Beautiful Storm

Hey everyone!

Here's the blog link: mdcoope3.blogspot.com
I am having a hard time gathering my thoughts to tell you all everything that has happened in the last 4 days since I left my house, its been a whirlwind to say the least. My last blog post for those of you that read it was pretty nostalgic and there was a sense of calm in writing it and you probably felt it when you were reading it. That was the calm before the storm, but it has been a beautiful storm. I spent 5 hours on the road to get to Washington D.C. then I spent multiple hours in the airport, finally 8 hours on the plane, saw my team for the first time in a couple months and then we all got off in disbelief that we were actually in Senegal. The feeling we all got when the voice came through the speakers on the plane saying "We will be arriving in Dakar in 10 minutes" was rather indescribable.

Then the storm intensified, as we were bombarded by a crash course in a new culture, beginning with very large African men in military uniforms and an immediate language barrier. Thankfully those men have not been everywhere, it was just airport security, but every moment since we stepped off the airplane has been insane, like drinking through a fire hose. We got out of the airport and were picked up by the STINTers (the Campus Crusade for Christ missionaries that live here) and they took us to a big beat up bus which can only be accurately described by a picture (which will be posted on my blog). The bus had to be push-started. I have been quickly learning the basics of 2 different languages to be able to communicate when ordering my food and etc. Those languages are Wolof and French. Wolof is surprisingly much easier for me to pick up. I have already begun to know and love my teammates, as well as the African people and the schedule has done a great job of giving my ample time to start developing both since I have been here. We went to campus on day one and got a quick tour, that has probably been my favorite thing that has happened since I've been here. The University is called the University of Cheikh Anta Diop (UCAD) and it has about 68,000 students. As you know nearly all of them are Muslim. We got to see the students our age and begin to have conversations with them and God provided my first contact! His name is Malick and he is a first year student studying Law. His English is pretty good and I'm very excited to follow up with him tomorrow and begin to get to know him and start dialoguing about Christ. The STINTers held a party tonight which they invited all of their own contacts to. It was incredibly encouraging to meeting students who had already had many conversations with the STINTers about the Gospel. Some of them were believers! Others you could tell God had already begun a work in their heart, and we got to have conversations with them as well and continue that work. Ultimately the STINTers will continue following up with these contacts and we will be focusing on meeting new ones but it was cool to talk to them at least for tonight. Maybe the most encouraging thing here is that there are native staff members. There is a team here from the Congo! Believers from the Congo who raised support and came on an out of country mission trip just like us! In addition to that, there are actually Senegalese Campus Crusade for Christ staff members!!!!! Senegalese people who came to Christ, and gave their life to full time mission work, that encourages me so much. God is already at work in this country and I get to be a part of it.

I already have more stories than I can share in the amount of time that I have to write this email/blog and its going to be an incredible summer but I love it here so much and I miss all of you guys. Thanks for reading and for supporting me in every way imaginable. It's been a storm since I got here in every sense of the word but it truly has been a beautiful storm.

Prayer Requests:
- Pray for Malick! I'm following up with him tomorrow and hope pretty quickly to get to discussing heart issues and getting him to hear the Gospel the first of many times.
- Pray for the hearts of the Senegalese people in general as we go out tomorrow for our first day of work on campus, and pray for our team to be ready for what we'll come up against
- Pray that my team and I would continue to adjust well to this new culture and to the language and customs and everything else.
- Pray for one of my teammates Andy he has been sick since we got here and he is starting to get better and be able to stomach food but he hasn't fully recovered yet so that is a prayer request and a praise.
- Pray for our team to continue to build relationships and really love each other well
- Pray for our walks with the Lord, that they would remain solid, and grow. Pray that they would be the most important things in our lives here.
- Pray that every Senegalese student at the University of Cheikh Anta Diop (UCAD) would come to know Christ as their Lord and Savior.