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.
Do you believe the Lord hears and answers prayer? I believe it because we keep seeing Him do it! A bunch of us, including many of you, prayed specifically for certain things regarding our two-day Easter Camp.
Jennifer, Katie, and Molly working the registration table
God graciously saw fit to grant us what we asked for:
87 kids attended with their parents’ permission;
town water stayed on;
no one got sick or injured;
the high on Monday was only 100° and 102° on Tuesday (much cooler than the highs of 107° – 110° that we have been experiencing!); and
the Easter story was shared clearly in Wolof through teachings, a skit, small-group discussion times, songs, and a film.
Each of the campers made a seed mosiac of a tree using green peas for the leaves, brown lentils for the trunk, millet for the ground, and rice for the sky. We talked about how a seed dies and is buried and then new life rises!
I wish I could calculate the probability of each of these things happening. The statistical probability of the town water staying on alone is so low that I am sure God’s hand was specifically intervening to bless the camp! That gives me confidence that the Lord is also answering in invisible ways the things we prayed for that can’t be seen – for example, that He was speaking into the hearts and minds of the kids who were there to let them know that He loves them and died for them.
I know that many of the kids came to camp not knowing what Easter is about. At the beginning of camp, before any of the teaching times, I got to address the whole group. I asked them, “What holiday are we celebrating?” and one of our Sunday School kids answered, “Paques!” (Easter!) Then I asked, “And what is Easter about?” It was clear that most of the kids didn’t know as only a few hands were raised. I called on one of the kids I don’t know and he answered, “Korite” which is the holiday celebrating the end of the Muslim month of fasting. I shook my head, looking for another volunteer, but no one seemed to know. Finally, another one of the handful of Sunday School kids who were there was able to help us, “Easter is about when Jesus came back to life after he died.”
Kody, Corey, and Jeff hanging mosquito nets in a classroom
By the end of the two days all of the kids had heard the whole story of how Jesus, who was perfect, took the punishment for us, dying on the cross, and then rose again, showing His power over death and confirming that He is able to save us from death too. Pastor explained this to the kids later using an analogy that I appreciated; he said that if someone gives you breakfast, it makes sense to believe that same person when he promises to give you lunch later. In the same way, Jesus’ resurrection gives us good reason to believe Him when He promises to resurrect us too!
It was a joy to share this Good News with these precious kids. We are so grateful for the partnerships that made this year’s camp possible: our SIM Kaffrine team, the local Pastor and other Senegalese believers, and all of you who were praying! Glory to God!
Would you all start praying for the Kids’ Camp that is coming up in just two weeks? There are so many pieces that need to come together as we plan this with our SIM Kaffrine teammates and our Senegalese Christian brothers and sisters from the little local church here.
Starting in 2006, for quite a few years our team organized an annual Wolof Kids’ Summer Camp at the beach. In recent years, we had switched to holding an overnight Christmas Camp here in town. This year, we are doing something new: an Easter Camp!
We are excited about this because we know that for many of the kids it will be the first time they learn about Easter. Schoolchildren here get two weeks’ vacation from school, but there aren’t many visible traditions or celebrations for the majority of the families in our region.
A Christmas message at last year’s camp
We hope that between 80 and 100 kids will come to camp at the church April 2nd – 3rd. Please pray that the Lord will bless our planning and everything that happens during those two days. You can pray specifically that there will be no water cuts during camp, and no sickness or injuries. Pray that each child the Lord wants to attend will get permission from their parents to be there. Pray for each of the messages to be clear and engaging and for the kids to grasp the significance of Easter. This is the hottest time of year with temperatures above 110° every day last week, so you could also pray for God to graciously grant us some unseasonable coolness during the camp!
May we all know and experience the great love of God this Easter as we remember all He has done for us!
In rural areas in our region, a larger village will host a weekly market (called a “louma” in Wolof) where people from the surrounding villages can come to buy and sell. The village where we used to live has a louma every Wednesday. There are tables and small thatched shelters grouped together in the open space at the center of the village and you can find fabric, plastic basins and cups, farming tools and even sheep for sale. Corey is preparing to set up a new table at the louma for the first time today. This is the same village we lived in half-weeks and have done our farming project, sheep project, latrine project, and other interventions over the past few years.
From left to right: Luke-Acts in one volume, Psalms, Exodus, and Genesis
On Monday, we picked up the first few boxes of the new one-volume Luke-Acts written in Wolofal (the Wolof language written using Arabic script) at the print shop in Dakar. Thanks to all of you who have prayed for the transcription and publishing process over these last years! We now have Genesis, Exodus, Psalms, and a single-volume of Luke and Acts in Wolofal and now Corey will turn his attention from typesetting and printing to distribution and evangelism. He will have some of each book available at his table in the village today, along with some alphabet primers and sets of twenty small Wolof/Wolofal chronological Scripture story booklets.
The four published full books above and the 18 story Arabic script/Roman script booklets plus the two primer/alphabet books below
We have never done this before so we are not sure what to expect. But we take heart when we read God’s words in Isaiah 45:18-19, 22, and 23b:
“I am the Lord,” he says,
“and there is no other.
I publicly proclaim bold promises.
I do not whisper obscurities in some dark corner.
I would not have told the people to seek me
if I could not be found.
Let all the world look to me for salvation!
For I am God; there is no other.
Every knee will bend to me,
and every tongue will declare allegiance to me.
As messengers sent out by God, we want to boldly and publicly proclaim His message of love and forgiveness and grace; we don’t want to just whisper the good news about what God has done through Jesus in our homes while all around us people are lost and without hope. We are confident that the Lord wants more Wolof people to seek and find Him and receive His gifts of salvation and joy. Will you pray that Corey will see evidence that God is with him at the louma today, and that He is drawing Wolof people to Himself? Would you pray for many people to be interested in reading God’s Word and for them to have the courage to buy a book or booklet? Thanks! And we will let you know tomorrow how it went!
Today is the 26th day of Ramadan. Every year during the 30 days of Ramadan, Muslims around the world abstain from all food and drink and redouble their efforts to be holy. Laylat Al-Qadr, the Night of Power, may be tomorrow night. Laylat Al-Qadr is the night when Muslims believe the first verses of the Quran were revealed to Muhammad. It occurs on one of the odd-numbered nights during the last last ten days of Ramadan, most commonly the 27th night. It is said that God did not reveal the exact date, so that His servants would perform extra acts of worship throughout the ten days and so attain the reward of them.
There are different beliefs and traditions surrounding Layat Al Qadr. Some Muslims believe that on this night, the fate of creation for the coming year is determined and that prayers are more powerful, sins are forgiven and the blessings and mercy of God is more abundant. It is a night to expect a special closeness to God and many reports of Muslims having dreams or visions of Jesus on this night.
Muslims observing Ramadan will increase their prayers and reading of the Quran during these last ten days. In this way, they hope to earn extra divine favour.
Laylat Al Qadr is translated variously as the Night of Decree, the Night of Power, the Night of Value, the Night of Destiny, or the Night of Measures.
**How Can We Pray?**
* Pray for Muslim families in Senegal and around the world to have a special awareness of the Presence of God as they pray through Laylat Al Qadr.
* Pray for God to supply the physical needs of Muslim people. In Senegal the rainy season is about to begin; pray for good rains this year and a good harvest with plenty to eat for the whole year.
* Pray that on this night, the Holy Spirit will give dreams and visions to those who are seeking revelation.
"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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