Note: Original article is in French and has been machine translated into English.

The leaders of the ransacked and/or set on fire churches call their faithful to remain calm and be tolerant, and ask the Sénégalaises authorities to protect the places of worship.

The religious leaders activate themselves to calm the spirits and to alleviate the tensions. L’ Association of the Churches and Ministères Pentecôtistes of Senegal (AEMPS) called the faithful Christians to calm and forgiveness.
It invited those which attack the places of worships to cease the attacks. This association whose all the 5 attacked churches are members also invited the faithful Moslems, Christians and all the population to observe the religious tolerance of which Senegal always been evident.

” We exhorted everyone, religious authorities but also our faithful to not to replicate” affirmed Pasteur Louis Louhaya, general secretary of l’ AEMPS. ”

It is necessary to forgive, that is the message of our Jesus Lord, we have that in our heart and we will live with that” he added.

The leaders Pentecotists finally asked the Sénégalaises authorities to dissuade the authors from these attacks and to take care of the protection of the places of worships. ”

I exhort them to do everything to take care of the safety of the people and property” said Bishop Abdoulaye Ba, president of l’ AEMPS. ”

With my Senegalese brothers (…), Senegal does not deserve that, we know only peace and the téranga, let us exert what our ancestors have us bequeathed” it has concludes.

Read original article published in French by WADR here…

Les leaders Chrétiens appellent au calme et invitent au pardon et à la tolérance au Sénégal by WADR. Uploaded with Newscoop

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Summer offers faculty special opportunities

Doug Gross listens to the heartbeat of a young patient from the Ivory Coast’s Fulu Tribe, Many in the tribe had never seen metal before, much less a stethoscope. Courtesy photo

When Doug Gross got back from a three-week trip abroad earlier this summer, his family took him camping. It wasn’t the anatomy lecturer and medical center pediatrician’s dream vacation.

After all, he had just spent three weeks in the West African bush, providing medical care to residents in the primitive, isolated villages there.

The conditions were crude, but the experience worth it, Gross said.

He returned from his third West African trip with more knowledge about treating tropical diseases, confidence in his ability to make diagnoses without sophisticated lab work, and a renewed understanding of why he’s a doctor. “People are amazingly appreciative. It’s medicine at its purest,” Gross said. “I don’t write charts. I don’t deal with insurance. I treat patients.”

Across campus, many faculty members spent their summer traveling, but like Gross, most weren’t relaxing in luxurious accommodations. They were spending summers of research and service in venues as diverse as south central Los Angeles and southeastern China.

They added to their own expertise and brought back valuable knowledge and experiences for their students to draw on, said Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor Virginia Hinshaw.

“Our UC Davis faculty are passionate about learning and research, so summer research opportunities provide a great opportunity for them to pursue their scholarship and also engage with the broader community,” she said.

Today, in the first of a two-part series, Dateline presents the summer research stories of two campus faculty members.

Doug Gross

Four years ago medical school lecturer Doug Gross talked with new medical student Jennifer Bottomly about an African missionary organization her church supported. One focus of the group – providing health care to rural villages in the western part of the continent – intrigued him, but he couldn’t have predicted he’d soon end up a leader of the organization.

But in July, for the third summer in a row, the pediatric specialist spent three weeks in Africa holding clinics and offering many patients their first-ever doctor’s exam. And with the help of Gross’ recent fund-raising efforts, the group, Liberia-based Discipling Our Nations Effectively was able to purchase a medical clinic building in Senegal. There, Gross plans to train villagers from all over West Africa in primary care.

Before finding DONE, Gross said he’d tried to connect with other medical missionary groups visiting Africa, but their application processes seemed too bureaucratic. DONE, however, wanted to Gross to participate and quickly.

“DONE wanted someone with an interest in mission work, health care work and teaching,” Gross said. Within three months he was in Africa.

For the first three summers Gross volunteered for the organization, he was its only doctor or nurse. This year he was accompanied to villages in Sierra Leone, Gambia and Senegal by Cheryl Adams, a Sacramento nurse.

