Safely Home

Thanks for all your prayers! I made it home safely and without a hitch. A wonderfully smooth ending to "an awfully big adventure" (Quote from the film Hook). Glory to God!

The End or the Beginning?

The week of February 24 we took a break from life in Ziguinchor and stayed in Bourofaye—a quiet village just north of the Guinea Bissau border. We really enjoyed the tranquility of Bourofaye: no mosque prayer calls, no loud music playing in the streets, and no mice in our bedrooms.

Our time in Bourofaye was VERY low-key (a little too low-key for my liking). During the day we went exploring, read, took naps, played cards, etc. In the afternoons we did Open Airs in various villages near where we were staying. We made the most of our lack of Internet and electricity by playing flashlight tag and enjoying bonfires and stargazing almost every night. Folks, never have I ever done me better stargazing than in Bourofaye. God is so amazing!

The week of March 3 (last week), we said our final goodbyes to our friends in Zig, cleaned the homestead, packed, and took a very choppy ferry ride from Zig to Dakar.

And tonight, my friends, tonight I begin my journey home. Due to visa issues Anna, Alex, Peter, and I will not be returning to St. Paul for debriefing, but instead have rescheduled our flights home. I'd love your prayers for our travels. Please pray for safety and God's favor, especially while we're in transit in the Marseille airport, that we wouldn't run into any trouble with customs.

We've been an emotional bunch of late; home is sounding preeeety good, but we don't want to be parted from each other. During our grand adventure God has taught us about himself and given us so many amazing experiences which have shaped the way we view life. Now God's sending us out to share his truth and our experiences with others. Parting ways seems like the end to our adventure, but really, it's a beautiful beginning. 

Saying Goodbye

Friday was our last day with the Talibe boys, and believe you me I was not prepared for just how difficult it would be to say goodbye. I confess there were many days I didn't want to be at Le Centre Talibe. The fact that so few of the boys spoke French made it hard to be there sometimes; I regularly wondered if our work was of any value at all. One of our biggest prayers for the Talibe boys had been that they would truly know and feel the love of God through our actions and words. But it wasn't until Friday that I realized God truly had been answering that prayer...

Before we left, we did a short Open Air for the boys; it was our final chance to remind them that God loves them and to encourage them to accept Jesus into their lives. Once the Open Air concluded, we took time to snap some last minute photos.

After the impromptu photoshoot, it was time for the boys to eat (they eat bowl dishes in groups of 7-8 per bowl). 

As I went around to each circle and said goodbye, my eyes welled up with tears. The reality that I would most likely never see them again had hit me. After we had packed up our props and walked out of the center compound, we found Bakari, one of the older, tougher boys, standing there trying to hold back tears. When he saw that several of us were crying, he began to weep. We embraced him and wept with him.

Then a group of 5 to 6 other Talibe boys took the props out of our hands and escorted us on the 15 minute walk home. I was so humbled by this simple act of gratitude and was a puddle of tears most of the walk home. Once we arrived at our compound we said our final goodbyes and as they walked away, I saw Amadou, another one of the older boys, wiping away tears with his shirt. I prayed, "Thank you, God. These boys know that they are loved."

That very same night we were showing a movie about Jesus in the streets of Lyndiane, and a bunch of the Talibe boys showed up for it. It turns out several of them approached Tabea after the film, and sheepishly expressed interest in accepting Jesus into their lives! In fact, one of them (the son of a marabout!) told Tabea he had already accepted Christ and has secretly been reading the Bible she had given him last year.

Wow! Praise God for being the ultimate barrier breaker and for answering our prayers. By his grace we have made a difference, and God will carry on the good work he has started. 

May God bless these sweet boys. A piece of my heart will always be with them.

Open Airs and Eloubalire

I haven't given up on blogging, I promise! 

The past several weeks we have continued to work at Le Centre Talibe, and to do Open Airs in different villages within Ziguinchor. The picture below of Peter and me is from what we call the Jesus sketch.

