Liberia

Evangelical polarization between social action and evangelism—some historical perspective (Ralph Winter)

I am researching and studying about the ' great reversal', when I came across this excellent article by Ralph Winter: Understanding the Polarization Between Fundamentalist and Modernist Mission. In this article, Winter gives some historical perspective on the tension between social action and evangelism-only thinking among evangelicals. His most interesting insight may be that Evangelical emphasis on evangelism over social action may have been more the result of massive conversions among uneducated working-class—who were powerless to change society—than any theological reason. [All emphasis added.]

Here are some highlights of the article.

We often hear about the “Great Reversal.” The phrase refers to the early 20th century reduction of 19th century broad evangelism (including good deeds in this world) to narrow personal evangelism. In this regard we have talked about the tension between social action and evangelism. [Several more excerpts below.]

Professor David Moberg, author of The Great Reversal, was talking about the emergence of the polarization between fundamentalism and modernism. I want to address the source of that polarization. Let’s go back a few years before Moberg’s book, The Great Reversal. In 1947, Carl F. H. Henry, who was a professor at Fuller and later Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, wrote a book entitled The Uneasy Conscience of Modern Fundamentalism. For a small book, it has had an earthshaking impact, not necessarily positive, in the entire Evangelical world. As a result, the entire Fuller Theological Seminary was branded as New (or “Neo”) Evangelicalism. This was, you might say, the postmodernism of its day—emergent theology. There was a great deal of unpredictability about Fuller. Henry’s book essentially was the opening shot across the bow of where Evangelicals had been…

…in the 1900s we had a very different kind of Evangelical Christianity, which we had forgotten about by 1958. Evangelicals earlier had indeed talked about the Kingdom and worked toward its extension on earth in this life.…all that had happened in an earlier, forgotten era.

By Timothy Smith’s day most American Evangelicals were settled in the conviction that there were just two kinds of Christianity, one valid and one invalid. The valid kind talked about Heaven (and later on the prosperity gospel for individuals)—an entirely personal-salvation gospel. We talked about taking that gospel around the world, getting everybody in the world saved. That was the philosophy and the gospel of a strong movement emerging in the 1920s. It was not the only kind of Christianity, but the mass of working-class Evangelicals considered it to be the most valid brand. The invalid kind of Christianity was modernist, mainly for university, well-fixed people whose pastors went to seminaries, not Bible Institutes.

[Winter goes on to describe wide-ranging historical and social developments with several fascinating examples.]

On Micro-Enterprise:

…micro-enterprise is rarely a good idea. I have no doubt that Muhammad Yunus who wrote the book Banker to the Poor is a goodhearted person. But you know what he’s mainly done? He’s mainly proven that banks can make money off of the desperately poor. As I was reading in Time magazine, after Yunus got the Nobel prize, a whole new banking industry exploded into existence all over the world. His investment in Bangladesh of $1 billion practically overnight became $350 billion lent by hundreds of banks all over the world. They said, “Great, here’s another way to make money!” Were they really thinking about helping poor people do things that globalization would not soon replace? Rarely. They are mainly getting people into debt.

Conclusions

…There is still a very good reason to convert people around the world (the honesty of transformed people is still essential), but by and large we Christians have the hope and the world has the work. It is not the church but the world who is fighting the major problems. Our missions are not doing what they did in the 19th century.

…The tragedy is that it has taken Evangelicals so long to come back into the picture of fighting the real problems of this world that many of the options are no longer ours. We are in the minority in the universities. George Marsden, one of the most famous Evangelical historians of Christianity in the USA, says that in 1870 Evangelicals were very highly respected in the halls of Washington and among educated people in general, but that by 1920 Evangelicals were the laughingstock of America. (Marsden 2006:x) I’m not saying education is the solution. It’s just that in Moody’s day, only 2% of the people went to university, and they were from wealthy and influential families. That level was not an option for most of the Moody converts, and the polarization reflected to a great extent the kind of theology that corresponded to the capacities of the two different class levels.

