Jonathan and Jenny Roundy Reaching the Unreached Then There Were 7
All Seven of Us
Yes, we are expecting our 5th little one! We’re eagerly waiting to see him/her sometime in October. We are thrilled and thankful beyond words! We have prayed and waited for many years. Admittedly we don’t understand God’s timing or His reasons for what we see as waiting. Rejoice with us because we’re partying here at the Roundy house! We have had to pinch ourselves a few times to be sure that it’s real. We were just at the Doctor’s this last week and saw our little one moving all over the place, and he/she even looked right at us during the ultrasound.
Easter Camp with our Church
Over Easter weekend we went on a trip with our church to a town about 80 km (2-3 hours) away from Dakar for Easter Camp. We were blessed to be able to borrow a Toyota Land Cruiser for the trip. This allowed us not only to get there and back easily, but also to bring along quite a few friends from church: 13 on the way out and 15 on the way back.
Land Cruiser with those who rode with us (plus 2 extra people who just wanted to be in the picture! 
)
Jonathan helped out coordinating activities for the youth group while our kids enjoyed time with the others their age and I spent most of the weekend sick and resting on my mat.
One of the youth meetings during the weekend
Jonathan and the other leaders planned a few fun games for the youth group!
Water Relay Game - use a drinking cup to fill a 10 liter bottle with water from the ocean
Winners of the water relay game
Competing in a High Jump Competition
Participating in a Popular Sport: Senegalese Wrestling
Youth Hanging out at Easter Camp
Jonathan and Emmanuel packing up to return home
Our Kids Hanging out with Friends
While Jonathan and I felt out of our element and inadequate, our kids had the time of their lives and begged to stay “just a couple more days”!
Cooking Senegalese Style
This Saturday Jenny had the privilege of cooking Senegalese style with our neighbor Sokhna. They went out and purchased the items necessary to make the meal and then prepared it together. We purchased the baguettes at the neighbors boutique (store) and had a real feast. Those french fries, wait they don’t call them french fries here…they are just fries. Anyhow, those fries started out as raw potatoes. They were crying together in the kitchen as they cut up some insane number of onions. We all sat around the plate together and enjoyed a wonderful meal together.
From Cooking with Sokhna, posted by Jonathan-Jenny Roundy on 2/12/2012 (3 items)
- Serious onions, and look at that three legged pot.// beaucoups d’ognions, et regarde …
- I think this is called tufu, but whatever you do, don’t call me late for dinner. Sup…
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CUTE Workshop for Language Learning
I will post a few pictures from the workshop below, I promise I won’t feel bad if you skip the reading and go right for the pictures.
We recently had the privilege of going through the CUTE workshop here with fellow missionaries who are in the language learning process with us. The principles we learned are part of the Growing Participator Approach by Greg Thompson. The idea is that as we learning language and culture we are growing in our participation as well as our ability to participate in our new community (Senegal). The goal of the workshop was to help us better understand the method we are using for learning French, both the theory behind it and the the practical steps in order to accomplish our goals in language learning. In the mornings we were reviewing, learning and understanding the concepts and practical steps. In the afternoons we were with our nurturer (person who is helping us learn language and culture) putting the new tools into practice. The format was wonderful, in the morning you think you understand it clearly, until you try to actually follow the steps with your nurturer in the afternoon. It really helped solidify the principles and methods so that we will be able to put them to work.
So why CUTE and can these principles get CUTER?
C – Communing – Becoming a real, interesting, valued person in a growing number of host lives
U – Understanding – Becoming someone who host people can talk to and share their burdens with
T – Talking – Becoming someone host people can listen to and interact with
E – Evolving – Is an overarching principle of the first 3 meaning we seek to grow and keep changing as our ability to do the first 3 increases
R – Redemption – How God is at work in our “language learning” to draw people to Himself and change their hearts.
Please pray with us as we go through this process of changing, learning and growing into servants of the church here in Senegal.
From Cute Language Learning Workshop 2012, posted by Jonathan-Jenny Roundy on 1/24/2012 (4 items)
- Taking in the new principles and tools in the morning
- Working together with our nurturer in the afternoon, finding out what we really under…
- Muriel made sure we had hot drinks, snacks and wonderful lunches. Thanks a ton Murie…
- Our kids joined us for lunches, but otherwise they were busy making sure the playgrou…
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Tags: New Tribes Mission, NTM
Apparently a Party is in Order
Yesterday when I arrived home, Jada came to the front door when I rang the door bell. I did not have my keys with me and needed to have someone unlock the door. Jada didn’t have any keys, but she had some exciting news. Our front door has steel bars over a glass window that swings open. She opened the glass and told me that we need to have a party because she had a loose tooth. Later in the afternoon she was doing some artwork and brought me some scraps of paper she had cut off of her artwork. Apparently tickets are required to get into this exclusive event to celebrate the fact that she has a loose tooth. Tonight she could not handle it any longer and had Mom “help” the tooth out so the tooth fairy could come. If you are on Facebook already you may have seen these photos, but I will put the album here as well to go along with the post. If you click on the pictures they will get bigger and you can use your arrow keys to look through the photos in the album.
