We left the U.S. one month ago – although it feels like we have already lived several months since then!
It was hard saying goodbye to Emma, Molly, and Wheaton but each of them is in a really good place and is opening a new and exciting life chapter – and technology allows us to stay connected in ways that weren’t possible when we first came to Senegal – so we are grateful!
The trip across the ocean was uneventful and the boys handled it superbly. Jet lag and all the newness made it hard to get to sleep for the first week but they have adjusted to the time change now.
We spent about a week in our new home in Dakar, the capital city, before driving out to Kaffrine (where we used to live) about four hours inland. Our week there was intense physically and situationally as it was extremely hot and we had a lot of work to do to sort through our things in storage and load a truck to bring to Dakar while also reconnecting with folks we hadn’t seen in two years, both in town and out in the one village where we had the closest relationships last term. The Lord gave us strength and we got the work done and we also had some really good conversations with old friends.
We saw God’s incredible timing in two situations too as we were there to help one friend in a moment of need at just the right time and we were with another friend when she got the awesome news that she passed the bac exam. (This means she has completed high school and will be given a spot at university! Only 3% of the population of Senegal attends university and passing on the first try, like our friend did, is rare!) We also got to talk to her parents and later on July 20 she came to stay with us for a month or so in Dakar which is a lot of fun (although we all wish Wheaton was here too since they are such close friends!).
After another week settling in to our new place, Corey took Will and Jake and hopped on the bus and went back out to Kaffrine with a short-term team from a partner church. The team has developed relationships and worked in one particular village for many years; on this trip they did some fun soccer times with the village kids so Will and Jake were excited about that. Unfortunately, Corey got hit with food poisoning on the trip out so was down a couple of days, but the team took the boys with them to the village anyway so the boys got to play lots of soccer. Corey did recover before the trip was over and was able to help out, and they are now back from Dakar.
Meanwhile, I have been in New Teacher Orientation at Dakar Academy all week getting to know the other new teachers and some of the school leaders. I have a key to my classroom and I know which 5 class periods I will be teaching French to which grades (I will have some 1st through 12th graders!) although there are some vital details still to work out about levels and curriculum. School starts August 16th so I covet your prayers for me to feel ready by then!
Many of you are aware of the demonstrations that have been going on in Senegal – we had a bout of them about two months ago and then things calmed down, but this weekend events kicked off again. We had some rowdy crowds that damaged banks very close to us and even burned a bus right in front of Dakar Academy. Due to the violence banks, gas stations, and many stores are closed down now. Follow the news about Senegal and pray for peace.
We know so many of you have been praying for us – thank you!!!
Please continue to pray:
for good health
for each family member’s adjustment to this new chapter. Pray specifically for good friends for each of our kids who is in a new place. We are trying to help Will and Jake relearn Wolof and connect them with boys their age in the neighborhood. Wheaton heads to Chicago today Tuesday Aug 1 and will start at Wheaton College shortly after. Molly will begin her second year at the Coast Guard Academy after traveling (to northern Europe and California!) with the Coast Guard all summer. Emma is living with a family in CT; she is about to finish up her nannying job and next month she will begin online classes through Grand Canyon University.
Pray for peace in this country from now through the presidential elections in February.
Pray for clarity and wisdom about my teaching assignments and for good resources to help me teach well.
We have had several opportunities to share about Jesus or to help someone download the Wolof Bible app recently; pray for God’s Spirit to work in our relationships and ongoing conversations.
Coming out of USCIS office – we went in two Americans and two Guineans, and came out four Americans!
We did it! International adoption for Americans living abroad is no joke, people. But it is done! We had our first homestudy in 2013. The boys were born in 2014. We were matched with them in 2016. We went to Guinea to get them and they legally became our sons in 2018. And now, in 2020, they are finally American citizens and this process is complete! AND their full names are spelled correctly on their certificates of citizenship, can you believe it? We did not do this alone — we have had a whole army of you along with us, praying and helping us in a million ways throughout the whole long process. Thank you and woo hoooooo! And thank you, Jesus!!! <3
We appreciate your continued prayers. Here’s what’s happening with us.
Praise God for his protection as the passenger side tie rod of our vehicle snapped suddenly on Sunday. Thankfully, Corey was in town and only going about 20 mph when it happened – it could have been much worse if they had been moving at a higher speed. He and our son Jacob and two Senegalese teachers from the Kaffrine Christian school were all in the car when it happened and no one was hurt. Pray for our vehicle to be repaired soon and well; we have been without a car since Sunday, making do with just Corey’s motorcycle to take the boys to preschool, etc. which is not ideal.
The community garden project idea that Corey was investigating is not going to happen. Pray for wisdom and God’s leading as we pursue another idea for a project to help in this village.
Praise God for several donations to the Kaffrine Scholarship Project. The Scholarship account had gotten down to essentially $0 and school started up again this month so this is a big praise! Pray for God to bless and work in the lives of each of the Scholarship students.
We are still waiting to hear from USCIS – pray for them to give us an appointment for our boys’ citizenship interview before the boys’ visas expire at the end of February.
Pray for wisdom and grace to parent all of our kids well. Pray for our three girls at boarding school, and for the two oldest (Emma and Molly) as they make decisions about college during the next two years. Pray for patience with our boys and good connection with them.