There was plenty of work for them in the tribal villages, which are usually at least a day’s trip away from the nearest government medical centers. Gross and Adams, working out of a tennis bag of supplies, tended to men, women and children well into the evening.

“Many of the conditions we see are similar to what I see in the U.S., but they are much more serious because of the total neglect of any simple treatments,” Gross said.

Despite mango groves nearby, many villagers eat little fruit – or vegetables or meat – and suffer malnutrition. Diarrhea is common, as are tropical diseases like malaria. And simple insect bites become ulcerated sores when treated with the traditional balm of goat dung.

“Their few health practices are often based on spiritual belief or the practices of maribouts (witch doctors) whose treatments…often make things worse,” he said.

Increasingly Gross’ work is focused on getting villagers regular health care. His visits help people who are sick at the time, he said. “But what they really need is education about prevention, nutrition and simple primary care treatments.”

Gross and other DONE leaders are now working on a curriculum and hiring staff for the Senegal clinic. After training there, students would return to their villages to treat patients in their community.

Ultimately, Gross would like UC Davis medical residents and students interested in a tropical medicine elective to help out with the program.

Dateline UC Davis is the faculty and staff newspaper for the University of California, Davis.

http://www.dateline.ucdavis.edu/092002/dl_summer.html

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DONE leadership training in Senegal started on the 20th of February through March with the first series ‘Becoming a Disciple’ a six-session Bible study, and the First Principles of the Faith by Jeff Reed.  Rev. Doris Ba in her report to the DONE Board writes, “The leadership of the churches of DONE Senegal is grateful to God for the leadership training under Bishop Ba.”  The training will be every Friday and Saturday for three weeks.  After the three weeks training, each leader will find a Man of Peace before starting the second book of the first series”.

Bishop Ba started the training by reviewing the Church Planting Movement  (CPM).  It was introduced by David Watson in his Church Planting Movement (CPM) and is being used extensively on the mission fields through out the world.  Our leaders and church planters have been trained over the last several years in this method.  In this method one goes out into a village or unchurched area as a friend and looks for a person who shows concern about spiritual matters.  They then work with this friendship and under the guidance and movement of the Holy Spirit and in time they can disciple and began a cell group.   Rev. Doris Ba continues, “We are convinced that at the end of our training we will be fully trained in “the way of Christ and His Apostles,” and we will be able to reproduce rapid and sustainable churches base on Biblical principles.

Bishop Abdoulaye Ba challenged us at the end of the first session that every leader should begin to find their man of peace.  Before the end of the six sessions many of the leaders had already found their Man of Peace, including our Bishop himself with whom he had now started teaching  Mamadou Ba and his whole family. Many of the Men of Peace found by the leadership in Dakar are now baptized and will start the First Principle training with the leader.

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There were over 350 people in attendance from 40 nations around the world.  Our US Board of Directors, Dr. Rev. Patrick Novak, has been involved and trained as a trainer over several years. This training and program has had exceptional results in the Church Planting Movement in India and is reaching into Africa and well as these other 38 countries.   The method they use in their training is the Antioch School of Church Planting and Leadership Development.  It is based completely on Jesus approach of sending out his disciples and the method of church planting in Acts.

One of our major objectives is to introduce the training into each country individually. Bishop Ba as a Senegalese is fluent in French so he will be doing the training in our French speaking countries.  Rev. Browne is Liberian and he will do the training in our English speaking countries. Since Dr. Novak is a trainer of trainee in the Antioch training methods and has introduced the training in his church in Santa Clara, California, he will be taking a team from his church to West Africa in January and will meet with Rev. Browne.  They will introduce training in selected countries until the end of Spring.

Bishop Ba will be traveling all Spring to most of our French speaking countries, meeting with our pastors and workers, doing training and developing enhanced communication with them.  Our great concern is that we have enough funds to pay for this travel and reproduce needed materials.  If this is an opportunity for you or your church to participate, we would certainly praise God as the need is so great and the field is ready unto harvest.
Learn more about Discipling Our Nations Effectively at doneinc.org