Meet Me In St. Louis! (by Thom)

Earlier this week all four of us had the blessing to travel to the city of St. Louis, in Northern Senegal. This was the capital city of French West Africa back in colonial days and today is where all the new missionaries go when arriving in-country for their Wolof language study. We have a team up there of 4 families currently, including a new family that just arrived last month. This was our first trip up to see where they minister and how they live. It was a very interesting trip. I'm still trying to process everything I saw and felt but it was definitely a world-apart from Dakar. I felt the city was much more spiritually oppressed; I certainly admire the courage of those missionaries up there.

A few quick facts about St. Louis, Senegal:

• It also goes by the name Ndar, its Wolof name.
• The heart of the city is built on an island in the Senegal River, although most people live off the island. There is one bridge that connects the mainland to the island.
• The city was built up during the French occupation so there is a strong colonial influence to the architecture.
• Fishing is the dominant industry. It didn't look like it but the neighborhood where the fishermen lived is one of the wealthiest in the whole country.

Speaking about that bridge.... wow. I can't believe it holds as much traffic as it does. I took some pictures of it (like this one) and some while driving over it. There is a crew of welders who work all day welding back pieces that fall off.
We took several pictures during our trip up there and posted several of them to our picture page (here). As the picture above shows, we took a horse-cart ride around the island. Miriam & Hannah loved it!

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Strange Thought (by Thom)

I would have written this yesterday but our internet wasn't working.

Yesterday morning I was getting ready to head to the office and thinking about an upcoming trip we're taking to visit some missionaries we serve. Amanda and the girls are coming along and the twins are so excited to ride in a car. I thought it was odd how expectant they were acting until I realized that riding in a car is no longer mundane to us. We occasionally take a taxi cab here in Dakar and we've ridden a few places with other missionaries from time to time, but for the most part we haven't been in a car much since arriving in Dakar. In fact, I realized yesterday that I haven't driven a car since June 2009! I am certain this is the second longest stretch I've gone in my life without driving (the first 15 1/2 years of my life were obviously the longest stretch). It's strange to think about! What's the longest you've ever gone without driving a car (assuming you were able and had a license)? Any other seemingly-mundane tasks you've ever been struck that you've realized have somehow passed out of your daily routine? Feel free to share in the comments.

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New Pictures (by Thom)

I posted some new pictures today of Miriam & Hannah. Bike riding, hair do-ing, and forts are prominently featured! This one is one of my favorites. It's hard to believe how tall they are getting!

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Any Finance People Out There? (by Thom)

We just received news that the people coming out to handle our audits won't be able to come at this time. Although audits aren't necessarily 'fun', they are an important part of our ministry. Would anyone out there reading this be qualified to run an audit of our mission finances and have the means and time to fly to Dakar, Senegal to perform this ministry? This would likely involve spending a week here in Africa and going over the books for 2 or 3 fields. This isn't a job that requires a CPA-level person but some experience with auditing would be strongly preferred.

Thanks for prayerfully thinking through this. If this is a need you feel called to please send me an email and I'll get you in touch with someone in our National Office who can get things moving along.

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December Car Fund Update

For the past several months we’ve been mentioning our need for funds to purchase a car in our new country of service. Our goal is $25,000. That’s not a magic number or anything, and probably won't allow us to buy a new car (vehicles are much more expensive in West Africa), but it's our goal. If we can raise more we will be able to buy a sturdier, newer vehicle.

In December we received gifts of $855 bringing our total to $16,607 or 66.4% of our goal. Here's our fund-raising thermometer:


If you would like to help with this need there are a couple of options. You can send a tax-deductible gift to:

The C&MA
Thom McMurray Vehicle Special
P. O. Box 35000
Colorado Springs, CO 80935

There's also a secure way to make your donation on-line, through the C&MA's website. If this interests you, click here.

Thanks for considering this and praying for us. We appreciate all the support we've received to-date and it's exciting to realize we're about two-thirds of the way there! We'll keep this updated and hopefully start to see this car turn more red in the months to come.

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Monday Proverb

Proverbs have tremendous cultural value here and matching local proverbs with key scriptures is a wonderful tool to starting a conversation about the Gospel.

Wolof proverb:

Balaa ngaa dundal ña ca mbedd ma nga dundal ña ca kër ga.

(translation) Before you feed those on the street, feed those in your house.
(alternate translation) Charity begins at home.

“If anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for his immediate
family, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.” 1 Timothy 5:8 NIV

Reprinted in part with permission from "Wisdom of the Wolof Sages: A Collection of Proverbs translated and explained in English" by Dr. Richard Shawyer (c) 2009

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