MINISTRY PARTNERS RENEW COMMITMENT

Our Travel Team has been in Thies (Chess) since Monday (01/05). It has been a time of review, refinement and renewed commitment by the ministry partnership that includes Mountain View, Adventure of Faith,  Evangelical Baptist Church of Thies (EEBT) and A.F, our local Wolof missionary.

Here's Pastor John Mason's summary of the planned meetings that occurred this past Tuesday and Wednesday (01/06 - 01/07).

 From John

John Mason, Pastor at Mountain View

I haven't written very much for a couple of days because we have been quite busy here in Thies in meetings with our ministry partners. Besides, there wasn't much to report until the meetings were completed.

The meetings ended yesterday, and I'm happy to let you know that we are all very pleased with the outcomes. The best way to summarize is to say that we candidly evaluated the past two years of ministry partnership. While we are all looking for improvements in our ministry work in Diagle (Jog-a-lay), Sorokogne (Soro-kone) and Kaffrine, everyone at the table not only took responsibility for the short-comings, but also committed to improvements that all of us agreed need to happen.

 

It has always amazed me how committee meetings, board meetings and session meetings can be moving along nicely until the conversation turns to something involving dollars and cents. It's a little like the difference between driving on a freeway and negotiating a muddy bog. While there may be progress through the bog, it's very, very slow. So we saw progress in our meetings this week, but the sessions were kind of long and ended rather late. 

And, oh yes, it was all complicated by the matter of language--two languages to be exact. The meetings were conducted simultaneously in English and French. French is the national language of Senegal (although Wolof is spoken in the villages).

This would be a good time to sing the praises of Travel Team Member Lynn Lockwood. Without her help, our meetings might have needed an additional night or two to complete. Lynn's ability to deftly move in and out of English and French was nothing short of amazing! There were other really good interpreters at the table, but Lynn's fluent French and her grasp of the intricacies of the subject matter were especially helpful in bringing our conversations to consensus.

Ministry partners meet in Thies (Chess) to plan another year of bringing God's message of hope to the Wolof people of Senegal.

Also worthy of note is the fact that our friend Corey Garrett  joined us for these meetings. He and his wife Katie work with SIM in Kaffrine and have been in Senegal since 2000 (SIM is an international Christian mission organization serving Africa, Asia and South America). Corey and Katie visited Mountain View twice in 2012-13. Corey did a fair amount of interpreting toward the end of the meetings, and he was indispensable in the whole process.  

 

To conclude, our three churches (Mountain View, Adventure of Faith and EEBT) have committed to another 12-month ministry relationship with A.F. to continue serving Kaffrine and the villages of Diagle and Sorokogne. We have also committed to better communication, and are seeking to solve some other issues (i.e., transportation to ministry locations).   

All the partners are hopeful, optimistic and grateful for the privilege of working together to bring the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the Wolof people of Senegal. Thanks be to God!

John