PJ and Amanda Spencer Serving the Lord with you in ministry Making a Home in Senegal
Since I’ve neglected to post an update in over a month, I now have so many details to share, and must somehow not break the blogging-code-of-ethics of keeping this short and to the point. 
Over the past 5 weeks, we have enjoyed times of laughter & joy, times of frustration & fatigue, times of peace & contentment, times of relaxation & refreshment, and we certainly have not lacked in times of growth. God has continued to bless us with an awareness of our complete need of Him! We count it a joy to experience such a full life of walking with God, through the ups & downs, and we would not trade it for anything this world has to offer!
At the end of March, PJ celebrated his 26th birthday – and I (Amanda) even attempted to make him his favorite dessert… cheesecake. It was slightly tricky to find all of the ingredients here and to make sure I was using the correct amounts (cooking off of a US standard recipe in a metric world). The following week, PJ’s mom flew in from the States and spent a few days with us before heading back to Guinea. It was so great to have her with us again for the week. That was also the same week as our field meetings, so it was nice for all of us to be together at one time. We enjoyed the fellowship with the other missionaries on the field as well as our guest speaker, visiting from Canada.
On April 9th, we celebrated our 1 year anniversary! We were able to take a weekend away from the city, driving down the coast to one of the tourist towns where we found a great Easter weekend special at a local resort. What a treat for both of us!! Upon returning back to the guest house, we heard from the Pastor at our church here, informing us that the apartment we had been looking at (and praying about) for the past few weeks was now available! When we left for our mini vacation, we weren’t sure if we would have to continue our search or not, but God had the perfect timing. We went to sign a contract several days later and moved in on the 16th of April. Praise God – we are so happy to have found this apartment and to be in a place of our own for the next bit of time!
April 16th is also the day I (Amanda) started my French language classes. It has now been 3 weeks, and it is amazing to see how little-by-little, the language is really sinking into my brain. I am able to recognize so many words that we’ve covered in class, and although I’m not saying complex sentences yet, I am beginning to communicate simple, basic phrases. It’s amazing how even just a small bit of language can go a long way to making one feel comfortable in a different culture. PJ continues to work with his language helper as well – although with setting up the apartment and spending 2 weeks trying to get our electricity turned on, he has had to take days off here and there. Now that we are settled, he hopes to be able to push a bit harder to see his French progress at a quicker pace. One definite prayer request that we have is for PJ to find another language helper who will be able to work with him faithfully each day for several hours!
Thanks for all of the faithful prayers that have been brought to the Throne on our behalf! God is answering & we are humbled by His goodness!
God’s Got A Plan – pt. 2
One other prayer request that we (ok, Amanda) forgot to mention is that PJ has begun doing a chronological overview of the Bible with one of his unsaved language helpers. This was an unexpected opportunity so early on in our time here, but God’s ways are certainly higher than our ways. Please be praying for PJ, for wisdom as he communicates Christ’s love and truth, and that he would be able to communicate clearly using French. Also, please pray for his friend as he looks into God’s word with PJ, that God will draw this man to Himself.
God’s Got A Plan
As I type this update, we are sitting in our mission guest house, asking God to continue guiding our steps. Unfortunately, we had to pull out of the contract for the apartment we last reported on. We were looking forward to moving in sometime this week, but were unable to due to circumstances beyond our control and understanding. We praise God for giving us clarity to make the decision to cancel the contract, rather than waiting weeks (or even months) to see if the situation at the apartment would work itself out. And we also praise God for the guest house here, where a room had been reserved for us – just in case the apartment wasn’t ready for us before we needed to vacate our previous apartment. So, we are once again in the hunt for housing! We would appreciate continued prayers as we look for a place that will both meet our needs & be secure for us. Yes, we must admit that it was rather discouraging to have the contract fall through and to be back to “square 1″, but we are leaning heavily on the Lord for strength and endurance to press on. In the meantime, we are able to enjoy the guest house’s wifi, constant electricity, and WARM water (had my first non-bucket shower in over 2 months when we “checked in”)!
Next week is our field conference, and we are greatly looking forward to that! It will give us the opportunity to meet many of the other missionaries on the field and hear updates from all the various works in Senegal. It will be 5 days full of encouragement, testimonies, praise & worship, and sweet fellowship. And after 2 months of fumbling with language and culture, we sure are ready for some spiritual nourishment!!
In other news, we praise God for a peaceful election day last Sunday. With a new president being voted in, the atmosphere around the city has been much calmer & many have been celebrating – so we are very thankful for continued peace.
Thanks for continuing to uphold us in prayer! We appreciate each one who is partnering with us, either by prayer or giving or encouragement! We couldn’t be here without you! Thanks for laboring with us to expand the reach of God’s truth!!
