Greetings from "Home Assignment!" It's been awhile since I've written an official update, but many of you know we are now based in Minnesota until early January. The days of packing our house in Senegal seemed very hectic, as we tried to tie up many loose ends before leaving. To this point, our house in Senegal has not been rented, and is being cared for by colleagues and Senegalese helpers. We would love to see someone be able to live there for even a few months, so you could continue to pray for that. It's possible that it will be used as a guest-house from time to time otherwise, and that will help a bit with the finances of paying rent in two countries!
We left Senegal on June 12th, early in the morning, It was kind of fun to wait in the airport with several other families we've known in Senegal, some on our flight, some on flights leaving around the same time. It's funny to watch missionary kids making themselves at home in the airport-- they find ways to have a good time in airports all over the world!
We arrived in Washington DC and spent four days there visiting the Schierling family. We enjoyed spending time with all of them, and Jacob enjoyed hanging out with his cousins, including some highly competitive chess games with cousin Maggie!
For Dave, Jacob and me, it was fun to walk around Washington DC, as we have never been there before. We loved seeing the memorials and looking at beautiful and significant monuments, recalling great people and moments in the history of our nation. We enjoyed the rain storm the first day we were there-- as we hadn't seen rain in 8 months! We also went to Annapolis to visit friends, and enjoyed touring the Naval Academy and seeing the historic waterfront town.
After DC it was down to Charlotte for medical exams and interviews with SIM USA personnel people to review our term in Senegal. We find it encouraging to spend time with people at SIM's home office, who are helpful in giving feedback to us about our time overseas. We also worked on a presentation which will be shared with supporters and friends in our home area, and churches we visit during our home-assignment time.
We learned more about the impact of all the changes in the SIM financial system on our financial situation. As we expected, we will have to raise additional support before we return to Senegal. With two children in college, we have significant expenses related to their schooling, as well as other increases such as medical insurance premiums. At the same time we're facing the reality that under our old "pooling" support system, we took out more than we contributed. That's because Senegal has virtually the highest cost of living of all the countries in which SIM has missionaries. Please pray with us for the needed financial support to be raised. We trust that God will supply all that we need, and we pray that partners will join with us in this work. Our support budget is not yet finalized, but right now it looks as if we'll need an additional $1,500 to $2,000 per month.
After Charlotte, we flew to Minnesota, and were happy to be received by family and friends! We moved right into the same house we lived in during our last home assignment, which made "feeling at home" happen much more quickly than it might have! Nevertheless, it's still a huge process and we are finally feeling like we are getting our feet on the ground. One of the people we were happy to see on June 21 was Joey, who had been in Minnesota for several weeks already, staying with Aunt Tracy and Uncle Lee. He has been searching for a job, and is working part-time at IHOP. He has been having a good summer so far, including time with his great friend Ben Porch when Ben came through Minneapolis on his way from Dakar to the MK Transition seminar in California. Joey is out in Arizona this weekend, for the wedding of one of his good friends from Dakar-- a wedding and MK reunion all in one! He'll return next week.
Another special reunion has been with Danny, who came up from Miami on July 2 and will be with us until August 21. He is transitioning between working full-time/college part-time to full time college, and will move into the dorm in August. He gave up his apartment at the end of June and we are happy that he needs a place to stay until August! It's been fun to have him with us, and we are enjoying being all together again.
Jacob is enjoying having his brothers again! He spent two weeks completing driver's training, and now has his Minnesota driving permit! We are looking forward to him having lots of opportunity to practice his driving while we are in the States.
This week we are "on vacation" at my mom's cabin about 90 minutes from our house. It's a special place for us, full of family memories, peaceful lake-side sunsets, campfires, croquet games and a few guests as well. Pray for us as we refresh and enjoy this beautiful place, and God's amazing goodness to us.
For you who have been checking the DakarDecker blog (dakardeckers.blogspot.com) you know I have been very negligent in the past six weeks! My hope is to start posting regularly there again, at least 2-3 times per week-- so feel free to visit if you want to keep up with us a bit more often than our email or snailmail updates...
We would love to spend time with small groups and Sunday school classes in September, October, November, December... if you'd like to hear more about our life and work in Senegal please email us or give us a call and we'll get something planned.
We are thankful for all of you, and for the privilege of being part of the work God is doing in West Africa-- and also for this special time to be "at home" in the States!
With love,
Mary
for the Deckers
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