December 28: morning at N'Gaparou

December 27: Ngaparou evening

Enjoying our two days away with Joey and Jacob...

December 26: beach at N'Gaparou

Wonderful!

December 25: Merry Christmas!

We had a great day, a turkey dinner at Bruce and Julie's, followed by dessert and carols at Mark and Leigh's!

Blessed Christmas to you all!

December 24: Christmas Eve

We are blessed here in Senegal to be able to celebrate Christ's birth with friends here who have become like extended family. We miss our families and friends from the States though, especially on these special days. Tonight was a cozy time at home with Dave, Joey, Jacob and me. We watched It's A Wonderful Life (which they say they've watched every year, and I don't think so!!) and ate a special dinner of "raclette"-- melted cheese with meat and potatoes,with chocolate fondue for dessert...

December 23: fun with friends

It's been so much fun to hang out at home, playing games with friends and family, and just enjoying the break from school!

December 21: enjoying the beach

This isn't my favorite beach but it was "someone's" vote for where we should spend the afternoon...

I'm enjoying the sand, the ship in the background, and two of my three boys being together with us!

December 21: funny road sight!

On our way to an afternoon at the beach, we saw this funny sight out the car window! Many sheep are being transported in various ways these days as Muslims prepare for their holiday. But this is the first one I've ever seen on a motorbike!

December 19: arrival!

Joey arrived and we are so happy to have him here! Our tradition is a bonfire on the roof, with attaya, on nights of arrival and departure...

December 9

Sorry for the long absence. Life has been full and busy and I haven't quite gotten back into the routine of updates and blogging...

Getting started again... at least with some pics. Here's a photo I really like of Dave and Jacob, taken by a friend last Saturday at one of the softball games.

December 4: Outreach Update

Outreach Update (from the D.A. Chaplain)

We would like to thank you for praying for our Thanksgiving weekend outreach to the Koulouck area. We returned from the weekend physically exhausted but spiritually invigorated by the experience.

Our school theme this year is "Refresh!" and we pray that this outreach weekend brought spiritual refreshment to dry and dusty Koulouck. We were able to minister to over 1800 people through drama, childrens Bible clubs, a medical team, and evening evangelism campaigns. The medical team set a new record in providing healing care to 260 people. We did meet some resistance in that the drama team was refused access to 2 villages, and in another village, after receiving initial permission and setting up for their program, they were told to leave. But they were able to present the Gospel in 6 villages during the course of the weekend. In addition to the ministry teams, we had teams that painted 2 different churches, a team that built and placed roof trusses, a team that built 23 benches, and a team that cleared, leveled, and installed goals for a soccer field. We initiated the soccer field by having a soccer game on Sat. afternoon between the DA boys and the village soccer team which ended in a tie. At half time, we were able to present the Gospel using the wordless soccer ball. We left uniforms and 2 wordless soccer balls for the village soccer team. In addition to all this, we had teams working steadily on hauling and filtering water to keep us hydrated for the whole weekend. You can imagine how much water a group of 120 people can go through in such a dry and dusty area. There was no electricity or running water where we camped.

Before we left the DA campus, we reminded the 120 going on the weekend of the need to be FLEXIBLE. This ended up being the key word for the weekend as we faced all kinds of glitches here and there. We had vehicle break-downs, a couple of items were inadvertently left behind, and our planned schedule had to be revamped as we went along. But in spite of the inconveniences of these curve balls thrown our way, the attitudes of the students were exemplary and God's name was still glorified and lifted high in the Koulouck area. In fact, many times when things do not go as planned, it's then that we are able to show God's supernatural grace in the face of difficult circumstances.

The weekend culminated in a combined worship service involving Dakar Academy, the International Baptist Church from Dakar who have also been ministering in this village, and the local African believers. Following the worship service, there were 5 believers who were baptized. This was a special celebration. There will be a small team that will return to Koulouck to finish off roofing the church, hopefully before Christmas.

Please continue to pray for the believers in Koulouck. We heard a number of times of how encouraged they were by the ministry of our students and staff this weekend. It is a privilege to be a part of what God is continuing to do in advancing His Kingdom in Senegal!

November 28: outreach

Please pray for the D.A. Outreach this weekend to the Koulouck region of Senegal. Jacob will be part of a group of 120 students and staff ministering through labor, medical work, drama and children's ministries. We are looking forward to what God will do during this time!

November 27: Thanksgiving

We are thankful for all God's goodness to us! We enjoyed a bountiful celebration with our SIM team!

