Out Of Africa

In December I had the great privilege to travel to Senegal, West Africa and spend two weeks there with co-workers from the C&MA. It was my first time to fly across the Atlantic Ocean and I must admit a bit of fear as we hit some decent turbulence on the way over and I noticed on the mini-map on the screen in front me that we were flying over Bermuda at that time! Eeek!

The first week I spent with Stan & Jaynee Walker in the capital city of Dakar. Stan & Jaynee serve as our regional financial and business administrators. They love administration and are superb at taking care of our staff in Africa. We spent the first day decorating their home for Christmas...it was an excuse for me to try to stay up all day so I'd go to bed at the right Senegalese hour and knock the jet lag out of the way quickly. I knew the two weeks were going to be very full and I had very little time to adjust to the 7 hour difference between Senegal and Colorado Springs. The next two days we spent auditing another African field's books and preparing for the arrival of all the African field directors for a 2 1/2 day mini-conference before a much larger conference the 2nd week.

I was given a 1 1/2 hour time slot during the mini-conference to introduce myself. It was a great time to just share my heart and lots of the people who have spoken into my life over the years. I think it was good for them to see that this bean-counter was on the same page as them when it came to the purpose and mission of what they were doing, especially the fact that our family had spent time out of the country and had a sense of the life they were living.

At the end of the week more leaders from around the region arrived in Dakar and we visited Goree Island as a sort of transitional activity as we kicked off the main Regional Leadership Conference. Goree was used as an intermediary step in the transport of Africans to the west during the slave trade. We visited a slave house and saw the "door of no return" through which all slaves walked on their way to small boats that would carry them out to the larger ships in deep water. It was a very sad thing to see and walk in the rooms into which they packed countless people. That evening we ate out in downtown Dakar and even had a short devotional delivered by the leader of our international ministries. Senegal, while 90% + Muslim is somewhat tolerant of other religions.

The next day we traveled 90 kms south to the beach side town of Saly. There was spent the next week in day long sessions together. There were perhaps 45 people at the conference. I was given another 30 minute slot to share my testimony. That was originally all I planned to do, however the person who was to lead worship for the week had to return to the US on very short notice to participate in the funeral of her Grandmother. She had put together all the worship sets and had the music ready, so they asked if I would step in and lead. It ended up being a wonderful thing. I led along with a gal from Holland (serving in Mali) and a US worker (serving in Burkina Faso). It was a blast!

While in Saly we spent a lot of time just talking to each other and hearing what's going on around the region, dealing with key issues and casting new vision. My boss (the head of finance at the C&MA) was also there. He and I were roommates for the week. His presence as well as a few others from our office went a long way I think to build bridges between administration and our folks on the field.

I did do a couple "fun" things. I was able to go on a mini-safari that had Rhinos, Giraffes and lots of other cool beasts. No cats or predators due to the small size of the park (seemed plenty big to me though!). I also spent an hour out on the ocean in a two man Kayak with one of our workers from Guinea (about my age). Lots of fun!

Senegal was probably the least developed country I've been too, and yet Dakar is one of the better developed cities that our folks in Africa live in (Abidjan, Ivory Coast is the best I've heard). Lots of dirt/sand roads...and rams all over the place. The goats were for the Muslim festival Tabasky in which they remember Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his son, but where God provided a ram in his place. There's a variance in the story in who the son was, and I learned this as I spent about 20 minutes talking to a Senegalese in Spanish (he'd spent a couple years in Spain). It was a very interesting conversation to say the least. I had fun tasting the local cuisine, learning a bit of French, Wolof and Arabic. Here are some pictures from the trip.

The "door of no return" on Goree Island

At the Bandia Game Park - there's nothing between me and that Rhino except for grass and dirt!

African Regional Leadership Conference 2007. A wonderful group of people and lots of new friends!