After a much needed night of sleep (38 hours without sleep is too long for anyone), I awoke to the Muslim call to prayer. It was the beginning to a day where I heard a story God had been weaving together for over 35 years.
We attended a church dedication ceremony in the village of Diohine. This village is 45 minutes from N’diadiane where we’ll be the rest of the week. There were 300 people there celebrating the opening of this building. The church began 35 years ago when a group of Senegalese believers in the capital of Dakar began to pray from Acts 1:8. They prayed around the clock for 4 months! As they began to dialogue about what they were hearing from God, it became clear that they wanted to go to a village and share the gospel. But which village, all the people in the church had at one time lived in a rural village. As they prayed they agreed to go to the village where the majority of their people had friends and relatives, Diohine. They began to visit, befriend and share the message of Christ. The ceremony today outlined the people within the community that had come to Christ and were instrumental in the process. One man, that many said was over 100 years old, accepted Christ and was influential in helping the pastor and church contextualize the gospel to the culture, to know what of the culture could be kept and what could or should be changed. The list was long of those that had sacrificed along the way.
“On the other side of the water” God was working as well. A man in Peekskill NY, Horst, was on the missions committee at his church. This church, 1st Baptist Church of Peekskill, was supporting the pastor and work in Diohine. They had a small chapel that held 30 people but was crowding in over 60 each week. Horst wanted to see the church continue to grow and felt a larger building would help. With little warning he was diagnosed with cancer and died a short 2 months later. His wife, Arlene who is on this trip with us, set up a fund as a memorial to her late husband to help build this church. The funding came in and today’s celebration was the culmination.
Those are the “facts”. There’s always more to God’s story. On our drive to the village we were told that this particular village has a strong culture of alcoholism. Horst struggled with alcoholism for over 25 years. His story of recovery was shared today. Last year this church baptized 70 believers in a church of just 150. Today’s dedication was standing room only. I think there’s more to come.
Tomorrow we travel to N’dianiane for 4 days, 3 nights. Pray that we see God’s story continue to unfold.
Kathy Schreiber
for the team
Pictures can be seen here: http://ehbcsenegal.shutterfly.com/1633
