Plugging Away

The Phare is currently calm. There were a couple small gatherings over the weekend with a dozen or so in each. The Dakar Academy boarding parents are here for the next couple of days for a retreat and planning time. There are other families staying here as well. But no large groups are livening the place up.

So the Lord sent us a little excitement today. The Harris boys, Mark and Marcie's two, were outside this morning playing. Dilan suddenly gave a shout and everyone started scattering, some to the battle others to watch. A snake was in our midst. 

For you faint of heart, perhaps you should skip this post. You see we have cobra native to the zone. Spitting cobra. Once in a while, though timid, they slip past or over our snake wall and end up in the compound with us here at the conference center. Then the "law of the village" is a bit strict. Much shouting and no mercy. I've tried to save non-poisonous snakes from being beaten to death, but I don't argue with killing cobras.  They really are dangerous.

The video is not scary. Don't worry. I didn't get there in time. This is just Mbaye, who runs squealing from snakes generally, delivering a video message to Rodney Duttweiler, claiming the kill. It's all a show. Rod knows. Mbaye is just a big joker who has turned his own fear of snakes into a source of entertainment for his co-workers. 

 

Wheaton comes this weekend and we'll be working on a wall project. But meantime, we've had Jean and his guys reworking the support structure for our water reserves into a couple of small storage rooms. For you old-timers this might be interesting.

A Return to Busy

After that last post about the tragedy Friday night, I needed to balance the view of life here. In fact, the week following that was great, but before I got around to writing Spring Break hit and a speaking engagement and life floated me right along to mid-April! Sorry.

That Saturday when I took those photos of the broken wall and all, I was actually here at the Phare to participate in a Talibé Vaccination Day. According to Jane, 172 boys received one vaccination or another: tetanus, Hep B, meningitis.  We had a gift of $1,000 from a friend in Iowa (thank you, Stephanie!!!) and another locally for $300 more (thank you, too!) and the help of a church medical team from Philadelphia and volunteers from Dakar Academy and the team from the Barthimee Hospital in Thiès. And even Patrice, our maintenance guy, gave up his Saturday to help.

The boys played soccer with DA kids while they waited. Jane sat in the old Talibé Shelter at a table and found medical cards and sent boys into the "system" group by group. Some guys got a shower right there before heading in and others started at our "shower" station. Next they went into the conference room that was transformed into a clinic. They were weighed and checked for fever and all was noted on their card. The ill ones went to see a doctor or the head nurse from the hospital. Those with bandages to change, headed off the that station. Everyone eventually got to the crew giving shots! Then some skin cream and a candy before heading out the door. After that there was breakfast and games and more soccer and the Jesus Film to choose from.

Amazingly we were done early and saw more kids than "normal." I'm not sure why. Few were ill, it seems. Kids were cooperative. We had lots of help. In any case, the Lord blessed the day immensely.

On that Monday, another great thing happened. Balla began another session of the Discipleship Experience, our 3-month long, live-in training intensive. He has 5 guys this time. The fifth contracted chicken pox, strangely, and headed back to his home village for while, but came back and is deep into the studies now. A sixth scheduled to come was delayed with certain other responsibilities and in the end couldn't make it work to be with us this session. But they've begun, these four guys from Serer villages, sent by MIS and our 5th from another ministry down that same way.

With the presidential elections in February and March, the Phare had a few months with too many quiet days! But that seems to have come to an end. 

With the troubles in Mali we've hosted many missionary families who have fled their homes there and driven here. This has been a time of decision-making for them, pondering whether to wait a bit for the situation there to settle down or to perhaps go to their home countries, expecting a longer period of instability. Some people handle such disruption in life without seeming to be disturbed; others wear their stress on their faces. We've been glad to help in such a time, juggling schedules and even moving the guys in the Discipleship School into a dorm room for a week, to provide a quiet, safe place for their transition.

We've also enjoyed a series of different conferences and camps. There is an English Camp here this week, with 50 university students benefiting from the help of both local English-speaking folks and a small team from Rochester, NY. Today they are at Gorée Island, but yesterday some were right outside my office door doing a role-playing game of some sort that included an imaginary island and rabbit veneration and strange head gear. It sounded hilarious.

Campus (CRU now in the US, I think) was also here 10 days ago.  Unusually, yours truly was actually the principal speaker for the three days. My friend, Pascal Keita, wrote me a couple of weeks before that, asking if I could help out with a missions conference for university students. How could I refuse?  We had a wonderful time remembering the Gospel together and looking at God's great plan and considering the implication for our own lives. In the end, I confess I was close to tears when I saw what the Spirit was doing. What a privilege to watch some from this generation of young African evangelicals catch the vision.

Just before that was the annual Wolof Consultation, with lots of church and mission workers networking and discussing issues and sharing resources. Every week another event here. A good, busy month.

One last thing in this over long post, catching up on the situation shown in my last entry, we went ahead and fixed the wall out front that the truck demolished. Jean and his guys had it up in just a week.

and we got some boulders to try to create a line of defense against run-away trucks! Though I confess I don't really think the wall will survive if one comes at full-speed.