Niamey Wrights

Responses to a Bad Day

2012-02-10T18:06:00.003+01:00

Ever have one of “those” days? You know the kind. Your favourite pair of jeans rip. You try a new fitness class and can’t get your feet to move in the right direction at the right time. You think the cold your son has been harboring has finally caught up to you. Someone shows up for a meeting you forgot you had arranged.Your vision starts to go funny and you contact the eye doctor only to find out that you are probably about to have a migraine. How do you respond to that? My natural response is to start to feel sorry for myself, which just makes me more miserable with myself and everyone else around me –a very slippery slope.

I found myself there this week and caught myself just as I was about to start feeling sorry for myself. I remembered reading in my morning devotional that we need to remember that trials can be a gift from God because that is when the most growth occurs in our lives. So I reluctantly turned to God and asked for forgiveness for my attitude and an opportunity to have a glimpse of what good He might be using this for. I am still not sure I see the good, but I guess not all prayers get answered the way we want. I realize that what some of you are facing today far out ways my bad day and I pray that God will meet you in your difficulty and give you peace. For the rest of you I pray that two left feet is the worst that your day will hold.

Please pray that I will get my voice back before tomorrow might when we are supposed to be presenting at a banquet and that I will be healthy for our vacation next week. Pray also for Dave as he has been really struggling to get his papers written before we go away so that he can have a good vacation and not have work hanging over his head. Pray that Cole and Ben are able to have a really good break, they really need it!

Oh, that also means that there probably won’t be a blog next week while we are away.

Thoughts from Habakkuk

2012-02-02T17:26:00.001+01:00

“Look at the nations and watch—

and be utterly amazed.
For I am going to do something in your days
that you would not believe,

even if you were told.” Hab. 1:5

I was struck by this verse this morning when we did family devotions. It made me wonder if part of our problem today isn’t that we don’t take the time to see God’s hand at work in our lives, or that we are too caught up in ourselves to notice when God is working, or maybe we just don’t expect God to work in miraculous or wonderful ways any more. But then I realized that I was taking the verse out of context because the chapter seems to suggest that the amazing work that God is doing is using the Babylonians?? It is hardly what the average Jewish reader would have been wanting or looking for. They wouldn’t believe it because they would never consider that God would use their enemies in such a way. Is it possible that God might be doing something similar today. I look back at the world events of 2011 and I am amazed at what has happened in so many different places around the globe, both economically& politically. Even things like the crazy weather that we have had this winter where Asia and Europe are having the cold that would normally be in Canada and we are experiencing such warm temperatures. It makes me wonder what God is doing or how it all works. It is a really good thing that He is in control and knows the big picture, because I know that I couldn’t begin to handle it.

Please pray for Dave as he tries to write papers for his latest course. He lost his glasses yesterday and is working with his older ones (a little scratched from their time in Niger, but at least it is better than nothing). Special thanks to the folks at Harrowsmith for the offering they took for the new Ministry Centre.

Professional Development Days

2012-01-20T15:33:00.000+01:00

Today is Dave’s birthday and I think the best present that he will receive came from the school board. It is a professional development day for the boys, so he gets to spend the day with his kids. He rarely gets a day off so I am trying to cover the other business that needs to happen before we head out this weekend and let him enjoy his day. Maybe he’ll take the boys tobogganing for the first time this winter. If you are in the neighbourhood feel free to stop by for some cake later on tonight.

I have always loved professional development days. As a kid they meant a break from the regular routine of school and an extra day to sleep in. As a teacher, they meant an opportunity to sharpen my skills and interact with colleagues as well as a bit of a breather from the routine. The other thing that I appreciated about PA days as a teacher is that they are usually planned for you. Someone else decides when they will occur and most often what will be on the agenda. As a church leader, I am responsible for my own professional development which can provide its own challenges. It is great when I am in Canada and have access to conferences and seminars like the church planting congress that we went to last November. However, it can be a little more challenging when we are in Niger. I recently read a book that was lent to us, Leading on Empty. In which the author recommends a monthly spiritual retreat day (among other things) during which time a person does a number of things to reconnect with God, reflect on priorities, ministry and passion –basically to become more intentional and accountable in your relationship with God, your personal life and your work. Isn’t that what we all need?

Please pray for me that I would be able to make time for this valuable activity. You can also pray for my health—I am struggling with a cold that turned into a sinus infection this week. It has really done a good job of draining my energy.

Minstry Centre in Niamey: New Endeavour for 2012

2012-01-12T23:54:00.001+01:00

Happy New Year everyone!
I know that I am a little late for this greeting, but it is still January so I think it counts. I hope that everyone of you had such an amazing holiday that you didn't have a free moment to look at our blog (because I was too busy to update) or that you enjoyed finally getting caught up on our old blogs.

But now for the latest news!

Some of you may remember an older blog that I wrote about buying property for a ministry centre for the church that looked something like this.

The week before we left Niger it looked like this.

The day before we left Niger it looked like this!

This was the result of a gift from the estate of John Sigsworth and some money that came through the FM church in Canada.

But ideally we would like to have it look something like this:

This building would serve many purposes:

to provide us with the opportunity to continue to reach out in the neighbourhood that we have developed contacts in
a place to continue our kids ministry and develop other minstries that might help to meet the needs of the community
a leadership training centre for church leaders
guest house and living space for us and those that may come to help us (or have need)
offices for the administration of the FM church as it grows
possibly provide a gathering place for another FM church

The possiblities go on and on, but I confess that the building project seems overwhelming. Not just the amount of money that would need to come together for it to happen but also the incredible amount of details that go into a project of this sort. It is all too much for me (especially because I have no background in construction), but the good thing is that those are the kind of projects that God specializes in -- the kind where we have to acknowledge that we can't do it without Him and He gets all of the glory.
Will you pray with me that if it is God's will that everything will come together for this building and that He will be glorified not only in how it happens but by all that goes on there?

Advent Hope

2011-12-20T15:53:00.000+01:00

Advent is about to wind up this Saturday night as Christmasis almost upon us. One of my favourite themes of Advent is hope. Hope says thateven when life isn’t everything I wished was, that’s okay. Perhaps you’ve hadyour share of disappointments, and maybe your Christmas isn’t shaping up theway you thought it would. We’ve certainly had our share of frustrations anddisappointments. I (Dave) need to take one more history or theology course formy degree program but my seminary isn’t offering one in either department nextsemester so I can’t do it. Our family visit to the dentist last week turned upthree cavities (but I won’t say who got them). The flu has been travellingthrough our extended family for the last week and even right into our home. I’msure my wife and children could add to the list and that your family has itslist too. But advent is the season of hope and anticipation with the knowledgethat Christ enters our world to right what is wrong, to restore what’s beenlost, to heal what’s been broken and to establish God’s abiding presence inways we’ve only glimpsed until now. Hope keeps us looking forward and notbackward, anticipating rather than dreading the future. But advent is alsopreparation knowing that I myself am part of the wrong that needs to be righted(wrighted?) I confess that I’m sometimes my own worst enemy, and often the primarycause for my disappointments and frustrations, no doubt the disappointments andfrustrations of others.

O holyChild of Bethlehem
Descend to us, we pray
Cast out our sin and enter in
Be born to us today…

May God’s presence be birthed in usthat we might be the answer that others are hoping for…

Joy

2011-12-07T22:10:00.001+01:00

I had planned on writing about advent and the themes that go with it since we are in the first week of December and Christmas is coming. Those of you who are traditionalists will tell be that I am getting a bit ahead of myself by starting with Joy, but it seems to go with the events of the last week. I had the opportunity to get to prayer meeting last week and found myself praying for the pastor and his family that they would experience all the joys of the season despite the heart ache of going through the process of saying good bye to a beloved family member. Little did I expect that I would find some extra joy myself this week.
I had the pleasure of helping my sister move back into her house last week (thanks again to all of you that have been praying for them --they can still use your prayers as they continue in this transition process). You may remember that they had a house fire last May and haven't lived in their house since then. It was a long hard journey and the house still needs a lot of work done to it but it was great to see the expression on my nephew's face when he said "You mean we get to sleep HERE...TONIGHT!!" It was pure joy.
I also had the joy of being present at my neice's baptism ceremony this past weekend. One of the things that we miss the most when we are out of the country are all of the special occasions with family, so it was great to be able to participate in this joyful occasion and to see what God is doing in her life.
My most recent joyful moment occurred just a little while ago when Dave phoned to say that he had handed in his last paper for the semester. He had struggled to get the last couple of papers completed and I was called in to edit and work through his thoughts with him. It is a great relief to know that it is done and that we can look forward to Dave's family arriving in the next little while.
Here is hoping that you have had many opportunities to rejoice this week as well!

Abundance

2011-11-30T14:58:00.001+01:00

Our society would like to make us believe that we need the latest, the newest and the best in order to be happy. It is so sad to see how we let consumerism consume us only to find out that it is never enough.

My thoughts have been running in the direction of abundance over the last few weeks. We sometimes forget that we have so much. I was at the breakfast table and looked down to realize that there were five different types of fruit on the table (we are trying to encourage healthy eating) and most of them were fruits that we can’t get in Niger. I turned to Dave and said now this is abundance!

Then we took our car into the garage to be fixed just before we left for a weekend of driving and presentations. We were surprised to have a gift given to us at the one church and even more amazed that there was some left over after we paid for our car repairs. Now that is abundance!

God is so good to us in providing for our needs and blessing us, but how often do we take those blessings for granted.

I was reading in a devotional the other day “Though I [Jesus] have brought many pleasures into your life, not one of them is essential. Receive my blessings with open hands. Enjoy my good gifts but do not cling to them. Turn your attention to the Giver of all good things, and rest in the knowledge that you are complete in me” (Jesus Calling). The media would like us to be unsatisfied with who we are, what we have and try to get us to focus on more stuff. But really it is all about the Giver.

May you rejoice in the blessings & the Giver today!

Renovations

2011-11-23T18:36:00.001+01:00

I have had two themes running through my mind over the last two weeks- renovations and abundance. (I guess they must really have been running because my word processor can’t keep up with my typing at the moment). I think that I will only take the time to deal with the first this week because I am still processing the latter.

A little over a week ago I was helping my sister and brother-in-law preparing their house for hardwood flooring. As I was ripping out staples from the floor boards, I was reminded how much more work renovating is to building new. When you build new, everything is fresh and new and you get to see the progress almost immediately. When you renovate, you have to rip everything out and get rid of the old (or take the time to repair it) before you can begin to see progress. It can be a painful process, but at the same time incredibly rewarding.

My epiphany amidst the drywall dust and staples was that this is what God does for us as believers. He reaches out and says you are worth all the hard work and sweat that it takes to remove all the crud in your life, even when it is one small staple at a time. He takes us where we are when we give our lives to Him and He slowly goes about making a new creation out of us. It is incredible to think that the creator of the universe would think that I am worth it. We have much to praise Him for! I think that He must have the same sense of accomplishment that comes to a renovator knowing the before and after. Maybe the “well done thou good and faithful servant…” is a commendation that goes both for the servant and the creator that enables us to finish well.

Dave is away at school today trying to get caught up on the classes he missed last week while we were away and trying to complete his assignments for next week. The boys had a great time with their uncle and cousins while we were in Winnipeg, thanks to all who were praying for them. Dave and I learned a lot at the church planting congress and hope that some of the teaching will take root in our lives and ministry. It was also nice to connect with some western FMers who were there as well. We had a great trip to St. Joseph’s Island and were truly blessed to have the opportunity to connect with the people there. Please pray for our time in Prince Edward County this weekend, that we would be a blessing to the people there

A Week of Presentations

2011-11-10T02:17:00.000+01:00

This past week was marked with meetings and presentations. Here are a few pictures from the presentation at the boys school.

Unfortunately we forgot to take pictures at the presentation for the Board of Administration.

We were truly blessed to be at Caistor Centre Free Methodist Church this past weekend to help them celebrate their anniversary. It was great to be able to visit with old friends and to meet some of the new families that have been added to their midst since we left. Thanks for the warm welcome it really felt like a home coming.

Dave is hard at work presenting an assignment for one of his classes even as I write this, hopefully he will be able to get the accompanying paper written before we start out on our next series of travels. Please pray for us as we are in Napanee, Winnipeg and St. Joe's Island all in one week's time. The boys will be staying with their uncle while we are in Winnipeg and I am sure that they would appreciate your prayers. I don't know if I'll be able to post next week while we are on the road or not hopefully no one will be too disappointed.

Family

2011-11-02T20:58:00.000+01:00

What an amazing institution that God has designed? They tend to know us better than we want to be known on occasion. They are the source of our greatest joys and some of our deepest disappointments. They may look very different in different cultures and at different stages of our lives, but these are the people that we have the biggest commitment to and that have the biggest commitment to us. It seems like each family has their own unwritten rules about how things are done, some of these are cultural related and some are just specific to an individual family. While we were in Niger we had a couple of opportunities to open our home to minister to ladies that needed a place to stay and they became part of our family. As a result we had the opportunity to learn some of their unwritten rules and discover some of our own.

It was interesting to discover something about family dynamics in Niger. My friend told me that the younger sister is expected to help with chores for an older sister and in return is free to ask for financial help or to borrow any clothing or other items that they might have need or want of. It made a lot of sense in the context and doesn’t sound too different from life here. –At least I know that I have been blessed by hand-me-downs from my sister over the years.

When you leave your extended family behind to serve in another country it can be really challenging. Who do you turn to for help with your kids, or when your car breaks down, or when you have a medical emergency? This is the loss that happens when someone converts to Christianity in Niger, most times they become outcasts from their family and friends. This is where the church has to fill in the gap. It is a complicated process filled with difficult decisions. How do you care for others without having them become financially dependent on you (especially when that is what they are used to)? How can you make what you have spread far enough to care for the need? When is it ok to say no, I don’t have any more to give?I have really been enjoying being home these last few months and reconnecting with family. It has been great to be able to not only visit but to be able to help and hopefully make a difference by being there. Isn’t that what family is all about?

Sharing

2011-10-29T00:03:00.001+01:00

I guess that it was inevitable that I would be blessed with Dave's cold after so many sleepless nights hearing him snore. I guess that is what married life is all about --sharing! I don't think that he will have the same difficulty that I did with sleeping but that is probably a good thing with the work load that he has right now. Hopefully I will be able to kick this cold before our really busy stretch next month. Luckily the boys haven't caught it yet. Like most pre-teens they feel immune to those things and are more interested in fashion statements than warmth when dressing for school --maybe they have adapted to the climate of Canada better than the rest of us.

Please pray for Dave's work load and that I don't pass on this cold to anyone else as we travel. This week in addition to our regular routine we will be making an extra trip to the boys school to do a presentation on Niger for the other fifth grade immersion class and doing a presentation for the National Board of Administration for the Free Methodist Church.

Thankful

2011-10-21T09:48:00.000+01:00

I thought this was published awhile ago, but I just found it my draft box I guess I can add computer malfunctioning to my week too...

I am so thankful to be living in this time in history in this country, mostly because I can see.
This week (Oct.5) I went to see if I was a candidate for laser eye surgery to correct my vision and even though the technology hasn't developed to the place where they can correct my -13 eyes. I was reminded that I have been on the cutting edge of technology with my eyes for most of my life. If I had been born in my grandmother's generation or in a less developed country I might be fumbling around with the foggy blurr that is my vision without the help of glasses or contacts,
This is just one of the many things that I am thankful for today, I am hoping that you are finding many things to be thankful for too as we draw near to Thanksgiving here in Canada,

One of THOSE weeks

2011-10-21T09:42:00.002+01:00

I am having one of those weeks, which probably has a lot to do with the fact that I haven’t been getting a lot of sleep. Dave has had a head cold for the last two weeks and as a result has been doing a lot of snoring. So this morning I decided to take advantage of the fact that I wasn’t sleeping and the computer was free. This is my disclaimer if this is full of mistakes or doesn’t make much sense.

It is amazing how fatigue can affect your ability to cope. I found myself struggling with reverse culture shock so much more this week. I have been trying to come to terms with how much we have in Canada and how much money is used for various things in contrast with the stark poverty that we faced daily in Niger. It can almost make you sick and I confess that I cried myself to sleep one night this week—but maybe that was a blessing because it was the best sleep that I have had in awhile. There are no simple answers, but God is gracious through it all.
In addition to those challenges, I have had my hot water tank die this week (good thing it was a rental and the gas company repaired it), I lost my son when trying to pick him up from school (partially my fault for being late, he was found an hour later), my dinner exploded in Dave’s hands when he tried to take it from the oven (thankfully he was ok, but we had to throw out the meat that was covered in shattered glass), I had two e-mails from Niger –one saying that my car had broken down and needed repairs and the other saying that my washing machine wasn’t working. I went to do a presentation in Ben’s class yesterday and the clothing rack decided to fall apart and dump everything just outside my front door and yes it happened to be raining slightly. Then when we went to give the power point presentation I realized that Dave had put the wrong one on the flash drive so we didn’t have the one that I had spent the better part of two days working on. (I think that there is a country music song in here somewhere…)

My list of gripes may seem long this week and you may have had bigger and worse items that you could add to yours, but I am grateful that in the big scheme of things they are nothing major and for all the things that have gone wrong God has turned them around for good. My prayer for you this week is that you would be able to see the good that God can bring about in whatever circumstances
Please continue to pray for Dave as he writes papers in addition to his regular work.

sorry for a long silence

2011-09-26T14:37:00.000+01:00

I really am sorry for the long silence. We have been working our way into a routine for the boys, but have yet to work out a routine for Dave and I that gives me some time with both the computer and internet access. I have had time and ideas for blogs while Dave was off with the computer at school (the advantages of being grounded without a car), but otherwise I have either been without the computer or haven't been able to find the time. It has been great being able to visit with so many familiar faces and making some new friends along the way. We are so blessed by our extended family that is the FM church. Ben summed it up so well yesterday when we were in Brantford when he said "I could live here. These people have known me a whole lot longer and better than my friends at school and I really like them." Thanks for welcoming us back to Canada and loving us inspite of our worts! We praise God for the opportunity to know you and work with you. This week we are hoping to get some of the results from our medical tests that we have been going through since we got back. We would appreciate your prayers for that. Please know pastors that you and your families have been in my thoughts and prayers these last few weeks, may you sense God's nearness.