We also had the privilege of spending a weekend on the island of Eloubalire, which was so fun! The trip itself involved an hour car ride from Ziguinchor to Enampor and a 30 minute boat ride from Enampor to Eloubalire. We had arranged to leave Zig at 4:00...and after about an hour and a half of waiting, a rather unexpected form of transportation arrived.

When I stepped outside our compound and saw that pickup truck waiting for us, I burst out laughing. I don't know why, but I was so tickled to ride in that thing. It's the little things in life, ya know?

The long wait for the pickup truck made it possible for us to be on the water at sunset, which was such a treat!

The island (middle left of the picture above) has a population of 200 people with only two Christians. The other 198 residents, although many of them know about Jesus, do not trust in him as their Savior and are extremely involved in witchcraft.

The purpose of our trip to Eloubalire was twofold: to spend time with Matar and Conakry (the two Christians who live on the island) and to share the love of Jesus with the residents. Saturday night we did an Open Air inside the island elementary school, which went really well. Afterwards, we took our little stereo outside, cranked up In the Jungle, the Mighty Jungle (in French), and danced with the island kids as the sun slowly set over the island. Definitely one of my favorite Senegalese memories to date!

The children of Eloubalire were such a joy; they were friendly, fun to be around, and made us feel so welcome.

We fell in love with Eloubalire and long for the people there to turn to Jesus. Many of the residents would like to trust in Christ, but are afraid of giving up witchcraft and losing the respect of their family members. If you happen to think of it, please pray that God would help the people of Eloubalire to overcome their fears and to turn to Christ for salvation.

Only three weeks left here in Africa! My team and I can get weary and perhaps just a wee bit sick of each other at times. Please pray that God would help us stay unified, love one another, and honor God in all we do. We can do all things through Christ who strengthens us (Philippians 4:13).

Welcome to Ziguinchor

So maybe you'd like to hear a little more about where I'm living? Okay, I'll tell you!

The Homestead: We're staying in a WEC guest house which, from what I can understand, rarely gets used (apart from when the JEM Saint Paul group comes to visit several months out of each year). We live in a walled-in compound on a plot of maybe one to two acres of land. The compound consists of three buildings (the house we're staying in and two office buildings for WEC staff). I share a little bitty room with Sophie and...some mice.

Water/Plumbing: We have running water, two showers with coldish water, and three toilets. We drink filtered water.

Ziguinchor Roads: Some are paved and have cement trenches on either side for burning trash, but more often than not the roads are unpaved, with trash-filled ditches, like the one you see here.

Senegalese Bowl Dish: As I've mentioned before, we eat bowl dishes for lunch everyday.

One of my favorite bowl dishes is called Mafe: peanut sauce and cravettes served over rice. Delish.

Aminals: Yes, aminals. I can't tell you just how many goats we see on a daily basis. In fact, on the way home from church today we saw a baby goat on the side of the road, which had literally JUST been born. Sheep, chickens, and pigs also roam freely. Everywhere.

Kids: So, so, so many kids running and playing in the streets. The picture below was taken while we helped out with a Christian kids club one Saturday afternoon. 

So many new sights and sounds, yet I'm still very eager to get back home. I know I'll look back on this time and wish I had treasured it more. I'm desperate for the Lord's sustaining strength!

So far...

Daily Schedule in Ziguinchor

7:30 Breakfast
 8:00 Team Time (Bible Study/Prayer)
9:00 Leave for the Talibe Center
9:15-1:30 Talibe Center (Play and hangout with the Talibe boys and teach Bible/French lessons)
2:00 Lunch
4:00 Open Airs (We perform skits and preach in different neighborhoods) or Door to Doors (We split up into groups of 3-4 and go door to door and ask people if they're interested in learning about Jesus).
7:00 Dinner
8:00 Practice Open Air Skits/Free Time/Lena's Workout Class 
(Yes, I have opportunities to teach group exercise, even in Senegal!)

Sundays and Wednesdays are our days off, and so far, going to the local pool is proving to be our favorite pass time. Posts with pictures will be forthcoming!

Adventures in Senegal

The ferry ride from Dakar to Ziguinchor went really well! Fortunately Mark booked rooms with bunk beds our team, so that we could sleep comfortably through the night. The boat rocked me into a solid eight or so hours of sleep, and when I awoke the next morning I went up on deck to watch the sun rise over the Casamance River!

