What is Success?

We had the privilege of going to our organizations retreat this week.  It was about an hour from Thies.  A team from Northstar Church came from a suburb of Cincinnati, Ohio to serve the WorldVenture Senegal Team.  It was very nice to just get away for a few days with no cooking, no ministry, no cleaning, as well as being able to hang out with other Americans.  It is the first English teaching we have had since we left the states so that in and of itself was a huge blessing.  The team from Northstar brought a pastor, worship leader, children’s leaders, and a cook to help at the retreat.   

We had the pleasure of getting taught by a pastor named David.  He really challenged us in his teaching to ponder the question, what is success?  So many of us get caught up with being concerned with how much money we have or climbing the corporate ladder.  For us the questions we often challenge ourselves with are: how effective is our ministry?  Does it really even matter if we are here?  How many people have accepted Christ because of us? 

Ephesians 6:12

For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

David really challenged us that Satan often feeds us lies.  Often times we face the daily challenges, and we have a tendency to ask ourselves what we have accomplished today? We need to take a step back to realize that we are fighting a battle that has already been won.  Christ did that 2000+ years ago when he gave his life for all of us. 

 

We as Christians, no matter what “mission field” you live on, are called by God to be just a piece of the puzzle in His story, not to try to create your own story by yourself.  Being successful isn’t how many digits you bring home in your paycheck this week, what promotion you are up for, or what kind of car you drive.  However, success is defined by obedience to God in whatever realm he has called you.  As long as you are being faithful, that is all God has called you to do as a follower.

Joshua 24:14a

Now therefore fear the Lord and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness. 

 

Job 36:11

If they listen and serve him, they complete their days in prosperity, and their years in pleasantness.

The John Huffman School

We have been going over to the John Huffman School a couple of times a week.  The school is pre-K through middle school.  It has been good to put the skills God has given us to use and to be able plant seeds to ultimately further His kingdom.  We are still in the process of meeting a few more people in hopes of getting some more sports activities going as well.   

The John Huffman School is run by the local church.  There are some Christian staff and students who do work at and attend the school, however the majority of the students are Muslim which is no surprise since 95% of the population in Senegal is Muslim.  It has been a pleasure to come alongside fellow Senegalese believers to use sports to get kids to come to the afterschool program.

We have started going earlier to the school because we have found if we are there playing, the kids will come.  We aren’t exactly sure how much of it is because they like us or we have a ball.  We will just keep telling ourselves it’s because they like us J.  But this has been a great way for us to actually get to build relationships with the kids and learn more about them. 

The afterschool program begins with an opening prayer and followed by a warm up which is usually done to Christian music.  Then we split up into two groups: soccer and basketball.  Usually there are about 60-70 kids that come some of which don’t attend the John Huffman School but just live in the neighborhood.  At some point during the program, we have a “moral” lesson for the kids which is usually Biblical without mentioning the Bible. Being subtle here is key since the majority of the kids that come are Muslim. If we just started preaching about Jesus each time then many of the kids would not be allowed to come back.  It is a matter of being patient and trusting that we are able to show Christ’s love through our actions.  After all, actions speak louder than words, right? 

Below are some pictures of the program at the John Huffman School.

Bonjour from Thies, Senegal

We have now been in Thies for almost two weeks!  We have been very busy meeting different people, adjusting to the culture, and learning how to do life in general here.  Daily tasks in general just take so much longer here.   

For example, we went to look at an apartment a couple days ago which in the states would take easily less than 30 minutes because most places require you to make an appointment. However here it took us closer to three hours by the time we met the person showing us the apartment, drove across town in a taxi with him to introduce us to the owner to talk about the price, and then going back and saying our goodbyes! 

Needless to say, being flexible has become a very large part of lives because if you aren’t willing to be extremely flexible here then you will probably end up feeling stressed a majority of the time.

Last week we were able to meet, George, the president of the church association in Thies to receive his blessing and permission to do ministry during our time here.  We also had a meeting with Alouise who is one of the people we will be doing ministry with while we are here.  We will be helping him with an after school program on Wednesdays, Saturdays, and Sundays where he does a bible lesson then also works on both soccer and basketball with the kids.  He seemed very excited we are here to help!  We are hoping to help with ideas and possibly get other nationals involved so once we leave things will continue to move forward.  He also has different days that he would like to do activities and wants to work in different villages so we are hoping to be able to be extra hands in any way possible! 

Here are some pictures of Thies and some of the things we see on a daily basis. 

 

Ready for Take Off

As many of you know, we have been waiting to get the word that Bill, Lucas' dad, received permission to go back to Africa since they are in charge of short term teams in West Africa.  Bill got the go ahead on Friday from the doctor!  We are so thankful that he has been able to heal quickly and seems to be regaining his strength!

We were able to buy our tickets (again) today!  We have almost the same identical itinerary as last time.  We will fly out next Tuesday, February 4th at 10 pm from O'hare in Chicago.  We will first fly to Istanbul with about 21 hour layover.  Then we fly through Mauritania where we will briefly stop and then get to Dakar on February 6th at 8:30 pm (local time).

We are excited to get to Thies and see what God has for us there!  We hope to be able to update you with pictures and what we are doing every couple of weeks.  Thanks for all your prayers and support thus far.  Prayers especially for safe and smooth travels would be greatly appreciated as we head out next week on this new adventure God has for us!

