Making Your "Goodbye" Count

This week our team has been learning about purposeful goodbyes. As we have been preparing for saying goodbye to our summer home, and the people that have become so dear to our hearts, our team has struggled and wrestled with the idea of saying goodbye well. 

In Acts, Paul gives us an example of a way to do exactly that. He shows us that we can do this by affirming the person in what they have meant to you, encouraging them, and then praying with them. Our team has been given the opportunity to do exactly that as we have been able to make our goodbyes purposeful for the sake of the Kingdom.

Please be in prayer for us as we continue to say goodbyes to people who have become so special to our hearts that we will affirm them well, encourage them, and be given the opportunity to pray.

-English in Africa
                                                                         

Whether Short or Long

This past week seemed to be packed full of important moments, and sped by as we just tried to keep up. We said goodby to our "Senegalese mom" as she headed out of the city, had long conversations with the students where we shared the Gospel, held  the last of our summer classes, and stayed up late one night to go listen to a student play jazz at a restaurant in town. Every day that goes by just seems to show us more and more how precious these people have become to us, and as our time to leave comes closer we are desperate to use every moment of every day. 

When talking to one student, he told me that he believed the Bible to be truth. He said that the Bible held the answers to how you should live your life, and I stood waiting for him to tell me that he had made a decision to follow Christ. That moment didn't come, though, and it seems to me that he and others here are stuck between understanding the importance of the Gospel but being unwilling to give up everything they would lose if they chose to follow Christ. 

The missionaries in this area have been ministering long and hard, waiting for there to be a response. Even in the short time we have been here our team has come to realize that as Paul says in Acts, "whether short or long" we only hope that the people we have come to care about will make that decision to surrender their lives to Christ. Whether it takes twenty days or twenty years, we pray that God would move in the hearts of these people. 

Prayer Requests:

• Please pray for the missionaries here, that they would continue to minister even when there seems to be little response.
• Please pray for the student mentioned above (M), that he would make the decision to give his life to Christ. 

-English in Africa

Counting the Cost

Last week I shared my testimony with a group of about 20 students and felt compelled to share a detail I have never included before--it is so easy for me to be a Christian. As I said it, I knew it was true and needed to be said. I have grown up in a Christian home, gone to a Christian school, had Christian friends, and lived in a Christian community. The fact that I am a Christian had never been a burden to me. In fact, if claimed anything but Christianity, people wouldn't know what to do with me.

There are two things I learned as I was saying this: first, is that not everyone has it so easy. The vast majority of people have a million costs they must count when choosing Jesus. Will they lose their homes? Their families? Their jobs? Their lives? In most of the world, becoming a Christian is so much more than saying a prayer and being baptized. It's even more than turning your life around and following Jesus. It is giving up everything you know, understand, and love, and believing it is worth it.

The second thing I learned was more personal. I said, "It is easy for me to be a Christian." I meant, "It is easy for me to go to church and say I am a Christian." It is challenging and convicting, but oh so important for American Christians to remember that there should ALWAYS be costs to being a Christian. I should be sharing my faith in the US just like I would in another country. I should be discipling other believers. There is so much more than what I am doing. In that moment I remembered that I should never be able to say "it is easy to be a Christian."

In Christ,
Chloe

“Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man would come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whosoever would save his life shall lose it: and whosoever shall lose his life for my sake shall find it.”

‭‭Matthew‬ ‭16:24-25‬ ‭ASV‬‬

Prayer Requests:

• Please pray for our team as we consider the costs of truly following Jesus and not being nominal Christians.
• Please pray that our students would have boldness to believe that the costs of Christianity are so worth a relationship with God.
• Specifically pray for K and M who believe the Bible to be true, but are wrestling with the repercussions of converting from Islam.

How are you?

As we start this week at the Baptist Center here in West Africa, this is our last week of regular English classes. It is strange to think that we only have two more weeks with the men and women that we have come to know and care for. Somehow in preparing for this summer, I didn't realize that we would become so attached to these people and this place. 

Our team has been sick this week, almost all of us taking a turn, so most of us have missed at least one class. When we got back we were greeted with "How are you feeling?" and (my favorite) "How is your body doing?" It amazed me then that God brought me across the ocean to get to know these people so that I can be an effective witness for Him. 

Prayer:

Pray that our team would stay healthy so we can effectively use the last of our time here. 

Pray that our team can use these last two weeks to continue to build relationships and share truth. 

-English in Africa

Homesick

With less than two weeks left, our team has naturally hit the "homesick wall." While we still aren't ready to leave, we definitely miss family, friends, and strangely enough: SCHOOL. However, we know that as humans we never fully feel at home on earth. There is no place in this world that is completely our "home."  Philippians 3:20, "But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ." We aren't supposed to be completely comfortable in any culture, because we were not made for any culture found on the Earth. We aren't supposed to feel at home on earth, because we were created to fully be in the presence of the Lord.

