Wednesday, September 24, 2008

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, 2008

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.

Monday, September 22, 2008

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!!!

Thursday, September 18, 2008

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!

Monday, September 15, 2008

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.)

Sunday, September 14, 2008

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 (?)

Saturday, September 13, 2008

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?

Friday, September 05, 2008

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.

Thursday, September 04, 2008

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.)