Decisions

We face a lot of decisions in the near future.  We would greatly appreciate prayer as we seek direction in these decisions.

New House

It looks like we are going to have to move.  We have been having some issues with our landlord and the last one made us feel like perhaps it was time to start looking for a new house.    We would love to stay in the neighborhood we currently live in because we feel like it is a very strategic location for our ministry.  Our host family is on board with us and is helping us search for a new home, but it is a bit of a process as there is no internet searches for homes here.

The exciting thing about this is that for the first time in 5 years we are actually looking for a home that we will probably stay in for a while (maybe even permanently).  God has been opening so many doors for us here and we know that for right now this is where we are supposed to be.  Until God changes that, we are excited to settle down a little.  We are praying for wisdom as we look at homes and decide when exactly we should move.

A Car?

The more we are becoming involved in ministry here the more we are seeing the need for a car.  There are lots of young church plants around us who would love discipleship and mentoring.  There are also many other villages and languages who still don’t have a church among them.  We would love to help the established churches reach out to the others who have not heard yet.  However, to really be involved in the villages we need to be able to get out to them and that is VERY difficult without a car.  We always knew that we would need a car a some point, but are feeling like that time might come sooner than we originally thought as we are seeing no shortage of opportunities around us.  We are grateful we didn’t have a car as we began life here because we learned how to take public transportation like everyone else.  We can now comfortably take trains, taxis, all forms of buses and village taxis.  But to get back from even the closest village without a car can take up to 3 hours.  Getting a car here is not easy and expensive.  We are only in the beginning phases of thinking about this but already see the need for wisdom and guidance as we look at what, when, and how.

Wolof

As Joel finishes French, we are preparing for the next language.  In January we are planning to start Wolof.  Why Wolof?  Wolof is actually more common here than French.  French is important because it his highly used in the church and we want to be a part of the local church, but Wolof is the trade language of the people and is also important for any work we hope to do out in the villages around us. It is overwhelming to think of starting another language, but we made it through one language and so we should survive another one.  Pray with us as we start looking for a language helper and setting up the details of our next language study.

Now Just for Fun