Please pray:
•that the people of West Africa would hear and understand the truth with their hearts so that one day, they can experience their true home.
•that our team would be faithful with the time the Lord has given us here and we would persevere to the end.

Your fellow sojourner,
Meredith

Pay Attention

West Africa is an area where it is not difficult to share the Gospel. Of course it comes with its own challenges, but the people here are so devoted to keeping the peace that it is easy to share what you believe. Since arriving, most days we have engaged in conversations about God with multiple people. We use the Bible to teach English, have Conversation Clubs where we teach Bible stories, and have discussions about the truths of the Bible. The issue has been that no matter how many times we share, and the countless times the leaders here have already shared, the students here sometimes just don't seem to understand.

I have always heard that no one can accept and understand the Bible as truth without the working of the Holy Spirit, and I've never seen that so clearly displayed as I have this summer. We passionately share our own experiences with God, and we try to "reason and persuade" as Paul did when he spoke, but it always feels like there is a block in communication. I think that what I've discovered is that people don't really listen on their own. Like the story of the conversion of Lydia in Acts 16, we need God to open our hearts so that we can pay attention. We need God to move before we can experience the truth of His Word. 

Please pray for our team as we continue to share, that we won't tire of speaking truth.

Please pray for the people of West Africa, that God would allow them to hear, understand, and believe. 

-Hailey
English in Africa

A Different Story

This week my teammate and I taught the story of the Prodigal Son in our Bible English class. I had full intentions of the students grasping the concept of grace. The symbolism of the story proclaims that in the same way the father had grace on his son and loved him no matter how far he ran, God has that same type of grace and mercy on us. Once we read through the story and I asked them what they learned from it, I fully expected for this to be the answer they shared. Instead, all of the students said they had learned that we should be like the older brother who was obedient and never ran away or sinned against his father. We must be obedient.

I was a little stunned at first, because I have never viewed this familiar story from that perspective. However, as I thought about it more, I came to understand that the religion of these people is solely based off works and the things that they do in their own strength in order to get close to the Father. The concept of grace is completely foreign to them, because they gain favor with their god through obedience.

I did my best explaining what we can learn from this story and prayed that the Holy Spirit would use my broken words to help them understand this multi-faceted concept of grace, but by the time the class was over, their answers were the same. "We must be like the older brother. We must be obedient." I left feeling discouraged that they don't understand that there is a beautiful gift being placed before them, and that all they have to do is accept and find freedom. But they are blinded by the idea of works.

Prayer Requests: 
Please pray for the people of West Africa, that the concept of grace would be presented to them clearly and that they would have ears to hear and eyes to see grace for the beautiful gift that it is and accept is as truth.
                                                                                       
Your Partner in Prayer,
Kendra

God is Love

We spent the week in a little town about 2 hours away from the city we are based in. We went into the markets and villages praying for the Lord to open doors so we could build bridges to the gospel. He opened doors, we shared and the people listened until they had to go pray. 

One of the five pillars of Islam is prayer. They pray five times a day to earn favor with allah so they might be granted passage into heaven. They pray out of fear of damnation. They fast out of fear. They give to the poor out of fear. They have no assurance of salvation and they are doing everything they can so that they might earn the ability to get into heaven. They serve their god out of fear, as followers of Jesus we serve God out of love because of His love. 1 John 4:18-19, "There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. We love because he first loved us."  

Without fear,
Meredith

Please pray:
•for the fear in the people of West Africa to be cast out by perfect love.
•for our team to love each other, the full time workers, and the nationals as we enter into the second half of our summer.
•for our team to fearlessly pursue our purpose of sharing the gospel.

The Lost Goat

The dusty, dirty streets of our urban center slipped away this week as we headed out on our four day village stay. On our way, we stopped to experience an African Safari and ropes course in the Baobab trees. As we headed inland, the temp went up and we saw a shift in the culture of the people. Heads were covered with musors, and the business-filled city changed to fruit stalls and homes full of people ready to sit with you for hours and talk.

At the center, there are endless opportunities to share the Gospel with the students we are in contact with every day. Going into the village, however, we were worried that those kinds of conversations would feel forced. How were we supposed to connect with the people here when we lived such different lives? And how could we point them to God?

It wasn't as complicated as we were making it. Our team has learned that people just want to know that you are interested in their lives. And you can use everyday situations to connect to a story in the Bible, which then leads to sharing an overview of the Bible as a whole. While sitting with a family one afternoon, we got to hold a goat that had born less than a week before. Using that as a base, we shared the story of the lost sheep. Surrounded by three generations of a family, we then got to share Creation to Christ. Sharing the Gospel doesn't have to be complicated.

Prayer Requests:
Pray that our team will continue to find opportunities to share the Gospel with people around us, and that we will be bold enough to do so.