Getting Ready to Move Again…
Not too far this time, though. We found an apartment! Thanks first to God, and second to the Pastor & members of the church we are attending here in Dakar, we were able to find an apartment with only 3 weeks left to spare before needing to move out of the apartment we are currently in. We have been staying in an apartment formerly rented by a missionary who is now gone on home assignment, and we had until the end of March to stay here. As of April 1st, our new apartment contract begins, with assurance from the landlord that we will be able to move in the last week of March. Praise God! Our new place will be further downtown, much more centrally located for our day-to-day activities. It is only 1 block behind the church we are attending, with one of the church families located just 2 doors down from us! We are so thankful to see how God has worked out the details & has stretched us through this process. We have been able to learn a lot about West African culture, and have been able to begin building some relationships in the midst of this. We look forward to introducing ourselves to new neighbors & members of that community.
Thanks for praying with us for God’s direction & provision!! He is so good, even in keeping us on our knees continually. Day by day, we learn more about who our God is, and more about ourselves & our desperate need for Him!
Getting Settled… One day at a time.
Hard to believe, but we’ve been in Senegal now for almost 2 weeks. We are progressing in our adjustments every day… PTL! Our “temporary” housing has been working well & we are thankful to have a few friends living within walking distance of our apartment. We’ve had a few adventures this past week – including touring the open-air market, shopping in several boutiques on our street, negotiating prices for a taxi to & from church across town, buying cell phones (and purchasing our SIM cards from a guy standing on the street – this is the best way to get SIM cards, for those of you who may be concerned), and Amanda even washed our clothes by hand.
We are getting more and more comfortable with our new surroundings… the noise from the street doesn’t seem as strange to us now, but it’s still noisy. We know to expect the garbage man in the morning, who honks his horn for at least 5 seconds to let everyone know he’s here. Amanda wasn’t as repulsed as she sifted flour & threw out the maggots left behind. PJ is not as overwhelmed with all the people surrounding him in such a crowded city. We are both “country folk” so city life takes some time to adjust to. But even with all the things that grate against our culture, we have realized that for us this is the perfect environment that God has been using to grow us and mature us in Christ. We all must realize that no matter where we are in life, God has not finished conforming us to His image and He will continue His work in us until that day when we see Him face to face.
We appreciate all of your prayers they have been a great comfort to us as we continue to acclimate here in West Africa. We will keep you posted as God continues to work here!
Safe & Sound In Senegal
You’re probably thinking, “well, finally!”… Yes, we’ve been in West Africa for just over 2 weeks now, and we are just getting the opportunity to update our blog. Thanks for your patience with us! Before we give new details, we’ll recap the last 2 weeks for you…
It was tough saying goodbye to our family and friends in the US, but even through the tears (Amanda’s, of course), we boarded our plane to West Africa with complete confidence that this is what God was asking us to do. We knew that He would give us the strength to proceed, and He did! When we landed in Senegal, we were met by another NTM missionary, which was a very happy sight to both of us. He took us to his home, where we were able to see his family, eat some delicious breakfast, and take a shower (which felt MARVELOUS after the long day of travel). We had a few hours before our flight to Guinea, and so we spent some time visiting with other missionaries at the NTM guest house. Amanda was able to see some friends from our NTBI/MTC days, who now live here in Senegal, so that was a blessing! We headed back to the airport around noon, JUST made our flight (which decided to leave 2 hours early, unbeknownst to us), and flew another hour south to Guinea. We were unsure of what to do to let PJ’s parents know that we arrived so early. Sure enough, because of God’s provision, we saw one beaming face among the crowd outside waving at us. PJ’s dad had been dropping off another group at the airport, and so just happened to still be there when our plane landed. Thank You, God!!
The next day, we drove 5 hours north to the area where PJ’s parents are living. We spent the next 13 days relaxing and enjoying PJ’s parents & younger brother. We walked & talked through many of PJ’s memories from his time living on the center as a dorm student! Several of the national workers around the center remembered PJ, and were so happy to see him. Anyone who knew that PJ had grown up in Guinea was honored that he returned, and that he brought his new wife to see them all! We were showered with ‘welcome’ gifts of fruit, beans, and yuka. We tried all the various foods that PJ loved to eat as a kid, and thankfully, Amanda really liked them all too. It was a real blessing for us to have these 2 weeks with PJ’s parents! Within that time, God was continually teaching us. We were both experiencing some culture shock (yes, Amanda more so than PJ), and we had several instances where we had to step aside and watch God’s strength intercede for us! It was a time of growth, and yet we believe it is only the tip of the iceburg.