Labour Day or New Year's Day

2011-09-07T17:09:00.001+01:00

I heard a reporter this week say that Labour Day was like another New Year’s Eve in many ways. It is especially true for those that are teachers or students because a new school year provides the opportunity for a fresh start. One of the things that I enjoyed the most about teaching was the new opportunities that each year brings. It was like you could make up for past mistakes or choices and try new things and make a difference. There are things that are the same and familiar, but just enough is different to make you feel like you get another chance. That is also what is amazing about the Christian faith, you get offered an opportunity to walk away from your mistakes and start fresh. Your circumstance may not look any different but your attitude and response to those circumstances is totally transformed. Instead of a list of New Year’s resolutions that you hope to put in place you receive a relationship with God that helps you to become even more than you ever imagined. Yesterday was the boys first day in a new school. It is a real blessing for us that they are both able to be in the same school this year. They thought that it was kind of neat that they got to go to a school that their mother had gone to many years before. Thanks for everyone that was praying for them, their first day seemed to go pretty well (I am not so sure about the second based on all the things that I have found left behind that they were supposed to take with them). Cole grew at least 4 inches over this summer, so keeping him in clothes this year could be a real challenge. There are real advantages to living in Niger, where the boys can wear shorts year round. Shorts just don’t seem to get too short as fast as pants, oh well! This week also marks the beginning of our travels as we head to Wallaceburg to visit friends at the Charlemont F.M. church. Please pray for us as we prepare for the trip and try to get everything in place. I still have suitcases to go through and unpack/repack and I feel like I lose things as fast as I find them these days. We have had so much change over the last few months that it seems hard to find a routine or to establish systems that will help things work better. Praying that you will receive the fresh start that you need whether you are going back to school or just back to the same old routine.

Finally Finished!

2011-08-22T16:10:00.003+01:00

I am finally finished my course work for the summer, just in time to pull my house together and get the boys ready for back to school. I had totally forgotten what back to school was like in Canada, (not to mention grocery shopping). I think that I will have more fun picking out school supplies and getting the boys ready for school than they will. My biggest problem is that I am so out of touch with life here that it is hard to know what they need. Hopefully when it is all said and done, I will find the time to get a break too!
Aside from getting my papers finished and trying to settle in we have been busy trying to help my sister move. She had a fire in her home last spring and they rented a town house while the repairs were being done in hopes of being able to move back by now, unfortunately the house isn't ready for them (and will probably be a few more months to repair the damage)and the place they are in is spoken for, so they get to move one more time! The move was complicated by her having back problems. Thanks to all of you who have been praying for her back she has been improving significantly over the past couple of weeks and is much more mobile now.
Please remember Sahel Academy (the boys school in Niamey)in your prayers. They started classes this past week with a building that isn't quite finished and they are still waiting on a shipping container with textbooks and other supplies (including the doors for the building).
Praying that you will enjoy your last few weeks of summer with all that it holds!

Not so smooth transitions

2011-07-29T15:32:00.003+01:00

Well I think that my body is starting to find the right time zone as I adjust to life in Canada. It has been an interesting trip home. I got to the airport to find out that my flight to Toronto had been canceled and the air line was going to put me up in a hotel either in Mulhouse (where I was starting from) or Paris (where my flight had been canceled). I decided that this might finally be my opportunity to see Paris, so I took the first flight to Paris. Boy was I mistaken! I got to Paris and the airline personnel gave me paperwork to stay in a hotel,for meals and a card to phone home to let my family know that I wasn't coming home at the planned time. Trying to follow the directions I was given resulted in a 6 hour tour of Charles de Gault airport lugging two large duffle bags, my backpack and purse. By the time I ended up at the hotel, I was too tired to try and figure out how to get a tour of Paris and was just happy that I could eat supper in the hotel without having to go anywhere else. I guess it serves me right for not packing light.
I have since returned home to other challenges. Dave and the boys and I spent my first morning in Canada connecting with our boss before he headed off for a trip to Sri Lanka and then on a one month sabbatical. The afternoon was filled with being poked and prodded at the doctor's office as we had re-entry physicals. Thankfully that went pretty well, but we will have to wait for the results of all our tests. Just before I got to Canada my sister was put on complete bedrest for a back problem while she waits for a doctor's appointment, so I have been trying to divide my time between helping with her and her family, getting our house set up and finishing my course work. Unfortunately, I have been having a hard time concentrating on the school work, so it isn't getting done as quickly as I would like.
Thanks so much for those of you who were praying for my safe return. It is really good to be together with family again. Please pray for my sister's back and her pain levels and that I would be able to start making some headway with my school work.

Moving... the ongoing saga

2011-07-14T13:32:00.002+01:00

Sorry for dropping off the map for those who check our blog regularly. At the end of May we moved into a mission guesthouse while the boys finished off the school year. Towards the end of June we moved to Germany where Jennifer is taking courses in Education and Theology. (I had originally signed up to do courses as well but my seminary wouldn't give me credit for them.) I have since left Jennifer behind in Germany to finish her courses while I set up the house. Last weekend I moved our stuff from Caistor Centre to St. Catharines with more than a little help from my friends and family. (Thanks to the good people in Caistor Centre FMC and Grapeview.)Just about everything is now moved but now it needs to be unpacked. I hope to have the house more or less organized by the time Jennifer comes home on the 23rd. She will be coming home with much homework and hopefully will be able to transition without too much difficulty. In the meantime the boys and I are enjoying home cooking. MMmmm, apple pie.

Transitions

2011-06-22T19:49:00.002+01:00

Sorry this took so long to post, it was written a few weeks ago but got over looked in the moves and internet complications...

Transition looks like many different things to many different people but to TCK’s (Third Culture Kids: those that are born into one culture and raised in another) transitions become a huge part of their lives. Right now we are in the thick of transition, so our house is torn apart with boxes everywhere, some that have been packed and re-packed only to be broken into one more time because you realize that you really need something out of it in order to get through.

There are some really good things that happen at these times of transitions, like the way things are re-evaluated. There are a lot of things that you realize you don’t need and can live without or that someone can make better use of than you have been. This is especially true when you are putting things into storage for an extended period of time and have seen the damage that mice and termites are capable of. There are so many reminders of how blessed we are. The fact that we have so many boxes to pack and so much furniture to lend to others while we are away are huge testimonies to that. It is really nice to be able to pass some of that blessing on to others. Transitions also provide the opportunity to re-evaluate relationships, to give thanks for those who have become so important to you, to encourage those who will be carrying on without you, as well as to ask forgiveness or to seek healing in those relationships that have not gone the way that you intended. So, thanks to all of you that have been remembering us over our time here in Niger.

One thing that is for sure, transitions are never easy. Anyone who has ever had to say good bye can attest to that. No matter how much you are looking forward to what lies ahead or how challenging what you are leaving, good byes are never pleasant. Please keep us in your prayers (especially the boys) as we enter into this time of extended transition.

We are in our third house since I wrote this (a few weeks ago) and still have two more to go before we can settle for awhile. Our sincerest apologies to those that have sent us e-mails for church bookings we hope to be able to respond to them soon. Thanks for your patience with us we are looking forward to seeing you soon.

Answers to Prayer

2011-05-20T22:51:00.002+01:00

I have had a few answers to prayer over the past little while. So, I think that I will list them in hopes that I don’t forget something:
• We get to stay in our own house when we return to Canada
• The boys and I survived two weeks single parenting while Dave was away taking a course
• The weird things that were happening with our electricity were more wide spread that just our house and thus not our problem to resolve
• Our car here waited until Dave returned before it broke down on the road! And the problem was only a battery issue and not the alternator or something worse
• We now have a car to use when we return to Canada
• We think that Ben may have been accepted into a French immersion program for the coming year (we aren’t sure because the acceptance e-mail said that he was accepted into the seventh grade and he will be going into fifth!). If that is the case, it means the boys will be able to be in the same school.
• Rain! We had a slight taste of rain this past Saturday, but unfortunately it didn’t amount to much where we are living and so the heat continues
• Preparations are starting to come together for our move at the end of this month (we will spend our last couple of weeks here in a guest house before going to Germany for studies)
• If you are reading this it means that I even had enough power and internet (at the same time!) to post this
At this time of year it is really difficult to keep our focus on the Giver of Joy and not get caught up in our circumstances, but we are grateful that we really do have a lot to be thankful for. Please pray that we would be able to have contentment regardless of our circumstance—it is such a difficult lesson to learn! Praying that you will know His joy and contentment too.

PS. This is dave. The car is starting to die again. I think it's the alternator killing the batteries but I don't know. My mechanic is closed until Monday. Don't know how we'll get to church on Sunday but God will provide. Internet is really intermittent.

The Future Home of the Free Methodist Ministry Centre

2011-05-10T12:10:00.008+01:00

Some Pictures

2011-05-10T10:17:00.004+01:00

Easter Morning Sunday School

The over flow from my Sunday School Class

Sunday School Explosion

2011-05-04T09:17:00.001+01:00

A few weeks ago a pastor in our church preached on evangelism and how it was everyone’s responsibility to share what God was doing in their lives and to invite others to know Him and become involved in a church. On Easter Sunday, one of the little boys in my Sunday school class had taken that message to heart and had invited four of his friends to join him. Because we were celebrating the resurrection of Christ, I had special treat bags made up for each of the kids as they left Sunday school and went to join the morning service. I had expected extra kids because it was a special week so I was prepared. What I wasn’t prepared for was this last week, when my Sunday school class went from the regular 12 kids to 28! I don’t know if word had gotten out in the neighbourhood that they could get candy in church or whether my little evangelist had had a taste of success and expanded his horizons. I had a little boy of about 11 years old offer to translate for me into Zarma for the kids that didn’t have enough French (which was really helpful. But, what was really interesting about that is that my translator who had come for the first time that morning) kept getting ahead of me and telling the story for me and I only had to correct him once! I hope that my little evangelist hadn’t taken the kids from the other nearby churches to join us.

I suspect that there might be a slightly smaller response this week (because the kids didn’t go away with a bag of candy), but please pray that God will be at work in the lives of these kids. Pray that we as a church will know how to respond to them as well (there were more kids than adults in the service on Sunday morning, but that is a closer reflection of the population of Niger). Pray that my Zarma will be able to keep up with the need, so that I can communicate with the kids that come and can follow to know when someone is translating correctly or not.

In addition to the regular problems with electricity, I am also having computer problems with the power cord. Please pray that it would continue to cooperate until I can get a replacement.

Sacrifices

2011-04-26T16:29:00.000+01:00

This past week I found myself in my kitchen, dripping sweat from every pore of my body thinking as I made Danish for my husband and kids that it was only because I loved them that I would even consider doing this. (And to be truthful, I was thinking about how many things I would not have to make from scratch next year when I am home!) The temperature was in the 40’sC and my kitchen fan was broken and I was about to light up the stove. It got me to thinking about the sacrifices that we make for our kids or our family members. We are willing to go the extra mile for those that we love simply because we love them. That is what is so amazing about the sacrifice Christ made for us. He gave up everything and submitted himself to a horrible death for us –even when we didn’t acknowledge or know him. That is love and it makes my dripping over pastries seem pretty small in comparison.

I hope that you have had a moment to bask in God’s love for you this week, if you haven’t take one now.

Sensory Overload or Exhaustion

2011-04-21T10:45:00.001+01:00

I am trying to figure out if I am on sensory overload or just exhausted. But either way I am truly grateful to a great God that sustains us regardless of circumstances.

The sensory overload comes from way too many visits to clinic/hospitals in Niamey in the last week and a half. Some of these clinics were nice and others not so much, but all included really long waits and entertaining two preschoolers (because their mom was with us to translate for the sick person). I will try to give you a glimpse of one such visit: we thought this visit was going to take a half an hour while we waited to get an appointment date. Instead we spent four and a half hours entertaining a really tired three year old. He eventually fell asleep in my arms with the sweat pouring from both of us. I wasn’t able to put him down because the only place that I could have laid him on was the tile floor that I noticed had drops of blood here and there. (It was one time that I wished I had worn a head wrap—I would have gladly sacrificed messy hair for a little less heat). While I sat in this pool of sweat in the hallway in the emergency ward, I noticed a cat wonder in and out of the rooms nearby like it owned the place. I can’t even begin to describe the smells. After a number of trips to the pharmacy (where I had to buy everything from a plastic drop sheet to be used in the examination process, to a bottle of bleach), and 4 ½ hours later everything was completed including the original procedure that we thought we would only be booking. I just wish that I could say this was the only day like this instead of one of many…

The exhaustion comes from the heat and power issues. We are in the heart of the hot season and so there is a huge drain on everyone here. But to make matter worse we have been experiencing numerous blackouts, both day and night. (I suspect everyone is desperate for A/C and it’s overloading the system which was already underserviced either that or it is related to the situation in Nigeria, the source of our electricity.) For example, last night the power went off about two hours before I wanted to go to bed, when bedtime rolled around it was still out and the temperature in our room was 37.9C or 99.9F with no hope of fan, let alone air conditioning. The power did come back on, only to go off again. Unfortunately, the power outs also mean water cuts at our house. Luckily we were able to go out and buy a couple of cases of drinking water today.

Please pray for us as we try to persevere gracefully and share the love of Christ with those who are suffering with us. Pray also that we will have the strength to make it through the packing process without getting too caught up in looking toward going to Canada.

PS Could someone remind me next fall that I really want a camping fan for Christmas (the kind that runs on cordless drill batteries)and maybe a lantern, especially when I am being tempted by iphones, itouches, tvs and all the other great technology available in Canada.

Let the Church Be the Church

2011-04-05T13:14:00.001+01:00

Last night we were invited to another missionary’s home for supper. Our two boys joined their son in playing soccer video game. Our two boys got put together playing one team against the other boy. They got thrashed. Near the end Ben said, “ I don’t like playing with somebody else on my team—it’s easier when I do it all myself!”

I am a “doer” that likes to make things work and as a result, there are many times that I struggle with letting others do. I heap all kinds of extra work on myself by insisting that I know a better way to do something or can save myself time by doing it myself (probably a result of my own insecurities and pride). It happens with my kids, I think that it would just be so much easier if I did it myself. Denying them the privilege of not only learning how and developing their gifts and skills, but also the opportunity to learn from their mistakes and/or gain a sense of accomplishment.

How often is this true of the church? So often it is easier just to teach the Sunday school class or put together the Christmas program. It takes more time to collaborate with others showing them how it has been done in the past and learning from each other about possible ways of doing it in the future. It takes physical and emotional investment to work with someone else to accomplish a goal. But isn’t that what being a body is all about? We weren’t meant to be “lone rangers” dealing with everything on our own. It not only hurts us but it also hurts others when we try. That is why God put us in the church.

This morning I am trying to put some of that into practice. There is someone that has been coming to my house looking for help and I have been trying to go it alone, with my limited Zarma and cultural understanding. I had been thinking that there was no one close enough to help deal with this situation and that I wasn’t sure what to do. I finally humbled myself to ask a couple of ladies from our church to help me out with the situation and was truly blessed when one offered a better solution than I could come up with and said that she would come help. I guess I am slowly learning to let the church be the church. Please pray for this lady from our church that she would be enabled to deal with the situation and that God would bless her as she uses her gifts and talents for his kingdom. Let ‘s also pray for each other that we would be more willing to take the difficult route of investing in those around us instead of “just doing it” alone.

Rollercoaster Rides

2011-04-01T05:50:00.000+01:00

I was prepared to write this week about the rollercoaster ride of Cole’s birthday: after two days with no water, his gift from Grandma is lost in the mail and the best present he received was the time we spent playing Risk with him that ended with the power going out. But…

Then we went to bible study to night and the plunges on the roller coaster got a little steeper. We found out tonight that a young man from our congregation was killed this week in an accident on his way to Ouagadougou. He was going to write an accounting exam with a number of other students from the business school when the bus they were riding in broke down along the road. He was in the process of helping the driver with the repairs when a truck came along and ran them over. Both he and the driver were killed and a couple of other students were injured. Please pray for their families and all the people involved in this accident that God can turn this tragedy into something good. Pray also for Pastor Soter and the members of his family that work at the school and were friends with Jean-Claude as they mourn and care for those who mourn.

We had also considered going to Ouagadougou ourselves for a couple of days this week for the boy’s spring break. It’s about the only get away within driving distance of home. We discovered that it was a good thing we didn’t go since political unrest has suddenly erupted this week in the capital city with protests and gunfire. We heard that there were four deaths yesterday as shots were fired at protesters but that the military has since come onside with the protesters. Please pray as political unrest continues in the countries surrounding us.

We came home from bible study to receive the good news that we will have a place to live in Canada next year. We will be moving back into our own condo which is really nice for the boys to have a sense of “home”. Unfortunately it means that our renter is moving out and we will have to find someone new to move in when we leave. We had hoped to keep our renter and find another place to live because it is easier for us to find an apartment than to find a good renter, but God had other things in mind.

We were extremely grateful to receive word that my mom’s surgery went well. Thanks to all who have been praying, please continue to remember her over the next little while that he body may be fully restored.

Praying that your week has had a few less bumps than ours and that you are also experiencing His peace with every curve that comes your way.

Rough Week

2011-03-24T03:31:00.001+01:00

It has been a bit of a rough week. Aside from the usual power on, power off, water on, water off saga that goes with hot season and makes things like cooking, cleaning, laundry and sleeping a little more difficult. (I am told that I might be better off in the bush where I wouldn’t expect to have such luxuries), I have had some other interesting challenges to face.

I have been working with a young woman who has some serious problems but is not really interested in dealing with them in a constructive or realistic manner. So, it comes down to the fact that I really can’t help someone who isn’t interested in helping themselves or to accept the help I have to offer. I guess my biggest struggle with this is trusting God to take care of the situation when I can’t.

On that same note, I have been learning to trust God with the things that I can’t deal with on the home front. My mom is going in for back surgery today and I am continents away. It is not that I think that I would be able to do anything major if I were actually there, but it would be nice to be able to be there for my parents. I guess if the truth were told I would like to be there for myself too—to be reassured about her health, to help and to be able to see improvement. But, I get to wait this one out from a distance, knowing that she is in good hands which does make the waiting a little easier. (I guess I must be working on patience at the same time as trust!) You're in our prayers mom.

On a more positive note, the kids are enjoying a break from school this week. It has been nice have a little extra time in the day without the commute and to be able to do some extras like playing board games in the evening. Now if I can just get them into sorting and packing mode that would be really helpful.

Planes, trains and automobiles

2011-03-17T13:15:00.000+01:00

“You wanna fly to Cotonou tomorrow?” So began a four day adventure, the results of which remain to be seen. I had come across the existence of Free Methodist churches in Togo through the American Free Methodist World Missions website recently. A few years ago a Free Methodist from Cameroun initiated a ministry in the capital of Lomé but the ministry has since continued under the leadership of Togolese pastor. I had discussed the possibility of making a connection with the Togolese church with Dan Sheffield, since it’s the only other Francophone country in the region where the Free Methodist Church is present. He agreed that such a connection might be useful in the future but not necessarily our top priority as we prepare to transition back to Canada. The week following my conversation with Dan, the Togolese pastor himself contacted me out of the blue.

In the past we’ve flown to Ghana in a little 4-5 seater plane that SIM makes available to the mission community, though it’s not necessarily cheap. The price for round trip to Lomé was too exorbitant for me to book it and so I had been contemplating the possibility of taking the bus—a 24 hr trip one-way, and probably no A/C. Perhaps that’s why I was taking my time about planning the trip. When Ed offered the ride to Cotonou it was hard to pass up. Cotonou is about a two hour taxi ride up the coast from Lomé.

