Thanksgiving 2010 at the Missionary Training Center

Young Muslim moms and their kids: Mia, Marietou, Anna Kristina, and Marietou

The teen girls from the bible study are looking at pics from the Girls' camp on my laptop

Pauline

Marie Louise, Solange, and me

Aline

Marie Louise

Solange with her orange punch

Mia, 3yrs old, with Anna Kristina, 1 1/2 yrs old

Baby Anna loves her mashed potatoes

The big platter: Chicken pieces over stuffing, mashed potatoes with gravy, squash, and piles of green bean casserole

Thanksgiving Senegalese style

For Thanksgiving we invited many young people to come here to enjoy the feast with us. After dinner, we watched the Wizard of Oz in French and then ate pumpkin pie with whipped cream (a real treat here). We had 12 people come throughout the day.  It was really nice to spend the day with them.  Many of them said how much they enjoyed it.

Tabaski in Loudia

Marie

Hanging with Marie's family in her back yard

Marie's friend and her new baby

Neighbors cooking up muton in sauce

Fried sheep liver in sauce.  I don't like liver but this stuff was great!

Marie and I will neighbors

Marie's Grandmother, Tina and I

Marie' Uncle, Tina, and I

Yumm, meat off the bone

Mmmm, cous cous

The first dinner

The second dinner at Marie's house

Now, we are really stuffed!

The red satin heart bed is the spot to be

The little girls in Loudia are about to go door to door to collect candy or rice a holiday tradition

Baby Astou at the Manet's house

The ladies at the Manet's house

Fanta Manet in yellow with relatives and friends

A couple of weeks ago, Kristina and I were invited to come to visit our friend Marie in Loudia for Tabaski, a Muslim holiday. She is a student at the Lycee (the French version of High School) that's next to the Missionary Training Center.  She lives in our neighborhood during the week to go to school and walks home to her village on the weekends.   On Tabaski, Muslims in Senegal slaughter sheep at their houses and eat muton.  It was great to get to know Marie , her family, and her friends.  After we walked back to Oussouye that evening, we went to visit our neighbors, the Manet's.

November Women's Seminar in Ziguinchor

The bus ride to Ziguinchor

Florence

 

See the geek with the dictionary,  French bible, English  bible and notebook

Marie Ines, one of our speakers, speaks in Portuguese Creole

Worship Dancing

Olga Bolie Dancing for Jesus (she's 8 months pregnant here!)

You know the game hot potatoe?  Well, this is pass the cup..fast!!

This old lady on the left loves to dance for Jesus, and she looks to be ~80 years old!

Lucy Lambal from Oussouye and me

The breakfast crowd

Warm, chocolate milk, warm regular milk and bagettes. Breakfast of champions

Martine from Segana

Astou leading worship

In early November many Christian women from our region gathered in Ziguinchor to seek God to strengthen us so we can effectively do Jesus' work together. So Tina and I traveled with Astou and Martine from Oussouye to Ziguinchor.  For 2 1/2 days we all stayed at the Mission property of the Association of Evangelical Churches of Senegal in Ziguinchor, where we had the seminar. The ride there was fun. Kristina, Astou, Martine, and myself went to to Oussouye garoutiere and rode the bus to Ziguinchor together. The seminar was a fruitful time. We all prayed together, worshiped God together, studied the bible together, ate together, played games together, and shared about our lives with one another.  It was especially refreshing for the other ladies, who can't get away from home often, due to responsibilities for their families.  We all had a ball!  By the end of our time there, God gone made us more unified, helped us build unity with those in our individual churches, and did inner and physical healing in our lives.  Jesus is so cool!