On Thursday, we hopped in a taxi at 5:30 am and drove back to the airport. We arrived mid morning, but our flight was delayed from early afternoon to 7:40 pm… that was a long day. Thankfully, we made it onto our flight with no problems, and we arrived safely back in Senegal late that evening. We have been staying at the NTM guest house for the weekend, while the missionaries finish getting our next temporary apartment situated for us. Yes, I said next ‘temporary’ apartment… we will have to move one more time, probably sometime in mid-Feburary. We are still working with our church here to arrange who will be our host family, and so once that is determined, we will most likely move closer to wherever they live.
We are so thankful that God has been guiding us every step of the way, and we thank you so much for praying for us with this transition as well!
Tags: New Tribes Mission, NTM
Thanksgiving, shots, visas, packing, and… Christmas!
This is such a wonderful time of year, as we celebrate all of the many blessings God has given us and as we look ahead to celebrating Christ’s birth! With the radio in the background, singing songs of snowmen and mistletoe, we continue preparing for our upcoming departure for West Africa. Our plans are continuing to solidify, and the details are falling into place one-by-one… thank you, God!
We are taking a little break from the madness this afternoon to post an update on the progress. Today alone, we’ve visited the local health clinic to receive our required shots, filled prescriptions for anti-malaria pills, we’ve printed our visa applications and set up more appointments for the days to come. Just when we feel like we’ve checked numerous things off of our lists, we remember something else that needs to be done.
BUT, as we take these few weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas to focus on our “to do” list, we do not want to lose sight of THE task that God has given us… to reach people with His love & salvation! We are in the midst of the season where we celebrate the ultimate Gift that God sent us (His Son), and so we must remember that not all have heard of this wonderful news. There are still those who need the chance to hear about the Baby that was born in a stable one night, 2000 years ago. The King of Kings! As you go through your busy holiday season and celebrate His birth, and pray for those who do not know about it yet. Pray that their hearts would be prepared for the day that someone finally tells them!
Today marks 44 days until we depart for West Africa. We appreciate your prayers as we continue to sort through our apartment and decide what to store for the next 2 years, and what to get rid of. Also, we are going to be saying goodbye to many dear friends and some of our family members over the next 2 weeks, and so we would appreciate prayers for that as well. We will be leaving to drive up to NY for Christmas soon, but before that we will be driving out to Wisconsin to watch PJ’s brother graduate from NTBI. Please pray for safety on those trips as well.
We wish you and your families a Merry Christmas & blessed New Year!
Africa-Bound!
We finally received it… the answer we were waiting for, the one we were praying fervently for, the one we were hoping for. It came in the form of an email, but it may as well have been a booming voice for the excitement that it stirred in us. The email read that we were officially invited to come to West Africa in January 2012. We only needed to read it once to feel a growing anticipation and an absolute thankfulness to our God. Whatever His answer, we knew that we would follow Him, but to have the approval to move forward toward reaching the people that God has burdened us for … well, that feeling is just overwhelming! As we sat in our little office staring at each other, I felt the tears begin to fill my eyes… our God is so good!
In the midst of the excitement, there is also a sobering reality. In just over 4 months time, we will be saying goodbye to family and friends, to comfort and “the norm”, to life as we know it. Yes, we will have a lot of challenging days ahead, no doubt about that! But oh, the cost is so little when compared with eternity- and that is where we want to keep our focus. We want to stand alongside as many Africans as possible when we are one day before the throne of our King!
The first step will be for us to learn French and begin to study West African culture. We continue to covet your prayers as we prepare for this big transition!
May 2011 Update… Newly Married!
A NEW CHAPTER HAS BEGUN
Together, surrounded by family and friends, PJ & I turned the page in our story book to a brand new chapter entitled, “Marriage”. We do not know what twists and turns have been written into the narrative during this chapter of our lives, but we trust the Author, who wrote the story long before it began. We have no doubt that we are blessed beyond measure not only in our relationship to the Author of our story, but also in our relationship with each other. It was our deepest prayer that our wedding ceremony be an act of worship to God, and that He would be glorified in what was said and done. From the encouragement and love we received back from our guests, it appears that our prayers were answered! We are so thankful to have had both of our families there with us on the day we gave our lives to each other, with PJ’s parents flying in from Africa and my brother flying home from a business trip in the Middle East! Praise God for the safety of all who travelled to be there with us!
MINISTRY, MINISTRY, MINISTRY
After enjoying all of the festivities/craziness surrounding our wedding, we are very happy to be back to life as “normal” here in Florida. We have resumed our ministries with NTM Mobilization and NTM Homes. PJ has been “enjoying” the hot spring sunshine each day as it slowly climbs to the mid 90’s. As April came to a close, so did the volunteer season at the Homes. From PJ’s stories to the other staff stories to my personal encounters with the volunteers, I know that they are a tremendous blessing to the missionary staff at the Homes each year! With their help, PJ and his coworkers have seen much progress on the expansion of the Homes’ chapel and office building facilities! Praise God for them! Now as the weather heats up, more attention is being directed to maintenance on the landscaping and grounds of the NTM Homes property.
