A Quiet Week of Progress and Promise

That is a praying mantis that was outside our office a couple days back. The leaf next to him is from a bougainvillea hedge and is a couple inches long. He is the biggest mantis I've ever seen.

Wildlife! Just a little fun addition to brighten our day here.

And an even better addition: Sara is posting on this blog!! Isn't that wonderful!!!

Drop her a note or add to the "comments" section on her posts. Do anything to encourage her. I really need all the help I can get at this!!

Across the street the workers are starting to spread blacktop on the new road. As I walked home yesterday I snapped this shot of the cutting that goes through the old hill. It won't be long and we'll know what kind of circle they'll be putting in front of us and all that.

Even with the road work and with Jean and his workers installing the window security bars on the Toombs' place, life is reasonably quiet here at the Phare this week. ITES students have started night classes again, so we've had a dozen folks most evenings from 5 to 8. There is a family in B1, former missionaries to Guinea-Bissau , here to explore the possibilities of coming to Dakar to do economic development aimed at the evangelical community. There were also a bunch of young folks in the dorm. I was busy and never did confirm who they were. I think it was part of that YWAM group Sara mentioned, on their way back through.

And Gabe and Andy from the pastoral staff of Forest Hills Church in Charlotte (NC) were in the Kenya apartment. Rodney and I had a long meeting with them all morning, discussing the possibilities of their church sending teams to help at the Phare in the next few years. They want to send two teams a year. In theory, that could be a good thing. Or it could be a problem. But because we had heard their vision and heart, we knew this offer was a real privilege for us.

Forest Hills is the first church I've ever encountered to beat me to the punch, expressing my heart's desire before I could. You see, our ultimate hope for church team visits is that through those moments of tasting and seeing Senegal, US churches will catch our vision: to see this country filled with churches. We don't just want people to support us, the missionaries, to send us, to be behind us. We dream of congregations owning the passion for Senegal that drives us. We want them to share our commitment so much that even if we were no longer in the picture, they would continue to come alongside the Senegalese believers and help them to reach this nation with the Gospel.

Gabe and Andy talked about wanting to create that kind of vision among their Life Groups. May God bring it to be!

Observations from the newby

I'm new to “The Phare”. I'm actually new to Senegal. My name is Sara and my family and I have been here one month. For the past several years (almost four) we've been slowly, plodding ever closer to this great “Beacon of Hope”. Along the journey we've heard bits and pieces of the purpose of “The Phare”; what’s happening here, how it is used for ministry, etc.
I had a vague idea of what went on ‘these here parts”, but now, WOW, what my new eyes have seen.
I believe it was our third week here when a group of very excited, eager YWAM kids came rolling into the driveway. It was around 3am and the dog, Brownie was barking wildly. I got out of bed wondering what sort of tribulation had befallen us (I’m a pessimist) and timidly peeked thru the window. There they were, standing around in the dark parking lot with tired eyes and heavy backpacks. They were shown to their apartments and from that moment on and for the next week, those young people were VERY visible on the property. They sort of took over the verandah, which is totally cool 'cause that’s what it’s there for. Because our apt. was right next to theirs we could hear pretty much all that went on. I hate to admit to being a spy, but what I heard was lovely. They spent hours a day reading the Bible, praying and singing.
For me, those first couple of weeks were pretty dark. The spiritual oppression in this country is evident, and to say I was just a little nervous would be a gross understatement. I was down right scared! So the sound of them singing and praying as I went to bed at night was more than just a nice, comfy, “christiany” pat on the head before sleep. It was a beautiful confirmation that God is indeed present, especially when His people pray. With the sound of young voices singing praises to the Lord, my heart felt secure. I knew I was safe.
This group was headed off to different parts of West Africa to minister. Some to evangelize, some to do ‘helps’ work. They had to stay in Senegal for a week because there were certain papers they needed to get into the other countries. The Phare was a place where they could wait, pray, relax, put on the full armor of God, AND (an added bonus) minister to those around them even though they were clueless to it, before they headed out towards their final destinations. I must mention also, that it was evident during those nights when we didn't have electricity (which is about every other night) that they, with their worshipful hearts, were a light to this nation. Who knows if any nonbeliever saw it, but I can guarantee that forces unseen did.
So, now I have a clearer view of how God uses this place. I know Him well enough to NOT make any major assumptions on how He will use it other times, but this time it was a beauty and I was thankful to have seen it.

Growth Brings New Challenges

As the Phare becomes more and more popular, we are facing new problems. One, of course, is scheduling. In the old days, if you told us you might have 100 people for your conference, but in the end you had only 30 show up, frankly, it really didn't matter. You were more than likely going to be the only ones here anyway. Now, if you expect 100, we can't take any other reservations. We have to turn others away. So, we are learning how to help people be clearer in their communication and more proactive in their planning!

