Wolof is the national language of Senegal and is spoken by 12.4 million people, including 4.6 million people as a first language. The language also has a variant that is spoken by more than 160,000 people in The Gambia.

“We’ve got distributors that have been waiting and praying for this for years,” says Helen Williams with WMP.

(Photo from Adeane, Senegal courtesy of Eyelit Studio via Unsplash)

“God is at work even when we don’t see it. If we just wait for Him, He has a plan. He’s got people out there willing to join us and use material. We just need to wait on Him.” 

Exciting new developments like printing in more languages and supplying more partners can be tricky while keeping older contacts well stocked.  

“It’s going to require that we keep producing at a steady rate,” says Williams. “We still produce these booklets for just four cents each.”

Please pray that these booklets will disciple and touch the lives of the believers who receive them. Pray that as demand rises WMP will have both the funding and production capacity to faithfully serve existing and new partners.

If you or your church know missionaries on the field who could use Scripture booklets in their ministry, reach out to them and ask. If they are interested, direct them to learn more about World Missionary Press. 

Header photo courtesy of _____

In the primarily Muslim country of Senegal, Ibrahima works with Every Home for Christ and World Missionary Press to share the faith he found with his people.

An Answered Prayer

In one night, Ibrahima D.’s whole life came crashing down. His family enjoyed their life in Mauritania, a country in West Africa, where his father worked for the government. However, tensions erupted one night in 1989, forcing the family to flee back to their native country of Senegal.

“My family was forced to leave Mauritania and settle in Senegal in desperate conditions,” Ibrahima remembers.

Ibrahima fled with his family back to Senegal. (Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)

His family’s condition continued to worsen in their home country. His father didn’t have a job, so many of his mother’s relatives believed she should divorce him if he couldn’t find a way to provide for his family. With money so tight, Ibrahima wasn’t even able to attend school. Though he grew up in a Muslim home, Ibrahima turned to God for help.

“As my family situation worsened, I prayed to God, asking that if He would deliver my family from their troubles and potential break-up, then I would testify that He is the only true God and follow Him whatever the cost,” he says. “The Lord answered my prayer.”

Soon after his prayer, Ibrahima’s father found a new job, and his mother decided not to go through with the divorce.

“Since then, my only desire has been to announce salvation in Jesus to all Senegalese,” he says.

Reaching the Lost

As an adult, Ibrahima became a teacher. However, he left teaching to help bring his countrymen the same hope he found as a teenager once he heard about the ministry Every Home for Christ. This is an international ministry that helps equip local churches to share the Gospel from home-to-home, capitalizing on relationships believers have developed with people in their communities.

“The idea of God using me to reach out to my own people with the Gospel, sharing with and encouraging the broken hearted, perfectly matched my deeply-entrenched yearnings,” Ibrahima says.

Wolof women are known for their dress and beauty.
(Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)

He reached out to World Missionary Press for help obtaining the much-needed literature to make home-to-home evangelism possible. With their help, he obtained booklets of Scripture, including some specifically written for a Muslim audience.

“In Senegal, people avoid being seen publicly with Christians,” Ibrahima explains. “Having literature allows them to look for the truth without persecution from their parents or family. [It] allows people to teach themselves and discover truth and grow in their spiritual life.”

Even though the ministry in Senegal has had great success with the literature they’ve received in Arabic and French, challenges still exist. The Wolof, an almost entirely Muslim people group comprising a large portion of the Senegalese population, are especially a concern for Ibrahima since they can’t currently read the Gospel in their own language. However, a translation of a World Missionary Press booklet, “How to Know God”, and a Bible translation are underway.

Ways to Help

Please continue to pray for the ministry Ibrahima leads in Senegal and for the translation being done for the Wolof people. Donations for literature and translation work in Senegal can be made to World Missionary Press here.

Header image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

Some analysts attribute these traits to the widespread influence of Sufi Islam; Muslims comprise 90- to 95-percent of the country’s population. Among the Wolof people, one of Senegal’s largest ethnic groups, that percentage is even higher.

While these factors support stability, they also challenge Gospel growth.

“The literature really is the major way of sharing the Gospel individually,” Helen Williams of World Missionary Press says about New Testaments and Scripture booklets in widely-used languages.

