Africa Update

Ed returned from Africa last Monday (a week from yesterday) so I wanted him to share about his trip to Senegal.  Enjoy his guest post and encourage him since he never writes like this (no, I didn’t have to even twist his arm to get him to do it).

I got to go to Dakar, Senegal which is on the western coast of Africa and the capital of Senegal.  It was a great time to learn a new culture, meet new people, and to share the gospel at the university there.

It was very easy to start conversations because if there was a student that spoke any amount of English, they wanted to sit down, practice it with us, and learn about America.  We had many great conversations with students and in most of those, we were able to share about our relationship with Christ and how they also could begin this relationship.

However, there is one story that will always stay with me.  It is of a guy named Zoo.  It was fun to see how the Lord was working in his life as he was being challenged with the gospel over the last year.  Zoo shared about how last summer, he had gotten to know one of the students that was on the summer project team and he had told that student that he was Muslim and was not open to the gospel.  However, that student continued to meet with him that summer.  Then, after the student left, Zoo continued meeting with an American guy who is on the the team that has been there all of this year. When I meet him the first week we got there, one of the first things he said was that he was in search of what is true (what a big difference from what he said when he met the student last summer!).  We had multiple long conversations about the gospel and even spent sometime looking in the Bible at the book of John.  Zoo is very close to accepting Christ and knows the truth but he is really thinking about it because him accepting Christ will probably mean his family and friends that are Muslim will be turning there backs on him.  It was a great time there getting to be in a culture that is 95% muslim but also see how the Lord is still moving and gripping students lives there with the Gospel.

Top 10 things I enjoyed about Senegal:

10.  Learning how to speak French and Wolof (by learning, I mean very, very small amounts)

9.  Getting to wear Senegalese clothes (including a boo-boo (spelling??) which is worn by many males on their holy day (Friday))

8.  Trying to order food and bargain for a taxi in another language

7.  Being on the Beach (Dakar is right on the coast)

6.  Playing soccer

5.  Trying to cross the street without getting hit (pedestrians do not have the right of way)

4.  Seeing students take big steps of faith (this is a picture of the students getting ready to leave at the airport)

3.  Getting to ride hanging off the back of small bus that transports people

2.  Trying new food – their food is awesome!!

1.  Getting to share the Gospel with many people!

Thanks for your prayers and support while I was gone!  It was a great trip and I can’t wait to go back and/or to hear about how the Lord is moving there and throughout the country and surrounding countries!

 

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