November 26: Turkey Bowl

An annual D.A. tradition is Turkey Bowl, a half-day of flag football and food! The junior class serves the food, and as junior-class sponsors, we kept busy working and playing! (More pictures are available upon request, let us know and I'll send you the link!)

November 23: Dan, Liz, and Erik!

We enjoyed a quick two-day visit from Pastor Dan and Liz, and Pastor Erik from our home church. They had been in Guinea leading our SIM team in a Spiritual Life Conference, and then spent two days in Dakar visiting with the missionaries from our church who serve here. We packed a lot into those two days- a movie night at DA, softball games, time at the beach and a soccer game! (And we had to drive through a herd of cows on the way home from the beach...) The highlight may have been the bonfire on our roof with music led by Pastor Dan... but all the time was good.

We are thankful for the time they spent to encourage us here!!

November 16: Meg and Cara

Meg facilitated a session at the annual Senegal Women's Retreat, titled "Help, I'm Married to a Travelling Man!" It was a blessing to have her as part of this year's retreat.

Cara is from our home church, and is a missionary in a smaller town here in Senegal. It was fun to see Meg and Cara connect at the retreat!

November 9: Dennis and Meg

Dennis and Meg came from Boston to facilitate leadership training as part of our WAFA Council meetings. We enjoyed hosting them, and look forward to the next time of being together! (Somehow I forgot to take pictures during their teaching times, but they looked very professional! We managed to find time for a fun walk in the park as well!)

in meetings...

This week we're in council meetings each day, and the women's retreat is beginning Friday... Hopefully I'll be back after that with notes and pictures!

November 5

It feels very strange to be across an ocean from the U.S. on election day! I'm so thankful to be a citizen of a country where we are allowed to vote, and to voice our opinions freely. Now that the election is finished, I'm praying that we will move on, trusting God's sovereignty.

" I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth." (1Timothy 2:1-4).

I really appreciate Justin Taylor' s words today

No matter who you voted for--or whether you voted at all--it's important to remember that, as President, Barack Obama will have God-given authority to govern us, and that we should view him as a servant of God (Rom. 13:1, 4) to whom we should be subject (Rom. 13:1, 5; 1 Pet. 2:13-14).

• We are to pray for Barack Obama (1 Tim. 2:1-2).
• We are to thank God for Barack Obama (1 Tim. 2:1-2).
• We are to respect Barack Obama (Rom. 13:7).
• We are to honor Barack Obama (Rom. 13:7; 1 Pet. 2:17).

His entire post is worth reading.

October 30

Ghana conference: I was thankful for time to consult with others involved in the "people care" aspect of living overseas. I was thankful for time to consult with skilled and trained counselors, with coaches and encouragers. I was blessed to be able to take pictures of ocean-sunrises for five days. I enjoyed sessions of learning more about depression, anxiety, healthy sleep and other topics-- and am looking forward to integrating the material into my life and work here. I was blessed with reunions with long-time friends, and developing relationships with new friends. I'm more encouraged and motivated for the work of the days ahead! Thanks for your prayers!

Note!

My time in Ghana was very special. I'll write more in the next few days, but meanwhile, I've been posting some of the pictures on my "lifesights(plus)" blog if you are interested! May God bless you with His peace and joy today!

October 16: in transit!

Yesterday I flew from Dakar to Abidjan (Ivory Coast) , and from Abidjan to Accra, Ghana. Today I'll go by road to the conference center where I'll spend the next five days at a retreat and consultation for people involved in support and care roles for overseas workers. I'm excited about the people who are part of this time, and looking forward to spending time with them, in consultations, worship, and times of refreshing together!

(and I'm loving the guesthouse garden!)

October 11: update

Dear praying friends and family,

Greetings from Dakar! We are blessed and thankful to be based in West Africa, working with SIM. We long to see joyful overseas workers effectively spreading a passion for God's glory in West Africa, and to serve them by offering quality leadership and administrative support. What has that looked like in our lives over the past weeks?

October 9: Joey

Joey used frequent flyer miles and took a quick trip to MN this week-- where he had surgery to repair his collar bone. We are thankful for Aunt Tracy and Uncle Lee, and for Dr. and Mrs. Cole-- who helped him so much in different ways.

We are praying for him to recover full strength and agility in the days ahead!

October 4: normal Dakar scene

Construction in progress. Big houses or apartments, built using rudimentary equipment. Satellite dishes galore. The horse near his cart, having some down-time. Sand. Concrete. Trash strewn everywhere.

