There is a time for everything,
    and a season for every activity under the heavens (Ecclesiastes 3:1).

All too soon, the end of our season has come. It is time to say goodbye to the International Baptist Church of Dakar—the church my wife and I have loved and served for the past twenty years.

It has been an experience of our lives, twenty years filled with excitement, love, joy, troubles, challenges, and bitter memories.

The experience of meeting many people of diverse nationalities, professions, persuasion, and confession has blessed us.

We have seen and worshipped with men and women of great faith, with fire in their bowls for the Lord, God’s faithfuls who have challenged us in our walk with the Lord.

We have worked with many others who were babies in the Lord but grew with time and those who came to faith with our Savior and Lord Jesus Christ. They left Senegal rejoicing and determined to serve Him all the days of their lives.

We have seen many more who received everything they needed to bow to the Lordship of Jesus Christ but walked away, hoping to do so someday.

Yet, we have walked among many with no love for the Lord but to belong to an association of heaven’s hopefuls.

We have sat here and had fellowship with all the men and women who belong to one of these categories, and by them, God has taken us through His training school of patience, self-abandonment, and commitment.

We hope we have somehow been a blessing to everyone, but there is one thing we can say with certainty. We have grown emotionally, physically, and spiritually, and we thank everyone for their part in this blessing.

May the Lord of the church bless each of you with His bounteous grace. Amen!

Shalom and thank you.