Archive for the ‘Ministry’ Category

Easter Camp with our Church

Posted by Jonathan and Jenny on Thursday, April 12th, 2012

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”!

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CUTE Workshop for Language Learning

Posted by Jonathan and Jenny on Friday, February 10th, 2012

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)

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A Free Ride

Posted by Jonathan and Jenny on Sunday, December 4th, 2011
Waly and I at Thanksgiving

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.

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First 2 Months in Photos

Posted by Jonathan and Jenny on Tuesday, October 4th, 2011

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

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

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

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!

team welcome

welcome sleepoverDuring 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

All Dressed up to Attend the Wedding

The Bride and her Brother

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

Emmanuel and Elena Start School at Dakar Academy

James and Jada Start School at L'Ecole ABC

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!

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Arriving in Senegal

Posted by Jonathan and Jenny on Wednesday, August 31st, 2011

We arrived in Senegal just about on schedule.  We had the immigration paperwork mailed to us ahead of time in order to have it all filled out, but alas, amid all the other things we had going on, we neglected to fill out the paperwork before landing.  So…there we were in the airport, tired and ready for sleep trying to fill out immigration paperwork.  I, Jonathan, ended up having to leave the rest of he family behind and walk out through the security and customs to get a physical address for our paperwork.  I got the info and gave it to the immigration officer who put in the official stamps in our passports that we had ARRIVED!

When we arrived at the luggage carrousel there were really no other travelers there anymore.  We figured out that a bag that we had gate checked was missing….oops!  I had to go back into a back part of the airport and report our lost bag, which took quite a bit of time.  One of the airport workers sat down with Emmanuel and was drawing a picture for him in his notebook when I arrived back from the bagage loss claim department.  After that we walked through customs and then out to meet the folks that had arisen early,  we loaded up our bags and headed to our new apartment here in Senegal.

We live on the second floor, so we worked together to carry all of the bags upstairs and put them in our place.  We found out that in trying to fill the waterbed to prepare for us, it had overflowed and flooded the house. (not like feet of water or anything, but definitely flooded from what we understand.)   The folks greeting us had already had it all cleaned up so we wouldn’t have known except for the absence of the waterbed.

We got a little tour of our new digs, and there was food in the fridge, which was nice.  We tried to go to the boutique (small corner store) for some bread for breakfast, but due to Ramadan hours they were not open.  Daniel drove us down to the Brioche Doree to get some bread and we stopped at a “superette” not a grocery store, but bigger than the corner store.  We got corn flakes and some jelly to go with the bread we had purchased (baguettes).

That same morning Eliane came to our house to meet us and prepare our first lunch here in Senegal.  We had cheb yep (not sure on the spelling, but rice and meat) for lunch.

We were kind of spinning that first day to be sure, trying to figure out whether to sleep, or try and stay up.  Thanks for your prayers, the jet lag was not too bad, although we do not have a lot to compare it with. :)

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Traveling to Senegal

Posted by Jonathan and Jenny on Wednesday, August 31st, 2011
Getting ready for departure

Getting ready for departure

We wanted to be at the airport at around 6 :30 AM in order to get all of our luggage into the airport and checked in with plenty of time.  My parents (in from South America), my Brother (in from Maine), my Sister (in from the Philippines),  and Misty and Andy (in from Hartland, WI) were able to spend the night in a hotel in Chicago.  Casey, Jenny, Levi and Tigue (read Ty) joined us for the evening and we ordered in Pizza from Giordannos to enjoy one last time before leaving.

In the morning we all went to the airport together and spent our last hours together before our departure.  We shed our share of tears as we headed through security and waved good-bye to our families who were there to send us off.  God allowed us to go through the security rather quickly, so that was a real blessing.  Our first flight was delayed by about an hour.  It was nice that we had 4 hours scheduled for our layover in Dulles, so the delay did not affect our connecting flight to Senegal.  We had planned on going out through security to see Jenny’s Uncle who came to the airport at our layover, but after arriving late, we got nervous about going out and getting back in through security with enough time.

The flight was rather uneventful, which is generally a good thing!  We did not all sleep, but some of us were able to sleep, so that was good.  Thank you so much for praying for us, we are so blessed to have a team of people praying for us.

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Time with Family before Departing for Senegal

Posted by Jonathan and Jenny on Wednesday, August 31st, 2011

We were so blessed to be able to have time with our families before departing for Africa.  We spend some precious time with the our family, Jenny’s side, in North Carolina after leaving Quebec.  We enjoyed so much being together and it was incredibly difficult to leave.

