Getting There

 

May, 2000

 

Isn=t there a saying, Agetting there is half the fun@?

 

This year I had a number of students from my assigned schools who were applying for summer projects.� Each of the nine students who ended up going on one of the projects to Senegal, Calgary, or Toronto has a story to tell of how they saw God do miraculous things leading up to their mission trip.� Whether it was through the unusual provision of finances, a change in a parent=s attitude, or smoothing over some rough spots with the apartment landlord, students have witnessed God=s faithfulness to them as they stepped out in faith.

 

Sascha was one of several candidates who made a rather late application for a project.� Sascha is a linguistics student at the University of Ottawa.� Although she heard about the Senegal project before Christmas, it wasn=t until March 1st that she felt sure before the Lord that she should pursue going on the project.�

 

Senegal is a French-speaking Muslim country in West Africa.� Due to political changes, the country has recently experienced more freedom for active evangelism.� There are relatively few Christians in Senegal.� Christians experience much pressure to conform to Islam.� Campus Crusade does have three (?) young indigenous staff men in the country.� They have a small work on the prestigious national university campus in Dakar and have been doing some work in the community with the AJesus@ film.� Our plan for the summer project in Senegal was to work with these staff men on the university campus and build up the ministry there before going out to more remote areas with a new translation of the AJesus@ film.� There were two things that everyone involved in planning the project was excited about: being able to premiere a new language version of the AJesus@ film in remote areas in the interior of Senegal AND being able to do evangelism amongst women on the university campus.� Because of the traditions of Muslim culture and because all of our staff� in this country are men, it has been next to impossible for effective evangelism to take place amongst the educated women at the University of Dakar.

 

Back in Canada, we hoped that the Senegal project would attract and help build up francophone students involved in our ministry here.� I busily set about the work of supervising the translation of our application packages for summer projects into French.� In the end, by the time the recruiting was over at the end of February, we had only one francophone student from Qu�bec City signed up and a whole lot of students from other parts of Canada who either didn=t speak French at all or only minimally.� When Sascha and two other francophone girls at the Univeristy of Ottawa came on the scene wanting to apply for the Senegal project on March 1st, I phoned up the project director in Qu�bec City and asked if he was interested in extending the application deadline by a few days to see if we could get some more francophone women to Africa this summer.� The director agreed, provided that the candidates were qualified.

 

There was a flurry of phone calls as I needed to check the references for the three new candidates as soon as possible.� Sascha=s case was especially complex.� The other two girls decided to withdraw from the process after a few days.� Sascha=s references came through and she was accepted on the project with a condition: she needed to receive some type of training in evangelism.� Sascha had only been involved on the fringes of our movement at the U of O and had missed the evangelism training and evangelistic events that we had done during the year.

Due to illness and various other trying circumstances, it ended up that I was not able to meet Sascha to go witnessing on campus until after classes were over for the semester.� Hardly anybody was on campus on the day we went out witnessing in the period between the end of classes and the beginning of exams. The first girl we approached (the only one in the area) was willing to talk with us. What was more, she was a Francophone.� We could not have asked for a more ideal training situation.�� At the end of the presentation of the AFour Spiritual Laws@, we could see that Sophie, the girl with whom we spoke, was very touched.� She went home and prayed the prayer that night.� In fact, she met Sascha on campus a few days later for follow-up.� I have rarely seen things unfold in such a textbook scenario in real-life evangelism with Francophones at the University of Ottawa.

 

During April, Sascha was preoccupied with exams and other personal events in her life.� She didn=t have a lot of time to devote to raising support for the� project.� Miraculously, God provided more financial support than she needed to go to Senegal.� She was able to help others who had less than they needed for their project costs.

 

Although there was a lot of hard work and prayer involved on our part, it is safe to say that it was God who intervened and helped Sascha with Agetting there@ (to Africa) this summer.� At this very moment I trust that Sascha is the answer to someone=s prayers as she witnesses in French to Muslim women at the University of Dakar.

 

Through the process I have been privileged to get to know Sascha better and accompany her on her faith walk.� Along the way a new walk of faith has also started for Sophie.� Thank you for standing with me through your prayers and finances.� Even though you and I may not be able to go to Africa and participate directly in what God is doing there, together we can have a key part in getting others there.

 

Into Africa,