I have not changed my mind at all about the primacy of evangelism and church planting. But I see that we are, to too great an extent, producing a self-collapsing Christianity, insofar as our converts are told that the only important thing to do is to win more converts. It’s like getting the people into the armed forces, and they ask what they are supposed to do. “Oh, well, you are supposed to recruit.” Then they recruit more and more people, and set them also to recruiting still other people. Some day someone says, “Aren’t we supposed to be fighting a war?” “Oh yeah, there’s a war.” We sing songs all the time as if by repeating the same words a hundred times we can make them come true. Christ is so great for us, His cross is so important. All these things are true, but if that’s all we sing, if we don’t turn in the other direction to do God’s will in this world, singing is not enough. One of the pastors at my church said Christians argue all the time how to do church. They don’t talk about how to be church in the world. And that to me is a result of the impoverishment for many years of a lower-class standing and no opportunity to make major changes…

…Evangelicals fritter away more money per year than Bill Gates gives away. Evangelicals often don’t think clearly about what they could do with the resources they have. They have been buying boats and second houses and adding on to their homes. Yet, in the real world it’s the sixth grade kids that are thinking about slavery in Africa. It seems like everyone is thinking about demolishing world problems—except the church. It is as if one could go to church for another 100 years the way things are going and never hear about poverty in Africa, never hear that 45 million people every day in Africa are withdrawn from the workplace because of malaria alone, either because they are sick or are caring for someone who is sick. If we did hear, we might not hear how Evangelicals can deal with it. When we are losing 45 million people in Africa out of the workforce every day, even if Africa had no other problems, it would be a poor continent. We don’t ever hear about that. [Editorial insert (Ben): On the other hand, all people seem to hear about Africa—if they hear anything—is the poverty, war, and crisis.] We may not even pray for malaria scientists. You are supposed to go out of your church door, stay legal, be generous and thoughtful. Don’t mess with society.

A second step would be for the pastor to say, “Ask God if you are serving the Kingdom as effectively as you could. You have no right to do anything, make a living or whatever, if you are not sure what you are doing is the most urgent thing you are able to do for the Kingdom of God—and still make a living. Get rid of the job, get a lower-paying job, do the thing that will advance the kingdom more than any anything else.” This would be about individuals changing or confirming jobs.

A third step would be for pastors to tell their people, “Don’t go out the door, stick around and I want all the attorneys to get together and talk about how they can help the International Justice Mission.” Or, he gathers them to start a new organization to fight some other insidious evil in this world. This is not what you hear in church. Rather, at best, we are thinking of ways to extend the church to the last unreached people group. Church Mission, which is absolutely basic and absolutely valid, is to extend the faith, and transform people into reliable people of integrity. Kingdom Mission is when the church stops thinking about itself and its members and pursues God’s will in this world, not just pursues more members. In his book Church Shift, Sunday Adelaja, the pastor of the largest church in Europe, says that when members do things like help in the nursery and direct traffic on Sunday, that’s not mission. It’s church housekeeping. The church exists to extend the glory of God and His will in society whether or not it makes advances in church membership. Many people are leaving the church today because what secular people are doing is more exciting, more relevant, more concrete, and may seem to be more Biblically valid. But, I still believe that those people need to keep in mind that everything they do out in the world will flounder if they don’t have the church’s redeemed souls right at the heart of it.

Understanding the Polarization Between Fundamentalist and Modernist Mission (International Journal of Frontier Missions 26.1 Spring 2009)

This paper was originally presented at the 2008 meeting of the International Society for Frontier Missiology in Denver, Colorado Sept. 27-28.

Cooperatives Brew Success with Hibiscus Cultivation

interesting story on using a simple crop in Senegal... anyone that has been in Senegal can attest that Bissap juice is the best! Now, if farmers can produce this crop organically and find local and international markets...I saw in Whole Foods that about 4 oz of this goes for 7.99!