Picking Blackberries on...then off to cool down in the lake in North Carolina

Picking Blackberries on...then off to cool down in the lake in North Carolina

Enjoying the lake with family in the smokies

Enjoying the lake with family in the smokies

Celebrating the 4th in North Carolina with Jenny's Family

Celebrating the 4th in North Carolina with Jenny's Family

God allowed us to coordinate a reunion with the Roundy side of our family in northern Wisconsin from 3 different continents (including the us in the US of course).  It was so great to be together as family and catch up before our departure for Africa.  We all enjoyed driving the ATV’s, swimming in the lake and just plain being together as family.   The Jones were kind enough to let us stay in their place in Northern Wisconsin.

Grilling out is serious business!

Grilling out is serious business!

A pic of us all together up north, my brother came later

A pic of us all together up north, my brother came later

Last trip to Ching Hwa was a must.  This is the whole crew after my brother arrived

Last trip to Ching Hwa was a must. This is the whole crew after my brother arrived

Jenny and Misty

Jenny and Misty

Jonathan, Cynthia and Curtis together for the first time in a long time

Jonathan, Cynthia and Curtis first time together in a long time! So much fun!

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Kids club our first Saturday here

Posted by Jonathan and Jenny on Thursday, August 11th, 2011

We had the privilege of going to a kids club with our family at one of the churches here in the area. Thought you might enjoy some pictures of the kids enjoying kids club here in Senegal!  The kids broke up into three groups.  Two of the groups were taught in Wolof, a language of wider communication that kids know before going to school and learning French.

Some of our kids enjoying the game wit the parachute

Some of our kids enjoying the game wit the parachute

A game where a kid goes under the parachute and crawls and touches someone's feet.  That person in turn does the same thing.

A game where a kid goes under the parachute and crawls and touches someone's feet. That person in turn does the same thing.

Yup!  They all went underneath and stretched the parachute behind them.

Yup! They all went underneath and stretched the parachute behind them.

Praise time singing songs together.  They broke up into groups

Praise time singing songs together. They broke up into groups

Candy at the end for all those willing to dance a jig

Candy at the end for all those willing to dance a jig

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Yellow Fever Vaccine

Posted by Jonathan and Jenny on Sunday, June 19th, 2011
James, Jada and Mom at the Hospital

James, Jada and Mom at the Hospital

As we get closer and closer to our departure date, we are making our most valiant attempt at crossing all of our T’s and dotting all of our I’s.  One of the items on the list is to get properly vaccinated against whatever diseases may await our family upon arrival in Senegal.  One of the “biggies” in Africa to be concerned about is Yellow Fever. In fact, depending on what country it is in Africa, if you arrive at the port of entry and do not have your Yellow Fever Vaccination Certification card showing you have been vaccinated, you may be ushered into a vaccination area and receive the vaccine on the spot. (more…)

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Bible Reading en français

Posted by Jonathan and Jenny on Saturday, May 14th, 2011

Our French language study program includes many different parts that all work together to improve our ability to communicate in French.  One example is reading the Bible with a French speaking student from the Word of Life Bible School who we were paired with at the beginning of our first semester.  We meet three times per week to read and discuss the Bible for 20 minutes.  They are both a great help to us and so very patient.  I wonder if the most difficult part for them is to not burst out laughing listening to a full grown adult struggle to decipher the simplest of words. :)   The other weekend we were also able to invite Louis-Philippe and Stephanie over to eat and play games together.  They are so gracious and helpful to us.

Jonathan and Louis-Philippe - Bible reading partner

Jonathan and Louis-Philippe

Jenny and Stephanie - Bible reading partner

Jenny and Stephanie

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Caban à Sucre – Maple Sugar Shack

Posted by Jonathan and Jenny on Sunday, May 1st, 2011
Jonathan and Jenny Caban a sucre outing

Jonathan and Jenny Caban a sucre outing

Pouring cups of maple sugar water pretty tastey

Pouring cups of maple sugar water pretty tasty

Boiling Maple Water to make syrup

Boiling Maple Water to make syrup

Wood Fired Boiling

Wood Fired Boiling

Checking to see if he has real maple syrup yet

Checking to see if he has real maple syrup yet

Final product - pure maple syrup

Final product - pure maple syrup

Making Maple Toffee on snow

Making Maple Taffy on snow

jada enjoying some toffee

Jada enjoying some taffy

We found this sign at the Caban à Sucre.  Thought it was funny. :)  Another fun language learning experience.

So does this mean do not smoke, OR we are totally for smoking and we defend it???

So does this mean do not smoke, OR we are totally for smoking and we defend it???

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French Study – Plane Tickets

Posted by Jonathan and Jenny on Monday, April 18th, 2011

French Study

It is hard to beleive, but we are at the end of this semester already.  Tonight we studied for our oral exam that we have tomorrow morning.  Tuesday is our vocabulary test for the semester and on Wednesday we will be sharing our testimony and ministry at Chapel IN FRENCH as well as doing our final written exam for the semester. 

