May 30: Junior-Senior Banquet

Dave and I had a great time working with the junior class to help them plan the Junior-Senior Banquet (JSB) of 2009! We are thankful that it went very well, that the seniors felt honored, encouraged and loved! We were so impressed with the juniors and all that they did to make this an evening to remember! Here's a link to Mary's facebook photos, and here's the link to Dave's--there may be more photos to come but for the moment, we are tired and our internet is working very slowly!

May 27: Joey's News!

Quick note, Joey just called us from N. Ireland-- and he is accepted into the Naval Officer Candidate School and Aviation training... will finish his last year of college and then enter OCS after graduation... we are thrilled for him and thankful for God's evident leading in his life!!! He is VERY happy and excited!!

More as it unfolds... thanks for your prayers and encouragements!!!

Sunday May 24 (from Joey!)

The Deckers are scattered around the world at the moment.

This is the photo I received from Joey today, the house where he is staying in Northern Ireland. He's interning with a group of students doing a study course in Belfast for the next six weeks or so.

Looking from our desert-ish home in Senegal, we are STUNNED by all that green grass!!

May 9: Mother's Day dinner out

Dave and Jacob took me out for a Mother's Day dinner. We ate brochettes and grilled shrimp at Chez Fatu, and watched amazing waves! I love the way the lighthouse looks when it's getting dark...

May 8: fun Friday

We had fun this afternoon with (little) girls (and their parents) over for tea. We girls enjoyed a lovely table and banished the guys to the living room, where they put up a sign for a "boys only" meeting! Then we got to attend another performance of to the "Seussical" (this spring's musical) at D.A. So great to watch kids who have worked hard for months perform so well!

May 3: baptism service at the beach!

Jacob was baptized today at Bel-Air beach, along with 9 other DA students! It was a very special way to celebrate this sunny Sunday with many friends! We are thankful for our community here.

April 24: Goree Island

Dave took the auditors out to Goree Island today after the audit was finished. They've worked hard for five days, and need to see at least some of the historic sites here. He took some amazing pictures (as usual!) Here's the link to see the rest of them!

April 24: twitter updates UPDATE

So, I'm finding that I like doing updates on twitter. If you are following this blog in a feed-reader, you won't see the updates. But if you're interested, you could subscribe to the twitter updates on your feed-reader too! Here's the link to subscribe to my updates for this blog, DakarDeckers, and here's the link for twitter updates on my "lifesights(plus)" blog as well. (Note that there are different updates for each blog...)

April 23: last Saturday's outing!

Last Saturday, Dave, Jacob and I went with a friend to Cap Manuel, to explore, hike, and take pictures. Those outings get us out of the sandy, dusty concrete reality of everyday life! If you'd like to see more pictures of this fun place, here's the link to my photoset on flick'r!

April 20: Twitter Updates

So, less than a week after telling someone I didn't see the point of Twitter, I'm trying it out. I've set up a space in the sidebar of the blog for these micro-updates. That way, even if I can't take the time to edit and /or post photos, I can at least make notes about the reason why, and/or what else is going on! Twitter limits me to 140 characters. So I won't take a long time over these updates! Some how it feels less intimidating than that whole big empty space of a normal blog post... let us know what you think!

April 2-5 SLC

Four days and three nights, time away from the daily routine! We had our annual Spiritual Life Conference with our SIM-Senegal team, and it was a wonderful time of refreshing!

Worship, singing, sessions in God's Word, discussions of diversity and unity, considering team issues... as well as time in the swimming pool, playing and walking in the forest and on the beach, fellowship over meals... we were thankful and blessed by our time together!

We love being able to spend time with these families, especially the ones living out of Dakar that we don't get to see on a regular basis!

If you'd like to see more pictures, here are the links to my photos on flickr.

SLC (people, animals, pool, dinner....)

and SLC Wildlife-- (I had so much fun taking pictures of monkeys and other animals that I needed to make a separate set of them alone!)

March 26: in the desert

Our family had a very cool overnight in the desert with some friends... amazing sand dunes, camels, sunset views... it was a unique experience for all of us!

If you'd like to see more photos of this amazing adventure, here's the link! (to my photoset on flickr.)

And here are links to Dave's facebook albums.
Dave's desert camp album #1

Daves desert camp album #2

Enjoy!

DeckerUpdate March 25

Greetings from Senegal!

It's been a little over a month since our last update, and we have continued active and busy during that time. We are based in Senegal as part of SIM's Western Africa Area leadership team. Our vision is to see joyful missionaries effectively spreading a passion for God's glory in West Africa, and that we would serve them by providing quality leadership and administrative support. Dave's two-week trip to Liberia and Cote d'Ivoire last month gave him face-to-face time with our missionaries in those two countries, and has increasingly clarified his vision of their needs. Please pray for him as he continues to train and support the people in each of those countries.

Here are some of the photos from his trip:
Dave in Abidjan
Liberia: reunion with friends
ELWA Hospital
ELWA Academy
ELWA Radio

March 21: refreshing beach day

Dave and I spent a few hours relaxing at the beach today. (Jacob was off at another beach with his friends.) We relaxed and were refreshed by the beauty of the waves, rocks, sunshine and cool breeze!