Cooperatives Brew Success with Hibiscus Cultivation

On a bright morning in a dusty corner of Senegal, Viviane Badiane and the growers of the Nioro cooperative sorted their freshly harvested hibiscus flowers with a sense of pride and accomplishment. Greatly exceeding the expectations of their neighbors, the women had been guaranteed a good price for their hibiscus while having become one of the few local producers to earn organic certification. This positivity was mirrored by Abdoulaye Aidara, the head a grower's cooperative in a nearby community: after years of work these farmers were now seeing good returns for themselves and their families. The successes of these two cooperatives have not come without hardships. Agriculture in Senegal's dry tropical savanna relies on weak soils and sporadic seasonal rains. Most local farmers need heavy doses of chemical fertilizers and pesticides to coax common crops like millet and peanuts from the land, damaging the already poor soils. Hibiscus cultivation offers an alternative to dependence on such inputs being a hardy crop that requires little water, but it comes with its downsides as well, such as a lack of prestige. "When we began to cultivate bissap [hibiscus] people laughed at us," explained Ms. Badiane. "We were ashamed of what we were growing." Hibiscus is generally seen as a secondary crop and as such is not believed to earn farmers any real revenue. Viviane Badiane of Nioro with freshly harvested hibiscus flowers. Rather than to accept this notion the Nioro and Latmingue cooperatives joined with ASNAPP and its local partner AES (the Senegalese First Lady's Education and Health Association) to experiment with hibiscus cultivation and its potential as a cash crop. For hibiscus to emerge from its secondary status a package of agricultural techniques and quality control methods were encouraged through ASNAPP's rural extension program. These steps not only greatly increased yields - the Nioro growers increased their harvest by 75% from 2005 to 2006 - but also steered the cooperatives towards organic agriculture. The approach was explained by Ms. Badiane: "all crops are good, but bissap is adapted to local conditions and better suited to our reality. We don't have money for chemical fertilizers, but bissap grows well with organic fertilizer, so we made a lot of compost and produced a large crop." As ASNAPP's partners have recognized the benefits of increased yields and improved quality they have readily devoted more land and resources to hibiscus cultivation. Women of the Latmingue cooperative By adopting new production and processing techniques encouraged by ASNAPP, the cooperatives produced high quality and high value organic hibiscus while lowering production costs. The average price for a kilo of conventional Senegalese hibiscus earns 500 West African Francs (roughly $1) while organic hibiscus earns nearly twice that amount: 900 Francs. "Organic farming is a true partner in raising the quality of production and our standard of living," Mr. Aidara explained. "Our successes with organic farming have passed on practical understanding of low input and low impact agriculture to our members and our neighbors as well. People see that it's not only good for production, it's good for the soil and water and therefore the community." the Women of the Latmingue cooperative Like most of their neighbors, the members of the Nioro and Latmingue cooperatives primarily rely on agriculture for their livelihoods. There is therefore a need to harness the potential of native plant products to fuel economic development in rural areas. While providing the basis for sustainable production, the hibiscus grown by ASNAPP's partner cooperatives promises to lead growers away from poverty and towards healthier communities. The Nioro growers envision that successful hibiscus cultivation and sales will enable them to target pressing development priorities: "We plan to use the premium from our bissap to improve the education and health of our children." declared Ami Ba of Nioro to the applause of her cooperative. "We have worked hard to make a better life for our youth and we are thankful that bissap makes this possible." While hibiscus cultivation has raised the hopes of these cooperatives, marketing measures are needed to transform the plant into a cash crop. In addition to helping farmers improve yields and quality control standards, ASNAPP opens the door to new and sustainable relationships with hibiscus buyers by creating market linkages to respond to the demand for high quality organic goods. In this way, the co-ops are not only guaranteed that their entire crop will be purchased, removing much of the risk inherent to agriculture, but moreover they are guaranteed a fair price for their crop. Perhaps the most fruitful market relationship forged since the beginning of ASNAPP's hibiscus program has been with Adina for Life Inc., a beverage and lifestyles company based in San Francisco. Each year, Adina buys nearly all of the light pink hibiscus produced by ASNAPP's partners, rewarding sustainable and organic farming by consistently placing a high value on the crop. Viviane Badiane of Nioro with freshly harvested hibiscus flowers The success of the cooperatives has come thanks to the adoption of organic production practices as well as the relationship with buyers who support fair and ethical trade. Because these practices have developed to the point where they meet international standards, ASNAPP has recently begun to facilitate organic and Fair Trade certification for their partners. Thanks to these efforts, which are the culmination of several years of rural extension and training, the 2006 hibiscus crop for 71 partner cooperatives was certified organic for the first time and their 2007crop has successfully passed inspections. The next step is to obtain Fair Trade certification to bestow official recognition upon the efforts of the farmers, of ASNAPP, and of buyers such as Adina. Together they have insured that the cooperatives earn a just price, and that their labor and diligence is treated with dignity and esteem. Abdoulaye Aidora of Latmingue (left) with ASNAPP country director, Babou Diouf More than just contributing to economic and ecological development, hibiscus production has forged a new sense of community among farmers. "Once we started cultivating bissap we formed an organization that allowed us to grow and sell our produce as a team," said Abdoulaye Aidara of his Latmingue cooperative. The collective use of materials is highly important in this setting, where farmers have very limited resources. "People are not productive on their own. The co-op allows us to optimize our production and at the same time address issues of health and environmental sanity. We are a community organization. One of our activities is to clean our community for ourselves and for our neighbors, whether or not they are members. It also lifts up our more marginalized members and helps get them on the path out of poverty by evenly distributing our collective earnings." Viviane Badiane and her all woman Nioro cooperative shared this sentiment: "Before we grew bissap as a co-op we didn't know each other! Now we rely on each other for everything. The fields brought us together." Ms. Badiane and Mr. Aidara have witnessed a slow and positive transformation in their communities, one they can attribute to the successful cultivation and sale of hibiscus. Once a crop that inspired the ridicule of their neighbors and little promise of earnings, their hibiscus is now an object of respect, due mainly to the fact that ASNAPP has encouraged their partners to treat it differently. Babou Diouf, the country manager of ASNAPP's Senegal program, describes this shift in perception: "Once the growers began to grow organic bissap, raise its quality, and sell it for a good price, their neighbors began to see both the true value of the crop and of going organic. The bissap brought in more than money to the community: it made people proud." This new perception of hibiscus and its promise to spur rural development was reinforced after poor rains recently led to the failure of staple millet and peanut crops across Senegal. While these crops require consistent annual rainfall to flourish, hibiscus fared relatively well due to its adaptability to drought, making it less susceptible to the risks of non-irrigated agriculture. Indeed, these circumstances have proved hibiscus to be much more than a secondary crop. "Bissap saved us this year," asserted Mr. Aidara of Latmingue, whose relief was echoed by other ASNAPP partners who have come to rely on the crop for their livelihoods. Now that the co-ops have seen the potential by all Senegalese of hibiscus cultivation and sustainable marketing partnerships, there is more hope for the future. Inspired by the success of the 2007 crop, the farmers envision many changes in their communities. "We would like to build a new health center and fill it with medicine for ourselves and our children," said the women of the Nioro cooperative. "We'd also like to dig a well so we can cultivate bissap and other crops year round." Indeed, crop diversification is a goal of the cooperatives, as is food security and sustainability. "Today things are improving and we are seeing to it that these improvements last!" said Mr. Aidara. ASNAPP shares the goals of its partners and will continue to strive to make them a reality.