October 2: softball pics

Just a couple pictures for you to see some of the faces that make softball special to us here in Dakar!

October 2: bullet-point update

What's been happening this week?

• Dave has been in Ghana for Mobile Member Care Team board meetings. He left on Sunday and will return (Lord willing) on Friday evening.
• Junior varsity softball has started. I recruited a few girls who are needed for the team, and have been enjoying watching the practices and supporting all the kids (especially the girls!) Dave will be one of the coaches when he returns.
• The last day of Ramadan was celebrated on Wednesday, it was a no-school day for D.A.
• Joey's collar bone: upon review by an orthopedic doctor, surgery is recommended to align the bones correctly. (They are now overlapping each other.) He'll fly to Minnesota for the out-patient surgery next week with a surgeon we know and trust. What a blessing!
• It's been busy for me in my job at Dakar Academy, and our househelper has been on vacation so it's been extra work at home too.
• One of Jacob's teachers at D.A. resigned, and now the administrative leadership are working to get teaching arrangements worked out... lots of complication!
• We have had electricity almost every night for the past week, although it's been off between four and six hours per day. Being able to sleep with fans/air conditioning is a huge blessing!

September 24: endurance

“Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised.” (Hebrews 10:35-36)

My sister-in-law Tracy pointed out today's verse, a good follow-up to yesterday's! We needed endurance today at school, where the power was off ALL day... oh my goodness.

God's words sure are encouraging, what a blessing to think He gave us words like these that help us hang on through days or seasons where it seems like too much!

By the way, internet access has disappeared for some of our friends and colleagues, we are praying and hoping that we will continue to have our access... but we are learning to be ready for anything!

Tuesday September 23: Rejoice in Sufferings

“More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope,” (Romans 5:3-4)

That was today's "verse for the day" and it made me chuckle a bit. In the grand scheme of things, our sufferings are pretty small.

Nevertheless we are finding it fairly stressful to be in the midst of the hottest and most humid time of year in Dakar, with only sporadically working electricity! It's discouraging when the things in our refrigerator don't stay cold... and it's difficult to sleep without the benefit of air conditioner or strong fans. (and in answer to Kristen's question from the mosque picture-- we do wake up when we hear the call to prayer-- perhaps the only benefit of not having electricity is that the mosque IS a bit quieter!)

It feels like suffering sometimes to be far away from family-- from my Mom, and Dave's Dad, from our university-aged sons Danny and Joey, from our sisters and brothers and nieces and nephews. We are sad when we can't be on hand to celebrate the arrival of new babies, and birthdays, or to offer assistance with some of life's difficulties. We miss them.

May the Lord use these small sufferings to produce endurance, character and hope in us today! May He give us the grace we need to REJOICE in these sufferings.

September 19: surprise visit!

Dave was blessed with a great surprise on his way back to Dakar from his conference in North Carolina. His time in the Atlanta airport "just happened" to be at the same time as Danny, Leah, Alexis and most of Leah's family were travelling to a wedding in Ohio! Dave only had a few minutes with them, but those few minutes were sure special! God is very good to give us these surprise gifts!!!

Welcome Levia Rose!

We are rejoicing today in the news received of the birth of Levia Rose, to our dear friends and support team members Karlyn and Haddon. Many blessings to this dear family. We wish we could be with you!

Joey update

He got a better brace, and pain meds today! (In case you missed the original post about Joey's injury, here it is.)

Refresh!

It's the theme for this school-year at D.A. I love the song written by "Uncle Evan" and the video created by him and others to illustrate! (Look for Jacob in the last few minutes too!) (I think between 4:10-4:20 (?)

A Decker Not In Dakar

Joey spent the summer in Washington state. His last weekend there included a hike up an amazingly beautiful mountain with his roommate. He called me from up there, and told me to guess where he was calling from? I said (as always) "emergency room?" His roommate took this picture of Joey talking to his parents in Senegal from on top of the mountain in Washington state.

I received these photos yesterday, and was going to post them soon. But then today got another call from Joey-- who actually was in the emergency room this time. Turns out that he broke his collar bone during his rugby game today!

Pray for him to heal well, and sleep well in the meantime. They don't set collar bones, nor do they give pain meds for this type of injury! He's a junior at John Brown University and has been enjoying being back there.


P.S. Can you find Joey in the middle picture?

