Dakar Academy is not just a ministry of adults to students. It is a ministry of students to Senegal. Over 75 of our 110 high school students gave up 3 days of their Thanksgiving vacation to go to the village of Sass (pronounced "sahs"), a few hours from our campus, where they worked long, hard days in hot, sunny weather to minister to the physical and spiritual needs of the residents.
Joining our students on this trip were 25 more students from a sister school in Madrid, Spain. Plus, ten national pastors--including the president of the national church--lived, ate, and worked with the students.
The daytime project teams:
- Team 1: Roofed the village pastor's home
- Team 2: Dug and poured a foundation for a church
- Team 3: Dug a septic system
- Team 4: Made and repaired church benches and made a pulipt
- Team 5: Painted another church and two homes in a nearby village
- Team 6: Provided medical aid to 157 locals. (Our assistant director, who is an EMT, provided training and first aid certification for our students, who administered most of the treatments. Two additional trained medical professionals were on the trip to help with triage.)
- Team 7: Visited 13 villages, presenting the gospel through skits, music, mime, and puppet shows to about 1200 children and adults.
- Team 8: Ran Bible programs ("Vacation Bible School") with 800 children!
- Team 9: Worked at the campsite coordinating meals and hand-pumping gallons and gallons of filtered water.
At night, troups of students went to three different villages and joined the Senegalese pastors in presenting the gospel to all who came to listen. Between 180 and 200 of these people indicated that they recognized the truth of the Biblical message of spiritual freedom in Christ, and wanted to become Christians. Many have already gotten involved in their local churches.
The students finished the weekend by joining the Sass church members in ther Sunday morning worship service. "We were deeply moved and humbled," wrote our outreach coordinator," when the president of the national church asked our staff and students to surround the local believers and pray for them. Indeed, the battle has just begun and we need to pray for these dear folks, that they will be faithful in sharing the gospel with their neighbors and building God's kingdom in that area.”
Photo of some of our girls working in Sass, taken by outreach coordinator Evan Evans.
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