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Dear Ones in Christ:

Greetings from Dakar, Senegal!

Well, we expected it to be hard at first, and it has been. We study French night and day with the help of the French Institute, because we know that with better language ability, we will be less frustrated and more useful.

We long for the day when we can be welcomed as fellow believers, and not just as foreigners, by which we mean, 'money.'

For a poor country and a poor church, it is a very understandable preoccupation. Ironically, having just voluntarily taken a salary cut by half, we are not feeling rich, and especially in the face of such overwhelming need and high local costs.

We are still trying to figure out some basic things. Finding food continues to be a challenge. We know where to buy bread, and have had it as a steady diet for the past month. Vegetables and any source of protein are scarce. So we are getting leaner.

Meanwhile, hand-washing our clothes is stretching them ever larger. The Senegalese place a very high value on appearance and we are trying not to be scruffy Americans and an embarrassment to the church, but the few clothes we brought in our suitcases are falling off, and the items being shipped to us are still in the U.S. and not due for another 80 days.

It is the dry season here, and the constant winds carry a fine red dust from the Sahara. We wash, wipe, soak and sweep it off constantly, but so far, the dust is definitely winning.

Cassie is enrolled at the Dakar Academy, placed with a group of youth that are not graduating. It is a school for missionary children and Cassie likes the Bible study class, prayer time and chapel services.

Evenings and weekends, she works online to complete a French course that should meet her requirements for graduation at North Carroll High School in Maryland. Since it took us three weeks to get online, she is behind, but is working diligently to catch up so that she can graduate this June.

We have been able to attend worship several times at the Nord Foire church in a suburb of Dakar.

We also attended worship and a baptism service at Thiadaye, a gathering of believers well outside of the city. We met under a make-shift tent on church owned land that does not yet have a building. Maybe a future Volunteers in Mission project for one of you?

We witnessed approximately 40 baptisms of men, women and children. We also attended several training sessions for ministerial candidates.

A good Web site you might want to look at was put together by a medical VIM team from Wilmette UMC, Illinois. They departed just before we arrived. Please have a look at: <http://home.comcast.net/~tboardweb/senegal07/>

We have been able to speak to, and even see, our Maryland-based children, Sarah and Peter, over the Internet. It has been a blessing!

If you would like to speak with us, for free, please check out: www.Skype.com <http://www.Skype.com>. It might even be possible to arrange a call to your congregation or missions committee.

Hope we haven't gone on too long. We'll send updates every month or so. Thank you for keeping us in your prayers. We are certain that they are keeping us strong in the faith!

Yours in Christ's mission,
Kimberly & Richard Brown-Whale