DeckerUpdate May 1

Dear friends and family,

Thank you so much for your prayers for us! We are thankful for them, and we are excited to see what God is doing in our lives out here. The past month has been interesting and surprising for me.


Through talking to many missionaries here, in many different organizations, I have become aware of so many situations where a family needs some support and teaching, and would benefit from a professional counselor. In the States, it's easy to find a professional counselor when one is needed, but they are very difficult to access here. I believe that God has given me a vision to work towards the organization of an intermission counseling team here in Dakar. We are so blessed by the ministry of the Mobile Member Care Team in Ghana, who provide crisis response, training, and short-term counseling for missionaries, and any counseling team here would work in cooperation with them. The hope would be that we could find two or three people who would be based here, who could offer longer term counseling for those who have need. Will you pray for God's guidance as we pursue this in the days ahead?

After I had become burdened with the idea of a need for a team of clinical counselors, I received the good news that Scott Hicks, a professional counselor, will return to Dakar in January of 2009. He will work half-time as the school counselor for Dakar Academy, and is very interested as well in working as part of this proposed counseling team. And THEN, in a surprising development, the director at Dakar Academy asked me to fill in as the school counselor for the rest of this school year, and for first semester of next year!

After praying and discussing it with our SIM leadership here, as well as with MMCT members, I'm going ahead with this, in faith that God will provide all that is needed-- whether encouragement, resources, or referrals for the needs of the students. I love being at Dakar Academy, and am excited to be able to offer encouragement and support to the students and staff there. But I will greatly appreciate your prayers for me in this role!

Dave recently spent a week hosting the auditor from SIM International here, and they thoroughly audited the SIM WAFA and SIM Senegal bookkeeping systems. The results were good, and they are encouraged. They received some helpful suggestions to continue to improve the various systems in place in the various WAFA countries. Dave will be traveling to Liberia later this month, and he is looking forward to seeing and working with many of our dear friends and co-workers there. Setting up a bookkeeping system for a brand-new dental clinic on the ELWA campus in Monrovia will be the main purpose of his trip. You can read more about that here .

We are thankful for Danny's good progress in his college education. He will continue with summer-school classes at Barry University in Miami, and is happy that he was selected for his first choice of a paid internship for this summer. He doesn't have much of a break between finals and the start of the summer term, so please pray for him to get enough rest, and to stay healthy as he pursues his goals.

Joey is finishing up finals (today!) and heading out to the state of Washington for the summer. He will live with one of his friends, and they are hoping to get a job with the construction company his friend worked with last summer. Joey is applying for an officer candidate program with the Navy, and if selected, will get significant financial help in finishing his college education. However, he needs to get his vision corrected with a Lasik-type surgery (called PRK) and is hoping to do that as soon as possible.

Jacob continues to enjoy being back at Dakar Academy. He is getting A's in his classes, and enjoying time with his friends. However, like most students at this time of year, he is looking forward to the summer break (which comes in about five weeks!) There is a high-school/middle-school youth group planned for this summer, with community service as well as fun events, and he is looking forward to being part of that.

Finances: We are so thankful for the consistent levels of support that our donors have been contributing. Please continue to pray with us for this area, as the cost of living is so much higher than it has been, with the value of the dollar being so low. As you may remember, we returned to the field with our "rock bottom" support requirements being met. We were encouraged to let supporters know of one-time needs as they happened, and we are trusting God to provide for these needs. Currently, we have needs in Ministry Account-- for Joey's eye surgery, and for my potential travel to Ghana in October for a consultation/retreat with the Mobile Member Care team. If you'd like to be a part of meeting these needs, please let us know. Please pray with us for funds to be available for Joey to get his surgery as soon as possible, so that he will have sufficient time for after-care there in Washington state!

SIM is encouraging us to let our donors know of the option to give online. This saves the mission money as the cost of processing each donation is much less than processing checks. If you'd like information about how to do that, it's here.

We are so thankful for the many opportunities God is giving us, and we are thankful for you, our partners in all that we are doing. Your prayers are the fuel that keep our ministries going. Every year SIM dedicates the ten days between Ascension and Pentecost to special prayer for the mission, the church, and the world. If you'd like to, please "join us in this important time of prayer, modeling what the disciples did after Jesus ascended to heaven, they all joined together constantly in prayer" (Acts 1:14).
Download the SIM Ten Days of Prayer Guide [655 KB]


With much love,
Mary
for the SIM -Deckers (in Dakar, in Miami, in Arkansas and Washington state!)