       And now it is high time I share what my team and I will be doing here in Senegal! One of our primary goals is to love on and care for the talibe boys in this area. Talibe boys range in age from 4-18 and have been handed over by their parents to a marabout, or Islamic leader, who raises them and teaches them the Quran. 

  Talibe boys spend hours everyday learning the Quran in Arabic (a language they do not understand) and begging for money on the streets on behalf of the marabout. They live in poor conditions, are poorly fed, and in some cases are beaten by their marabout when they do not collect enough money. 

Four or five mornings each week we will be working in Le Centre Talibe, founded by a Christian, Wayne Lawthei, who wanted to create a bit of a refuge for these boys. It’s open five days a week from about 10am-2pm, and it’s a place where the boys can play soccer, take showers, wash their clothes, and eat a warm meal. My team and I will play soccer and foosball with them, hang out/get to know them, and teach them French and Bible stories. Ultimately we are there to love them and share Jesus' love with them!

The language barrier is already presenting issues. Some of the talibe boys speak French, but most of them speak tribal languages (Wolof being the most common). We’re all trying our best to learn a bit of Wolof, while using French when we can.

As for our afternoons/evenings we will be going to one of the local high schools twice a week to help out with an English speaking club. We will also be doing “open airs” in the streets. Open airs consist of skits, preaching, and sharing personal stories of how Jesus has changed our lives. We will also be working in other areas, but I'm not entirely sure what that will look like yet.

So. Here I am in Africa. Crazy. The first two days here were really fun. Everything was new, different, interesting, and exciting. But day three came, and I crashed. The dirt, the language barrier, and other aspects of the culture were getting to me. To complicate things more, I'm not very good at just chillin' and living in the moment. My family will attest that even on vacation I count down the days till we return home, because I want to move on to whatever’s next in life. So being here in Senegal, where everything’s new and different and harder than what I’m used to, provides an even greater challenge to living in the moment. But I believe that’s one really important thing God wants to teach me here—the ability to be happy moment by moment, day by day, no matter where I am or what I’m doing. And that's possible because of Jesus Christ! Paul says in Phillipians 4:11, "I have learned in every situation I am to be content" and then in Phillipians 4:13, "I can do all things through him who strengthens me." God has called me here, he has brought me here, he has good work for me to do here, he will sustain me, and he will be faithful. I'm gonna fight hard to remember that and to enjoy living in the moment!

Greetings from Senegal!

I am very pleased to announce that Peter and I were able to successfully fly into and out of Marseille! Unfortunately were not able to stay in the transit area of the airport as we had hoped. In fact, upon our arrival, we were directed to go through customs. As you can imagine, this made us just slightly terrified. We prayed fervently as we waited in line and in God's kindness, the lady who looked at our passports was extreeeeeemely nice. From what I could gather, we should have been escorted from customs to our airline check-in desk, but when Peter explained our situation, the customs lady opted not to call an escort so that we wouldn't run into any trouble. If that wasn't the favor of God, I don't know what is!

By the time we made it through customs (around 8pm Wednesday) the Marseille airport was like a ghost town; there was no one there to check us in. So we claimed a row of seats (the ones with metal arm rests in between, so there's no possible way you can lie down on them) and pulled an all-nighter. With the help of a movie, prayer time, and some good music, the evening passed quickly. As you can imagine, we were pretty happy to see our team members walk through the airport doors bright and early Thursday morning!

All went well with checking in and getting through security, and we made it to our gate with no problems. Upon our arrival in Algiers we had a long, 10 hour layover; we arrived in Dakar around 12:00am today (Friday).

Just outside the Dakar airport Mark rounded up five taxis for our team of 11 and all our luggage. The taxi ride was a "hit the ground running" kind of experience. In other words, SCARY! But God protected us, and we all made it safely to the WEC (Worldwide Evangelisation for Christ) guest house where we spent the night.