As chance (God) would have it, I never took that taxi. As we were flying into Cotonou we heard another pilot making arrangements to land with the control tower. She commented that after dropping off her passenger she was continuing on to Lomé. I said to Ed, “Wouldn’t it be nice if she could just take me on to Lomé—that would save me a lot of time and grief.” In Cotonou, we got out of the plane and a couple of pilots walked up.
“Where are you from?” one asked.
“Niamey,” replied Ed. “How about you?”
“Just returning to Lomé,” she replied.
“He’d like to go to Lomé,” Ed put in.
“Oh, come, come” she said, “we just dropped off the future president, we’re empty,” and then grabbed me by the arm and dragged me off with her co-pilot. That chance encounter saved me a visa, a trip through customs, a border crossing and a 2 hr taxi ride. We glided gently down the coast of beautiful sandy beaches at low altitude. Only the pilots had head-phone radios to talk so I contemplated the coastline in silence, as the roar of the engine drowned everything else out. Unfortunately, I never got to visit those beaches.

Back on the ground I easily found the pastor. I settled into the SIL guesthouse and spent the next two days visiting his churches in the area. Pastor Dosseh gives primary leadership to the church in Lomé but then gives oversight to lay church-planters in a couple of villages. He also oversees a church plant in central Togo, in a town called Sokode—it’s considered the Muslim capital of Togo and also his home town. His experience in Muslim ministry has useful potential for collaboration in Niger.

Wednesday morning he took me to the bus station downtown to catch my ride home. The bus was supposed to leave at 11 AM but it still wasn’t repaired… At 3pm we finally hit the road and I waved good-bye to my new friend out the window. The long bus ride home had its own adventures… but I arrived safely and was reunited with my wife and family.

Since then hot season has kicked in and power keeps going out.

Sleepless

2011-03-02T09:09:00.000+01:00

The clock on my computer says that it is 1:50am and I am wide awake.

I could blame it on the heat and humidity and the fact that my ear is oozing and has been annoying me all night. But I know that in reality if Dave where here I would have whined at him about my ear and he would have groaned sympathetically and we both would have rolled over and gone back to sleep, (at least until the pain got REALLY bad). However, my respect for single parents and just single missionaries in general has grown this week—I should say that I have always had a deep respect for those who are able to manage life as a single especially because I am not one of those people.

I think the real reason I am awake has more to do with the cockroach in my bathroom that I found when I tried to doctor my ear. I tried to pitch my shoe at it a couple of times because it was out of reach, but by the third poorly aimed throw he surrendered for parts unknown and I was wide awake.

As I was sitting there trying to figure out what happened to my little friend, I realized that I was hearing voices on the street. It never ceases to amaze me at how my Nigerien neighbours seem to function at all hours of the day and night. I am amazed at how late young children can be found in the streets. There is a part of me that understands the nocturnal side. When temperatures are so hot during the day, I can see taking advantage of the cooler evening, (but for me that would mean getting some much needed sleep). I suppose the other difference is that I have to live on a different time clock because of the boys’ school. Our guys start school at 7:25am (on the opposite side of town) in order to make the most of the cool of the morning and to avoid rush hour traffic. Then school goes straight through to 3pm. For the few Nigeriens that go to school here their day starts much later, then they take an afternoon rest hour and start school again in the afternoon from 3:30-6:30pm (depending on the age and school). I am guessing that the long rest hour is what makes the difference.

I will let Dave talk about his trip when he gets back. The good news for me is that he has a bus ticket and hopes to start home today. The bad news is that the drive time will take 24hrs if all goes well according to the bus company! Please pray with me that the trip home is a good one and that they make really good time.

I think my doctoring is working and if my cockroach friend will remain in hiding I guess I need to be getting back to bed. In a few hours I am going to have to wake the boys and get on with the rest of today.

West African Adventures and Single Parenting

2011-02-27T07:02:00.001+01:00

You can pray for us today.

Dave just left for a West African adventure. It started last night when we went to a dinner at the boys’ school. I casually asked one of the SIM air pilots if he had every taken a bus to Lome (the capital of Togo). He said it was a number of years ago when the roads were better and it had taken 19 hours. I was asking because we were planning on putting Dave on a bus to meet with the pastor that is overseeing the Free Methodist work there, but after I asked the pilot added, “but I am flying with an empty plane to Cottonou tomorrow. Do you want to go?” That lead to a series of phone calls and Dave’s departure with no known return date. (He hopes to take a bus back on Wednesday, but he doesn’t know anything about the bus schedule yet). Right now he is planning on taking a plane to Cottonou (Benin) and we have friends that will meet him at the airport and put him on a bush taxi to Lome (Togo) where the pastor responsible for the FM work there will meet him. (The flight should cut 16-20 hours off of this trip and make it possible to be able to do it in less than a week). Please pray that this will be a profitable time for all those involved as he meets with the leaders of the Free Methodist movement in Togo. My prayer is that they will be an encouragement for each other and may be the start of some “connectionalism” for FMers in francophone West Africa.

Pray for the boys and me as well, as we try to manage without Dad for awhile.

اركي غَ بَ نِن

2011-02-14T21:01:00.003+01:00

What do you see? How does it make you feel? Nervous? Annoyed? Left out? The truth is all it really says is God loves you in Zarma. A week ago I had a crash course in the Arabic script which many languages use for writing. When the language actually being written is not Arabic, this writing is called Ajami which translates into something like “ignorant” or “barbarian”. I took the course with an SIL missionary who worked in Cameroun. He discovered that people who may otherwise have been considered illiterate were able to read the scriptures the moment they were written with this alphabet. Many children here are daily memorizing this alphabet in order to chant the Qur’an, in a language they don’t even understand. The standard educational method of many Qur’anic schools is to first teach the alphabet, then memorize the entire Qur’an, and then teach you how to understand Arabic. The process apparently takes about 12 years… Most kids never get that far but they do know how to sound out the letters. Likewise my neighbour, who doesn’t speak French but does have a little prayer mosque in front of his house where he prays and reads the Qur’an every day, would probably have no problem figure out what those squiggles at the top of the page mean. Pray that I would continue to understand how to read this and find ways to use it effectively.

In mean time we have finished paying the owner for the property we are buying but have some final paper work to fill out with the notary in order to have a title deed in our hands. And she needs to get paid too.

The Gift of Today

2011-02-03T11:52:00.003+01:00

Life has been very harried the last few weeks, but I was blessed with a gift last summer that has really helped to keep me focused. You may remember that last summer we hosted a team from Canada, while they were here one of the members gave me a copy of Jesus Calling. It is a daily devotional that I have really appreciated. Today before I tried to tackle my “to do list” (that seems to grow longer instead of shorter as the day goes on), I took some time to read it and was reminded once again about where my priorities should be. The author Sarah Young writes, “…Each day is a precious gift from My Father. How ridiculous to grasp for future gifts when today’s is before you! Receive today’s gift gratefully unwrapping it tenderly and delving into its depths. As you savor the gift you find me [Jesus}”. My hope is that you can take to time to enjoy today for whatever it holds.

As for us we are finishing up negotiations to buy a piece of land, we just need to work out the details of how to get the money here to pay for it. Please pray for that. Dave has also been involved in some workshops here in town learning how to use the Arabic script to write the local languages. This holds some exciting possibilities because even the kids that haven’t gone to a public school (because of a lack of birth certificate or for other reasons) may have been taught to sound out the Arabic letters in order to participate in the local Mosques and Quaranic schools.

Niger had their first round of Presidential elections this past Monday. That reduced the number of Presidential candidates from ten to two. The final two will face off in an election at the end of March. Please keep this in your prayers as Niger so needs good leaders that will keep the best interest of the country in mind and rule with honesty and integrity.

Special thanks to Grace Methodist for sending the boys scooters! They are slowly learning how to use them and will be sending you a more personal thank you very soon.

Visitors from Canada

2011-01-26T11:57:00.003+01:00

Last week we had the privilege of hosting Dan Sheffield, Jared Siebert, and Mary-Elsie Wolfe. Jared and Mary-Elsie now have Nigerien names: Garba and Mariama-Salamatou. We enjoy sharing our lives with others from home and giving them an opportunity taste what life is like here. However it was not all fun and games as we had meetings with different church leaders and other business to accomplish as well.
I think we packed a lot into the six days they were here but enjoyed every minute of it. The church here was also appreciative of their ministry.
Some of you have asked for an update on my (Dave’s) health and it’s probably about time I said something. We enjoyed our week in Ghana. We spent time with the psychologist at the Mobile Member Care Team. Most of my systems were stress related and we spent time discussing some strategies both for managing and reducing some of
the stressors in our life. The primary stressors I had been experiencing were directly tied to the symptoms themselves, i.e. as I had chest pain (a stress symptom) and the doctors suggested this could be heart related my stress would go up, producing other stress symptoms like heart pounding, increased blood pressure, etc… Now that heart problems have been eliminated from being a primary concern, my basic stress levels have dropped but the residual effects are still there. Stress is cumulative. In other words, things from two months ago may no longer be on your mind but our bodies continue to carry that stress and it takes time for the effects of it to fade away. That’s why when a doctor/psychologist evaluates your stress levels they ask about events of the last six month to a year of your life—your body/psyche is still carrying the effects of those things and they affect your experience of stress today. Fortunately there are some things we can do to help our bodies and minds to better deal with the stress. So for the time being I have to avoid caffeine (which can produce heart palpitations), get more physical exercise, as well as some other relaxation techniques to help scale down some of the cumulative stress that I’ve managed to build up with my experiences of Nigerien health care… I am still experiencing those symptoms but I am no longer getting stressed about them

The next big stressor in our life is buying a piece of property. We’ve just entered into negotiations for a property in our neighbourhood. Please pray that the details will work out for a price and getting money transferred in a timely manner.

King's Kid

2011-01-04T15:26:00.000+01:00

Ever have one of those moments when you knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that you were blessed. I had quite the conversation yesterday at breakfast.

Ben was very impressed with a buffet breakfast in the hotel that we are staying in and turned to me and said “I feel like a king!” (It is amazing what unlimited bacon and 2 kinds of sausage can do for a nine year old boy.)

I told him that I was very happy and asked him to take a moment and take a picture to put in the back of his heart and mind so that he could remember clearly the feeling of being blessed by God. So, that the next time that things got rough in Niger or Canada or where ever he happened to be, he could recall this moment and remember that regardless of his circumstances God truly loved him. Both Cole and Ben took a minute and closed their eyes and savored the moment of knowing a loving God that cares for them (a true act of worship).

We all need moments like this to carry us through the rougher spots in life. It is my hope that if you are going through one of those rougher times that you can recall clearly God’s blessing and sense His presence. On the other hand if you are having a moment like Ben and everything seems to be going your way, take a minute and remember the source of that blessing.

Happy New Year

2010-12-30T18:23:00.000+01:00

I’d like to say this is turning into a much quieter week than the last, but I am not sure that is exactly true. We have been keeping a much slower pace which has been really nice for a change, but I’ve noticed a lot of radios blaring in the neighbourhood and every once in awhile I hear the roar of a crowd. Now the roar could simply be an intense soccer match that has drawn a crowd of observers, but I suspect that it has more to do with the elections that are coming up. There will be municipal/regional elections held across the country next week followed by presidential elections at the end of January. There is however the ongoing possibility of delays as the military government audits the previous government’s books. Please pray for these elections that God will put in place men and women of integrity that will look out for the best interests of Niger.

We will be away next week so I may not get a chance to blog. Dave is going to Ghana to follow up on his health issues and the rest of us decided to tag a long so that we could get a break too. We pray that you will have a safe and happy New Year’s Eve and that it would be the beginning of many good things to come.

My Christmas Marathon

2010-12-26T06:05:00.001+01:00

My Christmas Marathon started last Thursday, I am sure that it probably started long before last Thursday, but I am too tired to think beyond that right now. Thursday (the 23rd), I finished my Christmas shopping, bought groceries, went to the market to get candy for our neighbour kids & my Sunday school class, assembled 52 candy bags, started my dough for cinnamon buns and somehow in there found time to make a few meals for my family. I had decided to make the cinnamon buns to give to my Nigerien friends and neighbours that had kindly included us in their Tabaski celebrations, but I wasn’t really sure what I was getting myself into with a new recipe from the internet that a friend here had kindly introduced me to. It turned out that I had to recruit Dave’s help at a couple of key points because the recipe was quite a bit larger than I expected, but I was grateful that it could be done in two stages and left in the fridge over night. Our plan was to try and do most of our “public” celebrations on Christmas Eve and to lay low on Christmas Day with just the family, but so much for plans…

Friday I got up extra early to finish baking the seven pans of cinnamon buns that magically turned into nine when needed and we even got to eat one! I got ready for the kids club and then returned cloth and money to a neighbour that I was helping with their business besides it was a good excuse to be on the street and let the neighbours know that we were doing kids club a day early because of the holiday. Instead of the regular kids club we told the Christmas story using a picture book. Both Dave and I were amazed at how awed the kids were with the pictures, it is easy to forget that a lot of these kids rarely see books, let alone ones with big coloured pictures. Dave had simplified the story and we had translated it into zarma with the help of our language teacher a couple of years ago. After the story, my house helper helped to line up the kids in an orderly fashion so that we could distribute candy bags on their way out of the gate so that we didn’t start a riot in our yard or on the street. 38 bags later, it sort of worked, I think…. Then we were off to the post office and to distribute cinnamon buns. Somehow Dave found an hour sometime in the day to put the finishing touches on his sermon that he was to preach that night, and we were given two invitations for Christmas celebrations the next day. Church was supposed to start at 8pm on Christmas Eve, but we had been given permission to be late (if Dave was willing to preach at 9:45). We made it on time, but the service started late, so we got to watch Nigerian (from Nigeria, not Niger, therefore in English, Hausa and Yarouba) while we waited. Dave preached and we stayed until dinner was served at 10:30, but didn’t make it through the rest of the service. It was going to continue until 5:30am because the neighbourhood the church is in isn’t the safest at night, so the people don’t want to walk after dark. At home, the boys went to bed and Dave delivered a plate of cinnamon buns to the neighbour he regularly has tea with, while I started wrapping Christmas presents.

After our Christmas morning celebrations with the boys, we went for dinner at a friend’s house that included interactive games and a white elephant gift exchange. We managed to get in a visit to another birthday party that we were invited to too. So much for our quiet day at home, but that was probably just wishful thinking anyway.

I had thoughts of sleeping in this morning, but it’s Sunday and I am not as ready as I should be for my Sunday school class (I am really not as fluent at reading French as I would like to be and it is generally a good idea to know the vocabulary in a story before you try to read it to kids.) So, its 5am the call to prayer will be starting any minute and I will be entering the last leg of my Christmas celebration for this year. I hope yours was good, (that you will forgive any errors that I might have made at this time in the morning) and that we will all find rest when the festivities are finished. Merry Christmas!

Latest installment of an ongoing saga

2010-12-14T10:29:00.003+01:00

My wife says I should update you regarding our health and near future. Our last post stated that there was one more test that could be done here Niger and it was performed last Monday. That was an adventure in itself. It’s called a “myocardial perfusion scan”, and involves using radioactive material being injected into the blood stream in order to take images of the heart’s functioning. Two sets of images are taken, one with the heart under exertion, (like a stress test) and the second while it is at rest. The morning started with a regular stress test, peddling away on an exercise bike that slowly increased resistance while strapped up to an EKG machine and another machine measuring my blood pressure every couple of minutes. (According to the second machine I slowly died during the test as the bottom number which is ideally 80 while at rest slowly dropped to about 27!) The other machine apparently kept track of the necessary data as well, for the doctor complained, “Tu es sportif!” as he struggled to get my heart rate over 160.

After my heart was sufficiently pumping I was sent over to the other machine to have scans taken of my heart. As we were walking out the technician said to my doctor, “If nothing shows up on this initial scan, there’s no point in coming back for the second.” Assuming the best I was relieved to think that this would all be over soon. A few minutes later my doctor was called in to view the finished images. She came out with a worried look on her face and said, “It’s abnormal, you’ll have to come for the next round.” Immediately my mind began to race, “When are they going to ship me out? Whose house will I stay at in Canada? Will Jenn and the boys travel with me? Should they stay so Cole can write his exams? Are we going to be able to finish our term in Niger? What about…?” We had to wait for at least three hours before the next round of scans and on the way home I started to verbalize some of my questions to the doctor. She had earlier said that she figured I had about a 5% chance of getting a positive result—the test was simply a means of eliminating one possibility for symptoms that seemed to be lingering. Like most of my experiences with Nigerien medical care, this test seemed to be an ongoing series of mixed messages. We were still waiting for results from blood that had been drawn almost two weeks ago. They would later prove mildly positive but not in the expected direction; my thyroid turned out to be mildly underactive which accords with my lifelong experience but not with the erratic heart behaviour of an overactive thyroid as we had suspected. To my probing questions the doctor refused to speculate preferring to wait to hear the final results though she clearly seemed concerned.

The second round went without incident. Initially the doctor at the clinic said, I would have to wait until Thursday to get my report. (The following day was a national holiday and who knows what on Wednesday). “But I needed to be able to make plans if I’m to be evacuated!” I responded. “Can you not at least give a verbal report to my doctor so we can make some plans?”
“I can’t bring up the images while the machine is in use and someone else is having a scan right now.”
“I can wait until they’re done.” I replied.
The doctor finally conceded and agreed to finalize his report for the next day. A short while later he came out and said, “You have nothing to worry about, the same abnormality showed up in this test as well.” Slightly confused I got him to call our doctor to explain. She in turn consulted with colleagues in the US, who suggest that this was probably a false positive should be ignored and other avenues pursued.

The week before she had commented, “You know, I think your symptoms would be half as bad if you were in North America, for the simple reason that most of the tests we’ve done in the last three weeks would have been done in a day or two with more reliable results. The longer this gets drawn out, the more your stress levels go up, increasing your symptoms.” Final diagnosis appears to be that this is largely stress related, (there may have been some heartburn and a few other things along the way,) and that I should consult with a counselor for some advice. We are working towards making some arrangements for that, but in the mean time Jennifer and I have gotten sick. Jennifer has run a fever along with a chest cold for the last four days straight. The doctor has warned that the cold going around has turned into a walking pneumonia in a couple of cases. While I’ve not had any fever with my cold, we are actively working to prevent Jennifer’s from getting any worse. Please pray for God’s sustaining power in our lives and ministry.

We are blessed

2010-12-04T09:21:00.002+01:00

I was reminded of that again yesterday morning. On Thursday mornings I participate in a mom’s prayer group at the boys’ school. But this Thursday I was a little bit early so, I decided to use my time to touch base with Ben’s teacher who was on yard duty (she has yard duty most mornings). As I made my way over to talk to her and all during our conversation, I noticed that child after child came up to give her a hug. They were each greeted with a smile and given an encouraging word to start their day. It made me think how really blessed we were to have her come to teach at Sahel. I know that she (like most of us) has had her share of trials and difficulties, but she has persevered and chosen to continue to love and to serve despite them.
There are times when I think that Niger has the corner on the difficult times market, but I know that that isn’t the reality. We all face trials and difficulties of various kinds. But, I am truly grateful that I serve a God that walks with me and sees me through those difficult times, each step of the way and even sends the odd little messenger to pass on a hug of encouragement. I hope that if you are facing one of those difficult moments that God will send a hug your way today.
We have discovered that Dave can do one more test here in Niamey that the doctor didn’t know was available here. Hopefully it will help figure out what is going on with him, even if it only eliminates another possibility. So, hopefully he will be able to do that early next week (there is the possibilities of complications and delays in arranging this test because it involves radiation and they like to be able to do a number of patients in the same day).It is the waiting and the unknown that is the hard part. Please pray that that is the case because Dave’s doctor leaves for holidays the following Monday!
Off to kids club! Here is a picture from a few weeks ago.

