Jesus on the Radio

Jerome has started preaching on the radio every Sunday from 12-1 p.m. The radio station reaches all of the Basse Cassamance region, as far as Djemberin and the Islands. The broadcast even goes into Guinea Bissau. This is a fantastic opportunity for the church to spread the word of God into unreached places in our region. He has been inviting me to speak on the radio but I will be honest I have been a little afraid to have a message translated and heard by thousands of people at one time. I was invited to preach at the Oussouye church today for Easter. After the service Jerome asked me if I would come along to the radio and give the message again. I agreed, Erin and I walked over to the radio station. All went well and I preached on the radio for the very first time, telling an entire region about having a relationship with Jesus Christ.

Games

This year I brought a handful of games back with me. On Sunday I taught Ishmael how to play Connect Four. He was frustrated at first that I was winning so quickly. I had to remind him that I have been playing Connect Four nearly all my life and even brushed up as an adult at Clark's. After playing for hours he was consistently beating me and now says Connect Four is his favorite game.

Fun Times at Marcel's

Visiting

Much of our work here is just spending time with people. We look for every opportunity to do this. We stopped to visit with Gibrail and his friend after the football game the other day and ended up eating peanuts with the family for awhile. The next day Gibrail came to our house with his friend from the visit the previous day and they spent an hour in an english lesson with Erin.

Ish and Samba

Ishmael and Samba are both good friends of ours.

HARLEM

IT'S OUR NEIGHBORHOOD FOOTBALL TEAM!!!!!!! We went today to support the Harlem Football Team. They even won the game!

Kabrousse

Repose

There is a beautiful Campemont in Edioungou that looks out over the mangroves. The ones that we need to save that are covering the Cassamance Region. Campemont's are hotel's or hostel's that are built in a more traditional style. They are found throughout our region. At this particular campemont they have hammocks that hang from the large porch.

Save the Mangroves

What is a mangrove you ask?

I asked my friends from Wiki

Mangrove
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Mangroves (generally) are trees and shrubs that grow in saline coastal habitats in the tropics and subtropics. The word is used in at least three senses, (1) most broadly to refer to the habitat and entire plant assemblage or mangal [1], for which the terms mangrove swamp and mangrove forest are also used, (2) to refer to all trees and large shrubs in the mangal, and (3) narrowly to refer to the mangrove family of plants, the Rhizophoraceae, or even more specifically just to mangrove trees of the genus Rhizophora. Mangals are found in depositional coastal environments where fine sediments, often with high organic content, collect in areas protected from high energy wave action.

The Cassamance region is covered in mangroves.

Yesterday Ishmael took us in a leaking canoe through the mangroves. We taught Ishmael the word for "Hole" so he understood why the boat was filling with water. The canoes are carved from a single tree and are as heavy as you might imagine an entire tree might be. The paddle was also carved from wood and reminded me of the canoes and paddles from the 1960's that are still at my Grandparents camp. Heavy and hard to move. The journey through the mangroves was beautiful and so peaceful.

Superstition

This week at the women's prayer meeting, Lucy asked that we pray for all the children. She said because our children don't wear the charms and we don't make sacrifices for the protection of our children we must pray extra hard. Every time a Christian child falls sick the town uses it as an excuse, it was because they weren't wearing charms. It's because the family didn't make sacrifices. The truth is that life happens to us all, the good and the bad. Life is full of inconsistencies here. People want to have all their bases covered. So they cover their windows with charms and put crosses over their doors. They make sacrifices and hang the bones on the walls along side their posters of the president who will save them and their country. Believe in all of it. Something good will happen to you. It's only a few people, who reject the charms and the symbols for believe in a God who is bigger than it all.

Malaria

Wednesday evening I was feeling kind of ill. I woke up Thursday feeling even worse, the beginnings of some classic Malaria symptoms. I stopped at the pharmacy to pick up some Malaria drugs. I spent the entire day walking through a village feeling ill, by 2:00 p.m. I just had to go home. My fever spiked and I got chills. Today I feel much better after starting the meds and getting some rest.

