Our primary ministry in Dakar is at the English center where I teach. The center is located in the neighborhood of Point E which is in the heart of Dakar, situated close to downtown, the Corniche (a main avenue that runs along the coast) and many universities including Dakar’s largest university, Université Cheikh Anta Diop (UCAD). This neighborhood is ideal for us since many of our students attend one of the universities nearby and travelling across Dakar is often very difficult and time consuming due to traffic and road conditions.
Our current English center is a converted three-bedroom apartment. Two of those bedrooms are used as classrooms and the third is an office. We also use the salon (living room) as a classroom for larger level classes and drop-in classes. We have been located in this space for the last 15 years, however, we have badly outgrown it.
This academic year we have over 230 registered members and nearly 130 students are signed up for classes in our current trimester. Many members who are not signed up for a class this trimester still come each week to attend a drop-in class or simply to hang out or study. At several points during the week we have all three classrooms being used, which means students who are there to hang out or study are forced to sit in the hallway or kitchen. During these busy times it is not abnormal for us to have more than 50 students in our center. We praise God for this! At the same time, 50 people is a lot for a roughly 1,000 square foot apartment! We also turn away students at every registration period because our classes, which are limited by our classroom sizes, are full.
Learning English has proven to be a very effective tool to draw people in and build relationships with them. We use the Bible in every class, exposing our students to God’s Word from day 1 with the purpose of identifying “seekers” who are open to further Bible study outside of class, either in a group setting or one-on-one. From there our prayer is that God would speak through His Word, bringing these “seekers” to believe in and trust Christ for their salvation. We currently have seven weekly Bible studies (four group studies and three one-on-one studies) where our students are reading and studying God’s word. Please pray for eyes to see and ears to hear for these students; that the gospel would be seen and understood not as folly, but as the good news it is!
We want to be able to welcome more students because we know that every student that walks through our doors is going to be engaged with the Word of God and experience the love of God through our teachers. We also want to be able to offer more comfortable spaces (no more having 10 students crammed into a hallway!) where our students can come, hang out, study and experience God’s love. With these desires in mind we are writing this post to share with you a financial need we have.
During the last 15 years in this location, our rent has not been increased once. Once again, we praise God for this! As we have been looking for a new, larger facility over the last year, it has become apparent that we will likely need to be able to afford a rent that is 300-400% more than what we are currently paying. Please take five minutes to watch the video below to see and hear from our students and staff about this need.
If you would like to support this ministry through recurring support or a one-time gift, you can do that here https://avantministries.org/missionary/adam-and-selina-matzke
Until all have heard,
Adam