Farewell Fatick

Today was potentially my last day ever in Fatick, Senegal.  But maybe not, who knows?

In the morning Lamba and I helped Travis put up wires to hold mosquito nets in the hospital room.  By help I mean we made sure he ate and drank, and also encouraged him.

In the afternoon Lamba took me to visit her friend.  Mbagnik came with us, and walked down the street between us, holding our hands.  I would count to three and then we would lift/jump him a few feet.  When I stopped counting, Mbagnik started saying, "One, too, tree!"  So cute!  Have I mentioned?

I learned the gospel in French before this trip, but I kept missing opportunities to use it.  Finally I just told Lamba, "I practiced my French!  I know very little, but I figured one thing I should know is the story of Jesus, so you wanna hear it?"  It was mostly pathetic, and it was definitely more of a blessing for me than for her.

I've realized the past few days that witnessing is really almost totally for our personal benefit.  God does not need us to bring people to Him.  He can save people or not on His own.  But He wants us to know the honor of passing on His name, of glorifying Him.  I'm not derailing God's plans when I fail to evangelize, but I'm messing up my own spiritual life, and ruining the chance to grow closer to God.

So anyway, that was very neat, and Wendy was also very neat when I hugged Lamba goodbye, possibly forever.  She came up and just straight up said, "I do hope to see you in the United States someday, but more than that, I hope to see you in heaven.  We won't have language problems there, and we can hang out forever!  I will be there because I believe in Jesus, and I hope you will be too."

Guh.  Why can I not be so direct about the things I believe?  It was awesome.

So that's the end.  Riding behind Liz on the moto from the Forsythe's house to ours was bittersweet.  I will see Liz again, but never in Fatick.  It's weird.  But really, I think I will probably come back someday.