so I waited...

Today was one of those days that you just have to laugh at what goes on around you. Although it wasn't enjoyable during this time, looking back later today I did have to laugh as I share the story.

Sunday as I hung out with a friend, I met one of his friends who is a mechanic. He told me anytime I had problems with my car I could take it to him and he would be happy to fix it. And I asked him if he could fix an air conditioner. My a/c is not cold anymore, and if I could get it fixed it'd probably be cheaper than my business office doing it in Dakar. So I planned to take it to him today. Well, after 3 hours of waiting, they finally came to me and told me that they needed to get some gas (I'm assuming this is freon) to charge it. He says he can fix it tomorrow. I'll take it to him again tomorrow afternoon and try this again.

During the time I did get to talk with a friend for awhile. We had a good talk catching up. It had been awhile since I had seen him. He's a national missionary living here in Ngaye. Since he's done a lot of traveling lately we had just missed each other lately. So it was nice to catch up on ministry stories, asking about family, and about some computer stories he had lately. I like listening to him talk-his Wolof is very clear. When I hear him speak I understand very well. Today was a good understanding day in Wolof, especially during this conversation.

Ok, back to more funny waiting. I decided that I was tired and wanted to try a new restaurant in a nearby town. I see this "restaurant-fast food" sign on the highway each time I pass through, and I wanted to see how the food was. Fast food here simply means hamburgers, fries, and sandwiches. It doesn't necessarily mean fast service. So I knew that going there, and I also knew that I arrived a little early. But what happened is not normal. When I arrived I greeted everyone and sat down to talk to everyone. During the conversation I did say that I had come for lunch and wanted to have a sandwich. 20 minutes later noone had brought me a menu or said anything about lunch coming. So I went to buy something and said that I'll eat when I get back. I returned, again asked for a sandwich, and again sat down and talked. While we all talked there were 3 of the workers busy cutting up potatoes for french fries. After another 30 minutes, I say that I'm going for a quick walk and will come back. I come back 2 minutes later, again go up to a lady, and say, "Ma'am, can you cook me a hamburger? I want to eat, I am hungry." "ok, it's coming," she promised. I never saw her for the next 40 minutes. Finally after waiting for a full hour and a half, I decide this is not worth it, and stand up to leave. I say goodbye to everyone. They didn't even ask or offer that lunch was coming-which is an oddity in this culture. I can't visit anyone here in town during the day without them asking me to stay for lunch or for supper. So I will never go back to this restaurant. I got back home, fixed a peanut butter sandwich, and took a nap. I was exhausted after all this waiting today.

just friends

I think it has taken me until this month perhaps just to get comfortable with my role here as a missionary. Yes, that weighs heavy on me because it shows that I am not a fast learner. That'd be a good characteristic to have. Maybe I can find ways to improve on that. However, now that I've learned what my role can be here, I can own up to that more and define it with purpose. And that purpose is simply to be a friend to others here. There's other things that I can add to these relationships when the time comes. But my main objective with people is to be their friend.

So you may ask what I've been doing with my time? Well, I'm continually adapting to this culture, and I'm gaining friends by talking to new people each week. But my intent was to be sharing at some point with these contacts, and trying to schedule when appropriate times to share will be. Now, I'm just letting myself be more natual in the opportunities that are presented. I can't control opportunities, but one thing I can do is simply be a friend to others.

With that in mind, this month I've opened myself up to simply going out and visiting with friends that I am close to. Several of my neighbors call me over to visit or come and sit at my house themselves. I've enjoyed these visits so much. Within the visits I'm just being myself-joking with them, asking about their family, their day, their work or what they learn in school. And if the conversations drift to talking about God we will comfortably talk about that.

Now that I've said that, I do claim this as a victory despite it taking so long to get here. I do hope to stay comfortable in this role with those around me. And I hope that spiritually I will be strong enough to know when good times come available to stretch these friendships into sharing about my Father. Right now though, despite knowing that my friends are lost and have no knowledge of Jesus as their Savior, I wish to simply be a person that points to Jesus. I pray that one day they may come to know him. When that day comes, to God be the glory!!

quickie

I am uneasy thinking about this with 6 months still to go in my term, but I have ordered and received confirmation on tickets back home. In thinking about my 2 years going by as fast as it seems and that I still wish that I could do so much more than I have done here, it's tough to think about going home already. I have many friends here whom I love. The day I leave will be very tough to say goodbye. However, I will enjoy so much getting reaquainted with so many of my friends and church family from home.