“[However], one of the things about Senegal – because it is so closely tied to Islam and the Muslim culture – you have to develop relationships with people before they will trust you to accept something,” she explains.

“Much of it has to do with people not wanting to be seen with a Christian.”

Reaching the Wolof for Christ

World Missionary Press partners with Every Home for Christ and one of the few evangelical believers in Senegal to make God’s Word known. More about that here; the “partner profile” is at the bottom of the page.

“He’s from the Wolof tribe and he came to Christ after some family issues and struggles,” Williams says of WMP’s national coordinator.

Wolof women are known for their dress and beauty.
(Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)

The Wolof people remain highly unreached. There are many efforts underway to introduce the Wolof to Christ, but they have little known progress. WMP is striving to equip their partner so he can prayerfully make inroads in the Wolof community.

“We don’t have any literature currently in the Wolof language,” Williams says.

“So, we have been working with [our partner] over the last two or three years to get our booklet, How to Know God, into that language because [the booklet] was written with a Muslim in mind.”

Now, that translation project is nearing completion. “It’s currently on the field again with the Bible Society [in Senegal] for some reviews and clarifications in certain areas,” Williams says. Mass printing can begin once translators finalize the text and send it to WMP.

Next steps

Help send Scripture to Senegal here.  “Just designate [the gift] for printing for Senegal, and that will help us get this Wolof piece printed. It will also help us print more New Testaments in Arabic and French to send, as well as other literature,” Williams says.

(Photo courtesy of World Missionary Press via Facebook)

Last year, World Missionary Press sent Arabic copies of the Gospel of John and a Bible study on Genesis to their field partner. Williams also coordinated the shipment of 40,000 New Testaments in Arabic and French.

“People will receive it [because] they are anxious to read the whole New Testament,” she explains.

“They have an interest in the person of Jesus Christ; they see Him as a prophet, but they will read [the New Testament].”

Most importantly, pray for WMP’s translation project and for the Gospel to penetrate the entire Wolof community. “[Pray] that this project would soon be completed and we’d be able to get it in print and onto the field for Every Home for Christ to use among the Wolof,” Williams requests.

“99% of them are Muslim and they’re a great part of the 16.5 million people in that nation.”

Find more ways to pray for Senegal here.

Header image is a representative stock photo obtained via Unsplash.  Photo credit: Francesca Noemi Marconi.

The rainy season is upon the Wolof, Lebou and Jola-Fonyi people who live in the region. But in recent years, the rainy season has been coming later and finishing earlier. Last year, there was little rice for the Jola-Fonyi due to a lack of water.

IMB missionaries working among the Wolof (WUHL-uf) have a love-hate relationship with the rain. They love it because they know it is life for the people, providing water for crops, bathing, drinking and every necessary part of life. They hate it because it means that many of the men will be working long hours in the fields. In one village, the men have said they no longer have time to listen to Bible stories.

IMB leaders are asking you to pray that these men will realize that God's Word is just as important as tending to their fields. Pray also that missionaries will not be discouraged but find ways to reach the community during the busy, rainy season. And, ask God's Spirit to cause the Jola-Fonyi, Lebou, and Wolof peoples to thirst for living water that never runs dry.

That means that to reach the majority of the population,
medicine, literacy and community development are some of the significant
methods used to reach the hearts of the people for Christ.

To that end, the Association of Baptists for World
Evangelism's Gambia
team is asking for prayer. They still
need doctors, nurses, nurse practitioners or physician's assistants to serve as
career missionaries.   

As of the end of May,
roughly half the team will be gone or leaving on furlough. That leaves three women missionaries running
the medical, literacy, and church planting ministries in Ndungu Kebbeh.

Yet, much growth is evidence of their work. A small church plant is growing steadily. Pray
too, for the completion of a Wolof booklet about Abraham. Although the official
language of The Gambia is English, in the interior, local languages predominate.

To be effective, evangelism must be done in the local
language. At Ndungu Kebbeh, this is the Wolof language. The booklet has taken several years to
complete. ABWE hopes to have it
ready to print next month. Click here if you can help in any way.