“But unto you that fear My name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in His wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall.” Malachi 4:2
I am sure you have already read some articles written by my wife. She does as much work as I do. We work together as a team for the Senegal Mission Field. It is a country which is 95% Muslim and less than 4% Christian, mostly Catholics and almost 2% traditional believers. Senegal has a strange Islam which is not like the Islam most people know, but a tradition of their leaders that has been passed from generation to generation. Most, if not all Muslims, do not read the Koran. They mostly listen to their leaders’ interpretation of the Koran. Islam in Senegal is more traditionalized, which makes it a bit difficult to win Muslims to Christianity. This is also due to the fact that Christians in Senegal adopt some Islamic traditions in order to stay at peace with their neighbours.
Senegal is a secular country constitutionally. However, that is on paper only. Though it makes itself appear to be a most tolerant Muslim country, that is just in appearance because sometimes churches are burned by some young Muslims, incited by the older ones.
To leave one faith and to go to another different faith in Senegal means leaving your family. For that you can be persecuted and abandoned by your loved ones; left to struggle alone. This is practiced by both Muslims and Christians of all denominations, even the Seventh-day Adventists. Since Senegalese have great fear, it makes the work difficult. Many, after receiving the truth, love it but fail to make the decision to commit. They fear being rejected and marginalized, especially if they are still dependents, either socially or financially. Family is the most important relationship in Senegal. This is just how complicated it is working in Senegal.
Some people may come and show much interest but are just after money and temporal interests rather than the present truth. We meet those most of the time. Some tell us that we must give people gifts, then we will see them coming to church. Others tell us that we must scrap health reform from the church principles and many people will follow us. But we always reply, “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” Matthew 6:33
I arrived with my wife and children in Senegal in September 2015, from South Africa. It was not easy in the beginning. It was difficult. We came from a country where we could freely do house-to-house and public evangelism, which we had joy in doing, to a place where this is not possible. We had thought to immediately start with Medical Missionary work, but when we arrived in Senegal we did not receive proper guidance in finding a house. Since houses in Dakar are expensive to rent we took an apartment, which was not an appropriate place to start such activities. We did not put aside our plan but we first took time to study and understand the city and its people.
Finally, we had to find another place to rent because the neighbours of the apartment we were renting started to threaten us, just because we were Christian missionaries, even though we had not started any serious church activities. At that time we were worshipping alone, because the one member we had was living in another city 200 km away where he as working. We did not know that we were living in the most religiously intolerant area in Dakar where there are no churches. Not even the Catholic church has a place of worship there. We were advised by friends we had already made to move from the area fast. We informed the General Conference about our situation and they helped us find another apartment. We first prayed to God to help us find a good place where we could worship peacefully and where the landlord would not give us any problems. The Lord helped us find another place which is where we are now. Here the landlady allows us to have our church services. The building has very few tenants. We have a good relationship with them and they come sometimes to join us in Sabbath worships.
Since we had a good place, we decided to start the Medical Missionary Work by opening up a clinic. We had some savings; we could start, though small, with only very few tools and a few herbs. We also received assistance from the General Conference, and we were able to equip the clinic with at least more basic tools, and set up the office. We organized it well since we knew the importance of first impressions on the people coming to clinic. We also received funds from a good Samaritan from Canada; and with that we were able to organize our first health seminar which introduced the Medical work to more people.
Immediately the clinic was known by many of the people who initially did not even want to hear anything from us, but they started coming to the clinic. Now we have made friends with many pastors and bishops from protestant and Pentecostal churches. Through them we get into contact with their members. Some of them have invited us to teach the health message in their churches. We have seen many people become vegans, and some fully or partially vegetarians. By the grace of God, many that had followed our health advice have been cured from their diseases. We were even able to treat an old man who was diagnosed with prostate cancer. After almost two months of treatment he was declared cancer free. The family invited us to dinner to thank us. We told them to thank God who sent us to help the Senegalese people, to bring them the cure; to obtain physical and spiritual health. We mentioned to them that we received the health message by inspiration; and much of what we received by inspiration more than 150 years ago, is being confirmed by science today. We stated a few facts to prove this. We invited them to church for Bible studies and they promised to come.
When we receive patients, we do not only give them herbs, but we encourage them to change their entire lifestyle. We use some simple spices which we put into capsules. They are some local herbs from Ghana, and some herbs we order from South Africa through some friends at the South African Embassy, with whom we made contact through the health message. We use hydrotherapy, massage, and reflexology. We organize a regular health meeting twice a week, and when I am away on mission trips my wife gives cooking lessons and takes good care of the church and the interested souls also. We started a YouTube channel where we uploaded a number of vegan cooking lessons; and soon we will start uploading Bible studies in French. The channel’s name is “IMS SENEGAL”. We are now four members in total in Senegal with two regular, active, interested souls who were brought through the same health work. They do their best to live the truth they have learned. They love health reform and are vegetarian already; they will soon be baptized by God’s grace. We have made many contacts, in Dakar especially, and we have also made some Seventh-day Adventist contacts in Elinkine, in the southern part of Senegal. We had a series of Reformation studies with them here in Dakar during Sister Leila and Sister Wendy’s visit; and as I write I am preparing to travel to Elinkine for further studies with the entire group of 14 young people. We have also made contact there with some Christians of other denominations in the same town. I will spend time there for door-to-door work—which I miss a lot—since it is a mostly Christian area. We pray that what we have been sowing will soon bear fruits.
We request your prayers for the work in Senegal and we thank those who have been praying. Our wish is to build the work here upon a strong and solid foundation, on the Rock of Ages. The following verses are ones that keep us going. “Then he answered and spake unto me, saying, This is the word of the LORD unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by My spirit, saith the LORD of hosts. Who art thou, O great mountain? before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain: and He shall bring forth the headstone thereof with shoutings, crying, Grace, grace unto it.” Zechariah 4:6–7. “In the morning sow thy seed, and in the evening withhold not thine hand: for thou knowest not whether shall prosper, either this or that, or whether they both shall be alike good.” Ecclesiastes 11:6. “And Jonathan said to the young man that bare his armour, Come, and let us go over unto the garrison of these uncircumcised: it may be that the LORD will work for us: for there is no restraint to the LORD to save by many or by few.” 1 Samuel 14:6
In the work of opening up new fields sometimes we get tempted to look for big numbers and thus tend to lower the standard of the truth. When we get tempted, these lines encourage us to work faithfully. “How much better it would be for the cause, if the messenger of truth had faithfully and thoroughly educated these converts in regard to all these essential matters, even if there were less whom he could number as being added to the church under his labors.” –The Review and Herald, December 12, 1878. The full testimony can also be found in Pastoral Ministry pages 206–207.
There is much I could write of our experiences in the work in Senegal but it will take many more pages. I wish to finish here until next time. Senegal is a country of its own kind which makes our experience very much interesting and challenging.
May God bless you!
Judicaël M. Luboya
Senegal Mission Field