Today's adventure will involve taking a 16 hour ferry ride from Dakar to Ziguinchor—our final destination! We'll be staying in a WEC guest house in Ziguinchor for pretty much the entirety of our stay in Senegal. Internet access will be more limited in Ziguinchor, but my goal is to continue blogging when I can. I am keenly aware that I haven't yet explained what we'll be doing in Senegal, so look for more info on that in my next post.

Thanks again to each and every one of you who have been praying for me or sent me emails/facebook messages to let me know you're thinking of me. I am so grateful for you people!

New Years Update

Happy 2014! So much has happened in the past couple days, but I only have a few minutes to write. If all goes well, Peter and I will be flying from London to Marseille today and meeting up with our team in the airport tomorrow to fly from Marseille to Algiers and from Algiers to Dakar. As long as we stay in the transit area of the airport tonight, we should be okay without a visa (we hope). So there you have it—the quickest of updates.

Thank you for your prayers. Please keep them coming. Peter and I are both weary and pretty anxious about how things will pan out. Please pray that God would give us strength and faith. Please pray that we would be able to stay in the transit area with no problems. I'll try to keep you posted in the coming days!

Visa Trouble

I'm in a pickle.

Shall I enlighten you on the situation? Okay. I will.

When I left for France in September the policy was that as long as I left France briefly after a 90 day stay, I would be able to re-enter the country again. So, I didn't get a French visa. However, I found out a few days ago that in mid-October the policy was changed, so that those without visas who stay in France (and other countries within the Schengen region) for up to 90 days must stay out of it for 90 days before re-entering.

I was scheduled to fly back to France today so that I could pack and depart for Senegal with my team on January 2. But since I most likely would have been denied access into France without a visa, I decided I would stay put in England for the time being.

So, Peter (who also does not have a French visa) and I are still in England, staying with Abi's ever so kind family. We're at a bit of a standstill, waiting for the consulates in the States to open on Monday so that we can figure out what on earth we should do! We're looking into the possibility of getting transit visas, although we have no idea if it's possible to obtain those without being in our home states. We are also looking into the possibilty of finding a flight straight from England to Africa. We are also looking into the possibility of joining up with an outreach team in England instead of going to Senegal, should the first two possiblities fall through.

The other issue is that my flight back home to the states in March is out of Marseille, France. And if getting back into France is simply not going to be possible, I will have to pay for another flight home.

So how's that for an update? I've been so aware of all the amazingly good things God has allowed me to do and experience during my travels so far, and I keep thinking, "shall I take God's blessings and not the trials as well?" At this particular moment I am actually really excited for whatever God has. I'm comforted as I remember that he knows the plans he has for me, and that he works all things for the good of those who love him (Jeremiah 29:11, Romans 8:28).

But oh, we have so very much to figure out. So many questions, so many unknowns, so many what ifs. Please pray that God would give Peter, his parents, my parents, and me wisdom as we contact the consulates and try to sort this out. Please pray that I would trust God as he opens and/or closes doors. Thank you! I am grateful to know so many folks are supporting me on this journey.

I'll post again once I have updates!

The Lovely Lyme Park

The day after Christmas Abi, Jamie (Abi's dad), Shea, Sam, Peter, and I went to Lyme Park. 

Lyme Park is a large, 1,300 acre estate just a few miles from Abi's house. The estate is vast, with hills that go on and on. Yet again words and pictures fail to portray how amazing this place actually is.

The ladder in the picture below is known as a stile, which allows people to pass over the wall, but not animals. 

Oh I loved it there. It is hands down one of the most beautiful places I've ever been to. 

Apart from the mansion, which I'll get to soon, the estate has several smaller structures known as the Lantern and the Cage. The Lantern once served as a lookout tower. 

The Cage once served as a hunting lodge.

It may or may not interest you to know that the Lyme Park mansion was used as "Pemberley" (Mr. Darcy's residence) in the BBC version of Pride and Prejudice.

It just so happened that a traveling exhibit with some of the costumes from the film were on display. We shouldn't have been allowed into the exhibit rooms without paying an entrance fee, but for some reason that was overlooked by the park volunteers, and we got a nice sneak peek!

