Day 4- Nutrition Center

Nancy Hermanson from Appleton First Church opened our day with devotions.

The schedule for Day 4 was a bit shuffled.  So it was a change (but a welcome one) that we toured Rose du Lac, the Pink Lake.  Beyond its color Rose du Lac is known as a bountiful source of salt.  Workers row out into the lake and gather salt simply scooping it into plastic containers and eventually their boats.  The lake is replenished with salt (and salt water) from the ocean during rainy season, from August to September.

"Rose du Lac:" The Pink Lake

A mound of salt near Rose du Lac

Most of our team looking at the camera near Rose du Lac!

From Rose du Lac, we went to the village of Mbassis to experience a feeding center, an Advance Project from the United Methodist Church.  A group from the United Methodist Mission in Dakar typically comes on Saturday to help feed 42 children.  We did not get to see 42 children on this Tuesday, as some were in the nearby public school. The primary purpose is of course to provide food to a needy population.  But the mission staff stated that teaching nutritional value was also part of their goals.  "We want to bring them meat, milk, rice, beans and fish," one staff member said.  "But they also have some of those things. So it is teaching them to eat beans, vegetables, use some of the things they have."

Pastor Tony Fuller greets the village and Pastor Etienne.

Pastor Etienne is the pastor for 6 local churches around the villages. Etienne expressed that the feeding ministry is many children first had any contact with the church, and it furthered their relationship.  Many children that have been raised in the feeding program became lay preachers in one of the nearby United Methodist Churches.

Pastor Etienne welcomes the children of the village.

Pastor Etienne talked about the importance of the program to the community:  "Everything you are sending, everything is food for these children.  The program is not perfect.  We try to make it better everyday.  But it is all for the children."

Bill Gibson makes a new friend in Mbassis

There are two other feeding centers like this one in Mbassis.  You can learn more about the project and give to it online here- https://www.umcmission.org/Give-to-Mission/Search-for-Projects/Projects/14525A