"God-Things" Going On Among the Sereer of Senegal

We found a place to live for the remainder of our time in Senegal, a little village town called Fissel. We have lived here a week and a half and our living arrangements are great for Senegalese standards. We have electricity in every room and have an outlet for a fan. It's wonderful! We have arranged to have someone cook for us, so we are eating Senegalese food the Senegalese way every day. We all eat out of the same serving bowl and we eat with our hands. Eating Senegalese-style was an obstacle for some of us at first, but almost everyone has adjusted now.

In Fissel there is a very strong Muslim influence. An Arabic school has been set up here in town to teach students the Muslim way and to teach them to read and write Arabic. We can sense the spiritual opposition, but we have not had any direct problems.

We are engaged in ministry every day. Lisa teaches English at the local school a few days a week. Her job is to review English with them. She uses the Bread of Life Bible stories that are in both English & Sereer in order to help them with their reading comprehension. Today, she used the dialogue between Nicodemus and Jesus to review writing and punctuating conversations. Dialogues are one of the topics the students will be tested on for their exam. The teacher with whom she is working is a Christian, and he explained to the students the significance of the story using their language (Sereer). Several students came to the house after school and wanted to get more stories. The Word is going out through the students and classes in this town.

Matthew has been traveling to villages on a horse cart each day. He and a couple others go out with a translator to present the Bread of Life stories as a means to teach people to read their own language. Programs are being set up in the village schools and through literate people in the villages. People are learning to read, and the first things they are reading are stories from the Word of God.

Follow-up ministry for these villages is critical. Our prayer is to have at least one person in the villages that has gone through all the stories and has made a commitment to the Lord. We would then teach that person how to read and understand the Sereer New Testament. There are not many people here who can do discipleship with new believers, so we are trying to train some to understand the Word and rely on the Spirit for understanding. We are also encouraging new believers to gather together in their villages and begin their own worship services. We are encouraging them to share their faith with the people in their villages as well.

The other day a God-thing happened. Lisa and Amanda decided to stay here at the house to watch the place, and they had a visitor. The Spanish teacher from the school stopped by just to hang out. As the Lord would have it, Amanda speaks Spanish was able to witness to him, a Senegalese, Sereer man, in Spanish. It was their common language. Who would have ever thought that a Sereer man would hear the Gospel in Senegal through Spanish? Isn't God great?

-Lisa and Matthew

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