Christmas in Senegal

Christmas in Senegal has been great. It is different but good. Thanks for our wonderful family and Links Churches in IL we were able to have a huge Christmas. God has been so good to us.

It is weird how things in a mostly Muslim Country really aren't too much different than we are used to. There are plenty of shopping going on and there are Santas at the grocery stores. Although they do look a little different. It is funny how the santa here is African but has stark white hair and beard. Abby didn't think it was santa.

The kids were in a Christmas play at church. Luke was a shephard and one of the wise men and Abby was an angel. They both had speaking parts and did a great job.

Life is good for us. We are anticipating "God" things this year. We are still unsure when we will be headed to Rwanda but are excited and anxious to get there. We are also praying that we will be able to make it to Generall Assembly in June. This may be our transition time and route to Rwanda. If your church would like for us to come and speak this summer please let us know and we will see what we can do.

The picture below is a guy who was riding his rollerblades and hanging on to our car. When he noticed us taking pictures he started to show off. It was funny.

We love and appreciate all of you.
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all!

Love the Baggotts

Kigali, Rwanda

As some of you know, we have accepted an assignment in Kigali Rwanda with the French Equatorial Field. Our French study is coming to a close here in Senegal and we are excited to serve the Lord in our new assignment. Our new assignment will be for the "Great Lakes Region." This area will include Rwanda - where we will live, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Our first plan for this move was in December... but, for several reasons we are now looking to move sometime late Spring or Summer of 2009. Please pray for us as we have a many things to take care of before we can settle down in Kigali.

Okay I promise I will blog soon more about what we will be doing in Rwanda but for now I am in a meeting and need to be discrete. : )

Here are some prayer requests that we would appreciate you praying for.
1. Everything that is involved in moving. (Shipping our things, airline quotes, timing etc.)
2. Once again transitioning Luke and Abby into another Country, home and school.
3. Pray that we have funds come in to help with General Assembly and to purchase a vehicle when we arrive in Kigali.
4. This will be our first Christmas away from family.
5. Finally, pray that we will be able to impact lives for Christ here in Senegal even before we move.

We are thankful to have those of you who partner with us in prayer. We feel like we have sacrificed little to be here - we are truly blessed! May you be as blessed as we are this Christmas season!

We love you all,
Spencer, April, Lucas and Abigail

Luke's field trip to Goree Island

Today Luke had his first field trip...Ever! It was a lot of fun but very tiring. The 1st graders and the 4th graders of his school went on this trip.

Goree Island is an island about 20 minutes away by ferry. It was a slave trade place that was closed down years ago. We were able to visit the actual slave trade house where thousands of Africans were traded into slavery. After visiting the house the kids were able to swim in the ocean until the ferry went back to Dakar. Today the water of the ocean was rough so the ferry ride made me very dizzy... but I survived and we had a great time. Enjoy the pictures!

The Joy Inside!

Okay so today I have been feeling an overwhelming since of Joy. Not because Spencer is coming home from his trip to Rwanda (which i am very excited about) but because I am feeling the presence of the Lord. You know that presence that can be a little overwhelming. As I sit here and try to figure out why this joy now, I am reminded of how this joy is something that is always there if we are willing to receive it. God is good and I am praising Him today. That's all for now : )

Kids 1st Day of school

Luke and Abby attend a French/English Bilingual school. One their first day of school they came home having a great day. Of course as you can imagine sending your kids to school is already kinda scary but sending them to a school where they can only communicate with a small percentage of people during the day can be frustrating. But this year they love it. Luke is in 1st grade (CP) and Abby is in preschool (moyenne section). They are beginning to pick up the language and they are having fun meeting new friends at school. Here are a couple of pictures of them on their first day of class.