Tabaski Part two

2010-11-27T19:47:00.003+01:00

This has been a long week. A little over a week ago was the Tabaski holiday, where every family slaughters a sheep, goat or cow to commemorate God’s provision of a ram when Abraham was about to sacrifice his son. The first day is more of a family day as the animal roasts over an open fire. The second day everyone begins to share their meat with family, friends and the poor. We visited a couple of homes where we were given lots of meat to eat and Tamajeq style tea. My last round of tea and meat was around 11 PM with a neighbour. That night it caught up with me—I was up hourly and probably only slept twenty minutes in the night. My insomnia was also
accompanied by troubling symptoms that have followed me on and off for the last week. On Wednesday, our doctor friend threatened that if something didn’t start improving soon she might consider having me evacuated someplace where more extensive tests could be done. I think most of my problems have been gastro-intestinal but some symptoms have made the doctor wonder if we shouldn’t consider having a stress test for my heart. Just suggesting that is a stress test for my heart! (I’ve already had EKG’s on two separate occasions since late August.) There have been days when I just wanted to go home, feeling like questions could be answered and resolved quickly. The truth is, as some of you know, even in North America some medical questions aren’t answered quickly, and treatment can require patience. It’s easy to become focused on ourselves in these moments but I know this has been trying on our family as well—my wife can’t remember when she last had a good night’s sleep.

We are thankful for God’s faithfulness. Last week we received four different gifts of meat—the most we’ve ever received, and perhaps a sign that we are starting to fit into the neighbourhood. The first morning of Tabaski I slept in thinking that all my neighbours would be busy saying prayers and talking their animals off to the mosque to be blessed before slaughter. However I awoke to the dog barking, and my wife saying, “I think someone’s knocking at the door.” I quickly pulled on my clothes but no one was there. Later that afternoon while going out to visit, my neighbour who is a marabout (Islamic teacher) accosted me on the street saying, “Daouda, where were you? We knocked on your door this morning to greet you. Your dog barked but no one answered. There were ten men standing at your front door wanting to greet you but you didn’t come out!” With embarrassment I explained that I wasn’t appropriately dressed to receive visitors which is why I was slow to answer.

Tomorrow is the first Sunday of Advent and I’ve cajoled my “Sunday School” students into doing the lectionary readings and to share a few thoughts on each in the morning service.

Please pray that as we work with the church and our neighbours that Christ’s light would shine through our lives.

Tabaski Part One

2010-11-18T21:40:00.002+01:00

Sorry for the long silence, but we were without power for the majority of last week and we were in the process of writing our e-newsletter with whatever amounts of power we could access. It is interesting how God can take a situation like having no power (or water because our water is cut off when the power is off for any length of time) and use it. There were two things that stand out about last week: 1) we were frequently asked if when we come back next time whether we would be moving to Kwara Kano, a neighbourhood made of mostly expatriates and influential Nigeriens—their power is rarely interrupted. 2) we found and frequented a new restaurant.
The questioning was interesting because it was a reminder once again of why we are here and doing what we are doing. We chose where we live very specifically because there were no other churches in our neighbourhood (or for two or three neighbourhoods nearby). We knew that we needed to live where we work in order to build relationships and live the gospel. It would be great to live in a nicer part of town where things are more convenient, but this is where we felt lead to be and where God has been using us so in all likelihood we’ll be returning even if we get to live with limited power and/or water. But, it was good to have the reminder that someone else put us where we are and He is continuing to sustain us despite the difficulties!
When you are afraid to touch your fridge or freezer because the power has been out for so long cooking can become a challenge. We were truly blessed that Grandma had sent us a jar of chunky peanut butter in a recent package because it really helped to take the edge off of breakfast (and bag lunches) when the only options were day old baguette and bananas or oranges “fresh” from the market the previous day (which doesn’t say much for their “freshness” with the heat we usually experience here), oh and of course warm water. The boys survived (and I don’t think they lost too much weight), but it meant that we went out to eat frequently. However the restaurants that have a generator for fans or air conditioning (and the opportunity to recharge your computer) can get to be pretty pricy when you frequent them regularly. So we saved them for when the boys were home from school, and found a new place to eat at lunch that was a step above street food (there was seating and fans when the power was on), but almost as cheap. We got to chose one of the two specials of the day (usually African cuisine) for 1000-1500 cfa (about $2.50-3.50 CDN). In going to the same place a few days in a row, we got to know the man in charge (the guy who yells out the window at the cook and brings you your food) and he gave us a complimentary Fulfulde lesson with our meal the last time. Please pray for this new relationship and that we will continue to seek new God opportunities. We also hope that you will praise God with us for the reminders that He is still at work in the midst of difficult times and that you will see God at work in your daily lives this week, whatever the circumstances.

Today was the end of Tabaski and I have much to write but, I think that will have to wait until next week. However, tomorrow is Field Day which is a day filled with so much mixed emotion in our house hold that I frequently approach it with fear and trembling. For those of you that know my boys (If only through this blog) please pray for them and for safety for all the participants.

Prayer

2010-11-05T21:09:00.001+01:00

This past week I had an e-mail from one of our supporting churches asking how they could pray for us and I didn’t realize how timely that request was until the experience of the last few days (that kept me from responding to this until today), so I thought I would share my response with you:

We really appreciate your prayers. The one prayer request that stands out right at the moment is for health. Dave has been having some weird symptoms and a missionary doctor is struggling to figure out what is happening. It seems like sporadically his heart is racing and he is having shortness of breath and stomach cramping. They have run an number of blood tests and are planning on doing an EKG and some thyroid tests, but the labs and things here are not always reliable (in fact tomorrow will be the third time that we have tried to do the EKG—last night they wouldn’t run any of the test and this morning they told him to come back at 4 when the technician would be there, only to find at 4 that the technician left at noon!) He is supposed to go in tomorrow morning, but it is unlikely to show anything unless he is experiencing symptoms when the test is actually being done. I am not sure how to pray—that he is really bad tomorrow and they figure out what is going on or for complete healing. Sorry this is a little on the heavy side, but Dave’s health issues has consumed a lot of the last couple of days.

On a positive note, you could pray for the kids club that is meeting at our house on Saturday’s that God will use the stories and colouring pages to transform their lives and the lives of their families.

You could also pray for property. There has been some money donated to go toward the purchase of property for a ministry centre/church here. We have been searching for a number of months and things are either too expensive or not the most ideal (ie. we thought that we had a reasonable piece of land at a reasonable price, only to find that it was on a garbage dump and we would have to dig through and remove 2-3m depth of garbage in order to find solid ground to build a foundation on.

We know that many of you do pray for us on a regular basis and that means a lot to us. I am reminded daily that I am not adequate to the ministry that the Lord has called us to but as we turn to him he is able to work through us.

And who is equal to such a task?... Such confidence as this is ours through Christ before God. Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God. He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant… 2 Cor 2:16; 3:4-6

What Dave neglected to mention and other developments

2010-10-30T19:54:00.002+01:00

What Dave neglected to mention last week was that while he was busy trying to take care of me last weekend he also ran a kids’ club on our front porch with kids that just kept coming. He asked me to print off extra colouring sheets for the kids while he bounced an 8 month old on his knee, and told the story of Noah. I had just enough energy to print the papers and marvel at how he was managing before I climbed back into bed! But if that wasn’t enough he had been asked at the Thursday night bible study to preach on Sunday because the pastor was struggling with his own case of malaria. So, sometime after the Saturday morning kids club and before his Sunday School class (and in between coming up with meals for our family) he pulled together a sermon for Sunday morning. Thanks to those of you who were praying for him!

I am happy to say that a day or two after my last treatment of Quinine my hearing come back and I am feeling much better than I did last week. I was in much better shape to help with the kids this week which was good because we had another good crowd. Please pray that the seeds we are sowing will someday bear fruit in the lives of these kids and their families. Pray also for me, because next week Dave will be away with Cole (and the other 7/8 grade boys!)on an overnight campout and I will be trying to keep the kids club going on my own with the help of a friend or two.

We also had the additional excitement of a hair salon opening in our front yard this morning. A few weeks ago we had a young woman come to ask if she could “borrow our electricity”. She is a friend of a friend that was trying to start a hair salon in a neighbour’s “shop”(which is really a shack). The problem is that the power in the shop wasn’t sufficient and she had to wait three months for the power company to fix the problem. We were concerned that we would have problems with the power company if we let her run an electrical line from our house, so we suggested that she could use the little shack on the front of our property for three months until the power was put in at her shop. Pray that this will work out for all who are involved. She is a Christian that belongs to another church in a neighbourhood on the other side of town. But my hope is that in helping her out in this way, there will be new opportunities to connect with our neighbours.

Hemarize

2010-10-26T00:03:00.001+01:00

October is the mini hot season. In Zarma it’s called “hemar”. Usually the rains have stopped by now but the malaria which takes a few weeks to incubate kicks into high gear. That’s why malaria in Zarma is called “hemarize”, literally, the child of “hemar”. We have had any extra long rainy season, giving the mosquitoes extra time to multiply, compounded with lots of flooding giving them extra breeding grounds, and as a result the malaria may be a little worse. We’ve had our brushes with it this year. Cole ran a high fever one evening a few weeks ago. Our doctor friend with whom we car pool figured it was too late in the evening for the lab test and suggested we just treat him for malaria. The 24 hr treatment seemed to do the trick and he’s been fine since. Jenn had the same problem at the beginning of the month with similar results but also had an ear infection didn’t seem to want to clear. She sat on just the borderline of fever for the last three weeks with the earache. We finally wondered if there might be something else involved and Friday’s malaria test proved mildly positive. She’s been on treatment all weekend but the treatment seems almost as bad as the illness, though today she’s seeing some improvement. Ben’s been doing Grade 5 math and spelling but the Grade 5-6 teacher has just been medically evacuated to the US this weekend. She’s been through over a dozen treatments since the end of August but just can’t seem to shake the malaria.
Tonight around 10 o’clock I got a call from our house help. Their month old seemed slightly constipated and to have a bit of a cough. Was my doctor friend available to see him? I was already feeling guilty for the constant pestering we’d been giving her with our own health issues over the last few weeks. The symptoms didn’t seem too serious and I figured it could wait till morning. But then I asked if the baby had a fever. “Well yeah, he seems kind of hot…” Our car is in the garage, (power steering is groaning and probably on the way out) and Gouzoul only has a little scooter. His uncle from Algeria happened to be visiting—he’s trying to sell a nice silver Mercedes he picked up in Libya. It was a nice smooth ride to the 24 hr state run clinic. [When the practitioner on call had trouble pronouncing Gouzoul’s name—his cousin joked that she could just call him “Gazoil” (French for diesel fuel).] Medical clinics here scare me but I think Gouzoul will sleep more peacefully tonight. Please pray for God’s healing and protection through this difficult season, pray also for the school as it attempts reorganize for the missing teacher and finally pray for us that we would show God’s love and grace as we serve others in practical ways.

Giving Thanks

2010-10-16T18:50:00.000+01:00

I am very thankful
Not just because we celebrated thanksgiving this week in Canada.
I am very thankful for electricity and all of the conveniences it provides. We have spent the last two and a half days without any and it was a good reminder once again of how blessed we are (& how dependent we are on electricity). It was very nice to be able to sleep under the ceiling fans again last night and not have to worry about the things stored in my fridge and freezer. It is also great to know that I can have a good long shower today, because there is water!! (Whenever our power is out for any length of time we run out of water.)
The night that the power went out we had company over for dinner and as a result created a lot of left-overs. I had been looking forward to using them for a few meals, but wasn’t quite prepared for the long power outage. The next day I had to shift gears and have a more Nigerien response. Here when they have a celebration they usually slaughter a sheep or goat for the party and then send pieces to neighbours and friends (because it is too much to eat at once and not easily stored). So when I reheated my left-overs I took some to my neighbour and she had a good laugh over the “anasara foy” –the white person’s sauce. Please pray that people would see Christ in us as we love and relate to our neighbours.
We are also thankful because our government authorization has been renewed once more after a month long wait. This allows to work in the country and to continue our ministries and is now good for five years.
Please pray for land, we have been looking to purchase land for the mission, for offices and a church. A few months ago we thought we had the right place at the right price but because of circumstances it didn’t go through and since then the price of property in our area seems to have skyrocketed.

Thoughts turning to home…

2010-10-09T20:57:00.000+01:00

It is Thanksgiving weekend in Canada. Which brings back great memories from my childhood, many of which center around the Brigden Fair and the Vineland/Ball’s Falls Craft show—aah, I would love to go for a walk in the woods with the falling leaves and crisp, fresh air, but alas! My thoughts have also travelled home over the past little while when we received word that Freedom Christian Community was celebrating their 125th anniversary this past month. We have been so blessed by their partnership in our ministry and hope that their celebrations went well. We are looking forward to being able to reconnect with many of our friends in Canada next year when we come home for our home assignment, but I need to keep focused on the work here and not get too distracted by that yet.
This has been an unusual October for Niger, this past week we have had three rains in the night and the weather has been reasonably cool (by cool I mean 35C for day time temps). I am definitely not complaining about the rain, especially if it keeps the temperature down! It just leaves me with a couple of concerns: the crops and the mosquitoes. I am hoping that the weather won’t interfere with the growing season and crops as Niger has been recovering from famine in many areas of the country. The problem with the mosquitoes is increased here in Niamey where the river has flooded in many areas and left in its wake lots of standing water. I suspect that this may be part of the reason the boys school has been so hard hit with illness. There have been a number of staff and students (as well as parents) that have had bouts of malaria this year. (One staff member has been suffering with it multiple times this year already). Cole has struggled off and on with a fever over the last week, and is running one now. We don’t know if this is malaria but the labs aren’t open ‘til tomorrow morning. Please pray that this week’s school break will provide a time of renewing for those that have been sick.
I am amazed at how so many of the stories from the bible come to life in new ways here. I have a whole new respect for the plagues seeing the mucky flood waters of the Niger, the abundance of so many bugs (flies, gnats, and others besides the mosquitoes) and the frogs that seem to be everywhere some evenings. Please remember us and the families in our neighbourhood as we continue to tell bible stories with the kids. Pray that we would have the language to be effective and that God would use them for his purposes.

The Body of Christ

2010-09-29T13:54:00.002+01:00

The bible uses the image of a body and all of its individual parts to describe how Christians having varied gifts and talents are to work together for the greater good. This image was brought to mind this past weekend as I was thinking (and experiencing) some of the benefits and sacrifices of how that is lived out. Last Thursday night we went to the church bible study and as we were finishing, Dave was asked if he would drive the members of the team to the village where they were going for the weekend. This came as a bit of a surprise to both of us because we understood that they were taking a bush taxi there. We said that if we could make arrangements for getting the kids back and forth to school Dave would go. So I called a teacher friend from the school and asked if I could borrow her car to get the kids home from school (I offered supper in exchange, but she didn’t bite). She very graciously lent me her car to get the kids home from school. Friday became an extra busy day, we went to Zarma class, picked up the loaner car, went to the bank, gas station and tried to get Dave some food so that he was able to leave slightly afternoon. We were happy to support their efforts in evangelism and thankful for others that were willing to support us in our need.
Dave’s two cents
On Sunday I was asked once more if I would make the trip to pick the team up. I gave up my Sunday afternoon nap to drive all afternoon. On my journey I saw two cars that looked like they had rolled and were in pretty rough shape. When I got home I discovered a third. A wealthy neighbour of ours was in nasty accident on the weekend—broke both thighs as well shoulder and head injuries but is communicating without difficulty. I don’t know the man very well, though I often sit at his front gate having tea with his night guard. He usually arrives home from work around 10 PM or so. We stopped to visit at the hospital yesterday but no one could find him. My friend, the night guard led us to where his wife was waiting. She thanked us for stopping by and invited us to come visit at the house sometime. Later that evening the night guard explained that apparently he’d been taken in for surgery and that no one had been able to see him that day. We pray that he will recover well and that the Lord might use this opportunity as he sees fit.

We have much to be thankful for!

2010-09-21T17:14:00.002+01:00

We have been blessed once again with many answers to prayer over the last little while. The school year has started off great for the boys and I am amazed at how God has been working to bring about growth in both of them. Ben has been blessed with a great teacher for the rest of the year, YEAH! God provided for the repairs on our vehicle after my car accident. The baby that was almost born in our back seat is healthy and growing and mom is doing well too. We even gave away all but one of our rabbits only to find that our single rabbit had become two rabbits a few weeks later! We are truly grateful for all that God has done and want to thank those of you that have been praying for us for being a part of that.
I am also really excited about what He is doing in the church that has affiliated with us. This past Sunday we had a commissioning service for four guys in our congregation that are heading out to a nearby village this weekend. Their plan is to work with a fledgling church there and with a representative from Campus Crusade for Christ to show the Jesus Film and help with an evangelism campaign. The pastor asked the congregation to join together to pray for them on Sunday and asked that all who were able would fast and pray on Wednesday for this team. So, if you are able and would like to fast and pray with the church for this team, I am sure that they would appreciate your prayers, there plan is to take a bush taxi out of town on Friday and be there until Sunday afternoon.
Our efforts are pointless without God’s Spirit at work. It is my prayer that the church will get a hunger for seeing God’s hand at work in their midst and will continue to reach out in new endeavours for Him.

The Long Weekend

2010-09-15T20:40:00.001+01:00

Last week the boy’s school had a long weekend because of the end of Ramadan. At the end of the month of fasting there is a holiday and in Niger it is a national holiday. After the craziness of the month we were looking forward to the break of the long weekend and considered going away. However, we were invited by friends of ours for “tea” on the Thursday and thought that it was a good excuse for connecting with people. It turned out that tea was really an invitation to join in their celebration meal for the end of the fast and we were the honoured guests. On the way home from there we realized that there was a problem with our car (the kind that requires immediate intervention before you run into major problems), so instead of getting away for the weekend we were grounded at our house. We had already delegated our responsibilities at the church for the weekend so we decided to try something different in our yard. Saturday night we showed Prince Caspian on the street and had a really good crowd despite technical problems. Afterward Dave went to visit a friend down the street to ask if his kids would like to come for a teaching time at our house the next morning. He explained that I normally teach a bible story and had a colouring sheet with my Sunday school class, but we wouldn’t be going to the church the next morning because our car was in the garage until Monday afternoon. He agreed to let his kids come and the next morning when Dave went to open the gate, they were not only there but a large group of other kids too. Dave told the kids that they needed to go home and talk to their mom or dad to get permission to be there because he was going to teach a bible story and he didn’t want to have any trouble with their parents. So a number of them left and another neighbour across the street told us that her kids could come and that she had heard us tell the kids that they needed their parent’s permission to be there (she would be our witness if there was a problem). There ended up being 19 kids that listened to the creation story in Zarma and then spent time colouring a page on our front porch. They were especially happy to take their pictures home with them and we had kids in the street asking us every time that we came and went if we would do it again, “this afternoon”, “tonight”, “tomorrow”, “next week”.
Please pray that God would use these seeds that we are sowing and that He would give us wisdom in how to follow up what we have started and balance that with the responsibilities we have at the church in Kwara Tagui. Please also pray for much needed rest that didn’t really happen on the weekend. Finding a get-away is increasingly more difficult with the Canadian embassy suggesting that travel be limited to the city limits of Niamey and flights being expensive.

