NTM - New Tribes Mission | Planting Tribal Churches

Passionate Koniagi pastor

Continuing on our spring tour of Senegal…From Oussouye Charles and I took a “sept-place”, a car seating 7 people-a popular mode of public transportation, to a city in the south-east of Senegal.  Since the ride was long and hot, we paid for three seats to be more comfortable.  No air condition, only the air that felt more like a hair blow dryer from the windows, kept us reasonably comfortable.  It was about 120 degrees there!  We finally arrived at our campement, a grouping of small round houses as a sort of hotel for visitors.  It was quaint and comfortable, like having our own hut.  Our traveling team spent time with a single missionary who works there and her Koniagi friends.  The Koniagi are an ethnic group of about 11,000 people who live in Guinea and Senegal.  NTM is just starting a work among this group but there is only one missionary there presently.  However, we were amazed to see that God is passionately seeking to form His church among this group of people.  We were most impressed with a Koniagi pastor we met.  He is the only believer in his village who reads and speaks French well enough to study the Bible.  The Koniagi do not have a Bible in their language.  So, this pastor takes all he can from God’s truth in French and then, teaches to a small church of about 20 people.  We had the opportunity to worship with them one Sunday.  They sang many songs in their language and had printed out the words for us to follow.  I was amazed at how many letters it took to write a single word!  Even though we didn’t understand what was said,  we were greatly touched by their worship knowing that we were in awe and service of the one true God.  Here is something amazing…there are a group of 41 people in a nearby village that are asking this pastor to come and teach them God’s word as well.  They are so insistent that they have written their names down on a petition and have begun building a meeting place where they hope to be taught.  The Koniagi pastor is excited about their desires to learn and so has ridden his bicycle two hours in 120 degree heat to get to them and teach.  He rides again, two hours to return to his family and responsibilities in the village.  He has launched this challenge, to teach these 41, to the small church there.  This is a village where the people are very poor.  They have one well, no running water, no outhouses, and no electricity.  It was very dry there, too.  Most of them live off money they make from farming and were waiting for the rains to come before they could start working. Praise God for the passion of this pastor who is currently learning how to develop chronological lessons of the Bible with the single missionary who is there.  Pray that God will provide a way for them to go and teach these 41 seekers the truth of God’s word.  Pray for the Bible to be translated into Koniagi.  Pray for more missionaries to join this single lady.  Charles and I were touched and our hearts are heavy for the needs of these people both physically and spiritually.  We are inspired by the passion of this pastor and the evidence of God’s work in such a place as this.  May God use us to work along side such believers to see His church grow in West Africa!

see more photos in the photo section above

Charles and I recently had the chance to spend a little time with family in his home village.  It was nice to see everyone again, now as a married couple.  I had the opportunity to cook a chicken dinner with my sisters-in-law.  Did I mention that I have 5 sisters now!  Chickens go from the yard to the dinner table in an hour or so and we cleaned them together.  Normally, the kids catch the chicken first.  Second, thankfully, a man in the family cuts the throat.  Third, you dip it in boiling water before plucking out the feathers.  Then, well you can imagine the rest.  I am beginning to prefer fresh chicken to the packaged hormone-injected version in the states.  We also had a great time with our church family,  the people who taught Charles during his early Christian life.  We participated in a training session with them where we discussed how to teach Bible lessons.  Oussouye is a beautiful place.  This time of year it is always entertaining to sit outside and watch all the animals running about.  They let them graze freely until time to plant the rice again, in July.  I never knew pigs liked to run so much!  And the cows thought that the roads were put there for them! They have no fear of cars. We also had some serious discussions about God since many in our family are not believers.  Please pray that the Holy Spirit will help them understand the truth of the Gospel and that we will be faithful witnesses for our Lord. We love them very much and long to share our lives together as believers. See more pics of Oussouye in our photos section.

