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| A sign outside the Mbour church. |
God had much to show our mission team on Day 7. We began by traveling to Mbour to see the church and women's skill center.
The Mbour Skill Center has been in operation since 1999. Margarite Faye, who supervises the center, told us about the 4 courses that are taught: tie-dye, sewing, embroidery, and crochet. In past years the center typically welcomed 25-30 women. It currently is teaching 59, offering courses in the morning in afternoon. The center just purchased 6 new sewing machines, now having a total of 15.
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| Women's sewing skill center in Mbour. |
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| Margarite Faye supervises the skill center in Mbour. |
The growing need (and response) to the skills program in the community has spurred development projects at the Mbour Church. We were given a tour by Simon Diatta, who showed us a new construction project that will become an expanded skill center and mission offices.
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| Simon Diatta tells Bill Gibson about the developing projects at Mbour. |
"By the grace of God, today finally the center is here. Construction is started," said Diatta.
The construction project is a larger vision of the MBour church expanding for the future to serve its community. The sewing skill center continues to grow. A staff member from Dakar will come to offer culinary training.
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| Church building in Point Sarene, the first United Methodist church in Senegal. |
From Mbour we traveled to Point Sarane to the site of the first United Methodist Church in Senegal. Lay pastors typically preach on a Sunday morning, but it is part of a charge served by Pastor Jean Pierre. He serves churches in Mbour, Point Sarane, and Luly.
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| Pastor Jean Pierre with Bill Gibson. |
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| Our team with some of the village members in Port Sarane. |
Point Sarene is also home to an agricultural project spearheaded by United Methodist Missionary David Makobo. David was away in South Africa, but Simon and Pastor Jean Pierre introduced us to the farmers and provided a tour of the project.
"This project has been a great help to this village," shared Simon as we walked to the gardens. "We have needed to build irrigation ditches and carry water up the hill to water these gardens. But the people have learned much, it has helped them much." Currently the garden is growing tomatoes, onions, pepper, and eggplant.
"Everyone in the village is very proud to show you how the projects are going here," said one of the lay preachers. "We are very happy to see you in the village today."
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| Peppers growing in the garden. |
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| Pastor Ben Morris from Emmanuel with some egplant from the garden. |
After the visit in Point Sarene we were debriefing our visit with Pastor Joseph Bleck. He talked about the importance of mercy and justice in order to reach people in Senegal. "Evangelism is very hard in Senegal. Its very hard to build trust; people don't know Christianity." (Senegal is 95% Muslim)
Pastor Bleck continued: "Senegal is different than other countries in Africa. You can go to Congo and just starting preaching and convert people. Our evangelism is through our projects, showing people who Jesus. Then we can preach the Gospel."
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| The gardens outside Point Sarene. |
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