March 27: update on prayer request

Dear friends,
Thank you for your prayerful support. Here's an encouraging update from our teammate in Kaffrine who had requested prayer:

Thanks for all of your prayers. I saw and felt a big difference after several people said they were praying for us. The heavy atmosphere really lifted. And we are rejoicing because of the two new believers who were baptised on Easter morning! Easter weekend was a real joy - full of good fellowship with the family of Christ - and the extra specialness of sharing communion and the baptisms together. In the evening almost 50 people (both seekers and the believers from the morning) came to watch the Gospel of John movie. Corey did a great job keeping the cassette recording of the Wolof reading playing in time with the (English) movie for three hours! It is a powerful movie and the message about Christ was clear. Keep praying for God's Kingdom to come here in Kaffrine! We all really appreciate your prayers - God is answering them!


We are seeing God at work here in Senegal, and are aware as well of the enemy's efforts to derail the work and distract the workers. We hope you will increasingly recognize that your prayers are an essential weapon in this battle.


With thankfulness for the Resurrection,
Mary
for the Dakar Deckers

Guinea photos!

Dave returned late Thursday night (actually early Friday morning by the time he got to the house!) from Guinea. He took some amazing photos, and wrote some descriptions as well. You can see them by clicking on this link. (To read the longer descriptions, you will have to double-click on the individual pictures.)

We are thankful to work in support of this dedicated team serving in upper Guinea!

March 18: prayer request

Dear friends and partners,
Will you join us in the days leading up to Easter with special prayers for our team in Kaffrine? Several of the families are preparing for home assignment and dealing with high temperatures every day as well as many other difficulties.

They write:
We seriously need prayer! It seems like every one of the believers here is dealing with some huge trial right now...persecution, sexual sin, a miscarriage...it feels like the Kaffrine church is under spiritual attack. We missionaries are also feeling it, some of us are getting threatening phone calls from people upset about our ministry, some of us are stressed out and fighting with our spouses, all of us are tired and have a lot of work to do in the next three weeks. And we are all praying like crazy that there will be a multiple baptism this coming Sunday morning for Easter. We could really use some extra prayers this week. Thanks!

Other quick notes:
Dave has been in contact a few times from Guinea-- the trip is going well! It's neat how communications from there have improved over the past few years. Please continue to pray for this trip, that their work will be efficient and their time with the mission team will be encouraging. And for safe travel as they return on Thursday as well.

Many blessings and much love to you as you prepare to celebrate the sacrificial death and triumphant resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.

In His love,
Mary
for the Dakar Deckers

March 10: photos from SIPS 2008

SIPS 1, originally uploaded by MaryD SN-MN.

Dave took some great pictures during SIPS, which was held March 6-8.

SIPS (Sports Invitational for Private Schools) is an annual gathering of several schools in Senegal, where the kids get the opportunity to compete in a track meet, as well as volleyball and soccer games. Here are some more of the pictures from the track-meet-- to give you a bit of the flavor of this special event in the big stadium!

Opportunities for involvement in events like this is one of the things that we love about living in Dakar. Serving as part of regional mission leadership and administration team, much of our work is done via email, from the office, behind a computer. Involvement in the lives of students at DA is a bonus and blessing! (Besides being lots of fun!)

Decker Update March 7

Dear friends, greetings from Dakar!

Funny how a month ago those words sounded so new-- and today they seem so normal to me! We have so much to be thankful for in our first weeks back in Senegal. We are blessed by your prayers and your partnership with us, and want you to know about some of the things with which we are privileged to be involved.