Pray that we will not be discouraged. We’re saying goodbye to our teammates the Gallaghers as they leave Kaffrine next week heading for a new role in the US. Also we were surprised to learn that our Senegalese pastor here in Kaffrine has been relocated by his denomination. He has been a friend to us and an invaluable ministry partner here in Kaffrine for the last nine years so this is a sad loss for us. He and his family moved yesterday. Pray for the new pastor and the new school director who will be sent out by the denomination.
The meeting that we had tried to schedule for yesterday afternoon did not happen. Katie and the boys and I went to the village in the afternoon and greeted at the village chief’s family’s house. Then Katie and the boys stayed there chatting and I went to try to connect with the six men with whom I was hoping to meet. I was able to see all but one. One man was quite angry and yelled at me a few times. Another of the men told me that an “older brother” among them had come to visit him to get them all in line with his view that no one should even talk about the garden project we were considering. I suspected we would not be able to have any kind of meeting but went and waited at the meeting place anyway from around 5 to 6:30. I had some other good conversations with others who were just hanging out there, but did not get to talk about the project with the group of six men. At this point there is nothing to do but drop the project.
I’m not disappointed we aren’t able to do this project – there are some legitimate reasons not to do it that I can think of – but I am disappointed that we couldn’t talk about it. I had wanted to get together and talk about the issues, and see what solutions they could come up with, but even that was too much.
What I have been thinking about as I’ve been talking with these men is that there are a lot of broken relationships and broken hearts in these villages. They do project a sense of peace and of tranquility, but there’s a lot hiding under the surface. The broken pieces of those hearts can be jagged and hurt others as they get close to them. These folks need a way to be able to forgive each other for past hurts and have a new start. As we continue to visit this village, our prayer is that God will let us help them understand how they can both have and give forgiveness through Jesus.
With our teammates’ departure, the medical surveying and
health education visits to each household in the village were no longer
possible, so Corey started investigating other ways we can help the community. For
several months, we were working towards a water project, but in the end the
Senegalese government rejected our consultant’s suggestion to change to an electric
pump from the failing diesel powered one, and ended up providing a new diesel
pump, which did solve the problem of frequent water cuts. As we were considering
with the chief what we could do next, he suggested we restart a community
garden project that folded over a decade ago.
We do not normally try to resurrect other organizations’
failed projects, and were wary of getting involved in this one. At the same
time we saw some real possibilities – much of the infrastructure is still there
– so we started to consider it. Corey has taken a lot of time over several
weeks discussing with people in the village what happened and found that there
were many factors that contributed to the original garden project’s failure,
including the main water counter to the garden malfunctioning (marking too much
water which resulted in huge unpayable bills for the farmers) and the water
tower falling over during the first year of the project due to faulty
construction.
But in addition to the physical problems, there were also
interpersonal problems within the village related to this project. As Corey
spent time talking to the different people involved, he found that there are a
lot of broken relationships and residual hurt and anger over things that were
said and done during the original project. He has asked a lot of questions and
explained that we are only interested in helping with a new community garden
project if we can do it in a way that brings blessing and increased peace for
all members of the village. He refers often to the four kinds of peace that
Adam and Eve experienced in the Garden of Eden: 1) peace with God, 2) peace
with each other, 3) peace with the land, and 4) internal peace rooted in knowing
their identity and purpose. A community garden project that only brings peace,
or increased blessing, in one area (for example, through increased vegetable
production from the land) but which brings discord in the other areas can not
be considered a success! Corey has been visiting all the stakeholders asking if
there is a way to do this project that would bring blessing in all four areas.
Yesterday he was talking to five or six villagers who farmed
the land before the project was organized and things got really “hot” (as they
say in Wolof) with lots of angry yelling and arguing. Some men were angry at
Corey and yelled at him, accusing him of favoritism – the original project was
rife with divisions along family lines that go back to previous feuds. Others
said things like, “If this project happens, I won’t let anyone in my household
eat the produce of the garden!” and “I am going to die fighting about this!”
It is kind of crazy that wanting to help the chief rebuild a
fenced enclosure for a garden to bless the whole village could incite such strong
negative emotions!
We share all of this to ask you to pray with us. Pray
specifically for the meeting Corey wants to have with those landowners on Friday
afternoon (4 October) at 5 p.m. GMT (that’s 1 p.m. EST). Some of the men have
already said they are going to boycott the meeting.
Pray for the Lord to give Corey wisdom and clear guidance.
Is this an opportunity for God to show His power to heal relationships and to
teach about forgiveness? Or should we abandon this idea, despite the chief’s
continued prioritizing of this project? Is there another type of project we
could do to help? Does the Lord even want us to keep trying to work in this
village at all? Pray for God to answer these questions and for us to be
faithful to obey His directives, even if we don’t like the answers or if it
isn’t easy.
"Please help us by praying for us. Then many people will give thanks for the blessings we receive in answer to all these prayers."
About the Garretts
Corey and Katie Garrett have lived and worked in Senegal since 2000 with SIM, an interdenominational, international evangelical organization. They have three daughters and two sons.
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