One of the first things we did on our survey of village works was to worship with our Balanta brothers and sisters.  Missionaries have been there for many years and there is finally a small church.  We enjoyed a worship service with them outside under mango trees.  Each of us danced during praise and worship time.  They were so kind and generous!  They have nearly nothing but took great effort to make gifts for us and feed us a delicious pork lunch.  What a blessing to worship together with our Balanta friends.  The missionaries there are currently working on translating the Bible into their language and also translate Bible lessons.  Pray that the Balanta believers will put more effort into continuing a literacy program.  Pray for unity among believers.  Pray for continued spiritual growth. Pray that God will provide all their needs, spiritually and physically.  Pray that they will be a light for God in their village where there are many who do not believe in God. Pray for them as they face pressures from those of traditional religions in their areas. See more pictures of the Balanta church under the photos section.

Recently Charles and I traveled with seven other NTM missionaries to visit existing church planting works in village settings of Senegal.  To start, we drove for over 12 hours passing through the little country of Gambia to the south of Senegal. At times if felt like there were more pot holes than pavement on the roads we took. In between trips, we visited with family in Charles’ home village  in the South of Senegal.  Then, later we took a car with 6 other passengers out east to visit villages near Guinea and Mali before returning to the big city of Dakar. We were challenged by each different work and challenged all the more to continue working as missionaries here in West Africa.  God has challenged our hearts to become a part of a team like these who take the gospel to unreached people who do not have the Bible in their language. We are preparing for this task while serving in the city of Dakar, Senegal.  For now we are working with our local Senegalese church  to encourage believers in the city to be involved in reaching their country for Christ and encouraging the growth of this small body of believers. We have decided to present several of these village works as separate posts, so read on.

Praise God for the power of His Word!  We are beginning a Sunday school program in our little church in Dakar.  We have made three separate classes.  Charles teaches the adult class in French.  One of the elders who is part of the teaching team teaches the adults in Joola.  I teach the kids with another lady who is part of the team.  We are having a great time teaching chronological lessons of the Bible!  We are only at creation but enjoyed meditating on the character of God as revealed in His creation.  We’ve also presented an interesting lesson on God’s creating the angels.  It revealed many interesting false beliefs that people here have about spirits.  Spirits are feared and worshiped here in West Africa.  Many people do sacrifices or buy charms from witch doctors to appease or manipulate spirits so that they can live well and be healthy.  Please pray that these teachings will correct some false beliefs and that we will all grow to know God better through this teaching.  Pray that our church will change through better knowledge of HIM.

Charles and I have found an apartment and are slowly establishing our home.  We now have living room furniture and drapes for the windows.  We also have drapes for the doors as does most every home here in Senegal.  In fact, some homes have drapes for all the walls of the living room! But, I didn’t go that far.  We don’t have everything we would like for our home but we have all we need for now.  Maybe a bed, cushions for the furniture,  and oven will come later.  We are happy to be together beginning our married life in a cute little apartment for two. We live in sunny Dakar in a fairly calm part of town.  Our neighbors have a few trees including a mango tree so we are blessed to hear lots of birds every day.  We also hear the sheep that are next door and the prayers of the dominate religion that are sent over loud speakers all around town 5 times a day.  There are several venders who sell soap, fish, brooms, and other things that walk our little street daily.  They always have some catchy phrase they holler out in woolf “fish for sell” or “soap, come buy soap”.  I like to hear their sing song calls but still have to ask Charles what they mean since I do not speak Woolof.  We like our neighbors and are getting to know them better.  Pray that we are a blessing here in our little neighborhood and have good relationships with people.  We pray that we can be good witnesses here. Praise God for our apartment!

Charles and I were blessed to have the opportunity to visit family and friends in the states after our wedding.  What a blessing it was to visit everyone!  Our church family in Georgia welcomed us and praised God with us for answering our prayers with Charles.  We enjoyed speaking in churches and local schools and Charles got to try a few things that he had never done before like bowling and eating Krispy Kream donuts.  Thank you so much for your hospitality and joyous welcome and celebrating with us.                        

Please be patient with us as we are just restarting our website/blog. I am looking forward to adding news and pictures