Celebrating Woman’s Day with the Senegalese

We attended a Woman’s Day celebration at the Senegalese Association in Yegua Verda, Spain. Yegua Verde is a small town in the middle of many green houses about ten minutes from where we live. Yegua Verde means “green mare,” and there is a statue of the green mare made out of metal parts in the middle of the round about in the town. We went to the Senegalese Association’s center to deliver some clothes and attend the Woman’s Day celebration. We enjoyed eating delicious poulet yassa, a spicy African dish made with chicken and onions. This time it was served on tiny pasta instead of rice. Nernah Todop! (Wolof for “very good.”) We also enjoyed listening to the introductions, especially the one from a funny lady from Senegal. She was thanking the Spanish lady officials for coming. She said, “Thank you for coming.” And a few other pleasantries, and then she said, “We need work! We have homes we are renting and children we are feeding, and we need work!” Everyone laughed, but they also knew the seriousness behind her words. Then she danced and other ladies joined in to dance the Senegalese type of dance.

Maria’s Journey

Several years ago Maria came from her home country of Romania to southern Spain. She was looking for work and a better way of life. While in Spain she had a beautiful baby girl and named her Rosa Maria. We met Maria through our “ladies in waiting” ministry. Now she and her baby girl and her husband are traveling back to Romania and then on to Germany to again look for work and a better way of life. Please pray for Maria and her husband as they look for work in Germany. Pray that the Lord will lead them to another line of work and to a personal relationship with Jesus.

The Women’s Class

Norma is from Ecuador and is a member of our Spanish church in Almeria. Every Friday she takes the bus from Almeria to “mi casa” in Roquetas to teach a women’s class. She is teaching ladies from Senegal, the Gambia, Mali, and Mauritania to read, write, speak Spanish, and sew. Norma also loves to talk with her new friends about many things including what she calls “the Word of the Lord.” We are thankful for Norman and her great ministry to these ladies from Africa. Please pray for the women’s class as they meet on Friday mornings.

International Easter Egg Hunt

The Saturday before Easter we had an Easter party with our kids club at “mi casa.” We started with baking a cake in the shape of a bunny and the children decorated the cake with frosting, candy, and sprinkles. The children learned the American traditions of dying Easter eggs and an Easter egg hunt. The children loved the Easter egg hunt – once they got the hang of it. Our friend, Michiela, from Romania helped the children paint wooden Easter eggs based on a tradition from Romania. Then our pastor talked with the children about different Easter customs in Spain and asked the children about the religious experiences from their home countries, then went on to tell the Easter story which some of them were hearing for the first time. Please continue to pray for our Spanish Baptist Church as they continue to reach out to these children from Africa.

Surprise, Surprise, Surprise!

We were about ready to kill Clara, the sheep, to feed her to our African friends, but as we took a close look at her, I said, “I think she might be pregnant.” So we waited and in about a week we had a beautiful brown lamb, named Clarita. So we decided to kill Randa instead. So today Joel and John came over to Malle’s house early in the morning to kill and cut up the sheep. After the guys chopped it all up in the kitchen we delivered meat to four different African households. Now we are having a bar-b-que at the first house. We are cooking the meat out on a grill near the sheep pen, while the children are picking grass and flowers from the pasture to feed to the sheep in the pen: an interesting African day. Cade just walked by and said, “I want to eat some sheep!”

Banana Boat Prayer Update:

• Please continue to pray for Segunda and her 5 children ages 7,6,4,2, and 4 months. They are from Guinea Bissau.
• Please pray for Christians in the country south of us that are being persecuted. Please pray for the orphans who have been again left without caretakers whom they know and love.
• Thank you for praying for Maria. She is in Germany and is finding work there. Please continue to pray that God would lead her to a better line of work and to a personal relationship with Him.
• Please pray for the African young men in our area as they look for work. Also pray for John as he spends time with them and seeks to be the presence of Christ in their lives. Pray that these young men might begin to understand about a personal relationship with God.
• Please pray for us as we begin to prepare for our time of off-field assignment in the United States. Pray for our Spanish church and other folks who will be carrying on with the ministries while we are not here. Pray that God would use them in a special way and that He would encourage them in this ministry to African immigrants in southern Spain. Please continue to pray for our children’s education adjustments as they study in the states and then return to school in Spain.
• Please pray for Anna. She will be coming to Spain at the end of May to work with us through CBF’s student.go program. She will be working with the African churches to help them begin some children’s ministries. She will also be visiting the African young ladies. Please pray for her as she seeks to be the presence of Christ in their lives

Prayer Request

Please pray for us as we begin the process to enroll the boys in school here in Spain. We are hoping that they will be able to start kindergarden here next year (and not be put into first grade.) Please pray for the administrators here in Spain as we speak with them about placing the boys in school. We are also hoping that Megan and the boys can go to the school that Megan has been attending. Please pray that God's will will be done.

