Hawken's March Update - Praying for God to Revive us!

Hello Everyone! 

These last 6 weeks have made clear the fact that we have a place here at BeerSheba. The thought of saying goodbye to our friends in just two months is about as sad as eating plain oatmeal. Despite this, Em and I are trying to give 100% of ourselves to doing God's Kingdom work here in Senegal. 

Here are some of the ways that the Lord has showed Emily and I his favor these last weeks: (as a reminder, Em and I felt like God laid this word on our hearts for this year)

• Spending two weekends with our friend Wally at his parents' house in Dakar (for the story on this dear friend of ours, check out Emily's most recent update)

• Watching our garden grow each day

• Hearing from people how much better the animals look than they did 6 months ago

• Meditating more on God's desire for our spirits to be daily revived and filled with his Spirit

• Surfing fun

• Welding practice

• Learning to ride/drive the horsecart

• Welcoming our good friends - who left to get married the same time we did - back to Senegal

• Seeing the Lord heal people at Beersheba (check out Emily's March update to hear the story about that) and lead others to repentance

• Enjoying the incredible generosity from those who have given towards our wedding (we LOVE you guys)

• Healing me of a staph infection (mostly - see prayer requests)

• Giving Em and I the chance to go out and visit with the local pastor and his family, and to pray for a sick elder in the village nearby. It is so, so good to be able to get to know the community around Beersheba

The Beersheba team has been meditating on the word revival lately. We have spoken at length of our desperate need to be revived ourselves before we talk/think about a community of people being revived. We have asked ourselves 'what does revival even mean?' Water keeps on bubbling up to the surface of our conversations. The clay soil here is almost as hard as cement when dry - you can spend all your energy hacking away at the soil if you want to dig a hole. As soon as you add water and allow it to soak in, real changes can be made. 

I confess that in these talks of revival - I feel a sense of spiritual haughtiness and pride in asking 'do I even need to be revived?' "My walk with Jesus looks pretty good lately." YIKES. Those kind of thoughts are the exact opposite of what Jesus was talking about when he said to be "poor in spirit." They remind me a lot of the Pharisee who was praying to God about how happy he was that he wasn't like that sinful tax collector nearby. 

I confess also that during these talks of revival, I have been tempted to strive to somehow 'attain' a new level of spirituality on my own. 

I confess that I have been stressed about the mystery and newness that come with diving deeper into the Holy Spirit's work in my life, and the changes He might bring. Maybe He would ask me to do things that are uncomfortable/difficult for me! 

SO, after some good discussion and prayer...

- We've been led to meditate on the ways in which we see God at work among us. He is not far; in fact he is very close, and he is always working to lead us to himself. 

- At the same time we want to look inward to see if there are any 'rocks' in our lives that could quench the Spirit, or impede his work in us. 

-We will continue to practice cultivating a daily thirst of being filled with God's Spirit

I'm curious to know what you think about revival? Shoot me an email with some thoughts if you'd like. 

What's your exposure to/experience with revival? 

What is revival? 

Is it important for us to seek revival? 

Let me know what you think! 

Prayer requests:

• Pray that we would be filled with the Spirit, and that our THIRST for God's presence would increase daily. Pray that everyone who lives and works at Beersheba would experience Spirit-led revival.
• Even that the surrounding villages would be blessed and led to the Lord through Beersheba. I got to talk to a man named Michelle who lives just about 7 miles away. He couldn't stop talking about how blessed he was to finally come and witness the forest here. "It's a miracle" he kept saying, and "God has blessed this place." He left Beersheba with some free moringa capsules and a big smile on his face. 
• Pray that the Lord would lead Emily and I about our next steps after our time in Senegal ends in May. 
• Pray that the animals here at Beersheba thrive and are a blessing for the surrounding community. 
• Pray specifically against diseases that lead to death as we are still experiencing this. 
• Pray that God totally heals me from Staph - there are a few small spots on the back of my leg. 

Here are lots of pics. Many of them include the work-related things that I've been doing. Enjoy! 

All the newlyweds together back at BeerSheba! It has been such a blessing to go through the same life change as two other couples - Christian and Barbara (on our left; they're from Cameroon), and Dogo and Brigit (on our right; they're from Togo).

Three newly married dudes! We left Beersheba around Nov 2020, and now the Lord has brought us all back together and we are enjoying marriage!

Em and I with our good friend Robert. The other day, the Lord led me to sit with Robert for about an hour and a half one morning. We shared an encouraging time together seeking the Lord. For me, this is one example of how God is already answering our prayers for revival. 

These are papaya seeds! This picture excites me because they were all collected by the shepherd in charge of the goats and sheep. We are slowly making progress toward more natural parasite solutions - this is always a prayer request :) We grind the dried seeds and feed them to the animals.

Our garden is growing every day! We have asked God to bless what grows, and we are excited to see how he will answer that prayer. 

This is a little 'house' for the minerals that we give the goats and sheep! It is the first welding project I got to do on my own 

Em and I learned how to weld last month! This is our welding teacher Latyr. Here we are trying to make a goat grain feeder that will stay poop free (young goats like to jump inside). 

I learned how to drive the horse cart! Here we were collecting forage for the animals. Driving isn't too hard because the horse does most of the skilled labor... A bit different than the golf carts we drove around in Florida!

An awesome restaurant we got to visit with our good friend Wally. We had a great conversation here about how our hearts can only find rest in Jesus. Nothing else will lead our bodies and souls into a place of lasting peace.

Surfing trip! The water was FREEZING but the overly tight wetsuits do their job well

So much fun...

...for so few seconds :)

I'm on the right trying to stand up

at least it doesn't hurt to fall! 

Thanks for reading! Here are a few videos of some things that are cool - like the #1 surfer in Senegal riding a wave, or the animals that I get to work with. I'm not sure if they'll play - but it's worth a try! 

Love you guys! Your prayers are powerful and effective! 

Hawken