-English in Africa

Refreshment

...being strengthened with all power according to His glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience...Colossians 1:11

Team of the Day: English in Africa

Country of the Day: Sub-Saharan Africa

Pray for team members to have times of peace and relaxation in order to be refreshed by the Spirit of God. Pray for them to have endurance and patience as they continue to minister to the lost.

Peace Only

Salaam Alaikum from West Africa!

If there is one thing I have learned about the culture here it is that the people love peace. While learning language, we have been told if we don't know what to say, say "Jamm Rekk," or "Peace Only." Seriously. That is the answer to literally everything. How is work? Peace only. How did you sleep? Jamm Rekk.

So much talk of peace has been a shocking reminder to me that we can talk about peace all day, but cannot know true peace without God. Here I am, in a country full of people who don't know Jesus but want peace. And what do they say when you try and tell them about the one and only peace? Jamm Rekk.

It is a paradox that has frustrated our team beyond explanation, but also reminds us of why we are here. We have the answer to their search for peace. God never said "convince." He said "go" and "tell." So that is what we do.

Prayer-
Please pray that the Muslims of West Africa will come to know Jesus and the peace that only He can bring. 
Pray that our team will find joy in the obedience of telling, and not grow weary when people reject truth.

I have said these things to you so that I'm me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble, but take heart: I have overcome the world. -John 16:33
                                                                                     
Jamm Rekk,
Chloe

Close to God

For the first 3 weeks of our time in West Africa the people here have been observing Ramadan, which is a month of fasting during the day to commemorate the revelation of the Quran to Muhammad. During this time "spiritual consequences" are also amplified, which leads to an increase of prayer and giving of alms. 

From a Christian perspective, it is easy to balk at the idea that a month of good deeds would be enough to earn us salvation. We can sit back and wonder that so many people have tried in futility to get it right on their own. This week, however, I have come to see this as an encouragement for the ministry here. Ramadan is visible proof that the people around me, the ones that I have come to serve this summer, are just trying to do the best they can to be close to God. And we have the answer. We know that relationship with God is only achieved through faith in Jesus Christ. 

Jesus said in Matthew 11:27, "All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal Him." The people here are hungry to know God. We are here to point them to Jesus, and hope and pray that God would be revealed to them. 

Prayer- 

Please pray that as Ramadan is ending, the people will look for God and be receptive to the truth. 

I Know It Is Coming

What do you hope for? In America, I use the word "hope" all the time. I'd say "I hope it doesn't rain" or "I hope I find a good parking spot." But sitting in a classroom in West Africa, I heard 24 nationals sing "The Lord has promised good to me. His Word my hope secures," and was struck with the weight of that simple word. In Wolof, the language of the people we are working with, their word for hope is yakka and it is more concrete than its' English equivalent.

One of the workers here explained it like this: When a national says they are hoping for something, they feel it in their heart of hearts because it is almost in their reach. THEY KNOW IT IS COMING. We need that kind of hope for the world. God's Word has told us that every nation will be represented in heaven one day. God has promised to do a work in all of the people of His world.

As Christians, our call is clear. We are to be a part of God's plan by serving Him and His people. And until we see the completion of that promise, then I will choose to hope like the West Africans. I will hope that the Holy Spirit grant these people understanding. I will hope that God will bridge the gap between the truth that we know, and what they have been taught. Because I know it is coming. 

Prayer Requests: 
Please pray that God will show the people around us the importance of the truth we are sharing, and that they would be brave enough to act on it.

Meet the Team: English in Africa

Hailey, Meredith, Chloe, & Kendra

Kendra
I'm an Education major at Berry College. I chose to come on a Nehemiah Teams trip with the hopes of reaching people for the Gospel and using the tool of teaching English in order to do so.

Meredith
I'll be a senior at Liberty University this fall, and I'm majoring in TESL (teaching English as a second language). Growing up in Southern Africa gave me numerous opportunities to see God change people's hearts through the work of full time, overseas workers. I chose to serve overseas this summer out of obedience to the Lord, to gain personal experience of what full time, overseas work would look like, and to serve those serving full time.

Chloe
I am an Accounting major at Auburn University. My parents are missionaries and I grew up in Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Mexico and Peru. Because of my background overseas, I have always had a heart for the lost around the world. I had an open summer and was so excited that it worked out for me to do Nehemiah Teams in West Africa with a family I knew from Peru.

Hailey
This year I'm a senior at Blue Mountain College, and I'm a double major in Christian Ministry and Psychology. God has been teaching me the responsibility of all Christians to spread his name to the nations, and I signed up for Nehemiah Teams in response to that. I wanted, and still want, to be a part of the ministry that God is doing all over the world.

Prayer Requests:
-That hearts will be softened to hear what we have come to share.
-That homesickness won't influence our ministry
-That we will be unified as a team
-That we will be diligent in sharing truth
-Patience and joy as the days get hard