N.C. teens pray, make friends in Senegal

By Emily Peters

International Mission Board

SENEGAL, West Africa - Courtney Mayes, 16, had no trouble developing fast friendships with the teenage girls she met in the sandy schoolyards of Senegal during a 10-day International World Changers (IWC) missions trip this summer.

The girls talked about classes, hairstyles and rap music. They laughed, showed family photos and shared their dreams and fears of the future.

Mayes, who attends Hickory Grove Baptist Church in Charlotte, joined about 20 other students from North Carolina, Oklahoma, Texas and Virginia on the IWC trip.

International World Changers is an International Mission Board (IMB) program that sends students on missions trips around the world each year. This IWC trip sent college and high school students to Senegal high schools to reach their peers by building relationships and handing out books and DVDs about Christ.

Mayes and fellow IWCers visited an English class in which they gave the teacher a book and DVD. At many of the schools they visited, they prayerwalked the neighborhoods surrounding the schools.

"We got to pray with numerous families and even visited with some inside their homes," Mayes said. The terranga (hospitality) of the Senegalese impresses me every day."

Mayes and fellow IWCers also gave books and DVDs to a large group of girls who had gathered around them at one of the schools. Interest in the female volunteers' hairstyles precipitated a hairstyling session and an opportunity for Mayes to share the gospel with one of the girls.

"We talked about our families, her favorite sports, her career plans and her dreams to go to university ... (then) she allowed me to pray with her," Mayes recalled. "She prayed in Arabic first and then I prayed. ... All the girls told us 'ciao' and kissed us on the cheek. Hopefully, they will watch the DVDs and read the books, and some of it will sink in."

Mayes also had the opportunity to pray with another girl who loved to talk about her family, her future and her life as a Muslim.

"When I finished praying for her, she said that I 'prayed the thoughts' from her head, almost like I had read her mind," Mayes said. "After about two hours of talking, we had to leave, but I know that God will help her to know the truth."

Long-term impact

That's precisely the reaction IWC trips hope to inspire from students, said Steven McAbee, pastor of Glenpool First Baptist Church in Oklahoma. He accompanied some members of his youth group on the IWC trip to Senegal.

"I've already had two of our students come tell me they think the Lord is calling them to missions," McAbee said. "That excites me.

"I figure if we can get students here and give them a hunger and a thirst to serve God, there's no telling how this world will be transformed for Christ in the next generation."

But the trip to Senegal didn't just impact the hearts of students. Missionaries in Senegal said IWC impacted their work by connecting them with teens wanting to learn more about Christ.

"I think high schoolers were definitely the best choice to affect other high schoolers," said missionary Tammy Cortimilia. "They had an immediate connection with those students."

Missions came alive

Their last afternoon in Dakar, the group went to the highest point of Senegal's capital city to pray. When high school student Matt Constantin from Salem Baptist Church in Salem, Va., looked out, he saw much more than a sprawling metropolis. His view had been broadened by 10 days of ministry on the ground below.

He'd heard the call to prayer blaring from the mosque speakers. He'd seen men on those streets in Muslim robes bowing in futile prayers to Allah. He'd met a few believers who are left to roam those streets after losing their jobs and families for choosing to follow Christ.

His view of the world has changed, and it has changed him forever.

"I'm overwhelmed by how lost Senegal is and the rest of West Africa," Constantin said. "Missions has really come alive in my heart."

West Africa is recruiting students for International World Changers in 2008. Check out thetask.org. You can find out more about the peoples of West Africa and how you can pray for them by going to gowestafrica.org.