We just sent out a quarterly newsletter via mail, so those who are on our postal mail list received it along with our new magnet with a recent family photo that includes our sons, Will and Jake! Our last photo magnet was four years ago — we only had three kids then, so it is definitely time for a new one! If you receive our newsletter digitally and you would like a magnet, please email us your postal mail address. We will also bring some extra magnets when we visit the three churches (see below) in Connecticut so you can ask us for one then too. We would be honored to be on your fridge! Our hope is that the magnet will remind you to pray for us and for God’s work here among the Wolof of Senegal.
All seven of us together winter 2020
We are looking forward to seeing many of you in person soon as we prepare to travel to Connecticut to complete our boys’ American citizenship process. Our appointment is in Hartford on Jan. 27. We appreciate your prayers that they will be granted citizenship this time! Pray too that the spelling of our last name could be corrected at the same time and the boys’ US passports issued quickly.
I (Katie) also have a couple of doctor’s appointments (with a dermatologist and a rheumatologist) to check out some concerns. We are grateful for this opportunity to access higher level health care and we appreciate your prayers for our health!
While it would not have been our choice to make this trip at this time, the Lord can turn even the frustrating requirements of government bureaucracy into an encouragement and a time of blessing and refreshment. Through his people, God has provided us with a place to stay, two loaner vehicles, money for plane tickets… everything we need! He is so good and his people are so generous! We won’t be preaching on this trip but we will be visiting a few churches to say hello, and wanted to let you know when we’ll be where.
• Jan. 23 – Arrival in Connecticut
• Sun., Jan. 26 @ the Barn in Simsbury
• Sun., Feb. 2 @ Valley Brook church in Granby
• Sun., Feb. 9 @ Wintonbury church in Bloomfield
• Sun., Feb. 16 @ the Barn
• Feb. 18 – Return to Senegal
Please pray for our daughters Emma (18), Molly (16), and Wheaton (14) as they remain in Senegal at school. It is really hard to leave them behind!
We have seen a great deal of change in our boys, Will and Jake, since we brought them home a year and a half ago. They came to us speaking only French and now they speak mostly English (with an impressive vocabulary!), along with some Wolof and French. They have both moved about 20% higher on the height and weight charts for their age. For example, when Will came to us he measured in the 3rd percentile for his age; now he is in the 30th percentile for height! At first, Jake would only eat a few familiar foods: rice, bread, eggs, bananas. Almost everything else he put in his mouth, he would chew and then take back out. He no longer does this! Both boys now enjoy a wide variety of foods. One of their favorites is peanut butter and jelly sandwiches — obviously they are ready to officially become American citizens!
Many of you have been praying for us since we started this adoption process in 2013. We never imagined it would take us this long to get this point! We had hoped our trip to the US in March 2019 would have resulted in the boys receiving their citizenship, but due to a State Department rule change and poor communication between US Citizenship & Immigration Services (USCIS) and the US Embassy in Dakar, we are having to do this further step. But we are thankful to finally be nearing the end of this process! USCIS granted both boys an appointment for their citizenship interviews on January 27 in Hartford, CT. We have purchased plane tickets for the four of us (Corey, Katie, Will & Jake) to spend just over three weeks in Connecticut while our three girls are at boarding school. We will be in the US from January 23 to February 18.
We are overwhelmed with gratitude for how the Lord has already provided so much of what we need for this trip. Friends have generously covered the cost of our transportation from Kaffrine to Simsbury, including the plane tickets. Isn’t that amazing and wonderful!? Other friends have volunteered to let us stay with them. (We sincerely hope that they don’t regret this later!) And someone else has offered us the use of their vehicle. These sacrificial gifts have been such an encouragement to us during this stressful time and have reassured us that the Lord, and His people, love us and are close by with a helping hand.
We would love to be able to borrow a second car for when our out-of-town family comes to see us and so that Corey and I can use our time more efficiently. And we are looking to borrow three car seats as well (a booster seat for Jake, a 5-point harness car seat for Will, and a 5-point harness car seat for our 2-year old nephew just for a week). If you have a car or a car seat we can borrow, let me know via email or Facebook messenger. We will also need to borrow winter coats, boots, snow pants, and clothes for the boys. As a side note, if you have boys’ summer clothing sizes 5 – 8 in good shape that your sons have outgrown, we will happily take them back to Senegal with us for Will and Jake.
Thank you, friends! Looking forward to seeing some of you soon!
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.
We received a reply from US Citizenship and Immigration
Services (USCIS) today. Unfortunately, they did not issue Will and Jake
citizenship as we had hoped, citing the fact that we do not reside in the US as
the reason for this refusal. They suggested we apply for the boys’ citizenship
by filing an N-600K form for each of the boys, submitting $1,170 along with
each form. Then we will wait for some months to hear back from USCIS with an
interview date in the US a few weeks later, necessitating another costly trip
for the four of us.
This seems like a colossal waste of time and money from our
perspective. We are also concerned about the timing since the boys’ US visas in
their Guinean passports are only valid for one year from the date when we
entered the US with them, which was Feb. 28., and we have heard that the
estimated time it takes for USCIS to process this kind of application averages
9 months. It is particularly frustrating that the US Embassy in Dakar did not
put us on this path in the first place.