Since I'm sure you're wondering, I'll tell you that I will arrive home Nov. 3. More info to come at a later time!

new team mate

Our Wolof team is welcoming a new worker to Dhara this week. Bertha V., a masters missionary from Houston, Texas, will begin her ministry in Dhara after spending the last 6 months learning Wolof in Dakar. Bertha is an extrodinary person to meet, and you quickly know from talking with her that she loves her family, loves Jesus, and wants to see you make yourself better. I wish her well as she transitions to Dhara to begin ministering to the Wolof in the area there.

This week I had the opportunity to ride to her apartment to help set things up. Elliott, Pat, and myself all went up together to see what final touches needed to be made before she arrived. We'll do some final preparations when we all go with Bertha later this week to make her home as comfortable as possible. She may still have a few things she'd like to do that she can ask her new friends and her land lord to do for her. Her house is really lovely.

I will say that I enjoyed the trip up to Dhara to see the house. With my construction interests and servant heart, I love the chance to do things like this. It was a good way to get away for a day and do something a little different, too.

Remember Bertha in your prayers as she begins making new friends and settling into her new home! :)

Easter

Things around here lately have been basically the same. I am starting to meet new neighbors but overall the conversations remain the same. So I was glad for Easter week to come! I really needed a break in the schedule as I could tell I was getting in a rut.

So I planned to take a weekend break to Dakar. Come to find out our missionary family had planned to have a egg hunt, games, and lunch together. We met and did this. Everyone brought something to share-some brought cake, desserts, fixins for hamburgers, drinks, chips, and people brought eggs for hiding and for the egg toss.

The games were a blast. We played red rover, duck duck goose, tug of war, we had an egg toss, and also hid eggs for the kids.

I'll first tell about the egg hunt. The kids divided into 3 group levels. Toddlers below 3 found eggs hidden in the grass and small shrubs. The 4-7 year olds found eggs hidden a little better-in tire swings, inside shrubs and flowers, and some more obvious hiding places. And then a lot of the adult men got to hide for the teenagers. I was a part of this hiding team, and we had a blast challenging them. We must have hid 30 eggs 6 feet off the ground or higher. I'm sure they thought they'd be finding eggs in the grass when the came out. But nope, we challenged them! I think I hid ten eggs 15 feet or so in a tree. It took them awhile but they did find them all once they learned what we did. They climbed every tree after finding the first few.

Lunch was really good. The host dad cooked hamburgers for everyone. We had baked beans, potato salad, and a few desserts for our meal. And the afternoon the adults got together for tug of war, and we sat around talking as well.

Oh, yes, the egg toss. That was interesting to be a part of and watch! My egg ended up hitting a tree. Some of the others did really well. And these eggs, though they weren't hard boiled, seemed to be pretty tough eggs! many of them hit the ground several times before breaking. And others broke in people's hands as they caught them.

It really was a super time together. I'm so glad we were able to do this.

Vol. group from Mississippi

When I was applying to be a missionary, one thing that I really looked forward to was the future opportunity to work alongside church partners and volunteer groups who would come on the mission field to assist in sharing the gospel. Serving others is a passion of mine, and I've always loved guiding others in service.

That being said, I had another wonderful experience with our volunteer group that came this past week. This was a church group of 5 adult men and women from Mississippi. Some colleagues here in Senegal attend this church, and they came to visit this family. While in Senegal for 2 weeks, they were able to spend 4 days with Elliott, Pat and me.

The group arrived Monday morning. After breakfast Elliott talked about the culture here in the villages to prepare them for sights and sounds they would experience. Most mornings we broke up into prayer walking groups of 3 and walked over the village here to pray for the people and for God to begin working. Monday they also were able to experience our market.

Most afternoons we spent time in villages. The women visited with Pat in some villages her and Elliott are working in. Elliott and I took the men to villages and visited with the men of these villages. We also were able to let the teenage children of our colleagues visit the local highschool and french club to speak with the students.

