The Trip
· God provided safe travel to/from Dakar even though we returned to the U.S. amidst a multi-day storm front that hit the east coast. We encountered no delays and our flights were unaffected by the weather.
· We stayed at the IMB guesthouse in Dakar close to the neighborhood (Sacre Coeur Tre) where we worked for seven days.
· We learned some of the Wolof language so that we could greet the people in their native dialect and learned how to take taxis without being over charged by the drivers. Our language learning brought down many cultural barriers as the people were amazed that “two bobs” (white people) were interested in speaking in their mother tongue. In fact, we were able to witness to the taxi drivers too.
· Our IMB missionaries (Stan, Gaye, and Rick) encouraged, empowered, and equipped us for our task and prepared us for future trips.
· Our local Christian brother (Dauuda or David) served as one of our indigenous translators and challenged us with his boldness to share God’s stories with the people. He is studying English at a local university and speaks at least 4 languages.
· We identified over 1,000 residences and engaged over 200 people in the Sacre Coeur Tre neighborhood. We used an iPhone and APP to take people’s pictures and identify key landmarks with specific notes. At night, we were able to download the data into Google maps for future reference and follow up by our IMB missionaries and future Crabapple FBC “seal teams.”
Our Approach
· Twice a day (morning and late afternoon/early evening) we split into two teams of three people and entered different areas of the neighborhood.
· We greeted people in Wolof and engaged them in conversation. When they asked what we were doing in their neighborhood our response was “We are followers of Jesus (Isa in Arabic) and he commands us in the New Testament (Ingil in Arabic) to go and tell others about Him.” Then we would ask, “Do you know anything about Isa.” Most of the time, their response would be “No.” Then we would say, “Would you like to learn about Isa.” If they said “Yes” we would say, “May we share a story from God’s Word.” With their permission, we would share either the Creation to Christ story or the story of the demoniac (Mark 5:1-20).
· Often times, the people wanted to know more and we would share with them. Again, we took their picture and recorded our interaction and their receptivity to our encounter into the iPhone APP for follow up.
Personal Stories
· One evening we were walking in the neighborhood and we were very close to the local mosque. I noticed some men gathered across the street and several were building furniture in their outdoor shop. I said, “Let’s go and visit with these men” and so we greeted them and begin talking with them. I noticed one man was wearing a t-shirt that had a silk screen image of a sailfish and Atlantic Beach, NC emblazoned on it. So I asked Rick to ask the man if he had ever been to Atlantic Beach. He smiled and said “No.” Then I asked Rick to tell him that I was from N.C. and my uncle had caught a fish similar to the one on his t-shirt. I continued by saying, “In fact, the fish was bigger than this cabinet (at least 7 feet in length that was lying on the ground). The men’s eyes got big and they laughed. Then, I asked Rick to ask them if they would like to hear a story from God’s Word about the prophet Jonah and the big fish. They said “Yes” and so Rick shared the story of Jonah. Rick concluded by saying, “God loves all people even our enemies. He loved the Ninevites so much that He sent His prophet Jonah to his enemies to learn that everyone must repent of their sins and turn to God for salvation.”
· The last day we went to the ocean not to swim but to find a place that Rick and a group of local Christians could gather and baptize our new Christian Brother Ousseynou, a Sereer people group believer. He moved from his village in southern Senegal without a job and met Rick. Through Rick’s love and concern for him, they became friends. After sharing the gospel with Ousseynou, he replied “I know this is true. I want to follow Isa.” On Sunday after we departed, he was baptized in the ocean. He is growing in his faith and Rick took him to his village the following week to share about his new life in Christ and the gospel with his family and the people in his village. Rick reported to me recently that Ousseynou is bold in sharing the gospel with almost everyone he meets. Am I doing that in my local community and in my daily activities?
As I mentioned to you in my letter on March 13, our fellowship, Crabapple First Baptist Church, adopted the Wolof people. We will continue working with IMB missionaries in developing a strategy to reach them with the gospel in a way they can understand, obey and follow as their own. Our goal is to take the gospel to them and equip them to take the gospel to their own people and other near culture peoples. As they come to faith in Christ, they will be responsible for evangelizing their own people, discipling them, and planting churches within their own cultural context. All of this work is because of our Lord’s command “to go and make disciples.”
There are about 4.5 million Wolof people in the world, most of whom are Sunni Muslims. Of these, less than 0.001% is evangelical Christians meaning there is virtually no indigenous gospel witness among them. They do not have a Bible in their language. We have an enormous opportunity to impact the lives of these people with the gospel. Our next “seal team” will be going back to Dakar in July. We have another team scheduled to go in November and I will be leading another team in January/February 2012.
I hope you will join with me again in 2012 as we continue our work among a people who are open to know God, but do not know the way to God through the Son. Even in these challenging times, God is still at work advancing His Kingdom in the hearts of those who turn to Him by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ through genuine repentance. I look forward to sharing about my upcoming trip to Dakar in 2012. I encourage you to continue to pray for the Wolof people brothers and sisters!
That all peoples may know Him,
Mark
"And thus I make it my ambition to preach the gospel, not where Christ has already been named, lest I build on someone else's foundation, but as it is written, “Those who have never been told of him will see, and those who have never heard will understand.” (Romans 15:20-21)
