The Hickory Grove Group

This group was a church youth group from Charlotte, NC, who came to do ministry work with the youth at the highschool in Mekhe. They were a large group for Mekhe, 15 people came! But what an amazing and outgoing group. Not only did they learn greetings, they took initiative during each day of the week to speak with friends they were making, or even strangers on the road.
This group also braved the elements of Mekhe. Each day we had to battle for running water, which is not fun in a house of 7 guys. And they braved the 110 degree heat of Senegal. I was very pleased with their work.
They even came up with a new nickname for me, Biv or Bivster. It comes from the acronym for learning the colors of the rainbow. It’s still growing on me, but this group earned the right to call me bivster. It was/is cute.
What was their schedule like during the day? Well, they would get up, shower, and eat breakfast, and be ready to go by 9am. From 9-1 we usually did whatever we could, whether prayer walking, visiting friends, or for a couple of days we visited the school and spoke in the classroom with the kids. After lunch we would rest until 4 or 5, when we would really get going with visiting friends at the school. We would play soccer or basketball until dark, then eat supper and have debrief time until 10:30. And after the dust settled, the guys would go back to my place and we’d turn in for bed around 12.
I think that this group got to share with 12-15 different students, which is amazing! We did a really big outreach in showing the chronicles of narnia on a projector outside my house. Several of the Senegalese students were able to ask questions after the movie, and from the responses they did seem to get the message behind the story.
My take home message from this group is to never think that I have to work before sharing the gospel message with those around me. This group took it upon themselves to go straight for the gospel message with the students-sharing their faith, sharing who they believe Jesus is and what it means to be a Christian. I have been waiting to share—waiting to be more comfortable in Wolof, waiting to share the right stories before going to the Cross. Now I know that I don’t necessarily have to wait. I can share right away, and let God’s Spirit do the work.