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.

W.A.I.S.T. (February 15-17)

cavemen 12, originally uploaded by MaryD SN-MN.

WAIST is the West Africa Invitational Softball Tournament, and this year marks its 35th year. Dakar was host to 28 teams from around West Africa, including four teams from Dakar Academy. The DA teams all did very well, and Jacob and Dave each got some good playing time and a bit of a sunburn.

The international flavor was evident this year with three Senegalese teams, as well as teams from Mauritania, Guinea, Mali, and Gambia.

Click here to enjoy the complete photo-set on flickr!


And here is a video clip of the fans celebrating, to give you a feeling for the vibrancy and international flavor of the event!

Happy Birthday, Joey!!

Happy Birthday, Joey!!, originally uploaded by MaryD SN-MN.

Happy twentieth birthday to an awesome son! We are thankful for you, and the amazing man that you are! We see so much evidence of God's good work in your life, and we are excited to see where He will take you in the days ahead! With lots of love from Mom and Dad!

heron

heron, originally uploaded by MaryD SN-MN.

We are blessed to have a park about a mile from our house, where we can walk under tall trees and enjoy the birds which congregate here. This was one of my favorite pictures from our walk today, and here's a link to the other 13!

February 7: Decker Update

Dear friends,

It hardly seems possible we arrived here in Dakar a week ago! We completed our packing in time to get a few hours of sleep before we left Minnesota on the 29th. Friends from our support team helped us get our things to the airport, and saw us off with love and prayers-- even though it was 5 a.m. and very cold!

February 2: evening sight

evening sight, originally uploaded by MaryD SN-MN.

We are here, in Senegal! Dave and I drove to a spot near the ocean, and I thought it was funny to see these cows grazing right there! We are unpacking and sorting and cleaning... recovering from jet lag, and happy to be back here! We've connected with many friends and colleagues so far. More of an update will be coming soon, but this is just so you will see that we are here!