They just recently
had a new church built in their village- which he is the pastor for. He
also help get 2-3 churches built in surrounding villages. He preaches every Sunday at his own church,
but he also goes into a local town each week, before his own service, to
preach his message on a local radio station in hopes of allowing others to hear
the good news.
Abel also is part of a group that runs a boutique in his village. Boutiques are very common
in larger cities like Thies, but not so much in the villages. These little boutiques are just hole in the wall stores with flour, sugar,
onions, some candy, soap, and other basic need items. Abel first did research to see what items sell best in
the boutiques and only supplies those items in the boutique in his village. He now has something
set up in Excel to help keep inventory and track of the money. A different member of the church, manages the boutique for 3 months at a time. Then the manages gets a certain percentage of the profits and
the other percentage goes back to the church. Abel also helps run a storehouse for food. Currently there are 60 members of this program which is all they can hold right now, both Christian and non Christians. During November (harvest time) people put food in the storehouse. They are not allowed the get it back out until July or August sometime when they start running out of food. If a person chooses to take out 50 pounds of food then when they bring it back after harvest time they have to bring 55 pounds. If a person chooses to take 100 pounds, then they have to replenish it after harvest with 110 pounds of food. At this point, 100 pounds is the most a family can take out. This way, slowly over time it builds the amount of food they have.
The problem here is that if people plan ahead to have food for the whole year they are still obligated to give it if a family member or friend runs out of food or wants to throw a big wedding. Just how it works. So this way, the food gets locked up to help prevent a shortage in the village before the next harvest comes. They can't get to it unless it's an emergency.
They
currently have 32,000 pounds of millet stored for just their
village. He says it’s good because it helps them be self-sufficient and
not have to go straight to a relief group like WorldVision if famine hits.
They have a back-up plan. He wants to be able to help surrounding
villages build similar buildings. It is great that a national realizes they need to become more self-sufficient so they can more easily solve their own problems. Another cool thing is that word has been travelling about their village and the storehouse. Evens Muslims have been amazed that the system seems to really work and how the Christians have handled themselves. Many people were very hesitant to join at the beginning for fear it may be more of a loss than a gain. However there are now Muslim families that participate, and there are even more people wanting to join. It has been a real testament to us to watch someone who is a very smart individual who could probably move to a larger city and have a “better life” for both himself and his family. However he has chosen to stay in the village and work with his own community where life is much harder and be Jesus’ hands and feet to them.
