Our Ministries
Senegal, West Africa
“To reach, mobilize, and equip West Africans for a life of missional service to their neighbors and the nations.”
According to a recent study, nine out of ten churches in the world are led by men and women who have little or no training for ministry. This is true in Senegal and West Africa as well. I (Leo) am part of a team that desires to see this statistic drastically changed throughout the region. In partnership with the local church, our team facilitates the equipping of West African Christian leaders, including church planters, evangelists, pastors, and lay leaders. We work in a national scope hosting trainings, workshops, and schools for Christian leaders at our training campus in Dakar, Senegal. We also work in a regional scope connecting training needs with providers throughout Francophone Africa.
“‘So All Can Serve’ – Partnering in the advancement of the Kingdom of God by providing educational services for the children of Christian ministry workers.”
I (Michele) began working at Dakar Academy (DA) in Dakar, Senegal in 2019 as the head librarian. DA was established in 1961 with UWM being one of three founding mission organizations. One of the main reasons missionaries have to leave the field is for the education of their children. DA’s mission is to serve the educational needs of the children of Christian ministry workers in West Africa…so that all can serve. There is also a percentage of the student body who are not Christ followers. Many of them are hearing about Jesus for the first time. The Lord has given me a passion for connecting with these young people to share the love of Christ and encourage them as they face many difficult challenges of cross-cultural life and simply being a teenager in today’s world.
As the librarian I have the opportunity to interact with students of every grade and age as well as parents and staff. Student ministry is vital to the spiritual growth of the next generation. I am able to speak into the lives of these kids in several different ways such as being a class sponsor, interacting with my teaching assistants, leading a snack ’n chat group, participating in outreach ministry, reading to elementary students during their weekly library special, and simply being available for conversations in the library throughout the day. The Lord has used my love of reading and books in combination with my passion for interacting with teens and youth and has created my ‘sweet spot’ of ministry at Dakar Academy.
Western Cape, South Africa (2015-2017)
From April 2015 to April 2017, Leo and Michele served as missionaries in the Western Cape of South Africa. During their time there they worked with a local missions organization called East Mountain. Their goal was to partner with local churches, schools and non-profit organizations in developing leaders for global missional service.
Leo’s role was to serve as leader of one of East Mountain’s small teams consisting of three-to-four staff members and four-to-five interns. In addition to serving as team leader Leo was also responsible for partnership development with two local ministries, Trinity Church and Trinity Children’s Centre. Leo attended the weekly leadership meetings at Trinity, assisted the pastor and church’s leadership team with planning and implementation of its various weekly ministries. Two of his main focal points in this were weekly evangelism and neighborhood home Bible studies. The partnership included connecting the East Mountain interns to ministries in the church that utilized their gifts and gave them hands-on ministry training. Throughout the course of the two years, they watched the church experience significant growth. They also saw tremendous growth in the interns as they pushed themselves beyond their limits of comfort in their ministerial roles that worked together with their training and being mentored.
Michele’s primary role was to facilitate and teach homeschool to their two young children. In addition to this role, she also mentored several of the East Mountain interns, provided administrative support to Trinity Children’s Centre, assisted with building a new website for East Mountain, and served in hospitality for East Mountain events, visitors and interns.