Ramadan, from our prospective.

What is Ramadan and the month of fast all about you ask? I will try to explain from my observations about what it means to those who live here in Senegal. During this time of year, the Ms, in an attempt to make up for their sins from the last year, refrain from eating or drinking from sun-up until sun-set. This means of course that, at least here, they stuff themselves early in the morning, go back to bed, then stuff them selves after sunset, and eat a big dinner a few hours after that. During this fasting time, they are supposed to be spending time in prayer with God, but most of them do not, instead they just lie around all afternoon and wait until the next time they can eat again.

You will see even the worst religious person that will lie, steal, cheat and do all sorts of other things you know his religion forbids him to do go through this fast, as they believe that if they fast just right, no matter how bad they were during the last year, God will balance out their record. For them it is not about a personal relationship based on the sacrifice that Jesus Christ paid on the cross, instead it is a works based religion; so the more you work, no matter how you were the rest of the year, the better your record becomes even. It is all about balancing out your good and your bad.

Then at the end of the month, they will sacrifice a goat, the bigger the better to please God, and have a big festival and celebrate what just happened. Of course this almost always becomes about how big your goat was and who saw you with the biggest goat. Sometimes I have a difficult time in seeing how God works into most of this celebration time.

There are some though that will seek after God and be looking for dreams and visions of how to relate and get to God better. Pray for these individuals, as it is often reported that through these dreams and visions, God has lead them to follow Christ into His salvation.

Of course, if you are like me, you see some similarities between them and us as Christians and our festival/celebrations. How many people that “claim the name of Christ” that you know of will spend the holiday season coming up, actually thinking of Christ? How many of our friends, family, co-workers, neighbors and even fellow church members will only be going through the motions, hoping that their seasonal trip to church will be enough to please God, if they even think about God at all.

Pray for us this year as we are praying about fasting with them from day to day this year. We of course will be spending those times instead of eating in prayer for our neighbors and friends. Pray that God will lead us as to what to do so that we are not just going through some motions, but rather truly trying to draw closer to God and to find a way to reach out to our friends and neighbors.

Let us also pray for those mentioned above that may forget about Him this year that they will remember the sacrifice that He gave. Pray for “Christians” in America to wake up and head the call to wake up, for the time is now to get your self right with God. May those on both sides of the ocean come to see the wonderful price paid by The Son of God and accept that and turn to have a true relationship with God this year.

A photo slide show from Togo - Enjoy!!

A blog from Togo-from Mariama's Teachers.

This is from a letter that Mariama's teachers wrote us before we left Togo.

Enjoy.

Richard & Lisa

God’s blessings be on you and your family. Thank you so much for trusting us with your precious Mariama. What a doll!!! Her & I formed a special bond& I loved it. The sweetest thing was when I was bouncing her to sleep, if she was fussy, I would start singing “Jesus Loves Me” and she would immediately calm down, lay her little head on me and go to sleep. It was like the name of Jesus calmed her. I will never forget that. Jesus was in the room with us each day!

It was an added blessing to meet you. Richard, the first night when you came to our table to ask if we would have the nursery on Sunday morning was w God thing. He used that the show us why we were there. The joy on your face at the thought of worshipping with your wife showed us why we were here & how much it meant to the missionaries we came to support. Thanks! Our God is awesome and gave both of us just what we needed.

We will be continuing to pray for you as we did before coming. Our prayers for you are for God to build a hedge of protection around your family, for God to bless you for following His plan for your life & to give you many souls for the harvest is rich.

Again, it was a blessing to take care of Mariama. She is a heart stealer.

With love in Christ

Janice and John (Almquist)

Jer. 29:11 “’For I know the plans I have for you declares the Lord. ‘Plans to prosper you and not to harm you. Plans to give you hope and a future.’”