Merry Christmas and Happy New Year 2025 from Iris Dakar!
This December we were so blessed to have one of the Iris Global Harvest School Outreach teams join us for all of our Christmas programs. This is one of our busiest times of year as we share with those around us the love that God has first shown us.
Matthew 25:34-40 says, “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the creation of the world. For I was hungry, and you fed me. I was thirsty, and you gave me a drink. I was a stranger, and you invited me into your home. I was naked, and you gave me clothing. I was sick, and you cared for me. I was in prison, and you visited me.’
“Then these righteous ones will reply, ‘Lord, when did we ever see you hungry and feed you? Or thirsty and give you something to drink? Or a stranger and show you hospitality? Or naked and give you clothing? When did we ever see you sick or in prison and visit you?’
“And the King will say, ‘I tell you the truth, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me!’
Our goal is always to love the least of these around us as if we were doing it for Jesus Himself. Our team celebrated Christmas with the children’s club that we have weekly in a nearby village. Almost five hundred children came to play games, sing songs, be encouraged, and receive a gift of candy and juice. The children were so excited and even some of the parents came as well to be a part of the celebration.
The team then went to Dakar to celebrate. Like every week, we went out to the streets to find the unloved, unwanted, and forgotten boys who are living there in the streets of Dakar. But this time, they felt loved through us preparing hundreds of sandwiches with meat and lots of extra condiments. On the top of that we brought a soda for each of them. There was so much joy in the streets when they opened their food. You could feel hope come back to the hopeless. Sometimes love looks like sandwiches and a soda.
With every food distribution, we also share an encouraging word about the love of God and we hope that this will help them leave the streets and go back to their families. That same night, we had several boys come to us to asking for our help to go home to their families. Right on the spot we called several parents and did family mediation. Two of the boys left the streets that same week and are back and doing well in their families. This is our heart, that every child has a family where he is safe and loved.
We visited our five usual locations and by the end at midnight, there were still sandwiches left. We decided to go into downtown Dakar to give the food to all the hungry and lost people we could find. Quickly we found a group of lepers sleeping the streets. We encouraged them and gave them food to eat.
The last surprise from this evening was a street boy that recognized us. He led us immediately to a new location, where we have not been yet to visit the street boys. Through the love we shared with the lepers, God opened another door to love on more street boys of Dakar. We had a full night in Dakar, giving out approximately 250 breads, leaving the city at about 2am. We got to bed at almost 4am, tired but happy.
Jesus said that whatever we do for the least of these, we do for Him. It was our joy this Christmas to celebrate His birthday by giving the hungry food to eat and the thirsty something to drink. It was our pleasure to visit Jesus in our community and in the streets of Dakar.