Non-U.S. Christians Identify Problems in American Missions | Christianpost.com

Non-U.S. Christians Identify Problems in American Missions | Christianpost.com

Christian leaders from around the world recently met in Dallas to share how the American church is viewed by believers in the Global South.

Many of the more than a hundred pastors gathered noted that though the support of the U.S. church is still needed, American Christians should understand and help foster local leadership instead of imposing its own model of church overseas.

The Rev. Reuben Ezemadu of Nigeria, continental director of the Movement of African National Initiatives, said that it seemed that U.S. Christians in the past 15 to 20 years were trying to force its own church structures on the Global South, but that that hasn’t worked.

The African leader asked Americans to recognize the maturity and intelligence of other cultures, and called on American Christians to play a supporting role and allow Africans to take leadership roles.

Similarly, David Ruiz of Guatemala, associate director of the World Evangelical Alliance Mission Commission, said Latin American Christians have felt ignored or overlooked by Western Christians.

He said Hispanic Christians want to see more humility from their Western counterparts and hope that the West will recognize Latin America’s potential to reshape Christianity worldwide.

The diverse group of pastors from Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe and Latin America were taking part in the North American Pastors’ Consultation on “The Changing Role of the American Church in World Evangelization” on Sept. 22-23.

Church leaders discussed the need for the American Church to have humility and to learn to work together in authentic partnership with other churches around the world.

During the consultation, Dr. Patrick Fung of OMF International, who represented the Asian perspective, recalled the story of missions in China in the years following 1949 when all foreign missionaries were expelled.

Despite no missionary presence, Fung highlighted, the church grew and thrived. Now, the Chinese Church globally is the largest church in the world, he said.

Following each presentation, the pastors held roundtable discussions and concluded that the role of Western Christians in the “glocal” (simultaneously global and local) world is changing dramatically. They said partnership will be key to establishing stronger, mutually supportive links.

Similar meetings will be held around the world to lead up to the Third Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization, which is being held in Cape Town, South Africa, Oct. 16-25, 2010. The event, sponsored by the Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization in collaboration with the World Evangelical Alliance, expects 4,000 participants from around the world.

The original Lausanne Congress, convened by Billy Graham, was held in 1974 and brought Christians from around the globe to focus on world evangelization. A second congress followed in 1989.

Organizers hope the 2010 Congress will help equip the Church for the next decade for world evangelization.