What a night!

2010-09-07T08:28:00.000+01:00

This has been a really wild Ramadan for us, but I am hoping that the climax came last night (and that it is all downhill from here!). I am probably not the person to be telling this story, but he is trying to make up for lost sleep right now, so I will do my best and he can correct it later. Dave had been up late having tea with a neighbour (who was really touched that the tea had come all the way from Canada to be shared with him), but thankfully I had gone to bed. At 3 am I was woken to the phone, but didn’t make it out of bed before it stopped ringing. I figured that it was probably some sort of wrong number or they would call again if it was important. So, five minutes later when the phone started again, I assumed it was important. It was a friend who works for us part time, his wife was having a baby and he didn’t know what to do because there were no taxis running at that time of the day. So, Dave went to help while I stayed with the kids. When he got there he found out that our friend had been told this baby was coming hours before and he had told his wife to wait until morning, at which she had stopped speaking to him, so instead of having plenty of time to get them to the hospital Dave was afraid this baby was going to be born in our back seat—he keeps telling me next time I can go to deliver the baby, the only thing that he knew about it was a video that he had watched in prenatal class eleven years ago! Instead of going directly to the hospital, our friend directed us to an aunt’s house to get help, when they arrived there the aunt told him that there was no time to get to the hospital the baby was going to come now (which Dave had been telling him in the car all the way there). Within minutes Dave heard the baby cry from the other side of the wall and shortly after that everyone was cleaned up and back in the car to get to the maternity hospital. I guess they had brought everything that they needed for the delivery except for clothes for the mother and baby, so Dave and our friend turned around and headed back to his house, wondering if they were going to be able to get inside because the lock on the door had broken as they left the house. After fighting with it for awhile, Dave called me again to see if I had anything that would work for clothes (by now it was 5 am) and just as I was responding they jimmied the lock and got into the house.
Please pray for this couple and their new baby (especially that there are no complications because the birth situation was less than ideal!). Also pray that God would be at work in this situation, we have been sharing the love of Jesus with them over the last couple of years. I guess I better go see if I need to clean up the back seat of the car, have a great day!

2010-08-23T18:32:00.000+01:00

I am really struggling today. I could blame it on fatigue because our neighbourhood mosque has really beefed up their P.A. system for Ramadan and the local Marabout is either preaching or playing Arabic music until 11pm and then the kids are sent out with pots and pans at 4 am so that people can eat before sunrise.

Or it could be the adrenaline marathon that I have been running for the last couple of months between taking courses, hosting a team from Canada, running a leadership retreat, getting the boys back in school and finishing my course work. (I am too tired to even appreciate that I did well on my courses.)

Or it could be the emotional rollercoaster of dealing with a seventh grader’s anxieties about starting into “high school” (middle school and high school are combined in one building here) coupled with the realization that life is so cheap here if you or someone dear to you has a heart attack the cardiac clinic will admit you to watch you die. (Maybe that is just the reminder that we are all really on God’s medical plan no matter how much we would like to hide behind the wonders of medical science and technology.)

Or it could be the concern of school starting and there still not being a teacher for my fourth grader’s class—we are blessed that there is a temporary solution filling the gap for the first few weeks, but we could really use prayer for the right person to come.

I guess I could really use a vacation but I don’t really feel like I deserve one having let all my regular duties slip while I covered “extras” in the last couple of months. Not to mention, that it really isn’t going to happen anyway because of travel warnings in country and the increase expense of visas and travels out of country.

I can relate to the Psalmist:

Send forth your light and your truth, let them guide me; let them bring me to your holy mountain, to the place where you dwell. Then will I go to the altar of God, to God, my joy and my delight. I will praise you with the harp, O God, my God. Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him my Savior and my God. Ps 43:3-5

It is so good to know that we aren’t alone in our struggles and that we don’t have to stay there.

False Alarm

2010-08-19T17:10:00.002+01:00

Thanks to all those who have been praying for Dave. After spending the day in the clinic and consulting with our doctor friend the doctor in the clinic decided that the second EKG was fine and that he could go home. So, Dave still has some problems but they probably aren't heart related. It is such a blessing to know that we have friends who care and who pray!

Pray for Dave

2010-08-19T12:22:00.002+01:00

Please pray for Dave, he was experiencing some heart relate symptoms yesterday and finally last night he got me up to go to the clinic. The doctor on call told us that we would have to come back in the morning for an EKG because the technician doesn't work at nights. Dave asked what that would mean if he had a heart attack at night and the doctor's response was "c'est la vie". Not very comforting!
He slept well and seemed to be feeling a bit better this morning, but Cole woke up with a fever. He decided to go in for the EKG because the doctor told him it was good to have something to compare it to even if he wasn't experiencing any problems at the time. He assured me that it would ok for him to drive himself because he was feeling ok and it would be best for me to stay with Cole. So, I let him go, but I have just received a call that they are admitting him for monitoring because the EKG has shown something. As I write this I am waiting for a neighbour to come take me to the clinic to find out what is going on-- the added blessing is that the neighbour coming is also a missionary doctor. I will try to update when I know more, thanks for praying! He is in good hands.

Catching Up

2010-08-08T20:40:00.004+01:00

Sorry I haven't gotten to this earlier, I thought that life would slow down long before now, but I should have known better...
The retreat went really well, thanks to everyone who was praying. Dave did a great job of handling the preaching and was even able to incorporate a number of interactive sessions. There was a good attendance with church leaders from four different churches involved. The ladies from Brantford did an amazing job, in fact one family was told by their kids that they didn't want to go to a birthday party (that was at least impart for them), they wanted to stay for the rest of the kids program.
I never could have made it through the weekend without Joan from St.Catharines, because she helped with Cole who was very sick for the whole weekend (and most of the rest of the week). If fact as I was writing last weeks blog Dave came in to tell me that Cole was throwing up and had dry heaves. However it wasn't until Cole told me that I was standing in it that I realized that he hadn't made it to the toilet and that Dave hadn't cleaned it up.
Unfortunately after the conference was over the ladies that came to help had some difficulties of their own with traveller's diarrhea, but were able to overcome that and made it safely home on Friday. Thanks to them and all the others that helped to make it possible for them to be here.
I was hoping that things would be slowing down by now, especially because I have a week left to get my assignments done for the courses I took this summer. But I have had some digestion difficulties of my own this weekend and then shortly after we came home from church tonight a friend came to our house looking for help because his one month old baby was running a fever. Please pray for the baby and for Dave as he has driven the family to the hospital as I write this. Also remember me in your prayers this week, I have an incredible amount of school work to get accomplished this week.

Please Pray for us Today

2010-07-30T11:31:00.001+01:00

Hi, if you have taken the time to read this today, please take a moment and pray for us. We are running a leadership retreat this weekend and found out two days ago that the main speaker will not be able to make it here. So, Dave is preparing to preach Friday night, three times on Saturday and Sunday morning, with limited preparation time. The rest of the team that made it is preparing to run a kids program on limited sleep (having gone through a 5 hour time change in the last three days). Cole woke up early this morning with diarrhea and fever. So I am trying to care for him and pull all the rest of the administrative pieces together for this retreat. I am truly grateful that Ben is still healthy, pray that he will be able to enjoy the kids program and not feel lost in the busy-ness.

As I write this, I am praising God because I know that whatever happens this weekend will be because of His divine intervention and He will get all of the glory, because there is no way that we will be able to pull this together in our own strength. So, join with us in prayer and be apart of the miracle that God wants to perform in the lives of these church leaders this weekend.

Things look different in the dark

2010-07-23T13:39:00.001+01:00

I got up at four this morning because I was going to take my Nigerien friend to the bus station. It had been a short night because we had been at a send off for missionary friends who were leaving the country too. My friend was directing me down what she felt was the best way to the bus station and we were talking a little. I noticed what I thought was the shadow of a large pothole ahead of me and slowed down (mistake number one) to enter the pothole. Within inches and seconds I recognized my second mistake, the darker colour wasn’t a shadow, I was driving into a swamp of excrement that covered almost the whole road and was at least four inches deep (if not deeper in places). I was moving too slow and the sludge was too thick and slimy to plow my way through and so I was stuck within moments. I tried all the usual tricks of switching back and forth to try to gain some ground, but it was no use. Under normal circumstances there would be at least a few people around that would be willing to help me out by pushing , but at 4:30am the street was bare. So my friend and her two daughters that were nicely dressed to travel for the next 24hrs on a bus, got out and started pushing. With some prayer and some pushing we were out of the hole in less than five minutes (I was really amazed! God is so faithful!) and on our way again. As my friend recommended another route that ended up going through garbage sledge, her daughter in the back seat got a little concerned—I think that she was afraid that she wouldn’t be leaving Niger today as planned. Thankfully they made it to their bus on time and were relatively sludge free. I got home and told Dave that I didn’t want to minister to women any more, he said why because you don’t like saying goodbyes. I said yes, that and I don’t like getting up at 4am for bus runs and I really don’t like getting stuck in the back streets of Niger. Oh well, God gives us the grace for each day and I will continue to love and minister to the women that God puts in my path.

Please pray this week for the team coming from Canada, they leave Monday and arrive Tuesday July 27th---hopefully I won’t get stuck in the mud with them too. Pray also for the retreat that they are coming to help lead the following weekend.

I'm a brunette

2010-07-15T17:10:00.001+01:00

I guess it comes as no surprise to anyone that sees me on a regular basis, but I have really only just come to this conclusion. You see, I have always thought of myself as “strawberry blonde” because that is what I was growing up and I think even if I look back at my wedding pictures I was still strawberry blonde (I can’t confirm that because I don’t have them with me here). I don’t really know when I started to turn brown, but many would say better that then grey. (No, my brain has not turned to complete mush having gone away to work on my masters and I am getting to a point here). The change in colour was so gradual over time that I never really paid much attention to it and that is very much like our Christian walk. Our goal is to be more like Jesus and we make little decisions daily that may not seem like much or mean anything to anyone else, but are slowly transforming us and changing us. There are the occasional milestones along the way that allow us to look back and say, “Wow, look how far I have come!” There are also those moments when we are really tired and overworked and don’t choose as wisely as we would like to and wonder if we will ever make it. But all the while, God is using the good and the bad to mold us and make us into what He wants us to be.

I had a really great time in studying in Germany. I learned many things, and met many great people. There are moments when I wished that the time would go on and on and then there were moments when I couldn’t wait to get back to Niger. I am still hoping that some of the people I met might give Niger a try sometime in the near future. Thanks to all of you who prayed for me during that time, it did my heart good to know that the boys were praying that –I wouldn’t be too lonely and I wouldn’t get too stressed! I have until August 15 to finish up assignments on two of my courses (the one I finished while in Germany) and so this will be a particularly busy time for me.

We are expecting a team from Canada in a week. Please pray for their health, safety and effective ministry. Also pray that all the details of preparations would come together for them.

The boys’ school is still short on staff for the coming year. We don’t know who will be teaching Ben’s grade 3 / 4 class, or covering the principal’s leave, or art or music. There are others that are planning on coming but don’t have support in place yet. But we have been encouraged to hear that someone might be coming from one of our supporting churches! Please pray for this person that God will direct him through this process and also please continue to lift up the other needs of Sahel Academy through the coming year.

She’s almost home.

2010-07-10T21:55:00.000+01:00

Sunday Jennifer will be back from her classes in Germany. Things have gone relatively well for her so far. She’s completed her coursework for the second class and received a final grade of … 100%! The boys say that Dad’s cooking is okay but too much BBQ. I had hoped to go away with the boys but never made it. Originally I thought we’d make the three day trip to Accra, Ghana. When things didn’t come together I thought we might take some friends to Ouagadougou for a couple of days this week but that didn’t pan out either. Thursday I discovered that it was probably for the best. Driving through town the car suddenly died. I called the garage and after quick inspection it was discovered that the timing belt had snapped… Now if you’re familiar with timing belts you know that generally means rebuilding the motor. Late Friday afternoon the mechanic called. He said that 90% of the time, a snapped timing belt means secondary damage to the motor. My car fell in to the other ten percent—only the timing belt. I’m particularly thankful; not only did they not have to rebuild the engine, if I had taken either of the trips the car would have broken down in the middle of no place in Burkina on a road known to have problems with bandits… Thank you Lord.

The other thing that happened here this week was much more disturbing. Spring rains have been slow coming and the famine is getting worse as livestock that usually are feeding on new grasses are rapidly dying off from starvation. Friday our house-help told us that a young woman from his wife’s neighbourhood had been kidnapped and then butchered as a sacrifice in order to produce rain. That neighbourhood did in fact have a violent thunderstorm this week that included large hail stones. When his wife rode a bush-taxi out to her mother’s home, people in the van were commenting how rain had indeed followed the sacrifice. Our house-help is a conservative Muslim who rejects involvement with the fetishers and was happy to learn that, in fact, hail in the Bible was not a sign of God’s favour but of judgement. In fact the storm had been so violent that a number of homes were seriously damaged or destroyed, including his mother-in-law’s. She is now sleeping in a shelter in the front yard because of large cracks in the cement which threaten to bring the roof down as happened next door. Please pray that good rains will come soon providing food to the herds that remain and to calm desperate hearts that are tempted with desperate measures.

The butcher's counter

2010-06-26T00:49:00.000+01:00

I had and experience today that reminded me of an old friend whom I dearly love and respect. I was standing at the butcher’s counter in the grocery store, trying to figure out what I knew how to cook while Jenn is away. The guy behind the counter with whom we’ve chitchatted at various times looked at me said, “You teach music don’t you.”
“No,” I replied, “I have taught math on occasion but mostly I teach theology.”
“Oh, you mean like the Bible.”
“Yup”
“Are you protestant? I have a bible somebody gave me a long time ago, and I like to read it but you know sometimes Jesus says things that I just don’t understand, could you explain it to me?”
I now have an appointment Sunday afternoon to visit him and his wife to talk about the Bible. That unexpected moment took me back to some debates that happened in my former church. When I first started there, our denominational handbook suggested that pastors should make 15 visits a week. (It was changed a year or two later.)None of the pastors I had known made that many calls in a week and the pastors I knew seemed to suggest that it was a ministry model from a bygone era. However some church members figured it was “in the Manual” and ought to be done. After all, Rev. Knoll did it.
At that time, John Knoll was a retired pastor participating in our church. Early on he’d taken me around to meet people in the community, and prayed with me weekly. I appreciated him and still do. During the time that I was wrestling with the issue someone commented to me, “Oh yeah, if John sees someone in the grocery store and says “hi,” he counts that as a visit.” I’ve never asked John how he “counted” his visits but I can see something like that being true. You see Rev. Knoll is someone who always lives “on mission.” I can believe John would have taken notice of a chance conversation at a grocery store, because he is always looking for opportunities that the Lord is putting in his path, takes every opportunity to follow them up. That’s one reason why I respect him.
I know there are times when I’m ready to retreat. I’ve punched in my time card and my shift is over and I want to just check out for awhile. But being a Christian is not a nine-to-five job, and often God puts opportunities where we’d least expect them, including the butcher’s counter at the grocery store. I don’t know where this opportunity will lead but I’m trying to stay, “on mission” regardless.

The weekend from Ouaga...

2010-06-07T19:33:00.003+01:00

It’s been the weekend from … Ouaga. (Pronounced “waga”—kind of like Fozzy Bear on the Muppets—‘waga-waga’). It was a last minute impulsive decision to get away for a weekend. Jenn’s going to Germany to study. For a couple of weeks at the end of the month and I’m hoping to road trip with the boys to Ghana in order to find a beach. Thursday morning Jenn suggested we take off after I finishing teaching Friday to Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina. It’s about a 7-hr drive to a little step up the development ladder. The guest house is cheap and we could hideout and read books and maybe watch a DVD on the laptop. Someone had told me there was a new go-karts place in town too. It might be our only time away this summer as a family.
Friday morning Jenn tied down a few loose ends while I taught my class on the General Epistles. After the last of my students cleared out, I pumped up a soft tire and we were on the road. The road isn’t that bad, only a couple of rough spots with pot holes but they seem pretty good at fixing them up regularly. We’d pick up Visas the night before and so the border crossing was relatively simple. I made good time doing 100-130 km/h on the road with the occasional slow down as we came into small communities. The country side got greener almost as soon as we crossed the border. We were almost there, about 20 minutes from our destination and Bessie decided the grass was greener on the other side. Lumbering up onto the road, she seemed oblivious to my horn honking. At the last minute she seemed to clue in that something was coming but instead of stopping or turning around she bolted into my lane as my tires squealed. The cow’s nose caught my front signal light and her horn caught my windshield. My car slid to a stop, and with my side mirror dangling, I looked to see the large bovine lying in the road behind us. I sat there for a few moments not knowing what to do. In Niamey, I’d heard that owners sometimes expect you to pay for the animal if you hit it on the road. (Later in the weekend, a friend told us the local law stipulates that owners are responsible to keep their livestock off the road, and that in fact the herder had probably hid in the bushes when he saw the accident.) A local on bicycle off to the side just stood staring with his mouth open. The cow wasn’t his but no one else seemed to be around. First the head came up and then Bessie, with the wobbly legs of a new-born (re-born?) calf, stood up and lumbered off the road once more.
Saturday we did some light shopping, picked up some books for the church library, and borrowed some scotch tape to patch up the windshield and mirror. We never did find the new go-karts place but instead were directed to an old dilapidated kiddy amusement park where most of the rides didn’t work. Ben decided to try the blow up bouncy house and was having a great time until he landed the wrong way on his foot and started to wail, “I’m paralyzed! Help me! I’m dying!” A cold coke seemed to help the hypochondriac get over his ailments enough to try out the paddle boats.
Monday morning he did not fare so well. Around 5 AM I heard a yell and rush for the toilet followed by the telltales that this was no imaginary illness. After that none of us were sure that we were feeling alright but so far have done alright. Ben however has been “roaring at both ends” as my brother would say, and it looks like we may need to post-pone our trip home a day. At least Jenn was able to buy a pair of “Leo Poldo” underwear that were marked XL, but looked like they might barely fit Ben at a nearby street vender to help with some of the “roaring”.
PS. In hanging running errands in Ouaga today, I noticed a popping noise every time I turned. I popped the hood with another missionary and discovered that power steering fluid was missing its cap and was probably missing fluid as well. I don’t know how long that has been the case but it’s probably better that I didn’t drive home with it in that condition. For that we are thankful.

