New Year's Greetings

So, the workers asked me to bring a camera (and buy a bowl of rice!) so they could pass on their New Year's greetings to the Toombs family. And to Rodney. After a good lunch and lots of laughter, here's what we got!

Oh, before we started, I heard peals of laughter from the steps. It seems Mbaye was courageously doing battle with some wasps that had made a home in the locker room window.

Mbaye began the formal greetings. Yes, those are flowers behind his ears. Don't ask me why! The gang was in high form today!

Rosette's contribution:

Yvette took her turn. Notice the flowers have changed hands!

Patrice also wished everyone well:

And Ndiaga, too.

The grand finale:

Major Project List

Well, I finished revising the renovation project list the other day and have been considering who might be interested in seeing it. This site seems a bit too broad of a place to put it if it's the only way we had to communicate with folks. But, of course, it isn't. So, as a supplement to more one-on-one discussions, let me show you all what's in our minds to try to do. If the Lord sends the money our way!!

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Major Renovation and Construction Projects at the Phare de l'Esperance December 2010
	Unit	Plan	Rough Estimate of Cost
Admin Building
1	Mali Apartment	Full renovation into three bedroom, 2-bath apartment.	$ 35,000
2	Reception	Install a counter, redo all electric, fix tile, paint, buy safe and new desk	$ 2,000
3	UWM Office	Redo all electric, replace windows, re-tile, paint	$ 2,000
4	Kenya Apartment	Tile bedroom and living room - kitchen; replace shower stall	$ 2,000
5	Sine-Saloum (Locker room)	Tile, lockers (6 simple), windows	$ 1,000
6	Men's Restroom	Gut and rework.	$ 7,500
7	Stairway	Add landing and turn bottom of steps, add awning over restrooms.	$ 1,000
8	Library and Office	Raise roof, add drop ceiling, build bookshelves	$ 2,000
Conference Building
9	Conference Room	Redo all electric, add drop ceiling, replace all windows, rework entranceways, add A/C.	$ 15,000
10	Guard Room	Raise roof and extend, lights	$ 500
Old Villa
11	Gambie Apartment	Replace the dining room and kitchen windows, remodel the bathroom and kitchen	$ 3,000
12	Entranceway (Gambie/Benin)	Replace main doors	$ 1,500
Dormitory Complex
13	Senegal (Dormitory)	Rework bathroom for 4 toilets and 4+ showers.	$ 10,000
Lower Housing
14	Apartment Ethiopie	Add second bathroom and third bedroom by extending apartment into the courtyard.	$ 15,000
Other
15	Pavilion	Tile the slippery floor; repaint.	$ 3,000
16	Water Supply	New supply and counter	$ 1,000
17	Small Storage Rooms	Doors	$ 500
18	Sewage	Replace two old sections	$ 500
19	Playground	All (swing, slide, etc.)	???
20	Driveway and Parking	Replace sign, beautify north side of entryway	$ 1,500
21	Security Walls	Finish back side with solid wall to ravine corner and wrought-iron fence to conference building, front in cement.	$ 40,000
22	Commercial Units (7)	Each one needs tiled, wired, doors and windows and painted	$ 25,000

Wedding Reception

Last Saturday there was a big "hurrah" here at the Phare. The basketball court was turned into an outdoor hall and Dr. Yannick and Pamela had their wedding reception with us!

Notice the basketball rim behind them. And in the shadows behind that van is the dormitory!





As always, there is lots of color at a party! But the bride is in white and the distinguished men are in gray.

Pamela has lived with the Oliveiras for several years. Both are connected with the Barthimee hospital in Thies. So this was a family affair for us.























We cleaned up the area above the court and they used it as a stage! There was a choreographed performance, you can see.









Nabrissa (Oliveira) Bard was part of the organizing and a friend of the couple and all that. She posted photos on Facebook if you want to see more! Thanks for these shots, Nabrissa! Nice looking man you've got there!

Discipleship Experience

As I've said before, one of the most strategically critical things we're doing as a team is the basic discipleship training we call in English "The Discipleship Experience." This puts a small group of Senegalese men (so far) together with a mature local pastor for 3 months in daily training in the basics of the Bible and the Christian life.

Balla Konate is my good friend and pastor of the little church in Ouakam that we're part of. He came to the Lord in the 80's under Ginny Smith's ministry and got his first opportunity to preach under Leldon Partain. Balla served for many years with Campus for Christ. During the last few years has been leading these intensive discipling sessions with us.

The participants come from villages with very new congregations. Their pastor or mission has identified them as emerging leaders, but they are young in the faith. They usually are a complete blank slate concerning the Old Testament and none too knowledgeable even in the New. So working through the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, day by day, is quite a rich experience for student and teacher. They also spend time talking about practical ministry skills, like how to share their faith in respectful, appropriate ways or how to give a short talk on a passage. All of this is done in Wolof and in a discussion group setting for the most part. This last, an interactive approach, is hugely empowering in a place where learning by rote from an expert is the norm. They gain confidence to be able to read and study on their own and to help others to "feed themselves from the Word."

So I am very excited that a new group of guys from villages among the Serer tribe have come to live at the Phare for the next three months and study with Balla. Here's a little clip of them this morning.

The guys who have already done this course are really enthusiastic about it. There only complaint is that it only lasted 3 months. (Not what they felt when they were there and away from their wives, I might say!) We had a fellow do a study last spring, traveling around to see all our graduates to investigate the impact we had had. I share a bit of one testimony, from Abdou, who was with us in 2007:

I had done other Bible training before, but this was special, different. For several reason: the length of the training (3 months); the personal character of the teacher who was an example and a model for us; and also the setting.

The training was really practical because it taught us to share the Gospel in this context, respecting our way of doing things [in Senegal]. Not only did the training build my Bible knowledge, but it also increased my ability to share the Gospel through testimony and the Word in a group.