April's Trip to Burkina Faso

This past week I had the opportunity to go to Burkina Faso, which is 2 Countries East of Senegal. The Country is one of the poorest nations in the world. Although it is very poor, the people there seemed very pleasant and the land was clean. Well... at least cleaner than Senegal.
While in the Country I was able to meet 16 pastors and visit one village. The pastors seemed very excited about me being there and wanted me to move to BF... rather than the opportunity we have in Rwanda. More on that later. Most of the pastors in Burkina Faso are very poor. There are 2 bags of rice at the church I went to for the pastors. Every four months the pastors come and get food for their family. Please remember them in your prayers as these pastors are hungry and continue to survive each day.
While visiting one of the villages I was able to see the Nazarene school that was built by work and witness teams for the neighboring village. I was met by lots of happy children. They loved to have their pictures taken and then look at themselves in the camera.
There are about 120 students that attend the school. This school provides education in French and is taught by Christian teachers.
This past week I was also able to meet some of the coolest missionaries I know. Friday and Mary Friday Ganda are the new missionaries assigned to the Africa West Field. In 45 hours we were able to find them a beautiful house, a guard, furniture for the house, a language tutor, and get their visas. Isn't God good?
BF is full of motorcycles, scooters, bikes, and mopeds. There are actually more of these than there are cars.
Here are some more highlights that I experienced while in BF.

• I experienced God moving with in the Ganda's situation. Everything was really smooth with their house hunting etc..
  
• I saw a truck full of meat. See picture.
  
• We had a 14 year old boy fix our car.
• I saw a large truck carrying boxes of fish. I think the fish came from the ocean and it was not in any kind of freezer or on ice. Just the fish... (By the way, Burkina Faso is far from the ocean.)
  
• I was able to buy brown sugar at the local grocery store. Yay!
• I saw a guy on a scoter carrying a large goat.
  

This was a great trip and I am thankful I was able to have gone. Spencer and the kids stayed home. While they were at home Spencer cleaned and rearranged the home. I think he was trying to make the time pass.

Please contiue to pray for us. As our language study is coming to a close we will be transitioning to our official assignment. As of today, our assignment possibilities are Burkina Faso and Rwanda.










We love all of you,
April

I know I know

Hello All,
Okay we bored one night and yes we will start to blog more. Learning French and adjusting to the different life here in Africa brings lots of tiring days so.....we will try more now.

Please continue to pray for us as we are on this journey. We are in the process of deciding where our new assignment will take us. As you know our French study is coming to a close and Spencer is speaking French. Okay - for me well.... I am learning but it is a slower process than it is for Spencer.

Luke and Abby will start back to school in just a couple of weeks. They are going back to their previous school which is a blessing. It is a French school and their days are full of french learning.

Okay enjoy the video clip and remember we love you all!
love,
the Baggotts

Dakar Nazarene Baptisim

Photobucket Album

The pool on our roof!

Okay it is hot here in Senegal. So.. I found this little but very expensive pool for the kids. It was worth every cent. I put it on the terrace and took our kitchen table up there to enjoy internet upstairs. They love it and want to go swimming everyday. They are having a blast.
School is over for the kids tomorrow. It is their last day for the summer and they will start back up September 15th. They have a long break. I have no idea what i am gonna do with them this summer. I am thinking about putting Luke in swimming lessons and then Abby and I can swim during his lessons.
Spencer has been in Burkina Faso for the past week and a half. We really miss him when he is away so we are looking forward to him coming home in 2 days. Yeah!! I am sure he will blog all about his trip soon so make sure you come back to the blog to check it out.
Okay here are some pictures of the kids.
We love and appreciate all of you guys!

Our Neighbors

Behind our house is a village type setting. There are houses that are made up of scrap metal, wood, cardboard boxes etc. They do not have running water or electricity. It is a sad situation when we look at the little kids running around hungry and dirty. One day April went to the bakery and bought some cake and gave it to the kids. When she gave them the bag some of them starting crying. Of course, we’re not sure if that was because they were happy or fighting over it… Our guard told us of a young mother who lives back there who had been sick in bed for 11 days. She finally went to the doctor and got a prescription. Long story short somone asked our guard to ask us to help buy the medicine. We were concerned about setting a precedent. Spencer decided to look on the internet to see what kind of medicine she was prescribed. It was for Malaria! This girl was very sick... so we decided to send our guard for the medicine. The medicine may have saved her life. It is sad to know that many die because they can't afford the $10 medicine. That money was nothing to us, but meant a great deal to her. So after getting the medicine April made up a plate of food and took it to her shack. Of course, our guard went with her because her French is... limited. Seeing their living conditions saddened April. The girl was able to eat the food and was better in just a couple of days. Praise the Lord.