From Jada Looses her Frist Tooth, posted by Jonathan-Jenny Roundy on 1/24/2012 (2 items)
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Tags: New Tribes Mission, NTM
Celebrating Elena’s 8th Birthday
We really enjoyed celebrating Elena’s 8th Birthday last month. I shot a few pictures of her opening some of her presents on her actual Birthday. A school day/night is not the best time for a party, so we waited on the celebration with friends until this weekend. We hope you enjoy the photos we took of our celebration!
From Elena Birthday the Big 8, posted by Jonathan-Jenny Roundy on 1/24/2012 (24 items)
- Awesome to get a big girl watch!
- It’s Fancy Nancy all of the way!
- Princess Tiana Cookbook
- Wohoo! Breakfast and presents
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Tags: Birthday, New Tribes Mission, NTM
Decorating for Christmas
We thought you might enjoy seeing some pictures of our time decorating our Christmas tree this year here in Senegal, our first.
From Decorating for Christmas 2011, posted by Jonathan-Jenny Roundy on 12/08/2011 (20 items)
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Tags: New Tribes Mission, NTM
A Free Ride
Waly and I at Thanksgiving
I want to share a fun story from our experience of learning culture (way of living or doing life) here in Senegal. I must admit that too often I think of the things that are different from home and that I am having difficulty adjusting to. When I do this, I miss out on so much that is positive about the culture here in our new home, Senegal.
One of the things that takes up a considerable part of our days here in Senegal is getting our kids to and from school. We have experimented with different ways of getting this accomplished. Taking the city bus, taking taxis, taking the bus one way and a taxi the other way, getting a taxi for the round trip etc. After all of this experimenting, we were beginning to think about trying to find a taxi driver and make an agreement for him to do the round trip every morning and afternoon for an agreed upon taxi fare. An aspect of culture here is that you have to barter with the taxi driver for the fare EVERY time. Each taxi driver may or may not be willing to adjust there fare, so you may have to wait for several taxis to go by.
One evening I was down visiting our friend Waly at the boutique (corner store). Waly’s friend and neighbor, Mbarick came into the store and was sitting watching TV. Mbarick then said something to Waly in a local language (Wolof). Waly then relayed to me that if I was outside at the bus stop with the kids a few minutes before 7AM that Mbarick would take me and the kids to school each day on his way to work. Waly noticed that where our kids go to school is on Mbarick’s way to work, and he had asked Mbarick if he would be willing to drop us off at school each morning. (Right now the kids are riding to school with Sharon, who also takes her daughter to the same school each morning, but we wanted to share this story with you to get a window into our world of adjustments.)
This story fits into some of what we have observed here in Senegal which is that people just help each other. All of the time, not just close friends, but even people they don’t know. Another example, on our way back from French class we can spend a considerable amount of time at a bus stop. We started noticing partially full taxis stopping and filling up with people from the bus stop. We also noticed personal vehicles and even company vehicles stopping and people piling in for a free ride. We asked our language and culture helper about this and she shared with us that this is common here. People understand that transportation is hard, especially in our neighborhood, so they pick up those waiting for the bus and take them to the round-a-bout in the neighborhood, which gets them well on their way to where they need to go.
We are so thankful for those that are praying for us as we continue this process of understanding our new context here in Senegal and adapting to the culture here. It is all so new and different. We continue to be reminded that we are in a new culture now for just over four months. This means that, in a lot of senses, we are like four month-olds here in Senegal i.e. we have a TON to learn and we do not know very much.
Jack-o-what?
When life gives you melons….
African version of a Jack-o-Lantern
While our fall festivities didn’t include our usual trip to the pumpkin farm or romp in the leaves, they did include a lot of fun! At Emmanuel & Elena’s school, the senior class put on an evening of fun events and good food!
Elena in the process of winning the sack race against all boys
Jumping for Joy
Jada zipping by on the zipline
James enjoying a grapefruit soda...yep, grapefruit!
First 2 Months in Photos
It’s hard to believe it’s been two months already! God has brought us this far! Sometimes we are spinning with the many changes He’s brought our way and He’s brought us through! Yet, He’s also surrounded us with support through prayer and compassionate care.
These few photos should give you a peek into our first 2 months:
Jenny & Eliane Headed out to Market
Meeting and getting to know Eliane has been an important highlight of our start here in Senegal. Eliane comes to our home every weekday helping me keep the house clean (it’s an endless battle against the dust which is reportedly tame this time of year!), keeping our crowd fed, and offering valuable perspective on life in Senegal. Eliane is a dear sister in Christ and fast becoming a dear friend! We are blessed by her!
