Friday Foto Flashback

(I'm toying with the idea for a new series on Fridays where we'll look back through our photograph archives and find a moment that holds special significance to us. We'll try this a few weeks and see if it has any traction. Any feedback is greatly appreciated!)

Photo taken: 3/11/2006 on Goree Island, near Dakar, Senegal.

It's been four years since our first trip to Dakar, Senegal. Ironically, when we left Dakar back in 2006 after our conference we said "Nice enough place but I never would want to live there." Little did we know all our lives had in store!
We were in Dakar for two weeks in March 2006. We came for a bookkeeping conference and spent an extra week being tourists. During that time we visited the former slave island of Goree, saw Pink Lake, went to the beach, and visited our first (and so far, only) wildlife refuge in Africa. For us, all the water of the Atlantic Ocean was a novelty. Living in Mali at the time we saw the dirty waters of the Niger River but mostly there isn't much of the wet stuff around. Dakar also had that 'big-city' vibe that Bamako didn't. We preferred the laid-back pace of life in Mali and found the hustle of Dakar to be a bit overwhelming. Oh, and the power cuts. The power was out for hours at a time every day. We had been spoiled with great electricity in Mali so that was a frustration we took back with us.
Still, when we were asked in early 2009 if we'd like to join the regional office in Dakar we were excited. Our lives had changed so much in the previous years: our family changed a lot when we adopted the twins, our roles in ministry had shifted a bit, and we saw the Lord's hand in guiding us to Dakar.
When we see the photo above we're reminded how much things have changed over the years and how faithful the Lord has been to us in every step.

...You know with all your heart and soul that not one of all the good promises the LORD your God gave you has failed. Every promise has been fulfilled; not one has failed. Joshua 23:14 (NIV)