In God's Timing

Well, we have said all along that we would get to Africa on God's timing.  In our minds, WE thought that meant if we raised our funds in time.  Sometimes God has other plans and everything is in His timing so we are trusting this too!

We came out to Maine the week before Thanksgiving to see Lucas' Grandpa and other extended family before we left.  We left on Saturday to drive back to Indiana, and our plan was to leave for Senegal in six days.  We received a phone call Sunday night that Lucas' dad (Bill) had a MILD heart attack (which basically means it was caught early and there was not much damage to his heart).  He was transferred to a different hospital on Monday morning that does more specialized heart care.  He had a heart catheterization done on Tuesday morning, and the original plan was they thought they would just put a stent in and be good to go.  However we received some unexpected results, even to the doctor.  We found out that he would be having quadruple bypass surgery done on Wednesday morning.  Needless to say, at this point we decided it would be best to stay in the states for a little longer and go back up to Maine to see Lucas' family again. 

We are very thankful for a number of things.
1) The heart attack was caught early on and not much damage was done to the actual heart.
2)The doctors' were very pleased with how the surgery went and Bill is now home recovering.
3) Bill was in the states and not in Africa when this happened so he was able to receive immediate medical care.
4) We were in the states and were able to change our plans to come back out to see Bill.

Now by this point we are sure many of you are thinking, so are you still going to Senegal??

Yes, we are!  We put our tickets on "hold" so hopefully all we will have to pay is a change fee.  At this point, OUR plan is to leave mid-January.  (Of course OUR plan was to leave in November, but God knew the whole time we would not leave then and even now knows when we will leave!)  If we tried to get tickets now, it would cost a significant amount more to buy our tickets.  So we will wait until after the Christmas and New Year "rush" when the tickets are about the same price as before.  So we will stay up in Maine with Lucas' family to help around the house some and then celebrate Christmas with them.  Then we will go back to Indiana to celebrate Christmas with Bekah's family and stay with Bekah's parents until we leave. 

Obviously we have had to stay very flexible over the past week and will need to continue to be.  We will try to keep you as up to date as possible!  We hope all of you had a wonderful Thanksgiving and will enjoy the Christmas season!   

Almost That Time

It is crazy that it is almost time for us to leave!  We are getting very anxious to get over to Senegal!  We can't hardly believe it is time for us to leave because fall has flown by, but on the other hand it seems as though we have been fundraising for quite some time.

The first couple of weeks upon our arrival will be filled with meeting the other missionaries in the area, meeting the Senegalese guys we will be working with to learn what their visions are, and adjusting to living in a different culture and learning to use our French.

We have learned recently of an opportunity in January that we will be able to help with a sports camp in a village.  We are excited to see what other opportunities arise once we arrive.

Our official departure date is Friday, November 29th.  We leave from Chicago at 10:00 pm and arrive in Dakar, Senegal on November 31st at 8:30 pm (3:30 pm central time).  On the way we have layovers in Istanbul, Turkey and Mauritania (directly north of Senegal). Once we arrive, then it is about a 2 hour drive from the capital, Dakar, to Thies, Senegal where we will be living for the year. Prayers for smooth, safe travels and that all of our baggage arrives with us would greatly be appreciated. 

We are hoping to be able to keep you updated at least every couple of weeks, but we are not exactly sure what our Internet availability will be while we are gone.  We are making no promises on the frequency of our updates but will do our best!

Thanks for the prayers and financial support thus far and for those of you who have committed to praying for us over the next year!  Next time you hear from us, we will be on the other side of the pond!

Africa Bound.

We had our last and final fundraiser on Saturday.  Thiago, the soccer coach at Bethel, (where both Lucas and I attended and Lucas played soccer) graciously offered to allow us to have a soccer clinic after the alumni game and before the Bethel game last Saturday.  We had about 8 kids come which is more than we expected!  Thiago also arranged with the alumni office to have "the taco people" come as they are known around Bethel (side note: their tacos are phenomenal!) to come for the afternoon, and the soccer funds and alumni offices paid a flat rate while we got all the profits.  We also sold regular concessions.  We made over $400!  We were very thankful for the opportunity that was given to us, and once again God provided more than we could have ever imagined!  Below are a few pictures from the day.

 

 

We are very excited and happy to share that we have bought our tickets!  Praise the Lord!  Our official departure date is November 29th.  We are very excited to get to Senegal and see how exactly the Lord wants to use us.  It is crazy that we have been able to raise our money in about 6 months.  If you would have told us in March that we would have raise just over $32,000 by the end of August we probably would have laughed at you.  There is no explanation for us being able to raise that kind of money other than the Lord has definitely paved the way for us to go serve Him in this capacity and for that we are very grateful. 

We do still have about $2,000 left that we do need, but they allowed us to purchase our plane tickets at this point anyways.  If you feel led to give, there is a donation button on the right side of our blog, or you could mail a check directly to DELTA International Ministries and they will send you a tax deductible receipt either way you choose to donate.  

 

1400 NE 136th Ave #201 

Vancouver, WA 98684

~It has been suggested to us (not by DELTA) that in order to save some money that once we get to Europe, rather than taking another flight that we could just kayak the rest of the way to Senegal.  We think we will hold off on that for now, but we will keep that idea in our back pocket just in case :)