Roundys with Jerome and Vildene
Our new church family at L’Eglise Presbytérienne de Hann Maristes has also been a blessing to us. Our pastor and his wife, Jerome and Vildene, have taken care to help us get to know our new city and to get to know life in a new way here. We greatly appreciate their friendship, their patience with us, and their care for us!
James and Jada Supervising the Filling of the Waterbed
Getting settled into our new home has been a team effort, and that’s a team that includes more than just our very cute children! We’re so grateful to our mission team members who worked so hard before and since our arrival to set up our house!
During our first month here we were able to meet many of the NTM missionaries ministering here in Dakar. They welcomed us warmly: after we shared our testimony with the team, the kids enjoyed a sleepover while we got down to business, a game of Settlers!
All Dressed up to Attend the Wedding
The Bride and her Brother Wally
What an honor to attend our neighbor’s wedding! We were invited to celebrate the marriage of our friend Wally’s sister. Our neighbors really know how to have a party–with good food, finely dressed guests and music and dancing long into the night! We really enjoyed being a part of the celebration and getting to meet more of our neighbors!
Emmanuel and Elena Start School at Dakar Academy
James and Jada Start School at L'Ecole ABC
Also in the past 2 months we’ve all started classes. So far Emmanuel and Elena are thriving in their new school! This is an answer to prayer in a huge way! They were very nervous about the new school and it was a bit of an adjustment, but it hasn’t been a rough one. On the contrary, it’s been amazing to hear their accounts of their school day told with such joy! Their school is an American school and all their classes (except for French class) are in English.
James and Jada completed a “vacation course” at their school and the main school year commences this next Monday. They are going to a small school that is held in our church. Their classes are all in French. We have already seen an improvement in their French speaking at home! Thank you for your prayers on behalf of our kiddos!
Jonathan & I have also started classes–French language classes. We meet 2 hours every morning with our French language instructor. Our vocabulary is stretching and expanding daily! We’d appreciate your prayers during this time of intense language and culture acquisition. We will be focusing on this for the next year in order to reach a language level at which we can communicate well with those we minister alongside.
God has brought us many blessings during this difficult time of transition. We are thankful to Him for your prayers and for His presence through the last months and going forward! We look forward to what He will bring us through in the next months!
Emmanuel turns the Big 9
Getting ready to blow out the candles
With all of our different moves, it seems that we make them before August when Emmanuel’s birthday is, so he usually gets to be the first one to celebrate another year of life in our new context.
Enjoying cake and ice cream with friends
Thank you so much all of you who have been and are praying for our family. Part of adjusting to our life here in Senegal is to build new friendships. Emmanuel having friends to invite to his birthday is a direct answer to your prayers for friends for each of us. Please continue to pray for us as we build relationships here in Senegal.
The force is strong with you young roundy
Boba Fett - loving the dress-ups
We are so excited with Emmanuel for his new bike
Please pray for us as we parent all four of our children through this transition and beyond. We truly need wisdom from above to parent each one of our children.
Sites around town
Horse Carts are used commonly to transport just about everything
There are lots and lots of cars around town, but these horse drawn carts are a common site. They carry food, drinks, bricks, cement and all kinds of other things. The other day we were in a traffic jam at a round about and I saw one of these horse carts right in the traffic jam. I wonder what the horse thought of the stop and go traffic?
Casino? Yup, its a grocery store
One of the grocery store chains around town is called Casino. I found it amusing when our host family was driving us around town that the grocery store was called Casino. We really enjoyed checking things out in this store, because it is air conditioned! There are not slot machines or black jack tables in here in case you are wondering.
Mosquito Nets
Mosquito Nets are important
This is a picture of one of the girls beds all setup with their mosquito nets. It is important to sleep with a mosquito net because there are a lot of mosquitoes here, even in our house. Not only can they keep you awake by buzzing and making you itch, but they also can bring some nasty diseases like malaria.
The fan is also important this time of year as it is the hot period in the year. The fans help us sleep at night.
Please pray for our health that God would protect us. Even with the measures we use to protect ourselves, we are still getting bitten many times per day by mosquitoes.
New Kitchen Items
James with our new mortar for in the kitchen
One of the new things that we got for our kitchen and for preparing Senegalese meals. I know they can use it to grind pepper, I saw Eliane smashing onions with it to to make a sauce, I think.
New Pot for cooking - notice the feet
The new pot has a thick bottom and feet, I presume for cooking over a fire. The middle foot is cut off in order for it to work on the stove.
Basket for steaming over our new pot
The two blue buckets are for filtering our water. We put the unfiltered water in the top bucket and there are three filters in between the two buckets that filter the water into the bottom bucket.
Thanks so much for your prayers. All of these small little difference add up to a quite different way of life. Please pray that we will trust Him as we make adjustments to our life and ministry in Senegal.
First Meal from a “communal bowl”
First meal from a communal bowl
We enjoyed a great meal prepared by Eliane from a communal bowl. Each of us ate from the section of the bowl directly in front of us.