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IDE - International Development Enterprises

IDE - International Development Enterprises

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mission resource international

Mission Resource 2009 Video from Mission Resource on Vimeo.

Africa agreement hard to stomach

G8 food initiative undermined by failure on water and sanitation

David Parry/PA

As G8 and African leaders launched a key initiative to tackle the food crisis, End Water Poverty warned that the failure to deliver a promised plan on water and sanitation will derail the battle against malnutrition, and fail to prevent 4,000 children dying of diarrhoea each day.

A staggering 50% of child deaths from malnutrition are caused by repeated bouts of diarrhoea, due to unsafe water and sanitation.

Khumbuzile Zuma, a South African spokesperson for End Water Poverty said “Fighting hunger without providing clean water is like building a house without foundations. For the people of Africa the G8 have undoubtedly failed.

The G8 have abandoned the poor at the very time they are needed most. They had long promised that this summit would see firm action to end the water and sanitation crisis, but they have chosen not to deliver on a commitment that could have transformed the lives of millions.”

Oliver Cumming from WaterAid said “Given that 30% of all child deaths are caused by poor water and sanitation, it is seriously short-sighted of the G8 to ignore this critical issue. The cost of this neglect will ultimately be paid for by the poor, whose health, education and nutrition will all be hurt by the G8’s gross poverty of ambition.”

Paul Cook from Tearfund said “Since the last G8 summit, 1.4 million children have died needlessly of diarrhoea. How many more lives will be lost before the G8 finally decide that enough is enough?”

The intention to launch a G8-Africa Water Partnership was also announced today in a statement between African and G8 leaders. Originally promised to be a centrepiece of the Summit, it contained no specific actions and no extra finance.

A G8 progress report outlining actions on water since the launch of the G8 Evian Water Plan in 2003 shows that the bulk of reported funding increases have gone to Iraq and other regions of political and economic interest rather those of greatest need.

Globally 884 million people have no access to clean water, and 2.5 billion have no access to safe sanitation.

In addition to its impact on nutrition and child mortality, 443 million school days have been lost to poor water and sanitation, while GDP in Africa has been reduced by 5%.

Notes to editors

Oliver Cumming and Khumbuzile Zuma are both at the G8 Summit and available for interview.

For all media requests contact Chloe Irvine +44 75 1494 1577 OR +44 777 1654 544 OR Steve Cockburn +44 79 2008 0855 (all based in L’Aquila).

Khumbuzile Zuma is a water and sanitation worker and campaigner from South Africa. She has worked on various projects with universities and civil society organizations in South Africa, the Netherlands and Tanzania. She is a board member of the End Water Poverty campaign, which is campaign supported by over 150 NGOs in Africa, Asia, Europe and North America.

The AfriPump

INCREASE WORLD FOOD PRODUCTION

NCREASE WORLD FOOD PRODUCTION
with Low-cost irrigation technology for small farmers

The green revolution has tripled world grain production using fertilizers and irrigation but has now come to limits like availability of water, salinity, unsustainable mechanization, energy consumption, etc. 1 Billion people still experience hunger and the world population is growing, so new approaches and technologies are needed.

Barriers for small farmers
Some 75% of the farmers in developing countries have less than 5 Hectares of land and a yearly income of US$ 300 to US$ 800. A single disastrous crop failure can turn them into landless laborers or send them into the urban ghetto. They have no access to technology like tractors or harvesters. Irrigation pumps to pump from rivers or shallow wells cost US$ 300 or more. Motorized pump options for wells deeper than 8 m. costs US$ 800 or more. Small farmers normally cannot afford these technologies, and subsidies on wells and irrigation schemes often have not worked, or only reached bigger farmers. In general technology designers do not see small farmers as customers.

Low cost irrigation from shallow wells
However , the potential of small farmers to increase production by irrigation is enormous and using the right varieties and technologies, food production worldwide could be tripled, but as Paul Polak of IDE states:
"The most important barrier is lack of affordable irrigation technology".
Modern irrigation technology has been developed for the middle and high income farmers that have enough land. However there are promising developments for farmers with a few acres. For instance in Bangladesh a hand sludged well and a "Treadle pump", (pedal powered) cost US$ 20. With low cost of labor and rising cost of fuel, irrigating with this Treadle pump is much cheaper than with a motor pump. The organization IDE informs that more than one million farmers already irrigate rice or dry season vegetables with Treadle pumps and so earn an additional income of US$ 100 annum year, adding a total of US$ 100 million to the national income of Bangladesh.