On Wednesday,May 14th, we were sitting on our couch when we heard lots of screaming. April ran to the front of the house and I ran to the back. When she opened the door our guard was throwing his things inside our gate and yelling at her in French. He seemed very upset. So as April ran to get me I told her to stay inside and look for my ladder. Of course, she didn't stay inside - she ran back to the front after finding the ladder and noticed that the dark sky was red. The red was from a huge fire that was on the other side of our wall. There were 2 of the shanty houses that were burning. When April stepped outside of our wall/gate kids and people were screaming. It was very upsetting to hear people screaming and crying. Our guard, Cheik and I got the ladder and managed to get our water hose over the wall. We are thankful we have a long hose. As they were trying to put out the fire with our hose and low water pressure from our house, April called another missionary not knowing what else to do. We weren’t even sure if the fire truck could even get to the fire. But after talking with missionary Tim Eby he managed to call our pastor who ended up calling the fire department. Surprisingly the fire truck arrived about 15 minutes later. All they were able to do at that point was to make sure the fire was out. The national police showed up later and took 4 people away. This was apparently arson. Pray that we will know how to respond to someone who has lost so little, but at the same time everything.

Spencer in Ghana

I went to Ghana for 10 days of leadership and education meetings.  It was a great experience.  The opportunity to meet the leaders on our field was great.  The District Superintendents and or Ministry Coordinators were there from Benin, Togo, Nigeria, Ghana, Liberia, Burkina Faso, Sierra Leone, Cape Verde, and Senegal.  One really cool thing was to meet Matt Price who was our LINKS missionary in Lake City!  Small world, huh?  Well, West Africa is seeing a lot happening and there is really much more on the horizon...  

I thought it might be interesting to share some of my experiences on the trip.  First of all, I thought Senegal was hot... until I went to Ghana.  We would lay down to go to sleep most nights, around 11:00 p.m. and the temp. would still be about 92 in our room with - I'm guessing - about 80% humidity!  Comfy!  Although the cold shower just before bed didn't hurt, when we had water...  I did have my first bucket bath also.  You do kinda get used to sweating all the time after a while.  There were about 20 guys staying at the church.  We had four showers, all cold, and one sink - outside.  We ate a lot of rice and various sauces, all sauces were a little spicy, a welcome change from Senegal!  We ate lunch at a local restaurant several days.  When we walked in the second day and saw bowls of water and soap on the tables, I wondered what it was for.  The second day I saw it, I knew we would be eating with our hands...  So we drank our water from bags and ate with our hands. : -)   

The markets were much like Senegal, however... Ghana is an English speaking country (a surprisingly strange adjustment) so they had many products that we are used to that are unavailable in Senegal.  I was able to bring back some brown sugar, Crystal hot sauce, Tobasco, and even a little Root Beer!  I was able to walk around town one day with Frank Mills, a local pastor from Accra.  We taxied around to find a bank that would accept my check card, stopped at his mother's house and had a "Vita Milk," a very different drink for an American (Soy milk), and walked a few miles around town.  By the end of the trip, I had tried a "Malta Guinness" also.  Again, a very unusual drink.  It tastes like drinking carbonated grape nuts with a corn flake finish.  I'm not kidding!  The funny thing is it was surprisingly refreshing on a hot day.  Well, I could tell things of much more significance, but I thought these experiences might be interesting to others.  If the conditions sound miserable to you, well...  I had a wonderful time.  The only condition I really didn't like is my family wasn't with me!  God is good!  Oh I almost forgot, I was able to attend a Sunday service in English for the first time since we moved here!  God IS good.  Be blessed.  And feel free to join me here up on the Potter's wheel.  Spencer.

    

A child's cry for freedom in Dakar's streets

If you want to understand a little of the work we have ahead of us in Dakar you can get a glimpse of it by reading the following article.
April

http://www.washingtontimes.com/article/20080424/FOREIGN/482640151

Random Pics

Photobucket Album

Too Tired for Words so here are some Pics

Safari

We went on our first Safari here in West Africa. It was a lot of fun but really hot! Enjoy the pics.
love,
US