Laura Beth + Tyler

History

Once upon a time, there was a beautiful, grace-filled, southern belle named Laura Beth. She grew up in a small, fanciful town in North Carolina with a family that highly valued cultivating her relationship with Christ. Throughout college LB sought to deepen and enhance her relationship with Christ. She became involved with a college ministry at Peace College called Cru. In the summer of 2011, the Lord led her to go on a stateside mission trip, also known as summer project, to Santa Cruz, California. It was that summer that her heart began to break for people all across the world who were hungry to know and experience God’s love. Senegal specifically was laid upon her heart.

Now meet Tyler. Tyler is a very lovable man of God. He grew up in North Carolina with parents who loved the Lord as well. After his sophomore year of college, Tyler really began pursuing a relationship with Christ and began growing in his faith. Tyler was involved in the Cru movement at North Carolina State University (go Wolfpack!). He actually led a bible study with our team leader, Ryan. He was involved with Cru’s intermural outreach that emphasized building bridges with students that were less likely to attend a Cru meeting without a personal invite. If I could briefly describe Tyler’s character it would be that he is someone who cares deeply about being intentional with everyone and loves people well.

How They Met 

Well, let’s just be honest. This is the part that we all want to know about. Was it love at first sight? Did you say anything stupid? After you met, did you walk around with stars in your eyes for days?

This is LB’s version:

” The Friday night of Cru’s Fall Retreat, I was sitting with my small group and I heard this voice in the group beside me say “I’ll close us in prayer.” Taken away by his heart for the Lord and how cute he was, I began talking to my friend, Kaitlin, about who he was. It wasn’t until Saturday night, as I was filling up cups of ice with a staff member, that this young man came through the line, grabbed a cup and said, ‘thank you.’ With butterflies in my stomach I responded with an awkward, ‘You’re welcome.’ Little did I know that a few moments later I would lock eyes with the man that would later become my husband.

As I was finishing up my job, I noticed he was looking at me from across the room. When I was finished, I started talking to Aaron Adams about playing the game Signs. Tyler decided to join in on the conversation and smoothly looked at me and said, “Hi, I’m Tyler.” We spent the evening laughing, giggling, and playing Signs. At the end of the night I pulled a Cinderella and said, “I’ll see you tomorrow at the meeting,” when really I was leaving the retreat before then! You gotta keep the mystery, you know.

After spending a whole week of his life without me, he decided that was too long! (Totally a joke!) I received a Facebook message asking for my phone number. And then he asked me out for dinner and dancing on our first date on November 18, 2011! Throughout our relationship, I still had a burden for the people of Senegal and I knew the Lord was calling me to invest a year of my life here, proclaiming his name in a nation that is over 95% Muslim. Even though I’d fallen head over heels in love with Tyler, the Lord is worth following and He is trustworthy in regards to all aspects of my life.

Over my senior year, I continued to pray for the Lord’s will in our relationship. I knew that if this was the Lord’s will for us to head in the direction of marriage, as was me coming to Senegal, this would only strengthen our relationship and provide clarity. It was not easy, as our relationship with the Lord can be, but He calls us to love and trust Him. So, in October, I fully surrendered to the Lord’s plans and let go of mine. I got on an airplane headed to Senegal, without Tyler.

Much to my surprise, Tyler actually eventually did end up in Senegal with me (even if it was only for a week and three months late). Here’s a video that highlights the most recent progression in our relationship. Please enjoy these wonderful photos that Mary took for our Save The Dates. “

Gives a new meaning to shine bright like a diamond

I love this one.

she’s such a beauty

Joyeux Noel

Last night we hosted our major Christmas outreach party that included Senegalese students, Congolese staff and us American STINTers. We had five female students show up and eight-plus male students. We sang Christmas carols, told the Christmas Candy Cane story, danced, played games, shared how God gave us the best gift of all over 2,000 years ago, and even did a gift exchange. It was a so much fun.

It’s crazy to know that at all of our Christmas outreaches, every single woman that has attended has never celebrated Christmas. Making ornaments, decorating cookies, White Elephant, hearing the story of Jesus’ birth from one of the gospels is all new to them. It’s so exciting watching these women be given a childhood again, even if only for a moment.

Here are some photos for you to enjoy:

Rach, Whit and I

We're missing two other women students from this photo, but here's most of the women!

Je suis desolee

I am so sorry I have neglected you my dear wordpress readers! I can’t even describe how busy we’ve been the past week and a half. But busy is good! I am attempting to work on my newsletter soon, so you will get something better than this post soon! I’m currently working on our content for a meeting tomorrow, so I’m a little scatter brained right now. Sorry! You will get a better post soon! I promise!

But, I wanted to share with you a photo from our first “Welcome Back” party. Here’s us with some of our girls! There were over 20 girls that came and were presented the gospel in a large setting and one-on-one. We’ve met with a few of these students and a lot of them are so close to receiving Christ. Please continue to be praying for our students at UCAD.

Week One in Senegal

Dearest Readers,

Sorry this has taken me so long to update you! We finally got here last Thursday in the a.m. Our internet at our apartment hadn’t been working all week until yesterday, so it was nearly impossible to keep in touch with everyone during the short times we did have internet at LGM (a restaurant with wee-fee/wi-fi). Also, I’d just like to let you know it will be hard to keep skype dates due to the fact that we frequently lose power for no other reason than the people who have control of it want to turn it off. We don’t have a generator at our apartment, so when the power goes off we resort to candles and flashlights. And no, we don’t have air conditioning just in case you were wondering. We sleep with the windows open which brings in a nice, cool breeze…. sometimes.

So, that’s that! Now onto Senegal. Well, I don’t know that I ever actually was able to picture what it would look like here, but it’s different than I expected. It’s going to take some getting used to, but it’s growing on me-slowly but surely. Dakar is a very busy city. Downtown is crazy, and the airport is insane. I’d say avoid the airport while traveling here, but that’s near impossible. The wealth to poverty gap is huge and it’s really hard to see. I’ll save that for another post though. There are mosques (Islamic centers of worship) everywhere. We live right next to one; the call to prayer wakes everyone up at 5:30 a.m. I’ve always been a heavy sleeper though so….

The people are really, really friendly here. For instance, our plumber promised to come by two days ago and didn’t show up until 10:30 p.m.. We had just finished our meal of homemade mashed potatoes, mac n cheese, bean salad, and fruit salad. So, we made him a plate too! And he sat down at our table and ate! It was so funny. He was laughing the whole time. I secretly think he hated the food and just needed a different facial expression besides “YUK!”

I have so many other stories to share (ie: the machete man, the bissop lady, and riding the Car Rapide) but that’ll have to wait for another day. We are headed down to the fabric store tomorrow morning to buy fabric and get Senegalese clothes made. We apparently look too “Toubab-ish” (Toubab means white people/foreigners). I can see that.

Enjoy this song, these pictures of Senegal and be thankful! I am excited to keep you all posted on future ministry plans and what God is doing here!

This is called the Corneash. It's the side of the African continent that we're on. Cool huh?

A random floating statue of Africa.