We have one more semester of French Study here in Canada before we move to Senegal.  We will be departing Canada the end of June after our Conversation Semester.  In Senegal, we will continue our French Studies and begin learning culture as well.  Our goal is to be able to speak French at a very high level in order to be able to partner with our West African brothers and sisters in an effective way.

Praise the Lord with us for a good semester of French Study.  We are progressing well in our French ability, but of course we still have a long ways to go. :)

So, another fun vocabulary lesson in French.  déguster  means to taste or to relish.  Hardly what comes to my mind when I see a word so close to disgusting. :)

Plane Ticket Update

We purchased the tickets because the sale date was ending.  Drum roll please!!!  We depart for Senegal in early August!   We praise the Lord for providing just over $1000 towards our plane tickets bringing our total received to $3,398.

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Some Exciting News!

Posted by Jonathan and Jenny on Sunday, March 27th, 2011

We have some great news to share with you!  We have been trusting the Lord together with you to provide for our monthly support as well as prayer support for our ministry in Senegal West Africa.  Well….drum roll please!  God has brought us to 100% pledged funding of our monthly support.  Thank you so much for taking this journey together with us and for your prayers and financial support.  What an incredible team God has put together over these last months. We are honored to be your hands and feet in Senegal.

As we head out on this journey we have some one time expenses that are not part of our normal budget. This last week we put tickets on hold for our flights to Senegal.  The Lord provided some wonderful rates on airline tickets: our entire family of 6 can travel to Senegal for $5,582 including travel insurance! Yet, already we had to take a higher fare class for two of our tickets because there are not enough seats left in the lower fare class.  Time is running out.  The tickets are on hold until April 6th, yet the rates are not guaranteed until the tickets are purchased.

It is so encouraging to us to see how the Lord has used you to provide for some of these one-time expenses already. While we have over $28,000 in one time expenses, God has already provided nearly $20,000 of that! (That is over and above our monthly support.)  You can visit our blog and check out our outgoing expenses page to get more details, or click on the links in this email.  Some examples are: Airplane Tickets, Visas, Paperwork, Vaccines, French Study and Setting up House in Senegal.  We just have a few more months of French Study here in Quebec and then we will be moving to Senegal.  Please take a moment to look through our outgoing expenses page and ask the Lord what part He might lead you to have in getting us to Africa!  Our number one priority at this point is our Airline Tickets so that we can lock in this good rate.

All gifts are tax-deductible.

Please include a note to let us know what project you would like your gift to go toward.

New Tribes Mission
Phone: (866) 547-2460 ~ www.ntm.org/jonathan-roundy/give
1000 E. First St. Sanford, FL 32771-1487*

*Please make checks out to NTM with “Acct. #201943” in the memo and/or Include a separate note designating “for the ministry of Jonathan & Jenny Roundy”

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False Friends Chair, Seance, Pays, Crayon

Posted by Jonathan and Jenny on Monday, January 31st, 2011

English and Spanish have some common roots with the French language.  Jenny and I have the privilege of knowing Spanish and it has been a big help to us in being able to understand French more quickly than we might otherwise have been able to.  We do have to watch out for what are called false friends.  We see the word, we think we know what it means but it is not what we think it means.  We thought it might be interesting for you to see some of the False Friends we have found during our language study.

Chair – hmmm wonder what that word means.  Looks an awful lot like the word for something you can take a rest in if you are tired, or sit in at the table.  The word for that in French is Chaise.  The word chair in French means flesh or meat.

Seance – well I am sure you know what that is…but in French in means session or showing, like the second showing of a movie would be the second seance.

Pays – sounds like something involving the transfer of money between people for goods or services.  Not in this case.  It means country or nation

Crayon – something your children use in coloring books.  In French it means pencil.

It can be quite confusing when you read one word that your mind has attached to a certain object or idea but it really means something completely different.

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Are you driving home WHAT?

Posted by Jonathan and Jenny on Monday, January 31st, 2011
Book for ages 5-7

Book for ages 5-7

Part of our French Language program is to meet with one of the students from the Word of Life Bible School that is on the same campus as the French Language program.  We read the Bible in French with them for one hour per week.  It was the end of the semester and Jenny was visiting, in French, with the Bible School student she meets with.  She meant to ask her if she was driving home for break alone.  What she actually asked was if Stephanie was going to drive home drunk. :)  Such is life with learning language, there are many ways to learn new vocabulary that you were not aware of, but I don’t think this is on the top of the list.  Thankfully Stephanie knew that Jenny is studying French and understood what she really meant.

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