September 4: soccer field

Over the years, we've wished for a grass soccer field at Dakar Academy. Lately we've had a grassy green field-- and in the past few days it's turned into a lake!

Remember, Dakar is usually fairly desert-ish, dusty and dry... but this rainy season has given us more rain than we are used to.

Stories of Hope from Liberia

Posts on the DakarDeckers blog have been woefully scarce in recent days. Between the trip to Liberia, the start of the new school year, and the problems related to rain and electricity, I've been either too tired or too grumpy to thing of anything to share here!

I'm very thankful today to be able to point you to Stories of Hope From Liberia, new articles published on SIM's website, written about people who have been special to us over the past years. These are people I respect and love, and I'm excited for you to read their stories!
Joe (Captured By Rebels)
Moses (ReBuilding ELWA Radio)
Sis Pate (We Have Seen The Grace of God)
(Sis Pate is Ma Kortee's daughter, and one of the women I was so happy to see when I was in Liberia. She's in the third picture in this post.)

another Saturday in Dakar

• We've had many rainy days recently. Dave took these pictures from his office windows during one of them. Dakar is dry most of the year, so the streets are not really constructed with drainage in mind-- which causes significant problems during heavy downpours.
• The school year at Dakar Academy has started well, and it's been an honor to spend time with several students who are seeking encouragement, support or problem-solving-help over the past days.
• Our electricity has continued to be off about eight hours each day, and my computer is not yet working reliably... yikes! Praying that we will allow the Lord to be light in our lives even in the darkness... that His light will shine in us and through us to those to whom He has brought us!
  

Saturday

I returned home from Liberia late Monday night after a long trip, having been re-routed via Casablanca. I'm very tired, very thankful for the airline taking good care of me, thankful to be home!

Wednesday was the first day of school at Dakar Academy, and for this semester I'm resuming my role as part-time counselor. It was great to see kids and staff returning, great to meet new students and staff as well. Wednesday evening was the Open House time, and as Jacob's parents we got to meet his teachers and follow his daily schedule (in 10 minute increments.)

My laptop is not yet working, but we're hoping that it will be able to be repaired this weekend, please pray for that!

This weekend we are spending time with friends, watching a bit of the Olympics, hoping to get to the beach, hoping to get more photos from Liberia up!

casablanca

this is just a quick hello... my computer stopped working last thursday so i have not been able to blog. i am in an airport cyber cafe in casablanca at the moment, and will write more about the trip when i get home to a working computer with an english keyboard! travel in west africa... not always what you would expect!

Liberia: my friend Mary

Mary, an elementary school teacher, has been one of my best friends since 1995. She was married to one of our Liberian "sons" in 1999, and was widowed when he was struck by a car in 2004. She has been a testimony of God's faithfulness as she raises her children on her own, and looks to the Lord for provision of her needs. It was a great joy for me to spend a bit of time with her, and bittersweet to be able to visit TC's grave along with two more of our Liberian sons, Reuben and Doco.

Liberia: new growth, new beauty

My trip was short but each day I marveled at the beauty of the ocean near the ELWA beach.

During the war in 1990, all the coconut trees had been cut down... but many have been replanted and are now growing up into beauty.

May God continue to do His pruning, re-planting, and growing work in Liberia, and in all of our lives!

Liberia: Ma Kortee's girls

Ma Kortee invited me and a few friends to her house for lunch! She treated us royally with check rice, boiled plantain and gravy. We enjoyed her company and enjoyed being pampered by her too!

It was so special for me to see Elizabeth, Sis Pate, and Linda after many years-- all daughters and nieces of the Ol'Ma who has been special in all of our lives!



(I'm having trouble formatting this post with captions. )

(photo 1-- Christina, Naomi, Sheila)

(photo 2 Elizabeth, Mary, Ma Kortee)

(photo 3 Sis Pate and Linda)

liberia day 2

Ma Kortee, my Liberian "Ol'Ma"






















Valarie and Blessing






(too tired at the end of this day to write anything but will continue to try post pics-- hopefully will add text, as well as higher resolution pictures when I'm back to "normal" life.

liberia day 1: airport fun

a
These sweet girls, Alison and Kiara, were going out on the flight I came in on... but Doco worked out a way for us to see one another. What a fun moment!! I'm going to sleep.. for the first time in 4 1/2 years... in Liberia! More tomorrow if all goes well! (im going to try to upload the pics in low quality from here and will replace them when i get back to a faster connection.)

August 4: Abidjan