A fruitful time
These few days spent in the city of Dakar have been incredibly fruitful and encouraging. Over the past week, we have met with pastors and youth leaders to share the "Planting Together" vision and find out if it is something that their young people would want to get involved in. The response has been overwhelmingly positive and enthusiastic, with some of the pastors telling us that God has already been speaking to them and their congregation about the importance of Christians being involved in environmental initiatives in their nation. With the Sahara Desert advancing in some areas by as much as 30 miles per year, people here are aware that their nation is slowly being eaten up and that good stewardship of God's creation is an important part of preserving their country for future generations.
Yesterday we had a meeting with the pastors and missionaries who will be the hosts for our outreach teams this August. It was really helpful to hear of the ministry opportunities available, and to find out important information like accommodation costs or the availability of transportation for our summer teams. We're expecting to welcome teams this August from England, Spain, the Netherlands, Germany, the USA and possibly Hong Kong, as well as African teams from Mali and Senegal. A special prayer request is that we can firm up the right accommodation for our 5-day orientation camp with our expected numbers of more than a hundred people. The facility we planned to use had accidently made another booking which overlaps with two of our camp days, and we are hoping that the other group will be able to change their dates in order to start two days later. The facility isn't big enough for our group of a hundred people to share with the other group of sixty people. Thanks for your prayers.
One of the most encouraging encounters for me personally was when we went to meet one of the Baptist ministers in Dakar. I recognised his name as one of our young people from King's Kids Senegal in the 1990s and remembered that he and his sister had been with us when we took African teams to work with African American churches during the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, Georgia. Sure enough, when we arrived at the church, Robert recognised me immediately. "When I heard your name," he said, "I was sure that it was probably Barbara from South Africa." He went on to tell us about the way that his KKI involvement nearly twenty years ago had impacted his whole life. "It was there that I learned to hear God's voice," he said. "It was there that I got my call to be a minister. And it was there that I met my future wife." Fabricants de Joie (King's Kids Senegal) doesn't exist any more at the moment, but the generation of young people who were involved during the 1990s have become the pastors, missionaries, businessmen, and educators of the present generation. It's our prayer that some of the young people who take part in our Planting Together outreaches this year, 2013, will be the missionaries, pastors, politicians and other people of influence in the future.
Another interesting twist in the story is that, back then at Target World Atlanta, our teenagers from all the different continents gave ethnic and cultural presentations from their nations and, up there on stage, in front of seven thousand young people and families from all over the world, each continent gave a "Macedonian call" for people to come as missionaries and serve in their part of the world. It was Robert's younger sister, Christine, who took the microphone and gave the resounding invitation to "Come to Africa." One of the young people who responded that evening to God's call to come and serve in Africa was 9 year old Kindra from Spain. Over the past six years, Kindra has been visiting Africa regularly and asking God what her long term role in this continent should be. Now aged 26, she is part of our Planting Together steering team, and will be staying in Senegal for the next six months to help confirm food and accommodation details for the visiting teams this summer. These six months will also be a time when she is asking God to clarify which of these nations should be her long term base for serving God as a missionary to a people group of West Africa. This photo shows us yesterday, eating Tiebou Denn at a roadside lunch spot.
These few days spent in the city of Dakar have been incredibly fruitful and encouraging. Over the past week, we have met with pastors and youth leaders to share the "Planting Together" vision and find out if it is something that their young people would want to get involved in. The response has been overwhelmingly positive and enthusiastic, with some of the pastors telling us that God has already been speaking to them and their congregation about the importance of Christians being involved in environmental initiatives in their nation. With the Sahara Desert advancing in some areas by as much as 30 miles per year, people here are aware that their nation is slowly being eaten up and that good stewardship of God's creation is an important part of preserving their country for future generations.
Yesterday we had a meeting with the pastors and missionaries who will be the hosts for our outreach teams this August. It was really helpful to hear of the ministry opportunities available, and to find out important information like accommodation costs or the availability of transportation for our summer teams. We're expecting to welcome teams this August from England, Spain, the Netherlands, Germany, the USA and possibly Hong Kong, as well as African teams from Mali and Senegal. A special prayer request is that we can firm up the right accommodation for our 5-day orientation camp with our expected numbers of more than a hundred people. The facility we planned to use had accidently made another booking which overlaps with two of our camp days, and we are hoping that the other group will be able to change their dates in order to start two days later. The facility isn't big enough for our group of a hundred people to share with the other group of sixty people. Thanks for your prayers.
One of the most encouraging encounters for me personally was when we went to meet one of the Baptist ministers in Dakar. I recognised his name as one of our young people from King's Kids Senegal in the 1990s and remembered that he and his sister had been with us when we took African teams to work with African American churches during the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, Georgia. Sure enough, when we arrived at the church, Robert recognised me immediately. "When I heard your name," he said, "I was sure that it was probably Barbara from South Africa." He went on to tell us about the way that his KKI involvement nearly twenty years ago had impacted his whole life. "It was there that I learned to hear God's voice," he said. "It was there that I got my call to be a minister. And it was there that I met my future wife." Fabricants de Joie (King's Kids Senegal) doesn't exist any more at the moment, but the generation of young people who were involved during the 1990s have become the pastors, missionaries, businessmen, and educators of the present generation. It's our prayer that some of the young people who take part in our Planting Together outreaches this year, 2013, will be the missionaries, pastors, politicians and other people of influence in the future. 
Another interesting twist in the story is that, back then at Target World Atlanta, our teenagers from all the different continents gave ethnic and cultural presentations from their nations and, up there on stage, in front of seven thousand young people and families from all over the world, each continent gave a "Macedonian call" for people to come as missionaries and serve in their part of the world. It was Robert's younger sister, Christine, who took the microphone and gave the resounding invitation to "Come to Africa." One of the young people who responded that evening to God's call to come and serve in Africa was 9 year old Kindra from Spain. Over the past six years, Kindra has been visiting Africa regularly and asking God what her long term role in this continent should be. Now aged 26, she is part of our Planting Together steering team, and will be staying in Senegal for the next six months to help confirm food and accommodation details for the visiting teams this summer. These six months will also be a time when she is asking God to clarify which of these nations should be her long term base for serving God as a missionary to a people group of West Africa. This photo shows us yesterday, eating Tiebou Denn at a roadside lunch spot.