As the English say, it was a "brilliant" day!

Merry Christmas from England!

Avignon

We went to Avignon this past Friday to get vaccinations for Senegal, but we made a day trip out of it, and enjoyed the sites afterwards. It was so fun!

I roamed Avignon with Anna and Sam, because we were all in agreement that H&M would be our first priority (For those of you who are about to Google "H&M", I'll save you some time; it's a clothing store). It was a large, two story one at that!

Our next stop was Le Palais des Papes.

Those two little specks in the lower left corner are Sam and me. The palace is massive!

We climbed several sets of stairs and turned around to realize we were in the perfect location for enjoying the sunset.

My favorite view of the day, however, was the bridge, Pont Saint-Bénezet. Anyone know the song Sur le Pont d'Avignon? The song refers to this very bridge. I love how clearly you can see the reflection of the bridge in the water!

 

Our final stop was the Christmas market, where vendors were selling all sorts of homemade/handcrafted wonderfulness (crepes, candy, hats, scarves, wooden toys, etc). Our time was limited, so I did me some quick window shopping.

Thanks be to God for a wonderful day of sight seeing. J'aime bien Avignon!

JEM Saint Paul Christmas Party

Last night we had a JEM Christmas party. We all dressed up, enjoyed a special meal, and played one of those crazy gift exchange games. I was asked to share some of my personal highlights from the past 12 weeks with everyone, and I thought I’d post a paraphrased excerpt from it here, for posterity (or something like that).

“Over the past twelve weeks God has given me many good gifts, and tonight I’d like to share some of them with you. The first gift: acceptance. I've always been a people pleaser. I've always wanted everyone to like me and accept me. But when you live in close quarters with others, as we do here, it’s pretty much impossible to be accepted and liked by everyone all the time. You're gonna get on peoples nerves at one point or another. Yet, each time I have messed up or sinned against someone, I have been met with forgiveness and love. The love I have experienced here reminds me of the love and acceptance I have in Jesus Christ. Amazing!

The second gift: the Bible. In the past I’ve relied on my parents, pastors and friends for advice when making decisions (big or small). But here, my "advisers" are not around, and I have been forced to turn to God and his word for answers. Because of this, my love for the Bible and my gratefulness to God for giving me his word has only increased!

This is just a sampling of the good gifts God has given me; I could share more! But tonight we’re gathered not only to celebrate gifts from God in our individual lives, but also the gift we have all been given—Jesus Christ—who came to earth to save us!"

After my little speech I read the story of Jesus birth in English, Sophie read it in French, and then we sang Christmas carols. It was a wonderfully festive evening!

Week 11 Festivities

Week 11 was full of good food and memory making! We ended up celebrating Thanksgiving this week instead of last week, because our instructor was from the States, and we thought he'd enjoy sharing an AMURican meal along with us.

We tried to make most of the traditional dishes, however, turkey did not make it onto the menu (it's crazy expensive here for some reason). We had chicken, mashed taters, sweet potato casserole, green bean casserole (made by me...you weren't missing out), cranberry sauce, stuffing, pumpkin pie, pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, and apple crumble (also made by me...this, I'm happy to say, got rave reviews).

Some of the other students even decorated our dining room to make things feel more festive, but it was oh so strange to celebrate without my family. Thanks to my sister, Cara, I did get a little taste of Thanksgiving at home. She made a video for me with clips of my family members saying "hi" and sending love during their Thanksgiving celebration. Thank you so much, Car!

After the big meal, we watched Les Misérables (the 2012 version). Man, the theme of forgiveness and mercy in that story is absolutely amazing! We've been humming and singing the songs from it almost constantly since then.

Thursday night our instructor took us out on the town. We admired Saint Paul's Christmas charm; it was decked out for Christmas with window murals and lights in the trees. I have pictures, but the quality is so bad that I am too embarrassed to post them! Afterwards we ate dinner at a little place called L'Auberg Inn. I ordered Salade de Chevre Chaud au Miel and a Banana Split, of all things! The salad had warm goat cheese and honey drizzled on top of a bed of greens. It was simple and delicious. Believe it or not, that was my first eating out experience since I've been in France! 