Sunday Surprises

2010-06-03T15:42:00.005+01:00

We had a really interesting start to our week this week, around 4:30 am Sunday morning I woke up and decided that I needed to check that the door to the roof wasn’t locking the kids out. They had decided to sleep on the roof when the power which had been off most of the day still wasn’t on when they went to bed. I got to the door when I thought I heard a hard rainfall, only to realize that it was the shower flowing hard. I took one step out of my bedroom calling Dave while I realized that I was standing in an inch of water. Our water had quit about the time the power had gone off on Saturday morning and Dave had thought that it was starting to come back on in the night. So he had set up the big garbage bin that we use for a water reservoir in the shower to fill, but went to bed forgetting that the tap was on. Some time in the night the water had come on again and had flooded most of our houses (in some places an inch deep), by the time that I discovered it. Dave and I bailed out the house for the next two hours and there was a part of me that wanted to get really mad and blame him for the situation, but all I could think of was “of course this has to happen on a Sunday morning when Dave is going to be training some leaders in the church to teach and preaching in the evening and I am going to be teaching Sunday school!” It must have been the grace of God all around because despite going to bed miserable about the electricity and waking up to a flood the boys were actually in good spirits. Cole even encouraged me by saying “you know mom, with all the water that will be evaporating because of this the rains should come again sooner and we have been praying for rain!” He was right but this wasn’t what I had in mind. Thanks to all of you that have been praying for us through this difficult hot season, it could be easy to get disillusioned and discouraged, but you have carried us with your prayers and we are reminded over and over that these circumstances are temporary.

This was the last week of school for the boys. So it was marked with a special Gr.6 banquet (Gr. 7 is the year that the students move over to the high school building) that was Cole’s farewell to elementary school. They also had an awards ceremony at the year end assembly where the boys each received bible memory verse awards. They are looking forward to sleeping in now that they don’t have to be up at 6am to get to school, but I’m not sure that they are looking forward to the extra chores that they will be responsible for now that they will have some free time. I have the opportunity to start my masters through Philadelphia Biblical University’s satellite campus in Kandern, Germany this summer (I was granted a 50% scholarship!). This is a MS Ed that has a lot of international education components, which I am hoping will help with our ministry here and bible components that I need for satisfying my ministerial candidate requirements. So I will be going to Germany for three weeks from June 18-July11. Please pray that I will be able to make the most of my time there and that I will be able to get the pre-course work and assignments done without too much difficulty. Also, pray for Dave and the boys, they are planning to go on a “road trip” while I am away and are going to see if our car can make it to Ghana and back –hopefully in one piece. Also, please pray for a team that is supposed to be coming from Canada at the end of July as they have been having some difficulties.

Little Reminders of Love

2010-05-24T12:58:00.001+01:00

There are times when all it takes is a little whispered, “I love you” to turn your day around. I know some teenagers that that is all it would take to have their heads spinning for days! I think I had one of those moments where you sense God whispering “I love you”. I don’t mean to say that I have joined the ranks of Joan of Arc and I am now hearing voices, but I had one of those coincident that I would like to think was God answering a prayer that I hadn’t made yet.
Last week within a couple of hours of posting about my bug problem there was a knock at my front door and a man I had never seen before said that he was in the neighbourhood and had just finished spraying my neighbour’s yard for bugs and would I like him to do mine too. The timing was so perfect, that I have to believe it was God providing for me and reminding me that he loves me. My bug battles aren’t completely over since my yard was sprayed, which isn’t all that surprising having watched the way the guy applied it! But I did get a better night’s sleep.
How has God been whispering, “I love you” to you? Are you looking for it?

Sleep Deprivation and Other Distractions

2010-05-18T08:58:00.001+01:00

We are battling with the elements these days and I think the elements may have the upper hand, especially at night. Hot season is still in full swing and our air conditioner is less than cooperative, choosing to rattle and bang at will and without forewarning, but I must say that Dave is getting pretty quick at pressing buttons on the remote in his attempts to tame the beast in the night. If the air conditioner was our only struggle, I think we might have the upper hand, but unfortunately we are also waging war against cockroaches that come visiting. I thought we had them under control last week after a lengthy battle that included spray (designed to kill, but really only useful for smoking them out into the open and slowing them down) and many flying shoes. We did succeed in having a few peaceful nights after that battle, but last night they found reinforcements. I almost slept the first half of the night while they seemed to focus on Dave, but toward the wee hours of the morning he was sleeping and I knew why he had been complaining about the bugs!

Not surprisingly the worst nights have been on the days when we have felt like we were starting to make some progress with our ministry. Friends that we have been working with for awhile have started to ask spiritual questions and we invited someone to come and study the bible with us this afternoon. I am so glad that God’s strength is made perfect in our weakness; with the lack of sleep I am feeling pretty weak and I have the additional task of covering Cole’s bible class this week as his teacher is out of town.

To Be Free

2010-05-09T16:17:00.002+01:00

The other day we were driving down the street and Dave noticed that the police were “collecting” motorcycles again (which happens on a somewhat regular basis when the police check to make sure that the drivers have their proper papers). He suggested that we go home and tell our house helper that today would be a good day to drive around town. About two months ago, we decided that we didn’t want to be responsible for him losing his motorcycle in a similar manner because we had asked him to go on an errand for us. So we offered to pay for his insurance for the year which allowed him to be able to afford to get the proper license plates and things that he needed. The next time that he came to work for us after getting his plates, he was very excited. He said he just wanted to pull over the next time he saw a policeman to show him all of his paperwork because he knew that they were all in order. He had been driving around the city for three years without having the proper paperwork and living with the threat that he might lose his motorcycle. Dave said it was just like what’s written in the Bible:

5This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. 6If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. 7But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin. 1 Jn 1:5-7

As long as our paperwork is out of order and there are problems in our life we treat God like the policeman—always looking for a back alley or hidden back street in order not to be confronted with the problems in our life. But when we come to him in confession and repentance and clean away all the stuff that we’re trying to hide we’re free to come out of the shadows and experience the fellowship that we both desire.

Choosing Joy

2010-04-21T07:36:00.001+01:00

You know there are seasons in a person’s life when joy comes a little easier than other times. Well, let me tell you hot season in Niger is not one of those. This has been an especially challenging one with a couple of days when we had no electricity (not to mention the regular interruptions), three consecutive days of +48C (47C in the shade!). I have had to remind myself over and over this week that joy is a decision and that I am going to choose joy and look for the good (this is a real challenge when everyone around you is complaining about the weather and there is a lot of good reason to do so). So, I prefer to think of this as mango season and the mangos have been exceptionally good this year. When the sweat is dripping off every portion of your limbs that extend in any direction what so ever I try to think of it as a weight loss plan—I know that loosing water is not really weight loss, but carting around the sweat soaked clothes that weight an extra few pounds in sweat has got to count for something.
There are also the extra opportunities to relate to those around you because you can’t greet someone without making at least a few comments about the weather or the power. I had the opportunity to make a new friend the other day; we went to a restaurant that we knew would not only have air conditioning but also has a generator (so the air still works even when the power is out everywhere else). There was a mom with a six month old there, trying to do the same thing we were—escape from the heat even if for only a half hour. So we started talking to her about her time in Niger and her plans (she had decided that she needed to head home to France for many reasons) and we told her about what we were doing here a bit. I got to hold and have a good visit with her daughter so that she could enjoy her chocolate cake without “extra help” and then we went our separate ways. I don’t expect that I will every meet my new friend again, but you never know when God will use those small encounters for something beyond what you thought possible and I can at least pray.

Note: I started writing this a few days ago and this morning as I post this I feel anything but joy, but I guess that is where the choice comes in!

Relating to our neighbours

2010-04-13T20:48:00.003+01:00

Over the last 48hrs, I think that we have gained a greater appreciation for how many of our neighbours live. During that time we have had very little electricity (approx. 6 hrs, only 2 of which were yesterday!), and very little water because the water towers in town need power to pump the water up the tower in order to get it to our house. We don’t know the reason for the power loss and may never know. But I was thinking as I tried to fall asleep under the smog and sand last night (I would say stars, but you couldn’t really see them) that it did give us an opportunity to have a better understanding of how our neighbours who never have electricity or water live. Although I do not think a temporary inconvenience is the same thing as having to deal with 47˚ C in the shade with no fans, falling asleep to the sound of babies crying, children playing in the street until late into the night and the traffic driving by, did give me a chance to think and realize that it may start out warmer on the roof, but by the time the sun starts to rise it is a whole lot better than being stuck in a cement house with no ceiling fans! I am still debating whether it is better to risk using the air tonight and hope that the electricity holds or going back up to the roof that starts out at 38˚ C but actually feels kind of refreshing by the time that morning comes. One thing is for sure that first shower after two days without water flowing in the pipes does give you a whole new perspective on what abundant living is all about! Hope you are feeling more up for what life has to offer you than this candle that didn’t make it through the heat of the day today.

Celebrating Easter, Travels and Catching Up

2010-04-09T17:37:00.002+01:00

This has been a bit of a crazy week, we flew home from France last Friday in time to celebrate Easter here in Niger. We had been in the Black Forest section of France and Germany for the previous week because I (Jennifer) was representing the school board for Sahel Academy at an international education conference. Dave and the boys came along and we all stayed with fellow FM missionaries in France. They got to have a bit of a vacation and I got a change of climate and a slight change of work. Cole even got to celebrate his birthday at an amusement park in Germany while I was in meetings, but at least I got in on a great Italian dinner with them after my meetings.

Easter Sunday was a bit of a whirlwind, there was an open air sunrise service by the river, in place of the English service that we usually try to take in on Sunday evenings. Then we went to our regular Sunday morning service. We decided that we were too old to get in on the young people’s picnic that afternoon and instead went home to prepare for a neighbourhood celebration. We decided to string a sheet across our driveway entrance and show Narnia to who ever wanted to come. There ended up being quite a crowd there and for a couple of days afterward we had people coming up to us and asking us if we were going to do it again “tonight” or “tomorrow”. Including a lot of people that I didn’t even realize had been there watching in the dark.

This week has also been very full with trying to get the school board evaluation completed as well as keeping up (or maybe catching up) with the regular work routine. Please pray that the follow up conversations that we have with our neighbours will be fruitful. Pray that I will be able to get caught up on my regular work load as well as find time to do the extra board work required at this time of year. Pray for Dave as he starts training some lay leaders in the church to help develop their teaching ministry skills and for me as I start to work with the kids and explore some new options for “storying” in zarma.

We are so blessed

2010-04-03T09:54:00.001+01:00

I started out thinking that this was going to be a plea for help and the more I thought about our situation, the more I realized how truly blessed we are. You see our oldest has Asperger’s Disorder a high functioning form of Autism. If he had a more intense form of autism I have my doubts whether we could be here. But not only are we here, but he is doing very well. In talking with a teacher at his school I was reminded again of how God has blessed us and him. She noted that language learning is difficult for ASD students but Cole is doing well in his French class as well as in his other academic courses that are taught in English!
This past week I was surfing the internet to consider my options for continuing education (I have a number of courses that I need to take) and I came across a conference that was being offered at Redeemer University in Ancaster, Ontario. It was a one day seminar for teachers to receive additional qualifications and was all centred around ASD (autism spectrum disorders). When I read about the workshops they were offering I went to Dave and said I want to go home. He commented on the heat and various other things in an understanding way and I said no I want to go home for one day April 10th! Then I explained about the conference. I immediately thought about a friend that taught special education and is very supportive of our ministry here. Before I had a chance to finish this blog (because of various other interruptions) she e-mailed to say that she would take the class for me and send me the information that she gleaned. Praise God! Thanks for all of you that pray for us and our kids on a regular basis. We really appreciate it and a special thanks to Cindy for being willing to give up a Saturday for me!

Wedding Rings & Movie Night

2010-03-15T09:19:00.000+01:00

The past few weeks I have taken my work out to the streets, walking our neighbourhood when I can in the mornings instead of using some of my exercise videos. I was hoping to maximize my time and combine getting some exercise with connecting with my community. I don’t know if it has been especially effective on the exercise side, although walking in shifting sand on some of the streets near us does provide some serious resistance even if it is difficult to get anywhere near the speed/heart rate I would like. I am not even sure if the connecting with the community has been all that effective, but I do try to make a point of greeting people along the way and cooling down, by stopping to visit with ladies in the neighbourhood. This week one of my neighbours asked about my wedding ring, (maybe because I was still wearing it while I exercised), so I got to explain its significance. They do not necessarily give and receive rings for weddings here although I have been to a number of Christian weddings here that do. What was interesting is that this was the second conversation that I have had like that in the last few weeks. It is my hope that God will use some of those conversations even if I may not be seeing the actual results.

Friday night we invited a number of Nigerien friends in to watch The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe. We had thought about settlng something up so that we could project it on the street in our neighbourhood, but thought that it might be good to get the response of some friends first to see whether they would understand it (because CS Lewis was writing from a very western perspective) and whether it would generate good conversations. We had our answers before the night was even over. Dave got to explain to one couple that CS Lewis was using the Lion to explain to children how Jesus’ sacrifice covered our sin and how his innocence meant that death had no power over him. Please pray for the group that came, that God would reveal himself to them and that they would understand the gift of grace that Christ offers them. Pray also, that we would continue to have good “God talks” with those around us.

On a personal note, we have been told that our renter in Ontario is moving out of our townhouse. Please pray that we would be able to find another renter quickly because we are not sure how long we can afford to make our mortgage payments without a renter.

Education in Niger

2010-03-08T09:20:00.002+01:00

The boy’s school, Sahel Academy has been working to get accredited (basically, official recognition for the school) with ACSI (the association for Christian Schools International) and with Middle States in the US. It has been a long and intense process that was started in 2005 when I taught there. This last week was the climax of the process, when we had a team from the two associations come to visit and evaluate the school. This meant a few extra meetings for almost all of us because Cole was one of three students chosen to represent his class for a student group meeting, Dave was involved in a parent meeting and I was involved in a school board meeting, (which may have something to do with why this was posted a little later than usual). A week later than what was originally planned with a much smaller team that had to work overtime to get the job done, we got our results last Thursday. They were going to fully recommend us for accreditation! Praise God! Really this is only the unofficial word, the recommendation still needs to go before each of the governing boards to be fully approved, but we should have the official word as of June. Please continue to pray for the school, for next year we do not have teachers for Grade 3/4 (Ben’s class), Grade 5/6, kindergarten, principal, English, Social Studies, Art or Secondary music. (For more information about the job postings you can check the school website: www.sahelacademy.com or a website that helps to connect teachers with overseas schools that need them: www.missionteach.com )

On a similar education theme, I started a class a couple of weeks ago at ESPriT, the bible school that Dave teaches at part time. I am taking a New Testament Theology class , with the additional challenge of the course being taught in French. I was hoping just to audit the class and work on improving my French, but the teacher agreed to adjust the assignments so that I can do them in English in hopes of getting credit for them with the denomination. I am wondering if I have gotten myself in over my head, but we will see, so far I have enjoyed both the reading and the class discussion (although there are times when I can get lost in the French). Please pray that I will be able to improve my French and learn valuable insights for our ministry here in Niger, while still being able to balance ministry and family responsibilities.

Some days are like that…

2010-02-26T17:59:00.003+01:00

Three weeks ago I was working on a blog that just didn’t want to get posted (or maybe written). At the time we were having power cuts on a semi-regular basis that kept interfering with my working on the computer and burned out a transformer in our house. (Interestingly, the regular power cuts seemed to stop about the time that the coup happened). I was going to write this last Saturday, but I had visitor after visitor that were in no particular hurry to leave. The added difficulty to this was I was trying to get some baking done because the boy’s school was to host an accreditation team. Unfortunately, that team was either sent back or not allowed to get on their flights because of the political problems here and never made it. Yesterday I went to write this again, but was interrupted by a number of meltdowns by little boys that belong to our household not to mention class work, bible study, carpooling and a number of other things. I mention all of this because I find it really funny that this is what I started to write three weeks ago:

I had a conversation a little over a year ago with another missionary that told me he didn’t believe in Murphy’s Law (anything that can go wrong will go wrong). His theory was that we as missionaries had faulty expectations, that we had the assumption that things should always run smoothly.

Well, whether I am prone to make those false assumptions or not there is one thing that I think I have been learning through the events of the last few weeks: that many times in life, it is keeping your perspective that makes all the difference. You see while what I was experiencing was simple inconveniences, one of the people that was supposed to becoming for the accreditation visit (from another country in Africa) is the principal of a school where he had a parent kidnapped the day before the coup, and a parent and student car-napped the day after the coup (needless to say, he is no longer able to come for the accreditation visit). I also had a friend who had to head to the US just before Christmas with her youngest daughter that was very ill. She wasn’t able to return when the daughter recovered because she had back problems that needed treatment. When she finally thought she was coming back to Niger to reunite with her husband and other children she discovered that her tickets for the flight were cancelled and wasn’t allowed to leave until a few days later, only to be in the air between Paris and Niamey when her flight was rerouted to a neighbouring country because it couldn’t land here because of the coup.

I guess I am just grateful that my problems have all be relatively mild.

Please pray for the accreditation visit it is supposed to proceed this coming week with only 2 of the original 4 team members (another person was stuck in Abidjan for the better part of a week because he flight to Niamey was cancelled due to the coup and had no way to fly back to Cameroon before then). Continue to pray for us too whenever we happen to come to mind.

Hope you are having a better day than most!

Breaking News

2010-02-19T16:04:00.001+01:00

No doubt some of you have heard something of our yesterday’s events here in Niger. Many of you probably haven’t simply because Niger hardly makes into the news in North America. Yesterday the military staged a coup d'etat, storming the presidential palace with soldiers and tanks. Late last night they announced the suspension of the constitution and all official institutions while they attempt to restore democracy. This was not an unexpected move and with the political situation here for the last few months and various people have felt that a coup was just a matter of time. The president seemed to be moving towards a dictatorship, as the European Union, the U.S. pulled out they’re aid support. The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) had also warned of impending sanctions if the president did not change his course and step down. The prediction of famine/food crisis based on last summer’s harvest did not help.
I think this has probably been more stressful for the boys than for us. We happened to be at home when things started to unfold, with no awareness that anything was happening until friends called. The boys were at school however just down river from the presidential palace where the action was, with machine gun and cannon fire echoing down the river. The school went into immediate lock down. Here’s a blurb from the director that we received last night:

Dear Parents of Sahel Academy students, and friends,
It is 6:30pm local time as I write.
Today, at approximately 1:15 pm the sounds of gunfire and heavy artillery were heard in the city. A campus lockdown was immediately called. The students knew exactly what to do. I am very proud of them and their teachers as to how quickly and orderly they responded.
The director immediately contacted the US Embassy by radio to inform them of the noises that we were hearing and that we had entered lock down…
Lock down was maintained as the noises of gunfire were quite regular. At around 3:30pm, when about an hour had passed without hearing gunfire, we allowed the students to also use the library.
During this whole time the students, the youngest to the oldest, were well behaved, played games, sang or worked quietly.
At around 4:30pm the US Embassy security officer drove to the school campus, having checked which roads in the city were passable, and which roads to avoid. We were given the OK to call parents to come and get their children.
At 6:00 pm the last students were picked up by their parents. All staff are now safely home as well.Please make time to talk with, and listen to your children about the day’s events.

