Above is the group shot from the last PBS conference, in 2011

We’re excited to kick off the conference tomorrow afternoon! We’ll spend the morning getting the remaining materials there and set up, and then in the afternoon start welcoming the pastors and church leaders; registration and some opening ceremonies tomorrow afternoon, and then get into the teaching on Wednesday. You can follow along and see what’s in store on the conference program at https://bpp.sng.al/programme (you can get your browser to translate it into English if your French is rusty). One of our intrepid teammates got the physical books up to Dakar from storage site out of the city today and they are ready to rock.

This conference is not just about the teaching and the books, it’s also about the fellowship – pastors from different denominations being able to see each other and catch up and trade notes on what is happening in different areas of the country and just be encouraged! It certainly was an encouraging time for us in 2011 and – I know this time will be different, it won’t be encouraging in exactly the same way, but I’m sure it will be encouraging, and I just pray that for each of the participants they would what God wants to give them during the time.

Pray for us with logistics, the facility, the food, and all of the things that happen during a (for us) big conference like this. This will be a busy time, but it will also be a special time of working together with our SIM teammates on this wonderful project – many of us work on projects with others outside of our mission, some of us work alone, and we see each each other, but rarely all work together on one project, so this is a special thing in the life of our team to all work on the same thing at the same time and just see each other a bit more than normal and enjoy each other’s company.

All the books are in now!

Of course pray that the PBS app would be well-understood and function as expected – with 300 people using it all of a sudden when it’s been about 5 to 10 people up till now. I spent today reducing the size of the files and loading in the rest of the books and audiobooks. I’ll do a session during the conference teaching the pastors how to use it. Pray that would go well too and that it would make sense.

Pray for Katie as she has a bad cold and is staying home from teaching school tomorrow – not fun and especially this week with all the extra activity.

Could this be our church’s new home? 

When our daughters were at boarding school in Dakar, we would come to the capital city every six weeks or so to see them. When we came to Dakar we would always attend a certain small church here because Corey had known several of the Senegalese church leaders for many years and a few of our SIM teammates were also a part of that church. It was also one of the few churches in Dakar that was intentional about using the Wolof language throughout the service. So when we moved here just over a year ago, we visited all four of the churches we were told used Wolof in their services and ended up quickly settling in at this church. It has been wonderful to get to deepen old friendships there and make new ones, and Corey was immediately invited to preach in Wolof every other month – which he has enjoyed!  But last year, after renting the same space for fourteen years, the landlord told the church that we had to move out. After some pushing back the deadline, the end finally came. We have a temporary meeting space for the next six months but the church’s desire is to purchase a property so we can establish a permanent church presence in the neighborhood.

Property in Dakar is very expensive due to limited land availability, with the city bordered by the ocean on three sides. Church leaders were discouraged by high prices, but recently found a building for sale in the same neighborhood for $300,000, which is a great deal for its size and location. The building has a large room suitable for a sanctuary and several smaller rooms for Sunday School and offices. If we can purchase it, we could begin using it right away! In addition to being an amazing find, it turns out that the landlord and our pastor are from the same language group and the landlord is not only open to selling his property to Christians, he is willing to hold on to it for a few months for us while we try to raise the funds! On a regular Sunday there are fewer than 40 people at church and the offering plate usually yields less than $200 US. Humanly speaking, we can’t afford to buy a building. But God…

Dakar currently has a population of three and a half million people and the city is growing. Our best estimate is that there are only about 15 Protestant churches in Dakar (some with questionable theological positions). This makes sense given that 97% of the population identify as Muslim. What doesn’t make sense is that of those 15 Protestant churches, only a handful use the Wolof language in their services. Most of the churches use only French and are mostly made up of non-Senegalese people. This use of solely French is worrisome not only because over 70% of the population speaks Wolof (and only a third speak French) but also because it perpetuates the widespread belief here that Christianity is a foreign (white) religion. (Never mind that this perception is false – there have been Christians in Africa since the 1st century AD and today more Christians live in Africa than on any other continent – there just aren’t many here in Senegal!)

We love that our church understands the need to use the Wolof language to reach this community. We deeply respect the church leaders and appreciate their thoughtful, sound biblical teaching. The church body is small but committed to Bible study, prayer, joyful worship, obedience even in the face of persecution, and regular fasting. The church members want to share the Gospel with others and have planted a church in another region of Senegal that is growing rapidly. This little congregation is truly a bright light! Would you pray with us that God will provide the money for the church to purchase this building? We serve the same God who provided for the believers in Jerusalem – partially through the believers in Corinth – and who promised through Paul: “God will generously provide all you need. Then you will always have everything you need and plenty left over to share with others.” (2 Corinthians 9:8)

If you want to help, you can send a check to this address with a note that it’s for the Evangelical Assembly in Dakar, Senegal:

Christian Life Center
6363 183rd  Street
Tinley Park, IL 60477

You will receive a tax-deductible receipt. For more information about the church and additional pictures of the house, visit the capital campaign page on the church’s website. We are working on a way to make donations online – we’ll keep you posted! Thanks in advance !

We are really into the swing of things here in Dakar now! Our hard summer of saying goodbye to so many friends and family in the USA, moving out of our place in the US, moving our stuff from Kaffrine to Dakar and settling in here – all that is now a distant memory, praise the Lord! I’ve gone from going to bed achy and tired to bounding out of bed ready to go in the mornings. 

School started with a rush of activity in August and hasn’t slacked off since. The boys are loving Dakar Academy and doing well. Katie is absolutely loving teaching French to students in grades 1 through 12. She is always thinking of new lesson plan ideas and figuring out how to explain the grammatical concepts. She has had some sweet feedback from students and parents which is so encouraging! She was also invited to teach a Wolof class each week to the fourth grade, which is Jake and Will’s class. It is so gratifying to hear how these French and Wolof lessons enable her students to communicate with those in the surrounding community!

Homework help with dad – they’re not always this excited to do multiplication

I (Corey) have been working on different projects since our return:

• Wolof Calendar print layout and app redesign for 2024
• Layouts for Wolof Bible pages for testing
• App updates for Google Play Store requirements
• Digital strategies help for our SIM teammates worldwide
• Infrastructure setup for our SIM digital strategies resources
• Work on the Pastor’s Book Set (PBS) e-reader app
• As well as the normal errands: getting our immigration paperwork done, going to the printer for the Scripture calendar, etc.

Screenshots of two recent projects:

New calendar app redesign

We didn’t think that after our two-year absence, leaving our daughters in the US, moving to a new city and starting different jobs we would be as content as we are with where we are, but God has shepherded us into a peaceful time of good work and balance and contentment. Thank you, Lord.

Keep praying for these projects and for God’s hand at work in Senegal and our family.

We recently made a new ministry video – click the image above to watch