Friday afternoon a group of us went to a Christmas craft market in town and on the way home enjoyed a gorgeous sunset. Just look!

  I love late fall tree silhouettes!

The festivities don't end there, folks! Friday evening my small group—Peter, Shea, Sam, Anna—and I went to Mado's house for fondue. (Mado is one of the JEM Saint Paul staff members who lives in town). To be completely honest, I wasn't really a fan of the cheese. The white wine flavor was a bit too strong for my liking. Even so, I enjoyed the experience and the company.

So there you have it: a full, fun week of new experiences. I have many other things I could share right now, but this post is long enough as it is. Besides, I don't have pictures to hold your interest beyond this point anyway. Until next time!

Status Update

Weather: Cold, windy, and often quite rainy

Week Nine: Finished

Feeling: Homesick

New Favorite Pastime: Playing soccer with my JEM people

Christmas Plans: Staying with Abi and her family in Manchester, England along with Sam, Shea, and Peter!

Leaving for Senegal: January 2

Returning from Senegal: March 11

God's Grace: Amazing

This Picture: Just because

A Saint-Just Treasure

I just posted a shortened version of this on Facebook, but I just had to post it here too (especially for my non-Facebook people)!

We just got back from a day in Saint-Just. We were helping our friend, Isabelle, who will be translating for us next week. We did some yard work for her in the morning and enjoyed lunch and a tour of her home afterwards.

Isabelle and her mom live on a beautiful estate that's been in their family for years. The yard was lovely and extremely large. I would pretty much equate it to "The Secret Garden." During WWII the Germans would camp out there because of its prime location. I love doing yard work, so I was in heaven as we raked, broke down fallen branches, and picked up fallen Sharon fruit (Persimmons, I think?) and laid them out to ripen.

And the house, oh the house! It was a mansion (literally a maze of a place) and wonderfully old. Vines with red leaves crawled up the walls of the beautiful, blue shuttered home. The main part of the house was built in 1780, and some of the basement/wine cellar areas date back to the 1300-1400s! Uh, I just loved it! I'm only sorry I don't have any pictures to share. Just use your imagination, okay?

Castle, Confusion, and Clarity

I know I haven't been very "blog post happy" lately. They've been keeping us busy around here...

Two weekends ago we visited Le Chateau de Suze-la-Rousse, which is just a 10 minute drive from JEM St. Paul. It was beautiful!

Can you see the faint outline of a mountain range on the horizon in the picture below? Not the first mountain range, but the one you can just barely see with a layer of fog covering it? That's Mont Ventoux; one of the most challenging peaks in the Tour de France. Cool, huh?!

Then, last weekend we (the students) hosted a dinner party for the JEM staff members and their families. We planned everything: the menu, the decorations, and the entertainment. It was a great success! Everyone dressed up like a Bible character; I chose to be Zipporah. Here I am pictured with my new little friend, Abigail (I'm not exactly sure which Bible character she was). 

Alright, enough about weekend adventures and festivities, let's move on to the meaty stuff: lectures. This week's lecture topic was "The Holy Spirit." To be perfectly honest, I don't usually think about the Holy Spirit on a day to day basis, so I had a difficult time wrapping my mind around the topic. Our teacher really loves God and had some truly valuable things to share, however, a few of his points—as far as I could tell—were not based on the Bible. I've tried not to be overly critical when listening to the lectures, but between the novelty and subjectivity of some of the teaching, my head was spinning this week. I didn't know what to believe about anything! I was anxious, emotional, and confused.

Thanks be to God, I am doing MUCH better now. After several, long phone conversations with my mom, one long phone conversation with my parents' pastor, and praying and Bible reading on my own, I was able to sort through some things. God helped me realize that while it's true I shouldn't be overly critical, I should use discernment. I'm learning not to take everything at face value, but instead to listen to the teaching, then study the Bible on my own, while asking God to help me develop convictions that are from him. A wonderful outcome of this week is that I am really excited to read my Bible more. And that, my friends, is the work of the Holy Spirit!