Another shift and one that has been the hot topic of debate and reflection this week is more theological. In the past, the only folks who ever even heard about the Phare were friends of ours. Word of mouth limited the guests to mission groups and churches from within a fairly tight circle. But, perhaps because of the publicity that Paul Carter helped us do, or perhaps because the religious situation has shifted, we are receiving more and more inquiries from folks on the "fringe."

This last weekend we had three groups on site. A large group of American and Australian youth with YWAM was staying here on their way to points south and east. Also, a committee from the local Assemblies of God church spent Saturday in meetings and prayer. Finally, we had a "fringe" group here for a conference. Now, we didn't know they were fringe ahead of time. It was only when noise levels rose to extremes and we paid attention to what they were up to that we realized that they were outside of the bounds of even what a non-denominational, fairly accepting mission group like United World Mission would consider acceptable.

So, Monday's question was: where is the line and who decides if a group has crossed over. Pray for us. We have no desire to aid and abet folks who have another gospel than that of God's grace in Christ. We also don't want to mistake differences of style with differences of substance. And whatever approach we take has to be reasonably easy for Hervé, our administrator, to put into practice.

Well, on a lighter note, some of the older talibé boys helped with cutting down weeds today. A local fellow, Bamba Diop, has been working steadily at clearing out the high weeds that shot up all over the property during the rains. With the fasting during the month of Ramadan, asking the guys to work in the hot sun seemed a bit extreme. But I think that a number of them have ended their month a little early. Or perhaps the cloud cover today made the work more reasonable. In any case, they were enjoying themselves.

At the same time I found that we were using a more traditional, if slower method of weed control! This fellow was tied up at the top of the driveway enjoying a snack.

New Arrivals!!

Aaron and Sara Toombs and their two children are here! They are living (finally!) in Apartment A where we moved from just a couple months back. It is also where Aaron lived as a boy growing up!

Sara and Aaron are a delight for all of us here at the Phare. And they have blessed us with their two wonderful kids.

Izzy is a very, very sweet kindergartener. She started at Dakar Academy this week and is very excited. In fact, this morning she rode to school with the carpool with the Hamptons! Mom and Dad are relieved that she is happy and settling in.

Simon is the most gentle two-year old on earth. He loves his toy cars and trucks and dinosaurs and all the rest. The back veranda is the perfect spot for him since "washing" the trucks and playing in the resulting puddle is completely harmless on the tile! We've warned Sara about Jonathan's reckless habit of turning the whole back porch into a "slip-and-slide." Today Aaron told us that he and his brother used to do the same thing. He has a distinct memory of sliding too far and flying off the steps!

You all pray that little Simon will manage to avoid broken bones when the time comes!

The family arrived Monday the 17th of September with no complications, flying in from India where Sara's folks live.

As I warned, we weren't quite done with Apartment A fixes and renovations, so they had to have a transition stage, living in the near side of Apartment B and waiting a bit. More challenging, the Carters' household was stuffed into Jonathan's old room from floor to ceiling and wall to wall. They learned the word "triage" in French and English, sorting through all that stuff that we moved in June and deciding what was for them and what was for sale and what really just needed to go. We followed behind and decided which of the "for sale" items the Phare was going to snatch up first.





The Toombs were quite intimidated that first night by the daunting task of setting up a place to live (and the next week, in spite of the smiles above). Just to welcome them to Senegal, the power company decided that it would cut the electricity at the Phare that night, so by candle-light they saw the mountain of stuff waiting for them. But I am happy to report that as of today, the room has not only been cleared and the stuff sorted, but we actually got painters in there and Sara and Aaron were arranging the kids' beds when I went down this morning! Life is approaching livable!

And once everything was cleared out, Aaron actually found a sticker on the window in that room that his brother Matt put there in the 80s. I don't know whether to laugh or cry! Is that historic or just uncleaned? (And if you look closely, yes, the sticker does show up in both photos of Aaron and Sarah above.)

In addition to this welcoming and moving in that was happening in Apartment A, we also witnessed last week a multi-country gathering of Fulani believers. There is a regular association of believers, so we Dakar-UWM folks did not play any role. Herve and his staff did their normal fine job of welcoming these guests. Most of the group, of course, were Fulani believers, Africans from that tribal/ethnic group. Among the participants, however, were Jim and Jennifer Bowers, our colleagues from Mali, as well as various other missionary friends, so I was able to keep up a bit on progress informally. Apparently this gathering had a much improved atmosphere over some previous years, with open and serious discussions and lots of encouragement. These brothers and sisters come from tough situations, in general, with lots of social and legal pressures. They need these kinds of times to touch base and be reminded of the larger family. Pray for them, would you?