Mailing Address: SIL • BP 2075 • Dakar • Senegal • Africa • This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Birthdays: Jay - May 24, Sue - August 3, Jamie - May 22, Jeremy - September 1, Jason - November 29, Jay and Sue's Anniversary - June 10

The Ministry

Jay works in the finance office for the region and teaches their children Jamie, Jeremy and Jason. Sue also teaches the children, but mainly she is trying to complete the linguistic analysis of the Konyagi language. Sue currently is working with two Konyagi men in Dakar. They have produced some literary materials, translated some health guides and are currently working on a translation Guide for literacy along with a dictionary. The Konyagi are a mainly animistic group, of about 18,000-20,000. The church has an average attendance of about 45 and needs a New Testament translation.

About Jay & Sue

Jay grew up in Kalamazoo Michigan. He received a degree in evangelism from Moody bible institute. Sue grew up in New Hampshire, and graduated from UNH with a major in Spanish and a minor in French. Sue studied linguistics at the summer institute of linguistics in TX and OK. She also studied for one year at Moody, there they met. Sue began her work in Senegal in 1985, serving there for one term. They married on June 10 1989 and returned to Senegal together in march 1991.

Recent Update

Greetings!

We've just gone through another patch of electricity cuts - 8 hrs. on, 8 hrs. off.  Things seem to be better now.  We slept on the roof a couple of nights to avoid our 93 degree apt. with no fans.

We have recorded all of Luke on tape.  A few chapters will be distributed to Konyagi villages in August when we plan to spend two weeks in the village (Aug. 12-26) and visiting other Konyagi communities in the interior.  We also plan to check the whole of Luke for clarity and naturalness.  We expect to leave cassettes and the written text in several villages on our way out to Sare Aye ("our" village) and stop and get feedback on our way back to Dakar.  We keep trying different methods for checking our work with the villagers.  We'll see how effective this one is.

Baptisms have been a bit of a theme this month as Jamie and I took public transportation out to one of the schools for missionary kids (about 1.5 hours outside the city) to attend the baptism of some of our colleagues' kids and then I attended a baptism service for Papa and his wife, Emma, at their church.  (Papa is the Konyagi man who works with us as translator.)  Both ceremonies - one Western (white), one African (black) - were very exciting and proof of God's continued work in this country.

We continue to see funds trickle in for the purchase of a vehicle.  The exchange rate is, at the same time, turning a little more in our favor.  We'll be renting the truck of some colleagues to go out to the village in Aug. Please continue to pray for transportation needs.  Maybe the Lord will show you a new venue for obtaining funds?  "A Carwash for a New Car!"  Renting a vehicle or taking a taxi here in town costs roughly $.75 a mile (depending on the exchange rate for any given month) which can really add up quickly. We'd rather be paying to run our own vehicle which can be resold when we're done with it than be paying to run someone else's.

We praise God for general good health this past month and do pray that would continue.  The kids and I go swimming 2x a week which helps us to get some exercise and to get off the Center.

A lot of colleagues have left for the summer or for extended furloughs leaving us somewhat shorthanded here at the Center.  Jay has taken on more responsibility for the running of things in the absence of a Center Manager and we, being one of the few "permanent fixtures" here on the Center, see a lot of people go in and out our door: hospitality plays a pretty major part in our role here.
I've just finished reading a book that I found quite powerful: "Safely Home" by Randy Alcorn.  It's a novel that deals with the persecuted church in China and is extremely well written. I found it quite providential to be reading it now when we're so tempted to complain about the heat and lack of electricity.  Compared to what so many of God's children suffer around the world this is nothing!  So, read it if you're looking for a good, uplifting, challenging book - and pray for us to be grateful to God even when there's no electricity!

Blessings on you today!

Prayer Requests