While we were walking yesterday I remembered a story from Ghana. One day a lady told me she had been having bouts of Malaria all the time. She told me it was because of all the mangoes she had been eating. I tried to explain to her that Malaria came from Mosquitoes, she said yes, because the Mosquitoes eat the mangoes. It didn't seem worth it to try and convince her. She seemed confident that she was getting Malaria from Mangoes. Perhaps our scientists have been wrong all along and I have discovered the true source of Malaria. Mangoes.

Baseball Senegalese Style

Remember when you were a kid and anything became a toy? In Senegal everything is a toy because it's not very often they are given ACTUAL toys! It is now the season for these flowers to fall from the trees into my yard. The children each take one of these flower stems and attempt to knock off the tip of the other persons stem. It does actually take some skill and there were even some injuries as I was not aware of my flower power and whipped my step sending the flower tip into Erin's back. We should be wearing helmets for this kind of activity. Life is a series of risks. Here are some photos from the Flower Power Baseball.

Praying for the sacred tree to rot from the Inside out.

Lucy and I

Yes, Erin the Gambia is a another country

Knit Caps Keep the Sun Off

Visits

The last few days there have been fantastic. Lot's of people have stopped by to visit since I have returned home. Here are some pics.

Is this true of me?

March 4, 2008
Is This True of Me?

READ:
None of these things move me; nor do I count my life dear to myself . . . —Acts 20:24



It is easier to serve or work for God without a vision and without a call, because then you are not bothered by what He requires. Common sense, covered with a layer of Christian emotion, becomes your guide. You may be more prosperous and successful from the world’s perspective, and will have more leisure time, if you never acknowledge the call of God. But once you receive a commission from Jesus Christ, the memory of what God asks of you will always be there to prod you on to do His will. You will no longer be able to work for Him on the basis of common sense.

What do I count in my life as "dear to myself"? If I have not been seized by Jesus Christ and have not surrendered myself to Him, I will consider the time I decide to give God and my own ideas of service as dear. I will also consider my own life as "dear to myself." But Paul said he considered his life dear so that he might fulfill the ministry he had received, and he refused to use his energy on anything else. This verse shows an almost noble annoyance by Paul at being asked to consider himself. He was absolutely indifferent to any consideration other than that of fulfilling the ministry he had received. Our ordinary and reasonable service to God may actually compete against our total surrender to Him. Our reasonable work is based on the following argument which we say to ourselves, "Remember how useful you are here, and think how much value you would be in that particular type of work." That attitude chooses our own judgment, instead of Jesus Christ, to be our guide as to where we should go and where we could be used the most. Never consider whether or not you are of use— but always consider that "you are not your own" ( 1 Corinthians 6:19 ). You are His.

News from Senegal

Here is some of the latest news from Senegal: http://allafrica.com/senegal/

Most noticeable the rebels on the road to the Cassamance and the big Islamic conference in Dakar next week.

Senegal 2008

I returned to Senegal 26th of February with our first student for the training center. On my previous trips to the Airport I was with friends who had been in Senegal many times. This year I was making the decisions. Things went smoothly from the airport to Oussouye.

We traveled by car because the new boat is not running yet. I found out after we arrived in Oussouye that there had been rebel attacks on the Gambian - Bignona road on Tuesday. We heard that we might have trouble getting a car because of a large gathering in Touba for the Muslims. We were able to get a good car for the normal price and had no problems on the road.

When we arrived at the port to cross the Gambian river everyone from our car descended and took the barge across the river. The driver said, look for the car on the other side. We traveled across the river and wandered a bit on the other side. After about a half an hour I started to look for the car and the other people we had been traveling with. To my dismay I could not find our fellow travelers or the car. We walked up and down the strip twice. Finally in a panic I walked just a bit farther down the shopping strip and found a man we had been traveling with, noticeable different from the others because he wore a face mask. I called him "the masked man." We sat down with him and waited two hours for hour car to cross the Gambian River.

We arrived in Ziguinchor exactly eight hours after we left Dakar. If the Gambian River had a bridge the trip would be six hours, not eight. If the road was fixed, the journey from Dakar to Ziguinchor might actually only take 4 hours.

The house in Oussouye was so clean upon our arrival. Our friend Victorine had taken over as guardian because the boys had traveled for a week or so. The only things in disarray are the grounds, full of weeds and overgrowth, and the kitchen and bathroom sinks. I was thankful and truly amazed.

Time has passed now and we are slowly settling into village life.