Patience and Passion
Posted on May 2, 2011
SENEGAL – Charli Braxton* might have discovered the perfect assignment.
“You spend hours at a time just sitting with people and enjoying their company,” says the young volunteer working with high school students in western Africa. “And that’s perfect for me,” she adds with a laugh, “because I’m kind of lazy. It reminds me of how gracious my God is that He still chooses to use … this wretched, … lazy, under-achieving slob.”
Piercing the darkness
Even before the sun rises on the rural town where Braxton ministers, the undulating sounds of the Islamic call to prayer pierce the darkness. The ritualistic chanting blends with the coarse bleating of the goats and the crowing of the roosters.
The electricity is surprisingly on, and the stagnant heat is made bearable by the rotating fans. The morning has begun, and it’s time to see if there is any water for the day.
Braxton, 19, and her ministry partner Catherine Bishop,* 22, are serving in Senegal for four and a half months through the Hands On program. Hands On is a semester-long experience organized through the IMB’s student department. College students and young adults age 18 to 29 can serve internationally for four to seven months as IMB personnel mentor them.
Shortly after graduating from Mississippi College, Bishop, a soft-spoken blonde, headed to Senegal for her Hands On assignment. She knew she would face communication challenges, extreme heat and lack of consistent electricity and water.
“We can suffer a little bit – if you would call it suffering. I don’t think it is,” she laughs. “We don’t have time to be comfortable … to continue to sit back and watch while people are dying without Christ.”
Braxton, an extroverted brunette, echoes a similar sentiment. “It doesn’t matter how much I sweat,” she says. “It doesn’t matter how many days I go without taking a shower. It doesn’t matter if I have to eat something I don’t like. None of it matters. All that matters is the Gospel.”
Before she left her Maryland home for Africa, Braxton asked her family and friends to pray for the time she would live in Senegal. “I can only hope that God will let me do more than watch,” she shared. “I want to be used. I want to be stretched. I want to be taught. I want to grow. I want to be fed.” God has answered her prayer.
Prayerful ministry
Braxton and Bishop are living among the Sereer people as they work alongside long-term IMB personnel. The Sereer practice folk Islam – a syncretic religion that combines animistic beliefs with Islam. Though the Sereer are open to hearing the Gospel, the strength of their traditional religious practices often keeps them from accepting the truth of the Gospel.
“The captivity of religion, family bonds and traditional beliefs is much greater than anything [we] can relate to,” says Braxton. “Any decision any one person makes greatly and intensely affects a whole network of people.”
Choosing to follow Jesus may bring severe persecution in many of the Islamic families. “It is very costly for them to follow Christ here, because it’s almost like they are rejecting everything that their family has known and believed for years and years,” explains Bishop.
Braxton and Bishop are building relationships primarily among high school students as they use chronological Bible storying to tutor the students who attend their English Club. Their storying is following an underlying theme of the need for all people to be rescued.
“[Satan’s] presence is overwhelming,” says Braxton. “My heart is aching for these people. … There may only be a handful of people in this city lifting [Jesus] up, but … HE is already victorious!”
Outside of the classroom, Braxton and Bishop spend time with the female students they’ve befriended. Hours at a time are spent just sitting and talking with the girls. It’s about building relationships.
Bishop has become good friends with Lingeer,* a young Muslim girl whose mother converted from Catholicism to Islam when she married a Muslim man. Lingeer believes that – like her mother – she can choose her own faith.
During Bishop’s one-on-one Bible study with Lingeer, the student admitted she “believes” in Jesus. She qualified her answer by saying she believed Jesus lived on earth and was a good prophet. Bishop remains burdened for the salvation of this young girl.
As Braxton and Bishop walk the streets, they pray. They pray for the people they pass along the road, the girls they disciple, the students in their English Club, the ministries they participate in and for God to gain glory in their town.
“My prayer life has gotten insane since I got here,” says Braxton. “Our ministry is first prayer – mostly prayer. If you looked at a time line of our day, it’s like 75 percent prayer. It’s been turning me into a prayer warrior of sorts, and it’s been just really awesome … to be constantly living a life of prayer.”
Bishop agrees, saying, “This is what I’ve learned – to pray; to pray without ceasing, to pray in all circumstances and know that God is faithful to answer those prayers.”
Patience and passion
Neither Braxton nor Bishop had planned to serve as short-term workers in Senegal. Both ladies preferred other locations, but now they unanimously agree they are where God wants them to serve.
Learning to live in an African community does not come without its challenges. Neither of the young women knows the heart language of the people, but they’ve found ways to communicate. Riding on a horse cart to pick up their daily groceries at the outdoor market is easier than expected. The extreme heat and frequent losses of electricity and water do not derail Bishop and Braxton from their purpose.
“[Our time here] will require us to have passionate patience and patient passion,” says Braxton. “We will need to exemplify urgency with a steadfastness that will, more than likely, completely exhaust us. But it’s time. It’s time for [Jesus’s] love to shake this place.”
To find opportunities to serve through the Hands On program, visit thetask.org/handson.
*Name changed for security reasons
6 Responses to “Patience and Passion”
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We are so proud of these two young ladies and their commitment to Christ. They are the embodiment of Romans 12:1-2. We are praying for the breakthrough of the gospel in the lives of the students they have been ministering to in Senegal. God is so good!
Thank you, Marvin, for taking the time to read about what these two young ladies are doing. I know that your prayers for the students in Senegal are needed and extremely appreciated!
Praying for ya’ll!
Thank you for your prayers!
Thank you for your prayers, Kasey!
great work on this!