A friend commented, “Our kids have snow days, your kids have coup days”
All of that said, we are not in any danger. The coup had nothing to do with us and we don’t expect it to affect us or our ministries in any direct way. In the mean time the city is under a curfew and the embassy has advised us not to leave the house today or tomorrow and possibly Sunday. Please pray for peace.

Journée Continue

2010-02-05T09:27:00.000+01:00

Journée continue is an expression that is used here to explain that you are working through a rest period. Frequently when Dave and I are somewhere in the lunch hour or early afternoon people will ask us where are kids are because most schools stop for lunch and a rest hour and then resume classes in the later afternoon (because of the heat). However, Sahel Academy where the boys go is “journée continue” so that parents only have to go back and forth with their kids at the beginning and ending of the school day. It is also sometime used with businesses, especially during Ramadan the Islamic month of fasting. Because people aren’t eating during the day, they will frequently work through the lunch hour and close their business early.

Yesterday that expression took on a whole new meaning and felt more like “the day that never ends”. I drove the kids to school in the morning so that I could meet with a mom’s group that prays for the school every Thursday. I then had my meeting with my accountability partner. I stopped at the post office on my way through town and then decided that because I was already in the down town area I might as well do some shopping. After about half an hour and three attempts to buy a kitchen clock (the shop owner had assured me that he could fix the one that I liked and that it would only take about 10 minutes to put a new motor into it, but that is another story!), I still didn’t have a clock and decided that I needed to get home. I got home for lunch to find out that my friend had just returned to town (which means that I needed to visit her). So I ate, put supper in the slow cooker and went to do my first round of pick ups at the school. I tried to squeeze in a visit with my friend before going back to the school to pick up Ben from boys club, unfortunately that meant that I was a little late in getting Ben. That gave us just enough time to get home, eat supper and head out to bible study (thankfully the boys didn’t have too much homework). I know that those of you reading this from North America are thinking that this sounds pretty much like a normal day for mom’s taxi service. But while this maybe a manageable pace in Canada, living conditions here mean that we are usually running on about ½ - 2/3rds of the energy that we would normally have in Canada. Thankful it is just Thursday that gets this hectic, but as hot season draws closer I am going to have to do something about it.

Thanks to all of you that have been praying for our health. I (Jennifer) am really glad to be finished up on my last round of antibiotics and Dave was able to keep his voice going well enough to preach last Sunday. It doesn’t seem to have hit him as hard. Please pray for a ministry retreat that we are trying to coordinate for the end of July or the beginning of August that we would be able to get the right people to come to help with it and that all the details would come together.

Humility or Humiliation

2010-01-29T09:29:00.001+01:00

It is a fine line sometimes between humility and humiliation. There are two things that have been happening in my life this week that have brought me to this conclusion: my voice and our car. My voice has been giving me trouble this week because of a persistent cold that keeps knocking it out of commission (especially when I need it most). It is a humbling experience to realize how dependant we are on our vocal chords and the squeaking doesn’t really help (not to mention the fact that when you whisper most people whisper back). It is easy to take your throat for granted until it gets really sore and then it is hard to think about too much else. But at least it has given me an opportunity to enjoy some of my herbal teas!

My other humbling experience this week came when the clutch got fixed on our car. With the repairs, the response that the clutch makes to the pressure you put on it has totally changed. In other words it is really easy to stall if you aren’t used to it. There have been a couple of times this week when I have been out (luckily, on my own, so that the humiliation wasn’t increased) and come up to a stop light only to realize that the person in the front isn’t moving even though the light is green. So, I honk to let them know the light has change (this is a very common practice because it is so difficult to see the lights when you are the first in the intersection), only to stall the car just as the one in front of me drives away! Now I am probably over sensitive to this, because in North America that kind of honking would be considered rude (or slightly obnoxious) and then to stall and not be able to move right away is embarrassing. Oh well, I guess there could be a lot worse lessons on humility (and I could always blame the cold!). I suppose that if that is the worst thing that happened in a week that it was over all not a bad week. I pray that this would be the worst you face this week too!

Retreat & Tea Time

2010-01-22T10:58:00.001+01:00

This has been a pretty full week. We were finally able to plan and have a short spiritual retreat. It wasn’t the visit to some solitary place to commune with God through nature that I envisioned, (I’m really not sure how well that would work in Niamey). So it was probably more productive just to be in a comfortable place to spend some extra quality time with God and do some ministry evaluation and planning. Thanks to all those people who prayed that it would happen, it made a difference! Who knows maybe some day I get that time in the mountains or by the ocean…

Dave is starting to make “tea time” a regular part of his week. No he isn’t returning to his British heritage! He is spending time in the evening having Tuareg tea on the street with our guard and anyone else who happens to come along. The local way of making and sharing tea here takes about an hour and a half and is always a communal thing. Please pray that he can make the most of the conversations that he has at that time and that God will lead him to other ways to connect with neighbours.

I have been able to visit a bit with friends in the neighbourhood this week, but have been struggling with a voice box that just doesn’t want to cooperate. I have been trying to do all the right things to stay healthy (well maybe not “all” of them—there were a few too many good things that came back with us from Canada for that), but I am still struggling with head colds or maybe it is allergies. It was frustrating when we went to a naming ceremony for one of our neighbours, I could only say congratulations and hope that I didn’t pass any thing on to the baby or anyone else. Hopefully I’ll be able to get back to visit with the baby and mom in the next few weeks.

On more of a personal note…
Fifteen years ago last December, I married my best friend (for those of you that didn’t realize, the day after our open house was our anniversary so you were not only coming to see us and check in on our ministry, but you were also helping us celebrate our anniversary!). This past week he got a little bit older. He had the opportunity to celebrate with family back home, so he wasn’t up for a major celebration (not that Dave is into parties). We were loaned a BBQ from some missionaries that are home right now, so there was BBQ steak! I also made him a carrot cake with cream cheese icing which is a delicacy here because it is not easy to get cream cheese (but we had some treats from home) and had a family celebration.

Blessings

2010-01-15T11:14:00.002+01:00

I have been reminded once again of the goodness of our God. We felt so blessed during our three weeks in Canada. The doctor’s appointments went well. We were able to cover all of our expenses and had some left over (thanks to the many that helped with that!!). There was a good group that was able to meet with us at our open house. (We only wish that there was a little more time or a little more of us to go around—so that we could have had more of a visit). We got to enjoy the snow and have a white Christmas for a change, so the boys were able to go tobogganing and have a snowball fight. There was so much good food that I think we all put on 10 pounds (the boys needed it much more than Dave & I did!). And we wandered Walmart, Costco and various other malls and stores in awe of the abundance in our native land. My only regret was that I was too busy experiencing to think to take pictures. I hope a few family members were able to get some.

We are slowly trying to find the right time zone and get caught up on all the things that didn’t get accomplished while we were away. Please pray that we will find a time when we can get away for a personal retreat, so that we can focus on God, to know what He would have us do and get our priorities straight, in order to make the most of 2010. Continue to pray for our health as well, I am fighting a head cold that makes getting caught up a bit more challenging and I hope to not pass it on to the rest of the family. Blessings for your 2010!

God moments part 2

2009-12-18T15:22:00.002+01:00

Last week I told you about one of the times recently that God had redirected my path despite my busyness. The two situations that I am going to tell you about this week are times when God met me in my busyness and turned some things around.
The first one happened this past week when we were in Ghana with our director Dan Sheffield. We went to observe and shadow a team from Barrie that are working with the Ghana Mission District to help them move toward their next phase of development. During the day-long meeting I was sent with Loralie from the Barrie team to pick up lunch. Loralie had spent two years in Ghana working with the church and she suggested we get egg sandwiches from one of the ladies that had set up a microfinance business with her when she was there. Unfortunately when we got there Mama had gone to the market and left a young girl minding the shop. The young girl hesitantly started to make the sixteen sandwiches that we needed, but when we realized that she intended to use 4-6 eggs and almost a quarter of a loaf of bread for one sandwich Loralie stepped in and started helping her make the sandwiches. I wish that we would have had a camera with us to capture the moment. Not only to see what we looked like but to capture the expressions on the faces of the people in the neighbourhood that watched these two white women make street food over and open fire with a young girl.
Then the day after Dan returned to Canada I had to take Susan to the lab to find out if the medication was working to thin her blood. She was terrified of the needle and was getting really worked up about it and having seen how much trouble she had had in the past I could understand. I was praying in the waiting room. While Susan was telling the lab technician that she couldn’t go through with it. Just then a psalm jumped into my head, so I went into the room where they were trying to take her blood and told her that I was going to read a psalm to her and that she was going to look at me and concentrate on what I reading while the technician did his job. So, I started reading and I stopped to tell Susan to give the man her arm and then continued reading. About six verses later I said to Susan that he was done taking her blood, but the technician just said keep reading. That is when I realized that there were six other people in the room who had stopped what they were doing to hear me read the scripture (and Susan said there was a little Islamic man that kept peeking his head around the corner to see what was going on). I don’t know how many of them understood what I was saying (because it was in English for Susan), but I do know that the three nurses that had previously taken Susan’s blood (or at least tried to) were all present to hear me.
Neither of these moments were exceptional or earth shattering, but sometimes it is the little things that God uses to touch the hearts of those around us. It is my prayer that God will continue to use these kinds of moments in each of our lives to show his love to those that need it most. And that each of you will become increasingly aware of how God is working in your life, even in the seemingly small things.

PS
Last Saturday, the church that just affiliated while Dan Sheffield was with us had a baptism. At the last minute I was asked to get in the water with them--I'm not sure if that was because it was deep or cold but the water was both--they dropped a table in the pool for some of the candidates to stand on because it was over their heads. It was a privilege to participate. Please pray for the three new believers as baptism sometimes begins a season of persecution.

Jennifer and I are now in Canada for the holidays. Cole is getting new orthotics for his feet, Ben and I are getting new glasses, and we've all been to the dentist. Looking forward to being together with family for the holidays. We've scheduled an open house Dec 27 for any who are interested in St Catharines at Grapeview Church from 2-4 PM.

God moments

2009-12-08T12:00:00.002+01:00

It doesn’t matter how busy we are when we open ourselves up to be available to what God would have us do in any given day he arranges things that we don’t expect. I have had a few of these God moments over the last few weeks despite my hectic schedule.
Two weeks ago, I was taking the woman who was living with us to meet our language teacher so that she could do some language instruction with him while she was in Niamey having medical treatment. Part of the way to his house we were stopped by some friends that I had made at the last wedding in our neighbourhood. They were going to visit the bride, who is a friend, in her new home and invited us to come along. I explained that we were going somewhere else, but that I would like to go sometime soon because I didn’t know where her new house was. Susan, the missionary looking for language lessons, told me that I couldn’t miss out on an invitation like this. So we changed our plans and went with the young girl and older woman. Along the walk we chatted and as is customary here I greeted the ladies that we came across. What I didn’t expect was that the older woman rebuked a number of the other ladies on route for not greeting me back! When we got to the new bride’s home she was somewhere else so the young girl went to get her and we visited with the older woman and a neighbour. After waiting quite awhile we decided that we needed to keep going if we hoped to find our house before dark (and also because of Susan’s condition she shouldn’t sit for long periods of time). As we left we met the bride and the young girl and I apologized that we couldn’t stay longer and needed to head back. So they walked with us some of the way and then the young girl was sent with us to make sure we made it home. Along the way back, we saw some teenagers that were painting their feet with henna. They asked if I wanted mine done too. So, I slipped my foot out of my sandal and let the girls paint my feet. The only problem I had is that for the rest of the walk I had to carry my sandals in one hand and hold my skirt in the other, to allow my feet to dry. What I didn’t expect was the reaction of the other people we meet on the way home, I must have had three different ladies stop me to ask if I was ok, --did I break my shoes, --was I hurt. When I explained that the henna was still wet because we didn’t have time to let it dry (because my friend needed to keep walking for her health), they laughed and wished me a happy new year and I laughed and wished them a happy new year too (Happy New Year or more literally “And the same next year” is the greetings that you use around the time of Tabaski or Ramadan and this was close to Tabaski).
You never know when God will redirect your path and what will come of it when He does. Please pray for these women that I am trying to connect with in my neighbourhood, that God would be using these moments and others like them to reveal Himself to them. And pray for me that I would continue to make myself available for whatever diversions that He would have me go on.
Susan is improving with the treatments that she is on and will be house sitting for us while we are gone. I will tell you about another God moment with her and in Ghana next week while we are in Canada (I was going to put it here, but thing this is getting a bit long) and then we might let our blog lapse for two weeks while we are on holidays—unless some interesting things happen in Canada. For those of you in Ontario, we will be having an open house in the fireside room at Grapeview FM Church in St. Catharines on Sunday December 27th from 2-4 pm and would love to see you there!

Time Flies When You Are on the Run

2009-12-06T16:17:00.004+01:00

This has been a really busy week! Just before Dan arrived we had to have Ben’s glasses repaired and a lens replaced. We had been trying to hold out until we made it home, but decided something had to be done when the one lens was not only missing a chip but had finally split in half.

Also just before Dan arrived, Susan the missionary that had been staying with us while receiving medical treatment, decided it would be best to move somewhere else while he was here. Cole’s teacher at Sahel was very gracious and offered her a room. So we made arrangements with a Nigerien friend who is a nurse to administer the medication and check up on Susan especially while we were in Ghana. We also had the opportunity to meet a new set of twin girls that were delivered to Pastor Etienne and Marie. Please pray for this pastor and his family as he works full time and cares not only for these newborns, but a set of twins that are 3, a daughter 8 and another teenage daughter in addition to his responsibilities in the church.

We had meetings with Dan and some church leaders here about the next step toward becoming affiliated with the FM church and then left for a three day whirlwind visit to Accra, Ghana. Dan was meeting with a team from Barrie FMC who is overseeing the mission district in Ghana for the FM Church in Canada. Having worked there for 15 years and with Ghana being much more receptive to the gospel than Niger the church there is much more developed. As a result we were able to get some insight into the process of church organization and development that we will eventually be working towards. It was great to sit in on their discussions and to learn from some of their experiences.

We are very thankful to our friends at SIMair (part of the ministry of SIM here in Niger)who made our trip to Ghana possible in their little four seater plane. Please pray for us as we finish up our time with Dan and as we return to Canada for holidays. Those of you in Southern Ontario may wish to connect with us on Sunday Dec. 27th we will be having an open house. More details will follow!

Recent Events & Prayer Needs

2009-11-27T10:14:00.001+01:00

Sorry it has been so long in getting this posted and a lot has been happening so I will try to give you just the highlights.

Field Day for the boys’ school went really well. I was especially impressed with how Cole did. He was even able to “compete” while running the 100m, instead of feeling like he was miles behind everyone else. (Cole thinks he is flying in this picture! The other is Ben and the boys in his class.)

The Sunday after Field Day I approached a missionary by the name of Susan who was in town to help with the medical needs of a friend’s child, to ask if she would house-sit for us while we were in Canada for Christmas. She contacted us the next day to say that she was free from her responsibilities with the child and would like to see our house to see if it would work to help us. However, God had another plan, instead of coming to see our house, I ended up taking her to the doctor to get the results of some tests that she had done. The short version of the story is that she needed to stay in Niamey for treatment and the people she had come to help had to return to Maradi (a city 9hrs. away where she had been working), so she moved into our guest room. Please pray for Susan the treatment that she has been on to thin her blood has not been working and she is waiting to hear from her insurance company to know whether they recommend that she return to the UK for further treatment or whether she will remain and go into the hospital here for treatment.

We are looking forward to Dan Sheffield’s arrival in Niamey on Sunday evening. Please pray that all will go well with his visit, that it will be a productive time and that God will use us to be a blessing to each other during his stay.

Fever & Field Day

2009-11-12T16:34:00.001+01:00

Fever, fever, go away and don’t come back another day…

That is the chant that has been coming to mind this week. I have been sick for a little over two weeks now and last weekend with all of the craziness of Dave’s classes and a pastor’s seminar, I actually thought that I was starting to get better. Until Sunday, somewhere in the middle of the service we were attending another sledge hammer of fatigue fell. It was so bad that I had Dave drop me off at the house to sleep instead of going out for lunch with the boys. I used to think that I had an understanding of what it felt like to have a temperature in this heat, but all my theory fell apart this time, instead of feeling chills I just thought I was a bit warm. I even went to church in the evening after sleeping all afternoon and it wasn’t until sometime before I went to bed that I had Dave take my temperature, not because I thought I had a fever but “just in case”. Needless to say I clocked the highest temperature that Dave can remember in our time in Niger (with no bone numbing chills to my amazement). In some ways I wasn’t surprised because I am a bit prone to sinus infections—maybe I need to learn a better way to blow my nose. I am happy to say that as of Monday I am on some antibiotics that seem to be helping, or at least I have been able to get a few things accomplished over the last 24hrs, which is a whole lot more than I can say for the day before.

Dave tells me the pastor’s seminar went well, I was healthy enough to do some behind the scenes running, take a picture and be home with the boys (it was the lull in the storm for my cold). Thanks to all of you that were praying for it! You can keep praying for us Cole and Dave seem to be coming down with the cold now too.
Also this coming Friday is Field Day for the boys’ school which takes place in the national stadium. This always seems to be a struggle in our house, it is difficult when you are a competitive ten year old that isn’t very athletic and have to wear orthotics, even if it is a team based competition. Please pray for the safety of everyone involved and for emotional stability in our house.

Haunting

2009-11-03T19:40:00.002+01:00

My haunting this year didn’t come Saturday night in the form various trick-or-treaters looking for candy. (Halloween isn’t celebrated here in Niger.) But, I was haunted Sunday morning when I sat behind a beautiful little girl of two or three years old with sad eyes. The Tuesday before I had gotten up from what I thought was going to be a sick day to go to her mother’s funeral. It was great to watch how the church was reaching out and making a difference in this family’s life. There were a number of ladies in the church who were helping to care for the little girl and her older brother and their father got up to testify about how much the people of the church had been caring for him and his family over the past few weeks. That is the church in action and what being a church family is all about.

My heart still breaks for this little girl who will soon have a hard time remembering what her mom looked like, especially because her story is not an unusual one here. I was buying “fadi masa” (a deep fried dough something like a timbit) on the street here the other day and talking to my friend who sells them. She said that she became a widow last January and that she was raising three little ones, the oldest just started to school. She is in her twenties. And she isn’t the only widow with young children on my section of the street. Please pray for these families that have faced tragedy and hardship and pray that God will use us to share His love.

Please remember Dave this weekend. He is leading a pastor’s training seminar on pastoral care and counseling and he is also preaching on Sunday. Thanks to those of you who prayed about my cold. I am glad to say that it hasn’t spread too far with the rest of the family, but I am still having a hard time getting over it. It keeps moving back and forth between my throat and my sinuses. I am truly grateful that I was feeling well enough to go to my neighbour’s wedding last Saturday.

