Ministry in The Gambia

Population: 2.5 million people.
Religion: 95% Muslim, 1% Christian.
Fun Facts: The Gambia is officially the smallest country on the continent of Africa, fully surrounded by the country of Senegal.
Number of full-time Cru staff: Two.

Andy’s Trip to The Gambia

Half of the adventure of GOING TO The Gambia is GETTING TO The Gambia. It took me four flights with five stops. The country is fairly underdeveloped so there aren’t many flights in and out. In fact, the Brussels Airliner we were on was bigger than the Banjul terminal!

My boss, Jon Vellacott and I were invited to The Gambia by the Continental Operational Director, Raphael Saki, (we were with him last December in Cameroon). He knows the ministry teams in Africa well. The entire staff team in The Gambia is a married couple, Joseph and Madeline and they operate with six to eight interns and volunteers.

Our trip goal: To help assess if they have the resources they need to work now, and to be able to grow that work. Why meet face to face? It is too easy, when someone asks if you have what you need, to say, “Yes, we are fine,” even if you are not. We were looking at training needs; are the staff and volunteers able to fully utilize Cru’s web services, programs, documents, and spreadsheets? We were evaluating ways technology can save them time and effort. We wanted to see their computers, phones, internet access, and programs up close.

On the first day Joseph and Madeline drove us by the ministry’s old office (see photos below!), then to the office they are now building. What a contrast! Though they are a small team now, it was so inspiring to hear Joseph’s vision for an office that included meeting space for up to 250 people. The property is adjacent to the only full university in the country, an engineering school. What a great location for student ministry!

We then spent the afternoon in the office space they are currently renting, the size of an average bedroom. It was barely large enough to hold the staff couple, the volunteers, Jon and me. Our conversations that day were focused on understanding the basics of the Gambian ministry.

The second day was full, discussing operations and what they are capable of doing with the technology they have. Jon spoke about how operations is fundamental to expand their ministry capacity — their ministry can’t grow without tech. Part of our goal was to show them the resources we have to help them. And, that these are not so intimidating that they would have to work for years to use them. They are available and easy to use now.

For example, they recently had an outreach and collected 10 students’ information on pieces of paper. That information was then entered into the contacts on one staff person’s phone. Jon stated, “That is fine for 10 students, but what if you had 250 students on 250 pieces of paper?” They quickly saw that using paper would not work as the groups got larger. We shared that we have systems in place already where students could share their own contact information, accurately, by using their own phones, it would be stored in an online-accessible database that could easily grow as needed, and each of the staff and volunteers could access it whenever and wherever they needed.

The final day ended with a boat ride on the Gambia River with Joseph and Madelyn, Saki and his assistant, Eunice. We stopped at a small village on one of the tributaries, not far from the original home of “Kunta Kinte” from Alex Haley’s book and movie, Roots. It was refreshing, and we spent a good bit of time in conversation with Joseph and Madelyn. Their story is moving. Both of them are from a Muslim upbringing and, once they decided to follow Christ, each was shunned by their entire village. They married, moved away, grew in their faith, and have come back to their home in The Gambia. Because of Joseph and Madelyn’s influence, both of their families have since turned to follow Christ. You helped make this trip possible! I’m very grateful!

As Catherine mentioned in our last letter, the idea of the ministry of Cru/Campus Crusade for Christ was born out of a 40-day, 24-hour prayer chain in 1951.year is Cru’s 75th Anniversary, and there is no better way to celebrate than to declare our dependance on God through prayer. Sign up to join us this fall,August 23 – October 1, as staff, students, faculty, volunteers, and partners will again be leaning on God through a 24-hour prayer chain. Find our sign-up tool and weekly prayer guide at40daysofprayer.cru.org.sign up, we’d love to have you! Catherine and I will be praying each Sunday, at 10 a.m., throughout the 40 days.