Down the street at the home office, the Mobilization department is in full swing as we prepare to send 4 teams to Papua New Guinea this summer! Two of the teams will be headed to Interface, for 5 weeks of intense cross-cultural exposure and challenging realities! My coworkers and I are praying for God to raise up more laborers from these teams to join the expansion of the Gospel to the ends of the Earth! As a newlywed, I will not be travelling to PNG with the teams this summer, but am excited to see how God will change their lives!
CAUTION: MAJOR CHANGES AHEAD, PROCEED BY FAITH!
As we read on in this new chapter, we see that there is a turn coming very soon in the story. One which has us very excited and yet in awe of it’s magnitude and importance. We have seen the Lord work so clearly in both of our lives up to this point, and we are now seeing how He has been preparing us for what is coming next. Our passion is to see all the people groups of the world reached with the Gospel! And we desire to serve the Lord on the foreign mission field. We were both headed in that direction after training, until the Lord redirected each of us to Florida for this time. We clearly see how He has worked out all of the details, and now the time has come for us to refocus our vision… on West Africa. Together in agreement with our current ministry coworkers/leadership here in Florida, we are moving forward to pursue a transition to ministry in Guinea, W. Africa. Our first step will be French language study. We are in communication with the field leadership there to determine when we will be able to go. So that answer has not yet been determined. It is our desire to be there early in 2012, but we are praying for the Lord to show us His timing. And we will be obedient with the direction He gives.
With regard to our sending churches & supporters, it is vital that we take time to talk with you about this decision, and explain more fully how the Lord is leading in our lives, and what this change in ministry will look like. For that reason, we have decided to take a good portion of time this fall to travel around to visit with each of our supporters and churches to discuss this new ministry direction. Amanda will begin phasing slowly out of Mobilization at the end of the summer, training others to take over her responsibilities. This is a huge change, which we are very excited about, but we want & need your feedback! Please let us know when you’d like us to come to see you this fall. We will start putting together a schedule of our trip. We are looking forward to spending time with each of our supporters & churches!! As we approach these major changes ahead, we are proceeding by faith… thanks for journeying with us!
Welcome, wonderful fall!
From Amanda:
Although I do not get to experience the changing fall leaves this year, I am so thankful to be starting the fall season & all the wonderful things that come with it! Cooler weather (kind of), pumpkin & apple pies, football, school kids running home at 3pm, and the anticipation of the holiday season that will soon be right around the corner. Yes, fall is definitely my favorite season of the year, even if it will look different in Florida than in New York.
This week marks 2 months since I returned from my summer in Papua New Guinea, at Interface. Hard to believe so much time has passed already… those memories are still fresh in my mind! I once again had the privilege of watching God do some amazing things in the lives of our Interface students and staff during our program this summer. Several of the students from the team have already begun phase 1 of training with New Tribes at our Bible Institutes in Michigan & Wisconsin, and there are several more who plan to begin Bible school in 2011! Praise God!!! And for those who are attending various universities around the US, I am so encouraged to hear their updates, sharing that they are making a big impact for eternity right where God has them now! That’s what God desires from us… our faithfulness right where He has placed us for now! Looking ahead, our department is getting details in order as we prepare to send our next team to Interface in January. It is a small team at this point, but we are excited to see God bringing men and women to us who have a strong desire to know more about tribal missions & want to be a part. That’s why I’m here… that’s why you are my partners… to get more of God’s children involved… so that ALL may have the opportunity to know the Savior! I don’t know about you, but that gets me excited!
As far as my life here in Florida beyond my ministry with New Tribes, I am pleased to share that God has led me to a fantastic church! I visited for the first time only 3 weeks after moving down here, and was immediately welcomed into this church family & loved! I was able to get plugged into a small group with other singles in their 20′s & 30′s, and have found some very dear friendships in that group! What an answer to prayer!! Our God is so good! I am not only surrounded by New Tribers who are an encouragement & blessing to me, but also by a family of faith whose passion is for their community as well as the whole world! It has been a wonderful time of getting to know the families in this church and of growth as the pastor dives into the Word with us each week. I have also been asked to help greet at church, which I’m excited about as this will allow me to get to know more names & faces!
God is doing great things through His children around the world, as well as in our home country, and for that HE receives all the praise! For up-to-date reports & prayer requests from different tribes around the world, check out NTM’s website at www.ntm.org. We’re all in this together…. serving an AWESOME GOD! Thank you for serving with me!
Just one more thing…. GO GATORS!
God bless!