Senegal
A 60-year journey — translating the Bible into Wolof

I went from saying, “Please don’t send me to Africa,” to truly loving this country and its people. I was living in Hawaii, graduating from the University of Hawaii at Manoa, and preparing to head to Asia to teach English as a second language. I hoped to use that as a way to share the gospel. Africa wasn’t part of the plan.

But while studying at Wheaton College, I met a missionary couple preparing to go to Senegal. When they heard I was studying linguistics, they invited me to help translate the Bible for three million Wolof speakers, people who were entirely Muslim.

That invitation stayed with me. These were people faithfully trying to earn their way to paradise through daily prayers, fasting, and pilgrimage. They needed to know there was more. God wasn’t just restoring what was lost. He was drawing people back to Himself and making them new in Jesus.

As I began learning Wolof, it became less about vocabulary and more about relationships. I knew I was making progress when I could talk my way out of a driving ticket! I was welcomed into weddings, baby naming ceremonies, and everyday meals like peanut butter stew, chicken yassa, and millet porridge with yogurt.

Eventually, I began supervising the Wolof Bible translation. I worked alongside a Muslim translator since no Christian was available. I would walk through each passage with him, drawing from the Greek or Hebrew, and provide a base translation in French for him to build from if he couldn’t understand from those.

I arrived in Senegal in 1972 and joined a project that had started in 1963. If I had known how long it would take, or that three translators would pass away before its completion, or thatI would get malaria, hepatitis, amoebic dysentery and Lyme disease, I might have asked God to send someone else.

When I first arrived, there was no evangelical church in the city of Thiès. When the New Testament was published in 1987, there still wasn’t a church able to host a dedication. Today, while there are still few Wolof believers, there are now more than a dozen churches reaching out and eager to use this Bible to invite others to follow Jesus.

Next month, the completed Wolof Bible will be dedicated in churches across Senegal. It’s been a great ride!

Prayer Requests:

  • That the printed Scripture would be a blessing to the Wolof people

  • That many would com not know the one true God

  • That these Scriptures would strengthen the church and lead to new churches being planted across Senegal

Ethiopia
Children’s HopeChest - Empowering vulnerable children & their families to break the cycle of poverty

You can read more about what is happening in Ethiopia here.

Prayer Requests:

  • The students at Hitata Genet to continue work hard in their studies

  • The parents to continue faithfully running their small businesses, providing for their families and saving for the future

Guinea
Sharing God’s love & provision with the next generation

After years of anticipation and prayer, a new medical office has opened its doors in Guinea.

Prayer Requests:

  • As the team consults and educates the community about preventative health practices, that the love love of Christ be pressed on the hearts of those who come to the clinic