We are thankful for a wonderful four days with about 300 pastors from across Senegal from Tuesday to Friday this week. Thanks for praying with us!

Our guest speaker, Dr Keith Ferdinando, spoke on Christ’s victory over evil spirits. The treatment was a panoramic Bible exposition of the subject from across Scripture from someone deeply learned in the field. For the conference audio and information (in French) check out http://bpp.sng.al

Our teammate Andrew at left and Dr Keith at right

In between the plenary sessions, we had workshops led by folks who work in Senegal. We had sessions on:

• How the Reformers battled superstition

• Understanding our civic rights and responsibilities as a religious minority in Senegal

• Christians, the church, and politics

• Sending and supporting missionaries from Senegal

In addition to the books distributed at the conference in both physical and digital format, we also had asked a group of experienced Senegalese pastors to produce chapters for a new book on ministry in Senegal that we also distributed at the conference with chapters on:

• The Gospel that Removes Shame

• What is the Kingdom of God?

• How to Motivate a Congregation to Witness

• Urban Ministry: Challenges and Opportunities

• How to Do Ministry Among Teenagers

• How the Church Can Better Help Singles

• How to Organize a Sunday School for Children

• Ministry Among Women

• How the Church Can Better Help Widows and Those in Mourning

• The Challenge of Contextualization: Remaining Both Biblical and Contextual

I am particularly excited to begin reading this book completely written by pastor-scholars from right here in Senegal!

We also had of course wonderful times of seeing warm reunions of pastors who live far apart and don’t get to see each other often – and participating in those retrouvailles ourselves!

Our team leader Andrew did a phenomenal job of setting up and hosting the conference. Many had a hand in the preparation but he has really guided the planning through the past year-plus. We had a very smooth four days without any emergencies or hiccups.

I led two sessions on how to use the Livros app that I made – and I learned a few things during the conference about things I need to change to make the login process easier for other SIM teams in other countries who will use the app in the future. But by and large it was a successful launch! Many of the pastors really appreciated the ‘offline-first’ functionality of the app that takes into account users who have intermittent internet access.

A couple of quotes from participants:

    Thank you very much to all the organizers. We are so blessed by all the teachings and various resources received during the 2025 Pastor’s Book Set for our edification and improvement in our ministry.

    I thank you with all my heart for the library. May God prosper your work and continue to inspire you.

Continue to pray for these pastors and their difficult and often (from a human perspective) unseen work in far-flung parts of Senegal.