Malle had a little lamb...

Malle had a little lamb whose fleece was white as snow

And everywhere that Malle went the lamb was sure to go.

The sheep ministry is growing. Soon after the guys set up the new secure sheep pen, we bought a couple new sheep. Then just a few weeks later, Malle, our friend from Senegal who takes care of the sheep (I guess that makes him the shepherd) called to say that one of the sheep had given birth to a little lamb. What a cutie! We learned how to dock the tail, to take good care of our sheep. A few weeks later, our friend from Mauritania who sells the sheep called to say that he had another sheep with a baby. So off we went in the “veggie vehicle” to buy them. The children named the mother, Gordita, (“little fatty” in Spanish) and the lamb, Amossa, (“beautiful” in Sereer.) Later when we docked the tail of the new lamb, Megan said that she was not Amossa, she was feisty! I think I might be a bit feisty too if someone was cutting off my tail!

Soon we will be ready to kill one of the flock to feed the men in Malle’s house and two other families from Africa. We are thankful for this culturally relevant way to help our friends from Africa. In Africa, anytime there is a celebration, whether a wedding, baby naming ceremony, or religious festival, the host family kills a sheep and provides food for many people who come to visit their home. Thus, providing sheep for African families here in southern Spain, offers them the chance to remember a custom from their own country.

Meet John – the African Amigo

John Williamson is from Manchester, Ga. He will be serving with us for at least three months in Spain through the student.go program with CBF. He will be working with the sheep ministry as well as other agricultural ministries. He will be spending time with many of the immigrant young men here in southern Spain. Please pray for him as he builds relationships with our friends and seeks to be the presence of Christ as well as an “amigo” to many who are looking for friendship in a foreign country where they feel very alone.

Banana Boat Prayer Update

• Please pray for Segunda and her new baby Immaculada who was born a few weeks early and spent some time in the hospital in Almeria. Please pray for the other children and adults who are a part of this family.
• Please pray for Aaron and Anta as he looks for a new job to provide for his family. Anta is expecting a new baby and they would like to move to an apartment of their own. Right now they are sharing an apartment with another family with three children.
• Please pray for us as we travel to team meeting.
• Please continue to pray for the distribution and updating of the scripture on the MP3 players. We will be beginning to update the players with the Easter story. Please pray that those who listen to this story will begin to understand about a living Savior.
• Please pray for Greg who will begin language school in Madrid.
• Please pray for the new ministries starting at “mi casa.” Our Spanish church in Almeria has started a kids’ club and will start classes for women in sewing, cooking, and Spanish.

The following prayer requests will be in the CBF annual prayer calendar…

Psalms 2:8

“Ask of me and I will make the nations your inheritance, the ends of the earth your possession.

Psalms 22:27

“All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the Lord, and all the families of the nations will bow down before him,”

Please pray with us for the nations.

We, Joel and Tiffne Whitley, serve among immigrants in southern Spain. Many people from Africa, eastern European countries and South American countries migrate to Spain in order to provide for their families, or to flee from bad circumstances in their own countries. Please pray that we, along with churches and other Christians, will continue to meet the needs of the nations along their spiritual and perilous migratory journey.

Faith by Hearing

Please pray that as field personnel, Joel and Tiffne Whitley, along with other Christians talk with immigrants from Africa about their faith in a personal God, and as these immigrants listen to scripture passages on MP3 players donated by FBC, Blue Springs, MO; that faith will come by hearing, and that these immigrants who often come from countries that are closed to the Gospel might understand for the first time about a God who is loving, concerned about them personally, and has a plan for their salvation.

Romans 10:17-18

Thank you for your prayers, for giving to our projects, and for supporting the CBF Global Missions’ “Offering for Global Missions.” Here are some of the ministries that you are supporting with your prayers and giving…

Kilos of Care project…

-Purchasing kilos of rice, kilos of potatoes, kilos of onions,

sheep, and chickens to give to hungry families.

“mi casa es tu casa” project…

-Hosting a Thanksgiving meal for an African Sereer family.

-Hosting a Christmas meal for an African Wolof family.

-Hosting the immigrant pastors’ meeting.

-Hosting a reception for Spanish church members after the

immigrant churches’ joint prayer meeting.

-Hosting a training and cultural learning meal for Spanish

church members.

-Conducting a monthly “kids club” at “mi casa.”

Migration Crisis and Relief project…

-Veggie vehicle upkeep and repairs.

-Picking up and delivering vegetables.

-Delivering clothes.

-Purchasing and delivering blankets.

-Purchasing and delivering baby supplies.

-Providing funding for immigrants to make phone calls to

families in Africa.

-Providing funding for immigrant’s residence and work

permits.

-Funding to start up sheep micro enterprise.

We appreciate you for reaching out around the world through your prayers!