random afternoon in the neighborhood

While talking to a friend on the phone this afternoon, I suddenly could not hear her above the sounds of loud drumming. I hung up on her, and ran up to the roof with Jacob and his friend to see what was happening-- and found the beginning of a celebration at the new apartment building across the street from our house!

Update: this got louder and more festive, with more people gathering until at least 11 p.m. Our house was LOUD!

Joey update!

Dear family and friends,
Thank you for your prayers for Joey! He had a detailed work-up at his eye doctor yesterday in preparation for his surgery, and amazingly-- it seems that his eyes will not need surgery! I don't fully understand all the details, but it's pretty exciting.

He had to stop wearing contacts for two weeks before the exam, because contacts apparently change the shape of the cornea, and the exam needs to be done without that influence. When his eyes were dilated yesterday during the extensive exam, his vision was close to 20/15... It seems that the muscles used for close-up vision (like reading) were over-developed due to the many hours per day he spent reading (especially while we lived in Abidjan) and in the 4 1/2 years he's been wearing his contacts, his eyes and brain have adapted to them. His doctor thinks that if he goes two more weeks with contacts or glasses, his vision will be 20/20 without them! We are so happy for him, and excited to see the Lord working this situation out in a way much different than we expected!

Please do continue to pray with him and with us that his vision will be fully restored, and his next appointment will reveal excellent results.

With thankfulness in Him,
Mary
for the Dakar Deckers

DeckerUpdate June 10

Here's a fairly lengthy update about our family and ministry, including

* Mary's month at D.A.
* Dave's trip to Liberia
* Prayer concerns

Dear family and friends,

Thanks so much for your prayers, and notes of encouragement, over the past several days. We've had some good days, and some bad days with regard to electricity since that time. We've been able to get enough water to fill our reservoir, and we are figuring out how to best use it so that we have water for what's needed and not waste it!

June 5 quick note

Dear friends and family--
We're a bit overdue for an update, and I will write one in the next few days! But in the meantime, would you please pray for our electricity and water situation? We have had significant outages in the past few days, as much as 12 hours out of 24, and at completely unpredictable times. It gets a bit stressful when our reservoir is not filling, and we have no water... and I do worry about things in our refrigerator! I know in many locations it is always like this, but at this point we're not real-well set up for it here! Please pray for "enough" water, "enough" electricity, and "enough" cold for the fridge.... Update will follow!

With love,
Mary
for the DakarDeckers

June 4: after graduation!

Tonight was graduation at Dakar Academy. We rejoice with the seniors, congratulate them on their accomplishments, and wish them well in the days ahead. They are a special groups of students and we will miss them!

After grad, some of those in Jacob's class-- they've just finished 10th grade-- gathered for a photo. What a crazy bunch of kids. Some of them won't be back next year, which is sad... but others who have been gone this year will be returning and we're looking forward to that!




Dave and I have been asked (along with two other couples) to be class sponsors for their class next year. We will get to help them with many events, and generally be involved in their lives. We're looking forward to that-- they're a great bunch!

May 24: Fine Arts Festival

We really enjoyed the high school fine arts festival on Saturday evening! The evening was full of interesting paintings, photographs, different works of art... plus wonderful singing by the chamber choir and the concert choir. My favorite though was the handbell choir... amazing music performed by a number of students with these bells. This clip is from the Pirates of the Caribbean theme song!

May11: N.H.S. Induction

We enjoyed being with Jacob at the ceremony as he was inducted into the National Honor Society!

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.

fishing village

Dave and I visited a fishing village late Saturday afternoon. We got there too late to see most of the boats coming in, but thought you'd enjoy these glimpses of a very different world! See more on our flick'r set here.

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.