we arrived at her hut, we found her four children left to themselves while she was washing clothes in Mbour. Her older children recently arrived in Mbour to stay with her during the school vacation. They live in a one room hut with dirt floors. It is an improvement from their first hut that was thatch and did not protect them from the rain. One of her sons has a serious sore on his head probably caused from their living conditions. 

When Deba’s husband died she was obliged to marry another relative, but the arrangement did not work. To fend for herself and her children she left her village to search for employment in Mbour. Her present house can be taken from her at any moment that the landlord returns. Moussa has asked me to find help for her - a permanent place to live and temporary support until she can have a more stable source of income. Truthfully, I want to say to him that I have too many other projects that need funding. I don’t think I can find enough money for this too.   

At the root, I lack faith that God can provide for ALL the needs and requests that people ask of me - funds for projects for the pastors, their churches and communities. Though as I write this I am reminded of Ephesians 3:20 "Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen."

AIDSFAM and Micro-jardins

Bon Samaritain Groupement 

Hammering 

Enjoying posing for a photo

Pape (literacy teacher/groupement facilitator), Pastor Ibou and Marie Agnes (Ibou's wife and literacy teacher)

Mixing Subtract

The first week of August, twenty women of the Bon Samaritain group at the FM church's center were trained in "micro-jardins" - hydroponic vegetable gardens. Now there are twenty vegetable tables on the roof top of the center and soon vegetables to sell! It was a joy for me to watch this women's group come together and hammer nails and boards to make these tables. The women in the group are mothers in the community who have participated in the center's literacy classes. 

The overall objectives of the project are to encourage the FM church in their ministry to these women and provide the group with a new skill and income generating activity. Thanks to a generous donation by AIDSFAM (http://aidsfam.org) this project was possible! Pray for these ladies to be faithful wives, mothers and stewards of the gifts they have been given. Ask that God's truth would change their lives. 

Fatou Guèye and the ëmb project

Fatou Guèye inspires and motivates me in development. She is a widow, a mother, a friend, a leader, a hard worker and a beggar.  I met her on the street when she asked me for money and through our friendship we started a small group with other street women.  Together these women, professional beggars, have saved money and received small loans for income generating activities.  This year five of them learned how to sew and now have a new skill they can put to use to earn money for their families.  In collaboration with a local women's association, we started an income generating project called ëmb ("bundle" in Wolof).  

The goal of ëmb is for members of the women's association to produce and sell handcrafts locally and internationally.  We are in the beginning stages of this project and currently selling table cloths, tie dye cloth bags, and change purses.  We hope to expand and improve our product line in the future months. Please contact me if you are interested in ordering any of these products. All the proceeds go to the women's association to be invested into future projects and to support the women. 

Goree Island

"From this door

        for a voyage without return

      they went, their eyes fixed

    on the infinite suffering."

Kayaking to Goree Island with Katie (summer intern) her last week

Answers don't always arrive in the expected package of our desire or provide the solution we longed to obtain. Nevertheless, time moves forward and it's either sink or swim. My sinus headaches continue to bring fatigue and I need wisdom in knowing how to live in God's grace. Please pray for strength in knowing how to cope with this constant struggle.