Saturday Evening Girls' Youth Group Debut

I am thrilled with how our first Girls' Youth Group meeting went this evening! I had been wanting to start this up since we got back from our home assignment and
had talked about it several times with Helene, a Senegalese christian friend who lives here in Kaffrine. She was keen to be involved too; she has a real heart for ministry and is gifted in evangelism. And of course, she speaks Wolof fluently, and always understands the kids' mumbled Wolof slang that I miss! We make a good team, I think. I had picked out some Bible verses and planned a simple inductive Bible study. I made some brownies from scratch and was still prayerfully going over my notes when the first three girls arrived at 3:30!

By the time we started there were 12 girls plus our three Garrett girls, ranging in age from Wheaton (age 3) up to age 11. The two neighbor girls who live upstairs were happy that we were having a "party" for Wolof girls and participated with gusto. I was so happy to see how easily they fit in with the others, and the 11-year old who lives upstairs surprised me when she prayed fluidly in the name of Jesus at the end of the meeting. I wonder if she hasn't picked up a lot more than just some English phrases from hanging out in our home all the time!

Five of the girls who came are part of the Scholarship Project, which means they have at least one christian parent and have already been part of a children's storying group or Sunday School in the past. The other girls were all friends or relatives that those five had invited. Although this was probably less indicative of a desire to share Jesus with their friends than it was simply a cultural inclusiveness - I was so glad that the others came along and pray that they will continue to attend.

We first had the brownies and juice, gateau and jus, both a real treat for all of these girls as evidenced by the fact that there aren't even words for cake or juice in Wolof! Then we played an ice-breaker game to help everyone get to know each other's names. It felt like we were back at Youth Group in America! We talked about why we want to have this group (to have fun and make friends, to study God's Word, to encourage each other in what's right) and we read and discussed several short Scripture passages about what God tells us to do. One of the passages was Hebrews 10:24-25 which says, "And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another..." In Ephesians 5 we saw that we are told to "be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with all your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ..." so we went ahead and obeyed that command by singing several songs in Wolof. Corey played the drum and we certainly made a joyful noise to the Lord!

After our Bible study, Helene and I reviewed what we had seen that God is telling us to do through the passages we had looked at. Helene strongly encouraged the girls to "meditate on the Book day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it" as we were instructed in Joshua 1:8. Since another one of things we saw that we are supposed to do is to give thanks to God in the name of Jesus, I suggested we close by going around the room and having each person thank God for something. Some of the girls were too shy to pray out loud like this, coming from a Muslim context where public prayer is almost always a recitation of words memorized in Arabic. If all we do is help these girls realize that God understands Wolof and that we can talk to Him whenever we want, we will have accomplished something vital!

After the meeting, (and a lesson for some in how to use our American toilet!) and the additional treat of cold water with ice from our freezer, we got out a bunch of jump ropes (given to us by The Master's School - thank you!) and all the girls had a blast jumping rope, laughing and competing to see who could jump the most times in a row. It seemed to me that most of the girls left reluctantly as dusk approached.

In all, I think everyone had a good time and we all certainly enjoyed each other's company. Afterwards, Helene said to me that the most important thing we can do is to pray. Will you help us in that way? We are both praying that God will use this group to draw each one of these girls into a saving relationship with Him. Please pray with us, that our Father will bless our little youth group, add to our numbers, and use it to make us each more like Him.