I have moved from a place where I’m known and established (church, family, friends, workplace) which included running into people everywhere I went, to a place where I am unknown; a place where I am an outsider.  The women I see sometimes look at me suspiciously or with solemn expressions that are normal here, even though I smile at them.   We have few friends, mostly with just our EMI family….but we have hope for the relationships that God is giving and will give to us with our neighbors and new church family.

I have moved from a place where infrastructure is taken for granted- clean water, treated wastewater, good roads, well constructed buildings, properly disposed garbage, and consistent electricity.  I now live in a place where it is evident that these systems are highly stressed and not working properly or are non-existent.   There have been weeks here that I have been trying to figure how I can get the people of Delhi to value the treatment of wastewater or to value putting the right amount of rebar and cement in a new building.  My civil engineering mind is not at ease here.

I have moved from a place that is “Christian” (at least in the eyes of Indians that presume America is a Christian nation. Yet in America there is something mystical about Eastern religions but is talked about in a way that doesn’t seem very practical.  Now here in Delhi, I see these Eastern religions lived out in front of us.  We know it is a certain holiday by seeing people with fancy trays, filled with offerings of fruit/milk/flowers/coins on a tray covered with a red and gold cloth, walking to the local temple.  Or we met a potential landlord whose business is to tell fortunes at the local Gurdwara (Sikh temple).    We hear the call to prayer from our bedroom in the evenings.  We hear people at the Hindu temple at the end of our street ringing a bell vigorously as they do their “puja” (worship) and we see the procession of wedding parties with the young from on a horse as they dance toward the temple surrounded by a band blowing trumpets and beating drums.  We encounter people interacting with the spiritual realm at every turn, every single day.

God’s grace is on us as we build new relationships, adapt to a new environment & express our faith to people who do not know or understand Jesus Christ.

To contact Ryan & Dannah please email jared@tnl.org for a secure email. Thank you.

Hello all!  We hope you all had a wonderful Easter.  No matter if it’s CO or Senegal, the toughest part of being away is missing family and friends, especially around holidays and amongst family get-togethers.  I hope you enjoyed your Easter and grasped the gravity of the significance of the redemptive day.

We are just getting the wheels turning on the last quarter of school.  That means we have less than 2 months left of our time in Senegal before we board a plane to Paris to meet up with my mom and sis for 10 days and then back to the Midwest for another 10 days visiting our respective families before rolling up to our home in Denver.  That’s the plan, Lord willing, anyways.

This last 1-2 months has been fantastic.  The weather has remained cool and we have been very healthy.  We know our way around places and it’s been nice to just enjoy life and enjoy all the family time we’ve had recently.  I have just had 2 weeks off for Spring Break, where we were able to get away with friends at a villa near the beach for 5 days, and then came back here to do day trips in and around Dakar.  We spent some of that time shopping in area markets we haven’t been to before, helping hold and care for infants at an orphanage run by 3 nuns, touring some ministries that missionaries have around the area, and doing some fun stuff like surfing and a high ropes course to boot.  We’re really roughing it out here, let me tell you.

One huge praise on our end (besides a great run of health) is the fact that elections here went amazingly smooth.  The incumbent president (who many think is near the age of 85, although no official record exists) was running for a controversial 3rd term, of which many people thought was a stunt to win the election and then turn the presidency over to his son.  The first round went fairly smooth , with minimal uprisings.  The final round of voting, 3 weekends ago, between the incumbent and the challenger was amazingly smooth and the reigning President called the challenger 3 hours after the poll closed congratulating him on the win.  It was a true answer to many prayers here, as it was a fair, honest election with the President having the dignity to step down graciously and not pull any shenanigans.  Elections like this aren’t common here. ( I say that as Dakar Academy and other missionaries in Dakar are housing mission families from nearby Mali as a result of a coup ’de tat  that was instigated there 2 weeks ago).  Please pray for that situation.

That is all on our end.  Faith just posted some pics from our Saly excursion on the blog. Here are some recent pics, mainly of the girls and Africa in general.  Please pray for us to continue to be present here and be open to how the Lord may use us here these last 2 months.   As always, please chime in with any news on your end.  We love to stay connected of things going on back home.