First Term Updates – Cote d’Ivoire/Senegal

We start this week’s update with a praise. We finally have a land line phone – something we’ve been trying to get for 6 months. This not only means that we can now do e-mail from home, but we can also check what’s going on in the world before we leave home in the morning – recommended by the American Embassy. 

The next few days will find all of the boarding students and some of the staff from Dakar Academy ‘on the road’ again. Our spring break starts on Friday and lasts until April 21st. When we return, we will only have 6 weeks of school remaining – not much for all we want to accomplish here in the technology department. 

We have been asked by our ICA director and EBM mission representative to return to ICA over this break and help with getting the campus ready for a year of hibernation. This will include packing up the EBM dorm as well as moving the rest of the electronic equipment and school textbooks into the library which can be environmentally maintained. Our group will include 6 adults and 3 staff teens who have a lot of work to do in the next 2 weeks. We will fly to Abidjan this Saturday and return on Apr. 18th; again we will have a French military escort through rebel-held territory. We ask you to pray for our safety as well as the safety of many others who will also be returning to countries that are torn by strife. For some students, this will be their only chance to say ‘good-bye’ to their homes – maybe for the last time – as they will be returning to the states for college, or their parents may be leaving that field, as soon as school is out.

This morning in our staff devotions, we were directed to Hab. 3:17-18: “Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls: Yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my salvation.” This was Habakkuk’s testimony during a tough time in his life. We’ve all seen similar testimonies from contempory heroes of the faith, some of whom we know personally. It may be that in the days ahead, others of us may be called upon to declare with these others: “Yet I will rejoice in the LORD.” 

Bob and I count it a privilege to pray for you as you share your struggles and concerns with us. We love to hear from you. If you’ve written in the past week, we may not have gotten your e-mail as it seems our hotmail account has been rejecting mail. Please notice the additional e-mail address on our About Us page that you can try if you feel we aren’t responding to your e-mails.

We’re sitting around with not much to do since there has been no school yesterday or today at the advice of the American embassy. We’re been walking back and forth to school (only way to do e-mail and watch CNN), about a .5k walk, and feeling no threat. Some others say they have noticed a definite lack of friendliness on the part of some Africans, but those we’ve encountered seem the same as usual. Remember that you can call us at 221-656-4026 if you need to. It’s our cell phone which seems to be working OK (although David tried and couldn’t get through). We’ll do our best to stay in touch. After what we experienced at the end of September, this seems a little anti-climatic for us. But we know that it’s so much more and doesn’t really compare. We are praying for all those involved and for their loved ones who wait to hear from them.