The Senegal Experience: Trials

We have had a very interesting last few days. God is good. There are several verses that I have found to be quite applicable in the last few days. I will place them here, as I don't know how much detail I want to go into about our...trials. "Dear brothers and sisters, whenever trouble comes your way, let it be an opportunity for joy. For when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be strong in character and ready for anything."--James 1:2-4 "These trials are only to test your faith, to show that it is strong and pure. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold--and your faith is far more precious to God than mere gold. So if your faith remains strong after being tried by fiery trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world."--1 Peter 1:7 We have faced some persecution here...we believe it has mainly been a deception from Satan...a miscommunication. We can only pray that we haven't truly been doing as poor of a job here as some apparently believe. To remind us of our worth here, there is another verse: "So, my dear brothers and sisters, be strong and steady, always enthusiastic about the Lord's work, for you know that nothing you do for the Lord is ever useless."-1 Corinthians 15:58 Once we have settled with the fact that following God is enough...God is enough...we move on to how we must now handle ourselves in the wake of the destruction that has been done.... "Be on guard. Stand true to what you believe. Be courageous. Be strong. And everything you do must be done with love."--1 Corinthians 16:13 As we continue on in our work, we have renewed vigor and a great feeling of purpose. Our new creed is to love...one another...the talibes...the missionaries...people on the street...taxi drivers...students...everyone. And, not only to love them, but to let it show through our actions rather than through our words. Anyways, you could pray for us to have energy, high spirits, efficacy, tender hearts, joy, etc.... But, on to what we've been doing. Yesterday...Cal arrived at 12pm or so. We had a nice long talk and prayer time. At 2:00pm, that was finished...and we ate lunch. We had leftover hot dogs and sandwiches. Yesterday afternoon, we went to the highschool to talk some more with the English students. Ryan was attempting to find Junior again.... He didn't. But...as we were walking out to the truck...Chelsea spotted him. We made time for a few more minutes for Ryan to talk with him. I believe that they had a lot of fun. Ryan also found out that Junior is a Christian. Quite the good news. After the school we went for dinner at On the Run again. This time we ordered from whichever place we wanted something (Nando's, Pizza Inn, or Steers). It was quite tasty, I had a "burger"...it didn't taste quite like a burger...but it was good nonetheless. After dinner we came back to Grand Yoff and hung out. There was checking of emails, journaling, and card playing. It was fun. Eventually we all made it to bed...well most of us. I hear that a few spent most of the darkness talking.... Today...was good. Patty came and picked up the girls at 9 or 9:30. They went to Malika to get the drums that several of them had bought. It evidently took most of the day to go there, take care of money, and pick them up...they took and ate sack lunches. Tim showed up at about 9:30 or 10 this morning. After he arrived we all had our individual quiet times. When we had finished, he proceeded to lead us all in a Bible study over the life of Joseph. It was very good and made me think about Joseph in a way that I hadn't ever done before. Without Joseph, Israel wouldn't have gone to Egypt...and wouldn't have been slaves...and wouldn't have been rescued...etc, etc.... It was interesting. When we had finished we headed off to a university here in Dakar. We split off in groups of two and searched around for English speaking students. Ryan and I were together, and it was a good time. We found several who spoke a little English...and then we found this one guy.... We sat down and talked to him for a bit, and soon enough, he invited us up to his dorm. We agreed to go and up we went. We ended up meeting a bunch of his friends on the balcony of his dorm. We sat around and talked with them for as long as we had time to. We were supposed to meet out at the front gate again at 12:15. Ryan and I finally got away from our religious conversations at about 12:25.... Luckily, Tim and the guys weren't too worried. We headed back to Grand Yoff and had some Ceebu Jen for lunch. It was tasty. After lunch, Tim had to leave...and we rested. Cal appeared at about 2:40. Soon we headed for Yoff to medicate talibes. First, we stopped by Cal's house to pick up the girls. When we made it to Yoff, we split into two groups and applied ointment at 2 different talibe houses. The group that was dropped off first...which I was in...finished quite quickly as there were very few boys there, and the boys that were there did not have scabies nearly as badly as the other talibe house. When we finished, we walked over to the other talibe house to join the others and to assist them as they finished. When we were completely done mending their wounds...we returned to Cal's house for a bit...just to pick up stuff for dinner. We headed off to Grand Yoff with the Yassa...on vermicelli. We all ate it in the dining room here. It was good. Vermicelli does get cold faster than rice though.... When we had finished, we sat around and talked and such. Now we are all sitting around and doing various things. It has been a good day. Pray that we will continue to be sensitive to God and to the people for these last 2 days. Thank you all for your support and prayers through all of this. God bless you all.