Concert report
The Agsila concert celebrating the completion of the Wolof Bible went very well on Friday night – it was a much larger production than I expected, and well attended, we had an engaged crowd of about 500.
Agsila sang wonderfully, and had a few other artists appear before her and then sing with her – singing praise and scriptural songs in Wolof! We also had a video honoring the work of Mamadou Diop, the mother tongue translator who passed away after completing his Bible translation work – his son Samy is continuing to work with Marilyn Escher, our WorldVenture colleague who had been working in Senegal since 1972.
I was not at 100% but was able to go, praise God! I got a few pictures and video that didn’t do justice to it, but you can check a brief video out below.
I got the story on the venue change – the former director was taking deposits and not writing them down in the books, not just for this event but for many others – and was fired in the last few months. The new management is still working out all of the chaos brought by that – they returned the deposit that the former director stole, and offered a range of nights for free – I think next year there will be a follow-up concert there. Praise the Lord for that good resolution to that and that it didn’t hinder the concert happening as scheduled.
The striking thing about the concert for me was that there were so many helping, volunteering as ushers that I didn’t know – so many people attending that I didn’t know – and so many Christian artists singing in Wolof that I had not heard of before! I was amazed to see all that God is doing that I was ignorant of – it seemed like in years past there was so little happening in Wolof ministry that you knew more than you wanted to know about everything – to see people coming seemingly out of nowhere was amazing. It got me to thinking about the body of Christ and giftings and the broader work(s) that are happening in Senegal – and some lifting of the sense that we have to “do it all” – God is out there and others are too – as a friend said afterwards – referring to 1 Kings 19.18, all those who are still faithful. That’s a good thing to remember.
Wolof Bible update
Just got news from Marilyn that the Wolof Bibles are printed and in the dock in Busan, Korea! They are shortly to be en route and will be here mid-to-late March. We’ll have more events and concerts around that time and then I think the biggest event will be in June 2026.
Also pray for…
Church fundraising
Our beloved church here in Dakar has been raising funds for a new home for about a year – we are over 40% of the way there, $130,000 in of about $300,000! That is great progress, and we are praying soon for the remainder to come in. We and others have put out the word via our networks and I think we need to extend beyond our current communication radius. Please pray with us that we would be able to pursue some new leads for funds in the next few months!
In other news:
I can’t resist telling you all that our daughter Molly’s Coast Guard women’s rugby team won the DII national championship last night! They won 51-12 in the final.
