Chronological Bible Storying
The truth is that nothing we do can break the hold of folk Islam on the Wolof people. We rely on the Word of God to do it. Everything we do is focused on getting His Word out to people.
Our main activity to that end is called chronological Bible storying. Storying uses a series of 52 stories that takes listeners from Creation through the Old Testament prophets to Jesus and his death and resurrection. Typically storying groups meet once a week for a year or so to work through all the stories. Groups are usually started when people hear about the stories through friends and invite us into their village. We gather those who are interested and start a group.
Since 2003, we have led storying groups in seven different villages. In some villages a children's storying group was done as well as an adult group. Sometimes the adult groups include both men and women; in other villages, we have had separate groups for the men and women.
Storying builds bridges with listeners by starting with what they already know and believe. We are able to build relationships over time and pass on eternal truths by not focusing on areas of disagreement. We simply teach the Word, beginning at the beginning.
Being in relationship with the group over a long period of time also gives us the ability to learn what their needs are and respond appropriately to them. Over the past few years that has meant our team has been able to help provide a primary health care clinic in one village, relief after a devastating fire in another village, numerous short term medical teams, running water in a village that was still relying on a deep hand-drawn well, and other projects.
The Holy Spirit has been working in exciting ways over the past few years through the teaching of the Bible stories, and the team has seen a small group of believers form in the Kaffrine area. These men and women meet on Sundays for teaching and fellowship and have become a real community of brothers and sisters to each other and to us. We have been involved in different discipleship activities with these believers and are thrilled to see how they are growing spiritually and living as witnesses for Christ in their own villages. Many of them face daily persecution in their own homes. Pray for the Lord to continue to build them up and strengthen their faith and testimony that His church might grow strong in the Kaffrine area!
Community Health Evangelism
Communities in Senegal are under intense pressure from all sides. High birth rates, high under 5 mortality rates, a lack of understanding of basic health care principles keeps families on the brink--health care costs can undercut an already strapped budget in just days.
Community Health Evangelism, or CHE, is a best-practices approach to development that is participative, involves the community in defining objectives and resources, and is designed to harness the community's energy, enabling community members to help each other in practical ways. CHE also is a integrated and holistic way of preparing people to hear the gospel and if the situation is right actually teaching about Jesus. It is a way to bring together words and actions to both teach and show the love of Jesus.
The core of the CHE program are the Community Health Evangelists/Educators. They are trained by us and then fan out into the community to teach about handwashing, diarrhea care, and other health topics. The actions of the CHEs are managed by a village-chosen health committee (shown in the above picture), that drives the program and makes decisions on the what and how.
This is a strategy that has not been fully implemented in Senegal yet, so we're trying it out in one of our villages to see how it works in our context. So far we've gone through the first several steps in the CHE process, and are still in the process of evaluating the program. Pray for us that we would be wise in how we interact with villagers and that we would implement the program well.