{"id":9360,"date":"2020-06-03T11:57:29","date_gmt":"2020-06-03T15:57:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/?p=9360"},"modified":"2020-06-03T11:57:29","modified_gmt":"2020-06-03T15:57:29","slug":"senegal-a-church-for-the-wolof","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/?p=9360","title":{"rendered":"SENEGAL: A Church for the Wolof"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-9361\" src=\"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Senegal-photo-world-venture.jpg\" alt=\"Senegal photo - world venture\" width=\"640\" height=\"427\" srcset=\"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Senegal-photo-world-venture.jpg 640w, https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Senegal-photo-world-venture-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/>Source: WorldVenture, June 1, 2020<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">On Saturday, May 30, 2020, we broke ground for a permanent place of worship. The story behind the ceremony for a new church building began years ago. After decades of missionary work, there are only about 100 Wolof believers [known Wolof believers in Dakar]. Out of those 100 believers, less than a third attend church on a regular basis. This breaks our hearts. When we spoke to some of them, they shared several reasons for not attending.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\u201cIt doesn\u2019t feel sacred.\u201d They desire a formal place of worship.<\/li>\n<li>\u201cIt doesn\u2019t feel Senegalese.\u201d The worship style of most churches is imported.<\/li>\n<li>\u201cThey can\u2019t understand it.\u201d It is in French instead of Wolof, their heart language.<\/li>\n<li>\u201cThey can\u2019t find it.\u201d Many Dakar churches rent houses. The rented houses do not feel like a sacred place to worship. The rented houses are in obscure neighborhoods and are often forced to move every few years.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Because of this, we felt it was important to start a church, but we wanted it to be Senegalese. We desired to plant a church in partnership with our church association. After talking and praying with them for a long time, they finally came to us and said, \u201cWe need a church in Dakar for our young people. They are full of faith when they leave the villages for work or school in the city and they come back lost.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>We had a prayer of dedication for the land and the building on Saturday, May 30. On June 2, we [began] laying the foundations of the building. As we reflect on what God has done in the past, we see how God has paved our way.<\/p>\n<p>\u00bb <a href=\"https:\/\/worldventure.com\/building-a-church-legacy-in-senegal\/\" data-cke-saved-href=\"https:\/\/worldventure.com\/building-a-church-legacy-in-senegal\/\">Full story<\/a> explores obstacles they had to overcome. Let\u2019s pray for the Wolof church to grow and draw more people to Jesus.<\/p>\n<p>\u00bb Maybe you heard that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fastcompany.com\/90506319\/in-senegal-a-new-covid-test-will-cost-just-1-and-take-10-minutes-for-results\" target=\"_blank\" data-cke-saved-href=\"https:\/\/www.fastcompany.com\/90506319\/in-senegal-a-new-covid-test-will-cost-just-1-and-take-10-minutes-for-results\">a company in Dakar has developed a US$1, 10-minute COVID-19 test<\/a> (Fast Company). <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2020\/06\/02\/world\/africa\/coronavirus-test-lab.html\" target=\"_blank\" data-cke-saved-href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2020\/06\/02\/world\/africa\/coronavirus-test-lab.html\">Some at the lab have gotten sick, though, and one has died<\/a> (The New York Times).<\/p>\n<p>\u00bb More from West Africa: read a <a href=\"https:\/\/sahelblog.wordpress.com\/2020\/06\/02\/roundup-on-recent-attacks-in-northern-and-eastern-burkina-faso-and-a-bit-of-context\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-cke-saved-href=\"https:\/\/sahelblog.wordpress.com\/2020\/06\/02\/roundup-on-recent-attacks-in-northern-and-eastern-burkina-faso-and-a-bit-of-context\/\">roundup of news and analysis of three violent attacks in Burkina Faso<\/a> (Sahel blog) and read about <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dw.com\/en\/children-west-africa\/a-53579508\" target=\"_blank\" data-cke-saved-href=\"https:\/\/www.dw.com\/en\/children-west-africa\/a-53579508\">children left behind in West Africa\u2019s conflict-torn regions<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Source: WorldVenture, June 1, 2020 On Saturday, May 30, 2020, we broke ground for a permanent place of worship. The story behind the ceremony for a new church building began years ago. After decades of missionary work, there are only about 100 Wolof believers [known Wolof believers in Dakar]. Out of those 100 believers, less &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/?p=9360\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">SENEGAL: A Church for the Wolof<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9360","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-briefs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9360","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9360"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9360\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9362,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9360\/revisions\/9362"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9360"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9360"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9360"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}