But while we were reading USCIS’ letter and researching the
process before us, the boys were giggling and wrestling on the floor with their
sisters… and I was reminded that they have been part of our family for over a
year. They are not orphans living in an institution, begging for someone to
hold them, play with them, give them attention… They have a mom and a dad who
will fly across the world for them (again!) because we love them, and because they
are our sons. This is what parents do. Our heavenly Father has done a lot more
for us! So, we are grateful, and we press on.
Pray with us:
for the peace of the Lord to rule in our hearts
and minds
for His provision of the time and money needed
for this process
for this process to go quickly enough that the
boys’ citizenship papers are issued before their visas expire at the end of
February, or wisdom about applying for another visa if it isn’t going to happen
in time. This is the part we have a lot of questions about…
for stamina to persevere through the red tape,
and joy despite this circumstance
that this process will be completely 100% over
and finished forever soon!
Family photo at our annual SIM Spiritual Life Conference – July 2019 on the coast of Senegal (about a three-hour drive from where we live)
At least twenty kids were still crowded around us, clamoring to be chosen, but there were only six name tags left. We had already gone beyond the number of kids we had planned for (84) and the name tags represented the absolute limit we could accommodate (96). What a difficult choice! But it is remarkable that in this context more than 100 kids would be excited about attending a two-day camp about Easter!
Camp photo! The kids are all wearing their red camp shirts that read “Jesus is the lamb of God”
Saturday and Easter Sunday were chock full of noise and activity: boisterous children chattering and laughing, kicking up dust playing games and popping balloons, music and passionate teaching coming over the loudspeakers… All the games, teaching, and small groups were led by our Senegalese brothers in both Wolof and Sereer. At mealtimes, everyone gathered around big common bowls. In the evening, Corey projected the section of the Wolof film that shows how Jesus let himself be killed on a cross and then came back to life, as he had predicted. For many of the kids this powerful true story was new!
Breakout sessions after each big group time provided time to process the messages
I got to help with this year’s craft. The kids learned quilling (Google it if you’ve never heard of it! I learned something new and had fun with this!) and made lambs to remind them of the camp theme, which was from John 1:29 “Jesus is the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” As each group came into the classroom I asked why they came to camp. They all quickly answered, “To have fun!” Then I asked what holiday it is today, and it took each group a while before someone would say tentatively, “Easter?” But when I asked, “And what is Easter about?” I was met with silence. I trust that by the end of the two days of camp, they learned the answer to this question!
Molly , Katie, and Amanda helping the kids with the craft
To be honest, when we got back from our whirlwind trip to the US a few weeks ago, I was tired and not sure that we should have an Easter camp this year. But our Senegalese brothers in Christ expressed such a strong belief in the significance of this event that we decided to go forward. It was hard work and there were some frustrating moments (like when it got dark and we realized none of the exterior lights worked!). Our own boys had fevers the whole time so we were taking turns running back and forth between taking care of them at home and working at the camp.
Big group Bible teaching time
Now that it is over, we are completely exhausted. But three young men who grew up here and attended these camps every year when they were little and who are now strong believers and working in other parts of Senegal all traveled back to Kaffrine to help out at the camp this weekend. Seeing them bear witness to the transformation Jesus can bring reassured me that it is worth the effort! I thank the Lord for our Senegalese brothers in Christ who urge us on and who work tirelessly to bring the Good News about Jesus’ resurrection to those who have not yet heard!
We could really use prayer right now, there is so much going on! The main thing is to pray for us to trust God wholeheartedly about everything so that we will be filled with His peace no matter what is happening. Thank you for lifting us up!
We travel to the US next week! We’re looking forward to spending a long weekend with our girls Emma, Molly, and Wheaton before we go. Pray for good connections and conversations during our time together. The girls will then go back to school during our trip to the US.
Senegal will be holding the 2019 presidential election this Sunday, February 24. The atmosphere around this election has been calmer than the last campaign (which was in 2012) but there have been some demonstrations and even some deaths in different towns. Please pray for peace and a clear result from this campaign.
We have been following the procedures that our adoption agency outlined for us when we started this process in 2013. In 2017 the State Department instituted a new procedure for families living overseas that our agency didn’t know about. We just became aware of this new process, and if we are routed into this side-track it would impact us negatively, extend our process and require another trip to the US and a couple more thousand dollars in fees to the US government. We have limited-time visas for the boys, so right now we have to keep going with our planned trip to the US, but it is discouraging to think this might not yet be the end of the process as we thought. Pray that we would find favor with the US government personnel who will look at our packet and that we would be granted the certificates of citizenship we have been working towards for our boys Will and Jake.
The house-sitting arrangement we had planned during our four weeks in the States fell through. Our home church has already come up with a backup place for us to stay but it will be shared space and there are some details and unknowns to work out.
We just found out yesterday that the Scholarship Project which we manage has run over the 5-year budget total we predicted when it was approved in 2015 so it needs to be rewritten and re-approved or it will be immediately suspended. As this process takes time and brainpower, and we are packing to leave our house in 36 hours to spend a few days with our girls and then travel to the US with our two 4-year old boys. Pray we would get this done well despite the time crunch.
The Lord is firmly in control. While we are caught by surprise and are in the dark about many things, the same is not true for Him! Our good shepherd is leading and taking care of us day by day and He is working out His good plan for each of these situations. Thank you for your strengthening prayers!
"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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