Our Student Leaders in Africa!

We arrived in Senegal after an overnight transatlantic plane ride! We landed early this morning and held tight until we were riding in a bus with Mamadou Diop, the 7 foot local pastor with a heart of gold. He has coordinated our entire trip on this side of the ocean, and he will join us on all our adventures throughout our time here. I honestly feel privileged to have the opportunity to spend a week with a leader like him. He's quiet but has a strong presence everywhere we go. Here he is towering over T.O. below :)

We hit the ground running this morning and went to Goree Island, a historically popular destination in Dakar where the slaves used to be sold in the 16^th century.  We took a ferry out to the island and soaked in the beautiful scenery!  It was crowded with kids running around begging for money, and men and women fighting to earn a living.  While there are no longer slaves held on the island, we couldn’t help but feel like a significant number of the people are still in bondage.  It’s a spiritual bondage that we pray is broken by an understanding of the freedom offered to them through relationship with Jesus.  The country is still 94% Muslim, which is why we hope to provide encouragement to the Christian pastors at the West Africa Theological Institute during our time here.  Our team is pictured at the slave quarters below. 

We ate a delicious meal on the coast: fresh fish grilled with its skin, gills and eyeballs intact!  Everyone raved about it, yet we all grew in appreciation for the small blessings of Texas; like not having to constantly fan our food to keep the flies away.  It was a joy to hear the students sharing how grateful they are to be here and how grateful they are for the gifts they have back at home.  We are blown away by the beauty of Senegal and it still feels so surreal.  It’s also amazing to see that we are a blessed country in America and to grow in gratitude for those things in the midst of our fun and exciting time here! 

Lastly, are we not the luckiest people in the world to get to go on our adventures around the world with students as cool as the ones you see below? We are so blessed to spend a week with Adrienne, Seville, T.O., Carmen and Seville; and we're savoring every moment of this incredible opportunity!