July 15: Miami trip pictures!

We're enjoying our time in Miami, having fun with family and friends. We are keeping busy, and here's a link to some of our pictures on facebook!

July 11: Danny and Leah

We had fun today taking engagement pictures for Danny and Leah... Dave took this one!

July 3: fun!

July 1: looking ahead

I can't guess whether I'll be blogging a lot or very little during the next month! We will be seeing sights that are very different than our everyday sights in Senegal, and seeing special people we don't get to see often enough! We'll definitely be taking pictures, and it remains to be seen how many and how often they will be posted here.

Dave, Jacob and I will travel tomorrow night to Miami, Florida and spend about two weeks with Danny, Leah and Leah's family before the July 18 wedding. Joey will be joining us on July 6, from England and N. Ireland. Did I mention we're excited??

Meanwhile, we need to pack (one of my least favorite jobs!) and get our household and pets in good order to be cared for while we are gone!

June 27: God of this City

Another favorite song... our prayer for our city, nation, people...

June 26: Yours -- Steven Curtis Chapman

I love this song. The first version here is the one with the new verse SCC wrote after his five-year-old daughter died last year. As we walk through dark valleys, it helps to remember who walks with us.



I'm adding the original version as well, since Tracy hasn't heard these before. This was written before his daughter died. I really like both versions!

June 25 financial update

We've been reviewing our recent monthly donor reports from SIM, including the May report that just arrived. We've been watching these pretty carefully in light of the financial crisis. We'd like to ask you to pray for our support level, because we're suddenly seeing a pretty significant drop-off.

Here are some of the current realities that we're looking at:

June 16-18 road trip to Kaffrine

(cow and goat crossing!)


















(salt harvesting)


Here's the facebook link to my photos from this trip.

June 17: in the village

During our visit to Kaffrine, Corey took us out to the village where he's working. We enjoyed meeting some of his friends, and seeing some of the realities of village life.

DeckerUpdate June 15

Dear friends,
Greetings from sunny summer Senegal! We have felt blessed that the weather has been cooler than usual so far for this time of year! We have also had good electricity, and good water (most of the time.) Those "little" things help us to persevere in this desert location!

What's been happening?

June 4: Grad!

A happy and sad night! We are so thankful for the accomplishment of the seniors, but at this ending of the school year, many people will be leaving Senegal and traveling to their home countries. So many that we love-- leave tonight, tomorrow and in the next few days... so our celebration is tinged with sadness!





































One of the fun parts of the graduation/goodbye night has been Jacob's class (now seniors!) taking a class picture-- though some are missing... this group of kids has a lot of fun together and we sure enjoy them! See last year's post-grad picture here!









When we returned to the car at the end of the evening, we found this card for "Aunt Mary", with a beautiful bouquet-- it was an anonymous thank-you note for the time and love I've shared with the students this year... what a surprise and what a treat!

June 2: a few more JSB pictures!

JSB was on our horizon throughout the school year, as the junior class raised funds to host this banquet for the seniors. All our events, such as junior-carnival, valentine-grams and others, were (in addition to being fun events for the community) fund-raisers with JSB as the goal.

So much planning and preparation went into preparing for this event... the juniors learned how to work well together as a class, the sponsors learned how to work together and how to work with the juniors... and we are thankful that it went so well! The seniors felt loved and honored, and we are so glad for that!

Often after the end of such a huge event, there is that feeling of sadness... we worked so hard for so long and now it's over... but we are enjoying the memories and the photos!

(the third photo cracks me up--Jacob and some of the guys in his class cutting loose and enjoying themselves after the party ended! )

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!!!