There's always the challenge in this culture of finding friends when they are not busy. When visiting one village, our friend the village chief was busy with a water leak in the town. While grateful that he did take time to talk with us and open his home to our guests, we were sensitive to his schedule and left a bit sooner than we planned. Also, when I was prayer walking with my group, I was hoping to introduce some of my friends and made plans to do so. However, when arriving, we were not able to find 3 of these friends to talk with. As missionaries and guests in the culture we do have to be flexible in organizing our time with friends.

But with challenges there are often rewards as well to celebrate.
*Pat and her group of women were able to share the story of Ruth in its entirety to 2 separate villages.
*My prayer walking team and I shared about the concept of the trinity to one of my good friends. This friend is a student of the Islamic faith. We often have conversations like this where I try to relate my faith to him. I told him that God and Jesus are equal, even though we consider them to be Father-Son. It's like my friend here. I know him by his American name, while you know him by his Senegalese name. He's still the same person. Jesus is God, but came to earth as a man. It's very difficult to understand; however you see Jesus as a great prophet. He claimed to be God's Son. You should accept his words as truth if you know he is a good prophet. He then wanted me to read some books he had about his faith, and I told him I would read them if he would read the New Testament in Wolof that I would give him. So I pray that he will read this and consider it's message.
*My prayer walking team was also able to share a story with a religious leader and his 2 friends as well. We told these men the story of Lazarus. Unfortunately one man walked away during the story, so we stopped. But we did say a prayer for these men, and prayed in Jesus' name.

This group was a wonderful group. I certainly appreciated their prayers for me in my personal life, my ministry, and my future. I was very encouraged by their presence. I was also very intrigued to see the culture through their eyes. As they recognized the severe darkness here in Ngay Mekhe, I am deeply reminded of the work that is before us. I know God is bigger than this, but I know that I am not capable of even waking up in the mornings without him. As this group has come, it has allowed me to focus on my goals for my ministry. When I came, I did think that I could lead some of my closest friends to Christ. Although I pray for that to happen, I have come to realize that it does take years of ministry to lead a Muslim believer to know truth. Now I wish simply to be a man of Christ to the Wolof people. When they see me, I want them to know that I am a follower of Christ, and that I have come so that they may hear about Jesus my Savior and Lord. May God grant us perseverance to continue sharing with the Wolof people.

elections

This week we have had campaigns all week long. In David H's opinion, this is more fun than elections in America. I guess I can't really argue with that too much, though it is quite different. On Sunday this week (3/22) people will elect mayors and the positions similar to a regional seat for the next 2 years. So this week especially has been a time of campaigning for these who want the office.

At least it's only been a week of this, but wow has this been a loud week around here. When people hold meetings, they meet from 7 pm until sometimes 1 or 2 in the morning. These meetings typically have loud speakers, singers, dancers, and people to play drums as they dance and celebrate. Then the speaker will get up around 8 or 9 to speak about what is on his mind, changes he will plan to make and things he will immediately do, and then asks the people for their support financially. I've seen these meetings get started. Between 500-1000 people in the neighborhood will come and listen. Many leave very excited about the changes that will perhaps be made.

I drove through a village town not far from here today. They were campaigning in town and the whole village was drawn to it. I would bet 4,000 people were walking along the street and gathering as it started. Many were already wearing the t-shirts that were given away to gain support. It does seem like the people enjoy these meetings.

But here are some of the drawbacks:
-First of all, the noise. It's tough to sleep when these meetings are going on til 1 am and are 30 feet from your bedroom.
-Next, we'll mention the idea of being a politician. They're all the same. They think they have a new idea, they want to do something a new way, but in the end they eat the money of the people. Politicians here want to do what everyone before them wanted to do: bring power, telephone, and water to all the people-even people in the villages. They also talk about lowering food prices. But they don't talk about improving education or health care, which should be their top priorities.
-and finally, the idea that the promises the politicans are making are things that they may not follow through on.

I do pray that this time of electing new local leaders will be a peaceful event. I will be sure to enjoy observing this on Sunday.