Low cost irrigation from deep wells
The Treadle pump works in areas with water levels less than 8 meters below ground level but for deeper wells, a different pump technology is needed. For wells down to 70 m. the Rope pump is now considered a good option. Similar to the Treadle pump the Rope pump has low production costs and is easy to install and maintain. Because its high pumping capacity (40 l/min. for a 10 m. well) the use of the hand Rope pump for small scale irrigation is increasing. For larger scale irrigation, Rope pump models "powered by" wind, horse, pedals or motors have capacities of 60 to 180 liters per minute. From wells of 10 to 40 meters deep, 2 to 0.5 Ha. can be irrigated with furrow irrigation. If the newer low-pressure drip irrigation technology is used irrigated areas could be doubled.

MORE systems

This is an interesting approach to reaching small farmers in Africa.

Lead International

LEAD International is a 501(c) (3) non-profit organization that is dedicated to breaking the cycle of poverty by employing entrepreneurial business principles in a revolutionary way. LEAD provides technical training, proven principles of reliable relationship development, long-term hand in hand mentorship, and various forms of capitalization. Our goal is to create holistic community development that impacts public health, spiritual development, leadership creation, and empowers people to be the sustainable answer to their own need. LEAD helps various forms of leadership from national and local governmental groups, to local churches and community groups of all faiths, to make decisions that help people at the grass roots level. Our work is a work of faith, collaboration, and mutual accountability.

Go to Lead's Website to learn more about breaking the cycle of poverty with empowering nationals.

Women are not the Problem-they are the solution along with men

Saima Muhammad, shown with her daughter Javaria (seated), lives near Lahore, Pakistan. She was routinely beaten by her husband until she started a successful embroidery business.


The Best Way to Fight Poverty and Extremism is to Educate and Empower Women and Girls

• The Best Way to Fight Poverty and Extremism Is to Educate and Empower WomeThn and Girls
  

Half the Sky lays out an agenda for the world's women and three major abuses: sex trafficking and forced prostitution; gender-based violence including honor killings and mass rape; maternal mortality, which needlessly claims one woman a minute. We know there are many worthy causes competing for attention in the world. We focus on this one because this kind of oppression feels transcendent – and so does the opportunity. Outsiders can truly make a difference.

So let us be clear up front: We hope to recruit you to join an incipient movement to emancipate women and fight global poverty by unlocking women's power as economic catalysts. It is a process that transforms bubbly teenage girls from brothel slaves into successful businesswomen. You can help accelerate change if you'll just open your heart and join in.

Learn more about this movement and get the book here

Go To the article in the NY Times -Saving the World's Women here

Blue Fish TV-Business as Mission

Stanford Social Innovation Review : Articles : Just Say “No” (August 5, 2009)

Stanford Social Innovation Review : Articles : Just Say “No” (August 5, 2009)

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Rain In Senegal

While in Senegal in late June, I anticipated see the first rain in Senegal for the season and my first time seeing rain ever in Senegal.
While returning from a village in the bush, we were four Americans and four Africans in a seven seater taxi. As the clouds began to swell on our return, I was very excited to see the first rain drops hit the windshield of our seven seater. However, the next five hours were full of adventure. What should have taken 45 minutes to return to the village, it took five hours to get back.
You see, when it rains there...it rains! Oh my, it came down so fast and furious that while driving on what is essentially a horse path through sandy soil, it became a little nerve racking. The water tends to run all to the low spots. Unfortunately, most low spots are what happens to be the makeshift road.
We were going through two feet of water in a matter of minutes.

I could feel the water hit the floorboards of the seven seater as the driver navigated in which now had become a James Bond type of vehicle....part boat...part seven seater!
The other problem was it was getting dark, and anyone knows that when you are in the bush at night...it is dark. The driver was sweating profusely as he done a wonderful job of navigating these unbelievable disappearing roads. But, the problem was that the seven seater didn't like all this rain. We eventually got stalled in a village. Hmmm...none of us knew what village however. So one of the Africans got out and talked to a few villagers to find out where we were. When we found out, the other trick was to call for help. Thank the Lord for cell phones. We got in touch with someone to come and 'rescue' us. However, the other problem was, "how do you find this village in the dark and rain" You see there are no road signs. Its just a path.
Then our ride got stuck in the mud.
After hours of being stuck in the seven seater, our wait was filled with laughter and story telling. What could have been a long wait, turned into a cross cultural experience my whole family will never forget.
We will never forget our first rain in Senegal!