Spiritual Life Conference

We had a really blessed time of fellowship at the Spiritual Life Conference. It was great that the speakers were good long-term friends who knew just what it is like to live here in Senegal. Good messages, good fellowship with old and new friends and good times of relaxing and pampering in a lovely comfortable setting.

Our Kaffrine Bible Club put on the Easter Play for the whole Spiritual Life Conference and it was well received. The kids performed well and weren’t shy in front of so many people. (Sorry, I don’t have any pictures, we were so busy getting everything done right nobody thought of a camera!)

Trip to Abu Dhabi

I so enjoyed getting to see so many of you in Abu Dhabi! It was such a pleasure to see so many old friends and to make some new ones!

I don’t think I had a spare moment, but it was all a blessing to see how timings and schedules worked for me to see so many people! I visited with 7 Friday morning children’s classes and 3 AWANA clubs; had lunch dates on 9 different days; met with 7 church groups; met with 5 different families and had many more meetings with others over coffee. Many days I left the house at 8 or 9 in the morning and didn’t get home till 9 or 10 at night! I had some days with breakfast, lunch and dinner dates, with phone calls and appointments in between. I did NOT achieve my goal of not gaining any weight!

There were many of you who blessed me with gifts toward my support, and I am so very grateful for this tangible evidence of your love. With the promise of support from the church and your generous gifts my support is at 30% of my monthly requirement. Please be in prayer with me over the rest of the 70% that I need for the next three years. To find out how you can be part of my support team, pick up a Response Card from the Usher’s table, pray about how you can be involved, complete it and return it to the church office. You can also visit my web site at http://janiegarrett.org/ or email me at Janie.garrett@sim.org.

As an added adventure on my trip to Abu Dhabi, I had a 14-hour layover in Nairobi, Kenya and visited with Nigist Fanta, a former ECC member. She came, picked me up at the airport, took me to her home, fed me breakfast, put me to bed (I had been up on a flight all night), got me up and fed me lunch and took me back to the airport.

On arriving at the airport to return to Senegal, I was told my flight out of Dubai was delayed so late I would miss my flight out of Nairobi, and the next flight was two days later! They provided me with a hotel room in Nairobi and all meals, so I ended up getting to meet Nigist’s new husband over a nice dinner and having a whole day of peaceful rest before returning to Senegal.

Showing a Jesus Film in the village

Corey and Katie are completing their residence in the village of Ndiayekounda at the end of May. For the last two years they have lived three days of most weeks in two huts in this village sharing the gospel and living with the people. To culminate all their gospel presentations they showed a film about Jesus last Saturday night. They started with a meal which included thirty guests who came from a neighboring village and showed the film to over 250 people. There was great interest in the movie and several commented that they need to see the film several more times to really understand, but no one in the village has faith in Jesus yet. Please pray that the seeds of the gospel that have been planted there will bear much fruit.

Upcoming Trip

Currently I am in the midst of endings.

I leave Kaffrine on 31 May. We are down to the last two weeks of school and the girls are all scrambling to get done by Friday, so they can get prizes for finishing early. We have an all-day Home School Jamboree in Fatick (2 ½ hours away) with other home school families on Saturday, 19 May and are looking forward to showing off our skills and achievements.

We are moving out of our current home and will be living in a different place when we return to Senegal so I am packing up all my belongings. I need to sort into ‘get rid of’, ‘pack to keep in Senegal’ and ‘pack to take to the USA’. I also need to pack for my travels this summer.

I will depart from Senegal the first of June but our new home in Connecticut won’t be available until the first of August. I plan to visit friends I met here in Senegal, friends from ECC, and some old friends in the US, so need to live out of a small suitcase for June and July!

Home Assignment Update

Our plans for Home Assignment are progressing but we still need many things to fall in place. The girls have been accepted at The Master’s School, the Christian school Katie attended! And they have been granted financial aid, but there is a sizable portion of their tuition that is still needed. We also still do not have any vehicles.

Prayer Concerns:

• Praise that I have been confirmed as the Assistant to the Northeast Regional Director for SIM and will start work in September. I will work at this (unpaid) job throughout our time in the USA.

• Praise for the girls being accepted and awarded financial aid at The Master’s School; pray for the remaining tuition needed.

• Pray for all the packing and details that need to be cared for before I leave on May 31.

• Pray that our concentration and performance in school will stay strong and focused to the end.

• Pray for vehicles for our family.

• Pray for safe travel for me and Corey and Katie with the girls.

• Pray for my support to come to 100% so I can remain on Active status with SIM.