Our trip to the village part I

Following our trip to a few villages this last weekend, I thought that I would write about our experiences here rather then take up a whole newsletter. I am VERY glad that we asked you to be praying for us, because as it turned out, we would need your prayers more then we ever imagined, especially the first day of our trip.

A little background information on Islam here in Senegal will help you to understand some of what I am going to tell you. Here in Senegal there are several sects of Islam and the biggest and strongest is called the Mouride brotherhood. The Mourides started from their founder who was persecuted by the French for his work in liberating Senegal from the French government, and he was banished to the southern region of Senegal, which back then was VERY under developed with swamps and few people. He was from a town called Touba, and he is buried there, and the Mourides have a big pilgrimage their every year on his birthday (most will say that if you go to Touba enough, you do not have to go to Mecca). They are very syncretized with traditional African Religion that listens more to their religious leaders then to traditional Islam and are very big into charms, religious incantations for protection and worshiping of their dead religious leaders. Theirs is a dark religion full of fear of the spirits, while trying to control those spirits for their own use. They also are less open to toubabs (white people) and their religion then other sects here in Senegal.

My friend A, whose village we went to first, is not only part of this sect, but his whole village, of @ 1000 people, is a Mouride village. I knew he was, and in spite of that, we have formed a sort of friendship and he has been a big help during our time here to become familiar with the culture of Senegal. What I was unaware of was that the whole village was Mouride. As we entered into the village, the first sign that things were going to be different was that almost nobody came out to greet us, even in the family compound. This is NOT normal anywhere in Africa!! Normally white people are followed by a group of children and when you get out of the car you are surrounded by them, followed by the adults that you are their to visit and their friends and family. Instead we had family members keeping their distance, other than A’s mother and a few others. His father did come to greet us, but did not stay around long, nor was he around almost the whole time we were there, instead he laid on a mat right outside the compound.

This was the way that the rest of the visit would go. There were even times that my friend left us alone while he visited briefly with a few friends or his religious teacher. While normally, children will almost fall over themselves to play with William and Mariama; his main playmates the whole time were the chickens and the goats that he chased after. There was one boy who played with him after we pulled out his soccer ball, but that lasted all of about 20 minutes, and then William was seen kicking the ball by himself. When we went to visit A’s friends, we always had to pass by and greet his religious leader, where you could cut the spiritual darkness with a knife. That night, we did not sleep well due to the spiritual activity. Actually, after fighting with sleep for about 5 hours, I asked God to have our prayer warriors praying for us and covering us with prayer, only then did we get any rest that night. So thank you for the coverage and protection.

That next day we arraigned to meet our friends in the next place we were going to a day early. The whole time we were there, both kids were fussy and did not sleep well, not even a good nap. We were only about 2 minutes out of the village before Mariama fell asleep and slept for over and hour, William lasted about 30 minutes before sleeping for about an hour. We later realized that this village is about 1 hour west of the town of Touba. The spiritual arena in this whole area is VERY active and very dark. This was one of the darkest places I have ever been to.

Thank you for your coverage, and if you were one of the ones that God impressed to pray for us on Thursday evening, especially from about 9pm central time on, I would be interested in knowing that. Thank you for your prayers. To see how the rest of our trip went, see part II below.

Our trip to the village part II

The second and longer part of out trip up country went much better then the first day. After leaving the first village, we drove to Kaolack to spend a few days with some fellow co-workers that live there. Our time there was of course MUCH different and was a great time of spiritual fellowship with fellow Christians. We had a great time watching some Bill Gaither videos, singing, and playing cards and eating some great food.

This was the second time that we were blessed with spending time with this couple and have enjoyed every second of it. They have been here in Senegal, working with the Wolof for around 20 years and have some good insights on things. We were able to pick their brains and get some good thoughts on everything from appliances for use here to team work to family life as missys with children in Senegal. We had a great time singing old standards of the Faith while watching the videos and listened to a CD of their home church for house church on Sunday morning. William discovered some new Disney videos and they allowed us to borrow them for a while so Pape can watch them at home in Dakar. They taught us 2 new games and we played them all 4 nights.

On Monday we went to another village to go visit our first househelper, A, who we had not seen in about a year. This village experience was VASTLY different then the first one. This was especially interesting seeing as how A’s father is a Koranic teacher and has several schools through out Senegal. This man came and greeted us shortly after we arrived on his compound, and stayed around us the whole time we were there and talked to us. A’s brother is also a believer and while their father was not crazy about that at first, he now supports his son’s right to choose and is starting to see Christians as people of honor and respect. Pape had SOOOO much fun playing with the children and almost did not want to leave when it was time to go (at the other village, shortly after arriving, he started asking if we could go). A made us one of my favorite Senegalese meals, Yassa Yapp, onion sauce with meat. She even tried to find chicken for the meal, but none could be found. She made this meal knowing it is one of our favorites. We had a great visit with her and her family and we were VERY glad that we were able to see her again before returning to the states.

We spent that night back in Kaolack and had a great meal and a wonderful time playing and visiting and laughing with our friends again. This part of the trip was exactly what I needed spiritually to help get me through the next 45 days or so before returning to the States. Hearing the hearts of our friends, singing, worshiping and having some good time alone to study and seek God’s heart was a great spiritual shot in our arms. You had a hand in that through your prayers, and we thank you for those. They helped us get through the first village, and to get through to the heart of God.

Quotable: How much was that coffee?

"Globally, the average Christian gives 15 cents to foreign missions each week. The average North American believer gives 50 cents; the average European believer, 25 cents. How much was that cup of coffee before church?"

-- missions researcher Justin Long, quoted by Erich Bridges in "As U.S. population tops 300 million, is American church still a global force?" (Please click to read all of the article, it is good.)

TOP TEN SIGNS YOU'RE ON STATESIDE ASSIGNMENT

Most of you may not understand the humor here, but Lisa and I were rolling on the floor when we read these. Mainly because we know that this will be us in a few months. So read these and watch us while we are there and see for yourself how many of these you can catch us doing.

These are from a West Africa regional newsletter called "The Talking Drum" that is sent to all west african missionaries. If you are interested in getting it as well, let us know and we will see about getting you signed up as well.

10. The Wal-Mart cashier stares at you blankly when you thank her in Pulaar (or in our case, Wolof- I did this SEVERAL times last year).


9. You (or your daughter/son) haven't had a marriage proposal in at least a week.


8. You sit at the gas station a full five minutes before realizing you're expected to pump your own gas. (Yes they still do that over here!!)


7. The salesman won't budge on the price no matter how hard you try to bargain.


6. Your children wonder why African Americans don’t speak French (Or Wolof).


5. You get pulled over for an actual traffic violation (which cost a LOT more then just $6), not just because the cop wants you to give him a Coke.


4. At the grocery store, the clerk gives you change in coins, not candy.


3. You automatically load 30 sticks of deodorant into your basket at Wal-Mart…just in case it’s not there the next time you go shopping. (I did this last year as well--after I got over the shock of ALL the choices)


2. You sit at the traffic light for awhile before realizing that you can turn right on red.


1. You take Contingency Training at the International Learning Center and say, “So what? I’ve been to Abidjan!”


Bonus! Your children are fascinated by the strange new wildlife…squirrels!!!

I hope you enjoyed those at least half as much as we did.