Christmas in February

Today the students in Jim's fifth grade class received Christmas stockings and gifts along with their valentine's cards.  The Christmas gifts were sent from the States by a class in Texas that have become pen pals with Jim's students.  The delay in getting them here happened because of the difficulty in finding someone to bring them over here to Africa.  We couldn't, so eventually had someone mail them to us.

Here are some pics of their happy faces!



Chloe




Brandy




Anna-Lee




Sara




Cameron




Bryan, JJ & Caleb




Lydia




Mariam





Evan, thrilled to get his gifts in a Wal-Mart bag!




Brady



Dakar Academy Outreach

Dakar Academy students and staff were able to minister to over 8,500 people this past month on an outreach to Bikol, Senegal.  Thank you for praying as over 400 people indicated they wanted to accept Christ as their Savior!  Some milestones included 613 people treated and individually prayed for on the medical team.  Over 2,000 people were ministered to in VBS-type programs by the children's team.  The drama team presented to over 3,000 people.  Evening campaigns ministered to over 3,500 people.  The foundation team finished digging and pouring the foundation for a new church and made over 630 bricks by hand.  A roofing team finished the church that was started by our DA team on the November outreach.  We praise the Lord for how he used these students to spread His Word and love in Bikol and other villages in the area.



Line for Medical Clinic




Village women who cooked for the DA team




Making benches for a church building

 

Making bricks



Village huts next to a baobob tree




Digging the church foundation




Village children love to get their pictures taken




The women cooking for the DA team




Some of the crowd at the evening campaign




Mom with baby watching drama team




Village children watching the puppet show




Village crowd watching the puppet show




Women shelling peanuts while watching the puppet show




More village children




Beautiful baby




Young girls watching the drama team

 




Happy New Year

Hi all--
Here's hoping and praying that your Christmas holiday and New Year was a good time spent with family and friends. 

Jim had a three week break from school to allow the DA dorm kids plenty of time with their families. We took advantage of the time off and joined about 50 other missionaries and their families for four days of camping on the beach near Saint Louis, Senegal, near the Mauritania border.

We took boats out to a spit of land that had the Atlantic Ocean on one side and a river on the other side.  We slept in Mauritanian type cement "tents" with a canvas roof.  We had beds, so it wasn't really like camping.  All of our meals were prepared for us and we ate together in a big dining tent.  It was an enjoyable time of walking on the beach, bird watching, eating, and just relaxing.

Now it is back to the reality of living in a big city!

Happy New Year!

Thanksgiving Outreach

Hi all--
I hope that you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!  We had a good time with friends who are like family to us.  We actually had a nice-sized turkey this year compared to the scrawny one we had last year.  It was a real treat!

Jim left the day after Thanksgiving to go on the Dakar Academy Outreach.  These are results of the teams that worked in several villages about three hours from Dakar.

The various teams:


• Harvested 8 sacks of peanuts

• 18 bundles of millet were pounded into grain

• Poured a foundation for a new church (mixing over19 tons of cement)

• 1200 bricks were made by hand using 8 tons of cement mixture

• 10 villages ministered to by the VBS team

• Drama Team presented the Gospel in 13 different villages

• Medical Team cared for 372 people

• Built 15 benches and 4 stools

• Setup and took down 35 tents

• Drew over 2,000 gallons of water from a well using buckets and ropes

• Hand-pumped and filtered 400 gallons of drinking water

• Ministered in 6 villages during evening campaigns

• Over 3,000 people heard the gospel

• 735 people prayed to accept Christ

Here are some pics from the Outreach.





Filling 55 gallon drum with water




Cooking Senegalese meal for 150 people




Pounding millet




Harvesting peanuts



Millet bundles



One of the villages




Medical team seeing patients




Medical patients seeing patients




Medical team seeing patients




Some of the tents already setup



Setting up tents





Filtering water





Drawing water from the well







Cooking pots




Donkeys hauling water




Making benches for a village church




Young girls hauling water




Cute girl with missing teeth




Food prep (note the chicken)




Drama team resting




More food prep



Hope you all have a great Christmas season.  It is hard for us to get into the spirit as hot as it is, but we will try!

Thanks for all your prayers and support!

Aunt Ramona