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!
Pray for a friend who is very interested in the Scriptures; he has just read Genesis and is now reading the book of Exodus. He recently had a dream that seems very significant to us and we are excited to see what God is going to do!
Pray for a water project we want to do to help a village get a solar pump for their well since the generator and pump they have is slowly failing. A consultant came out and we are now waiting for him to figure out some technical details and work up an estimate for us.
Katie and Amanda had hoped to begin teaching a TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) class in October but this hasn’t come together yet. Pray for wisdom for us and our partners and for God to draw the right students in His time.
Team
We are so grateful for Bob Japenga’s visit! Bob is an old friend, a mentor, and an elder at our home church (The Barn in Connecticut). He worked with our team here, doing Playmaker interviews to identify our individual motivational giftings and also teaching and leading us in listening prayer. In spite of multiple health and computer problems that disrupted our meetings, we were deeply blessed by Bob’s visit and believe the Lord will use it in our team going forward.
Our teammate, Jeff, had a flareup of a herniated disk in his back during our week of teambuilding. This was extremely painful and extra stressful because there are limited medical resources where we live. Jeff and his wife have gone to the capital city and are getting the care he needs. Pray for complete healing.
Family
All together with Grandma Janie at the SIM Christmas party last week
Praise the Lord that after seven months the US Embassy in Dakar finally issued visas for Will and Jake! We now need to take the boys to the US in order for them to become US citizens. We are planning a four-week trip in Feb/March for the four of us while our girls stay here at school. Pray for the planning and finances for this trip to come together. We are so grateful that friends from our home church in CT have offered us the use of their home and their car while we are there as they will be away during that time. We are so excited that Will and Jake will get to meet their grandparents and aunts and uncles! They are really hoping to see snow… Pray for the boys’ continued adjustment to our family. They are speaking a lot of English these days!
Pray for strength and rest for Corey as he has been working and travelling nonstop for the past month. Pray for good health for Katie. Pray for wisdom and patience for both of us as we parent. Three teenage daughters and two preschool boys… ’nuff said. 😉
We are so thankful to be all together for the Christmas break and to have Corey’s mom, Grandma Janie, visiting! Pray for this to be a sweet time for our family. Keep Emma (16), Molly (15), and Wheaton (13) in your prayers too – for them to thrive at their boarding schools and grow spiritually, personally, and academically.
It has been a very busy six weeks – we were able to go to Guinea to pick up the boys and have been getting to know each other and connecting as a family since then! We know many of you were following on Facebook and praying with us; we were so busy with the boys we weren’t able to get a real Prayer Log update out til now. We are so thankful for how well Will and Jake are adapting to all the change. Every day they learn so many new things – new foods, new words, new games, new rules, new relationships, new experiences! They are kind and sweet and playful and tough and so small and tenderhearted. Their hunger to love and be loved almost breaks my heart as I know they have been missing this kind of family connection for years now. Thank you for your prayers. Continue to pray for the Lord to knit us together as a family of seven!
We still have not been granted a visa interview appointment by the US Embassy in Dakar. Online we just saw today that the Embassy has marked our case “Ready” (There’s a tracking number so we can check on the status of our case, just like you check on the status of a package) but it also says to wait to get an email from them with an appointment date and time. Please continue to pray that we will get an appointment soon and that the Embassy will grant our boys’ visas with no problems. We are so ready for this long bureaucratic process to finally be over!
Continue to pray for our team’s work in the two “new” villages, specifically that the Lord will draw us into relationships with the people He wants to call to Himself and that He will prepare people’s hearts so they will want to read the Bible for the first time.
As God allowed His disciples to perform miracles and healings to confirm the preaching of the Gospel many times in the New Testament, in the same way, pray for the villagers to see the Lord answer the prayers we pray for them in Jesus’ name to confirm that what we are teaching about Jesus is true. One of the couples who have been the most welcoming just had their 5th miscarriage even though we prayed for them to not lose this baby. Pray for God to show them His power and His love and to give them a healthy child. Pray too for those who are sick, that Jesus will heal.
On Friday (June 1st) our team is going to a different village where a Senegalese brother from the church here has been doing Kids’ Clubs with games and Bible stories every week. We are helping him and Pasteur give Samaritan’s Purse shoebox gifts to the children and show the new version of the Jesus film in Wolof on an outdoor screen with a projector run by generator. Pray for this village too and for the seeds that have been sown there over the last year-plus to bear much fruit. Pray that there will not be any technical difficulties with our new sound system and that people will come, watch, understand, and be drawn to Jesus.
"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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