Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

Here are some pictures of our time at the dunes:






We are currently on break and enjoying our free time hanging out and relaxing in the dorm. We have done our annual (okay it is only the second one) trip to the Dunes the day after Christmas and had an awesome time. Our dorm is currently being painted so that has put a little damper on things, but it will look nice when they are done! I am a little loopy as I am typing this!

We will celebrate New Year's Eve with friends and fireworks! New Year's Eve or trente - un is a big deal here with lots of fireworks and festivities. Last year we went to the beach and had a chili potluck - this year it will be in our neighborhood with a soup potluck.

In January, we are looking forward to some folks from Northwest Baptist Church coming over to go on outreach with the school. They will come in a day before outreach and then stay the following week to observe our Spiritual Emphasis Week. We are so excited to have them and show them our country and have them meet the guys and see the work around Senegal.

We hope your New Year is filled with family, friends and the blessings of the Lord - we miss you all! I hope that in the New Year I will be more consistent with blogging!!

Outreach

Last weekend we went on outreach with 130 other kids and adults to a village about 3 hours from Dakar called Tattenguine. Those 130 people built benches, poured a foundation for a church, harvested peanuts, pounded millet, performed VBS in 10 villages, did drama for 13 villages, did a medical clinic and did 6 evening services. It was a crazy weekend, but was it worth it. The gospel was shared with over 3,000 people and over 700 people responded to the gospel. The pastors in that area have a huge job ahead of them! Zach and I (Chris) were on the VBS (Vacation Bible school) team. We traveled to over 10 villages and performed skits, sang, played with the kids and handed out cookies! We were deep in the bush of Africa. It was really great to be able to see Zach with the kids and doing skits in French. It is neat to see how he has blossomed. Ron was on the peanut harvesting team. Wow was that hard work. He basically had 2 sticks - 1 to lift up the peanuts and 1 to beat the peanuts off the vine. Many blisters were formed in those 2 days. We basically camped - slept in a tent and showered out of a bucket. It was a grueling 2 days but so awesome to see our youth really shine for the Lord! We have another outreach 21-23 January. We have some folks coming from our home church in Maryland and we are really excited to have them join us and see our work. Please pray for their preparations and travel. I have lots more pictures on Facebook if you are interested!