Life is hard

2009-10-28T14:38:00.001+01:00

I am sick with a nasty head cold. I thought that I was going to take the day off and spend it in bed with lots of clear liquids and a bottle of Tylenol, but I guess God has other plans. We just found out that a friend’s wife died in the night so I guess I have to get out of bed to go to a funeral this afternoon, hopefully I won’t pass this cold on to someone else there.
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That was yesterday—Jennifer is still sick and back in bed. We went to the funeral yesterday. The funeral ceremony was very short followed by a reception at the family home. (I was expecting something a little longer—the last funeral I attended was for a pastor, and it continued for an hour or more with everyone standing around the graveside in the hot sun.) At the reception they hand around a drink that looked like milk and reminded me of Mini Wheats but was made with millet and perhaps sorghum. We shared our condolences and headed for home.
The night before our night guard had said his daughter was sick with a “bouton” under her chin and on the back of her neck. I figured it was the beginning of chicken pox and didn’t think much of it. Last night however, he told us that he’d taken her to a dispensary and they thought she might need surgery. I’m not sure if he misunderstood or not but apparently they’ve given him a referral to another clinic for Thursday. I hope to take her to see a missionary doctor before something drastic happens.
Please pray for Pascal, the widower; he is left with three small children to care for. My heart breaks for him and the children, but at least he has the hope that comes from knowing Christ. Pray our also for Mohammed and his daughter Bakka. She just started school this year and the last thing she needs is to have that interrupted by extended medical treatment.

Antiperspirant Humility

2009-10-22T14:55:00.001+01:00

When was the last time you were really humbled.
I don’t mean the feel-sorry-for-yourself, “oh woe is me”-pity-party kind of humility or the most embarrassing moments kind of feelings, but true humility. I sometimes wonder if I even know what the word really means.

I discovered something recently. There are at least two responses that a stick of antiperspirant makes to the extreme heat. The one isn’t really noticeable at first, because it doesn’t look any different on the outside that is, the stick that turns rock hard and is rendered completely useless. It may still smell good and it definitely looks good, but in reality it is useless. I have had a number of sticks do this and I don’t know if it has more to do with the heat or the expiry date, but I know that brand name doesn’t make a difference when it comes to this kind of response. The other option to extreme heat is a more recent discovery for me, I left my antiperspirant in the car with my swim stuff only to find that it had melted and reshaped itself. It wasn’t a pretty sight, some of it stuck in the lid and it no longer had the shape it should, but amazingly enough it still worked or at least as good as any antiperspirant can in Niger!

I guess my point is what kind of humility do we want at work in our lives. The kind that is superficial and may look good on the outside, but is just a different kind of pride that has been turned in or the kind that when the pressure of life turns on, it turns to God and says “I can’t do it without you, reshape me into what you want me to be, help me to submit to your will instead of demanding my own”. The following verse from 2 Chron.7:14 has been playing around in my head this evening (or is it morning):

"if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land."

Wouldn’t it be amazing if we could do this? It starts with humility...

2009-10-18T15:52:00.002+01:00

It’s a bad sign when you wake up and your feet are already swollen because of the heat (especially when you aren’t pregnant!). It could have had something to do with yesterday being a really crazy day. I spent most of the morning in a clinic with a friend that was following up on some tests. She was told to be there at 7:30am before the rest of the patients start to arrive so she could see the doctor before the line up started. However, the doctor didn’t arrive until 8am—that is ok, because I am starting to get used to the system and came prepared, I had my crocheting with me and a couple of books. There were too many people and too much talking to be successful with the books, but I almost completed a side to a baby cardigan that I am making for one of the many friends that I have that are expecting while I waited. Two hours later there was a quick trip to the market and the post office where I was happy to find a long awaited package from home and some magazines that Grandma sent for the boys. The package was a number of stuffed turtles made by VBS kids in Canada that had messages in a little pocket for kids here saying “God cares and so do I”. I was able to give away three before I even left the post office. The first went to a little girl who was begging there that had sores and bandages on her face. I let my Nigerien friend give her one telling her what the message in the pocket said so that she could translate it into Hausa. It was great to see the smile that lit up the little girl’s face, not to mention my friend. When I finally arrived home I came across a little boy and a little girl who were helping their respective mom’s carry their things home (the ladies had been selling fadi masa and chenchea –a kind of deep fried dough of flour or bean curds). The kids were about three or four and working hard carrying things down the street so I stopped them and gave them each a turtle too and explained the message in the pocket. However, I think I might have cause a problem because when Dave left the house five minutes later to get to a meeting he had there were 15-20 kids and an older lady waiting for him. The old lady said that she had tried to visit me a number of times over the last few weeks and was looking for her cadeau (or gift). I wasn’t sure whether she was looking for a “new years” gift (which is something normally given at the end of Ramadan) or what. So I took a coin that I had and gave it to her—I suspect now that she was looking for a turtle, but I wasn’t ready to start a riot with so many people on the street all watching and waiting. I am hoping to give them out while visiting various people that I have had lots of contact with, when I am more able to explain the message of the notes.
Please pray for Dave this week as he will be travelling to Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina. A friend needs to go there for a couple of days for meetings, so Dave offered to drive so that he could go to the Christian bookstore. He was given a donation by a church in Canada to buy pastor’s resources for the churches we are working with. So I will be single parenting for the first part of this week. Pray also for Niger as the first stage of the election process will be happening this week as well.

Thanksgiving a Little Early

2009-10-07T20:39:00.001+01:00

I decided that I should start the Thanksgiving celebrations a little bit early this year. I have something to celebrate today because I got out our quarterly e-newsletter today. The newsletter is generally a much bigger task than I think it should be. It takes a day or two to write and arrange the layout and then usually another to get the thing sent. There are 230 people on the list which doesn’t sound too bad except I have to send out the e-mails in groups of ten or less because anything larger tends to get rejected by a number of peoples’ e-mail filters. I had the additional complication of trying to do the mailer through an e-mail account that is on-line and wouldn’t allow me to paste multiple e-mails at a time. That meant that I got to individually paste each person’s e-mail, the upside is that I had an opportunity to pray for each person individually instead of just praying corporately, the downside is it took a long time. It also didn’t help that the power went off a few times today! But it is done, yeah! If you normally receive our quarterly newsletter and didn’t get it today, that means that I no longer have an accurate e-mail address for you and or you are one of the people that I will be trying again tomorrow with (I usually have about 15-20 reject notices that show up in the two days following a mailing). Forgive me for whining, I really do appreciate all the prayers that are generated by the newsletters.

For those of you that are not from Canada, Monday is the day Canadian’s celebrate Thanksgiving. For those that are, Happy Thanksgiving! In Niamey, they celebrate it at the American Rec Center by holding a baseball tournament. Dave wasn’t going to play this year, because last year his team was in the finals but he wasn’t available to play the final game because it was Sunday morning and he had other commitments. But, a friend talked him into playing this year anyway. Please pray for him, the last few weeks when his team has been practicing he has been involved in weddings and isn’t sure that he is in good enough shape to last the weekend! If they win every one of their games then their first playoff game isn’t until Sunday afternoon, otherwise they will have a game Sunday morning and he will be letting his team down again. Also, pray for safety, the tournament is called NUTS (Niamey Universal Tournament of Softball), but the name fits on more than one level because we are in the heart of the mini-hot season where the highs are over 100˚F everyday and that doesn’t factor in the humidity!

Last Weekend's Wedding

2009-10-03T10:17:00.004+01:00

Thanks to those who heard that we were sick last weekend and prayed that we could make it through the wedding. We are feeling much better this week and have another wedding later today.

African TIme Management

2009-10-03T09:31:00.002+01:00

I feel like I had my day hijacked yesterday. Interruptions and change of plans are a part of life in Niger, but it is one thing when you don’t have a lot on your agenda and different when you have lots of things planned. Early in the week Dave came to me and asked if we could talk through the events of the coming week because it was going to be a very busy one. So we looked at the calendar and made some plans. Thursday is the day that I have the car to do what I need to. I usually take the boys to school so that I can stay for the Mom’s prayer meeting and then go on to a meeting with my accountability partner. In addition to that, I had made arrangements with a Nigerienne friend to go shopping and had a meeting scheduled for later in the afternoon. Dave usually takes that time to have some extra study time, write his devotional for the bible study that he has been leading on Thursday evenings and I thought that he would really want to guard that time yesterday because he would be reviewing his class notes for Friday morning (this week he starts to teach his class at the bible school again). But no, he decided that he needed to go with me so that he could get some work done for his class on Friday at the school (the bible school is next door to the boys’ school). However, instead of getting the photocopying and things done that he had planned on while I was in my prayer meeting. He got distracted with talking to various people. Now to his credit, part of the problem is that the photocopier at the bible school wasn’t working, but 2 ½ hrs later after I had had both my prayer meeting and my accountability meeting Dave still hadn’t done his photocopying at the boys’ school or anywhere else.

Needless to say, from there on I was about 2 ½ hours behind for the rest of the day, which thinking about it in retrospect is typical for living on African time (however that means I completely missed my afternoon meeting which was not being run by Africans!). African time means that you take the time for people because the relationships are much more important than anything else. So when you show up late for an appointment or have an “African rendezvous” (as my Nigerienne friend calls it, when you make an appointment with someone and they don’t show up) that is just accepted. I guess I am still wrestling with my North American background, because I am slowly coming to terms with things starting late and people arriving late (Dave has helped a lot with that because he has lived most of his life on African time, without knowing it!), but I still have a hard time when I am the one who is late or misses the appointments. It reminds me of some things that I read a number of years ago about time management. I am not sure who the author or original speaker was, but they said that if you find yourself over worked and unable to cope with all of the jobs and roles that you have, you need to stop and ask what am I doing that isn’t God’s will for my life because God promises that He will provide if we are in His will. Often there are many good things that come along that we want to do and that can seem like the right things to do, but if they aren’t God’s will they can become a burden or a distraction from what He would have us do. In this way, my African brothers and sisters have their priorities right because they put people first, but I am still not sure when I have a day like Thursday which was mismanagement/ lack of communication on my part and which was God’s rearranging my will to fit His.

Spot Cleaning

2009-09-23T16:55:00.004+01:00

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I have two problems with spot cleaning (ok maybe three…). The most frustrating one is the seeming futility, when you go to the trouble of trying to remove a spot what is most likely to happen is that you end up revealing countless others that you didn’t notice before, but seem to come out in the wash. Then there is the hard work that goes into stain removing. Maybe I just haven’t found the right stain removers yet, but it seems that no matter what you use there is a lot of time and energy consumed in rubbing and scrubbing. I just had a shower before my morning shower this morning, by trying to get some of my whites to pretend to be white again. (Now it was 90+F with humidity before 8 this morning and that has something to do with the sweat bath, but I had streams of salty sweat running into my eyes before my washing machine was half full!). My third problem isn’t exactly a problem it is more of a speculation. I sometimes wonder whether it is the stains that help to hold some of my clothes together.

The same things are true when we are dealing with sin in our lives. God starts working on a major area of sin and we think “wow, I’m glad that is over,” only to realize that there are a number of other little sins that we didn’t notice before that need to be dealt with now. It is also a painful process when God starts pointing out sin in our lives. It means acknowledging our wrong and our need of his forgiveness, surrendering to him (again?) and sometimes it means breaking old habits or ways of thinking. I sometimes think that it is painful for him too, wondering when we are going to fully surrender every area of our lives to his cleans
ing. I think the process has the same results in our lives as my spot cleaning frequently does here in Niger. It leaves behind holes. Holes that allow his love and life to shine through us that those around us , so that they see less of us and more of Him.
We got to do some visiting with the boys because of the holiday for Ramadan and so I thought I'd include some recent pics!

Christmas in September?

2009-09-15T10:25:00.001+01:00

We are dreaming of a white Christmas! I know this is either 3 months early or it is 3months late (if you like Christmas in July), but you can celebrate the birth of our Lord at any time right? Besides Christmas has become a theme of conversation at our house recently. I think that is mostly because we have decided to go home for Christmas this year. There are many reasons for this: the holidays tend to be one of the hardest times on the boys to be away from their extended family being one and another is that Cole needs to have his orthotics replaced. He really should have had them adjusted or replaced last summer, but we thought that if we could stretch the time out to a year and a half than it would only be another year and a half until we come home at the end of our term. (It is hard to believe that our term is more than half over.) I hope that we made the right decision on waiting to replace Cole’s orthotics, they still seem to fit length wise, but I am beginning to wonder if they aren’t a little too narrow now. I am also looking forward to replacing Ben’s glasses with ones that hopefully won’t have to be repaired on a weekly basis, although I must say Dave is becoming pretty good at putting the piece back together. I am just not sure whether they break because of Ben’s treatment of them, Dave’s repair jobs or just because they are like many things here—cheap and not meant to last. I suspect it is a combination of all of the above.

We also decided with this trip to make a detour to New Brunswick. Dave’s mom and dad are in Moncton and the boys have been asking a lot of questions about what it is like there because they haven’t been there since they were babies. It makes the logistics of this trip a little more complicated to fly to Ontario and then New Brunswick and back to Ontario, but we are hoping that it gives the boys a little more understanding of their roots, by seeing where their dad spent some of his growing up years and to be able to picture Grandma and Grandpa Wright in their context. (Because Dave’s brothers are in Ontario not too far from where my family is, his mom and dad have usually come to visit us there.)

For now our schedule looks like this:
Dec. 14 about 22 hours in transit between Niamey and Toronto
Dec. 15-17 Doctors’ appointments in Ontario
Dec. 17-23 Moncton, New Brunswick
Dec. 23-Jan.6 Back to Ontario for Christmas and more doctors’ appointments

Please pray for us that all the details will come together, that we will be able to afford the orthotics and glasses and that we will be able to make arrangements for a vehicle especially in Ontario (my parents will be flying home from Florida to spend Christmas with us, but their vehicle will be in Florida!). Pray that this will be a time to rest and relax because we could all really use a vacation. Finally pray especially for the boys, that this might alleviate some of the “family-sickness” that they have been experiencing over the last few months.

Saying Goodbye

2009-09-08T15:32:00.003+01:00

Sunday morning before church I was flipping through my bible and Isaiah 49 caught my eye:
He said to me, “You are my servant, Israel, and you will bring me glory.” I replied, “But my work seems so useless! I have spent my strength for nothing and to no purpose. Yet I leave it all in the Lord’s hand; I will trust God for my reward.” (vv 3-4)
It’s a verse that every pastor has identified with at one point or another, but we’ve both had our moments like this in the last little while.

Later on the way to church, the man I’ve been working with for the last two months just kind of let it drop that he was leaving and returning to Agadez. ”When?” I said, rather taken aback. “Tuesday,” was his simple reply. Since June we’ve been getting together to chat and read the Bible. In July, he was asking questions and wanted to know what else he needed to do to become a Christian. I asked if he wanted to pray with me to invite Christ into his life and he said, “yes,” and so we did, there in the bakery. Since that time we’ve continued to meet one on one, as well as going to church on Sundays and the mid week bible study I’ve been leading at the church. (This is one of the churches that the Brantford team met with last summer, who is interested in joining the denomination.) He has been faithful to come and to participate but nevertheless has questions.

After church I arranged to take him for lunch the following day before his departure. Later in the afternoon, he texted me on my cell phone saying that lunch wouldn’t work because he had too much family to visit before leaving, and asked if I could just help him with expenses for the trip. Sensing that more was going on than I’d realized, I asked if everything was alright. Agadez, where his wife and home are, has been devastated by flooding in the last week. A northern desert town, where there is little rain, it’s filled with mud brick buildings including its famous mosque. Heavy rains in the mountains created a huge overflow, bursting a dam and flooding the city. Mud bricks simply melt when exposed to too much water, and thousands of homes were washed away, along with the market and many other buildings. Thousands are homeless today and with the destruction of the market, food may not be easy to come by. My friend assured me his home and wife were fine but nevertheless many are suffering. Yesterday we bought a couple of sacks of rice and some tea and sugar and to take along with the rest of his baggage to the bus station. We returned to the house for one last meal together and before he went back to the station. The bus leaves in the wee hours of the morning and doesn’t arrive till sometime around 11 PM.

Please pray for my friend. He will face many challenges in Agadez, some economic, some social, and some spiritual. His family is not likely to respond well to his new faith and the month of Ramadan may well present challenges of its own. We will continue to remain in contact with him in Agadez, though we have no idea when or if he'll return.

If you would like to find out more about the situation in Agadez, here is a news report:
http://www.upi.com/Top_News/2009/09/04/Niger-towns-flooded-at-least-2-dead/UPI-45051252038709/

And this is the blog of an American woman with the Rotary Club who witnessed the floods and its aftermath (she has pictures): http://nomadfoundation.blogspot.com/2009/09/foods-ravage-agadez.html

Another Ramadan

2009-09-05T21:35:00.000+01:00

We are in the midst of another Ramadan here in Niger and no matter how much I try to prepare myself for it, I find it challenging. It could be a purely physical thing, with Ramadan comes a lot of late night services broadcast on the loud speakers at the mosque next door. That coupled with the early start time for the boy’s school can wear you out. I suppose the pace that we have been trying to keep could have a lot to do with the physical fatigue too. I am happy to say that the English teacher for Sahel arrived last weekend and relieved me on my temporary teaching job. I am grateful to have her here. Although, I can’t say that I have caught up on my accounting, bill paying, laundry or many other jobs that I let slide while I was covering the English class yet. Nor have I caught up on the sleep that trying to do too much robbed me of.
However, it isn’t just the physical aspects of Ramadan that are draining. It is the spiritual aspects as well. Not to say that there aren’t difficulties and spiritual conflicts that are ongoing here, but it seems more pronounced at this time of year. Maybe that is because my prayers become more concentrated on the Holy Spirit revealing himself to those who are truly seeking God through this time of fasting—or maybe it is that I am getting less sleep, so I might as well be praying (or writing a blog) while I can’t sleep with the loud speaker blaring in my window. But is also all the little things that come along to test your endurance, etc.—like Dave blowing up the battery on our car and breaking the door handle off of the driver’s side door, on the day of the first school board meeting of the year. Or the alarm clock not going off so that you wake up ten minutes before you are supposed to be leaving for school, on the morning of the mom’s prayer meeting! Or all the little lies like that nagging sense that you might as well give up because you are never going to be able to accomplish what you want to, or that you are too afraid to do what you are supposed to, or that I would just be better off teaching because it is the only thing that I am any good at.
Please pray for all of us at this especially draining time of year, but also pray with us that God would use our conversations with neighbours about why we aren’t fasting and that at this time of seeking God that many Muslims would come face to face with Jesus.

It’s been one of those mornings. Maybe it’s just the week.

2009-08-27T08:46:00.001+01:00

I realize that it’s been a few weeks since we posted—our apologies. I had a blog to post a couple of weeks ago but had internet trouble. Our old connection suffered a number of problems, including the offshore cable that was damaged. Unable to download email we have switched services and waited another couple of weeks to get connected—we should have been online a week ago but the technician who came to do the installation did half the job, promising to finish the job the next day. It was a week before we saw anyone again.

In the mean time school has started in again for the boys and Jenn is temporarily filling in one English class till the teacher arrives (tomorrow). She is also the chairperson for Sahel school board and today is their big-all-day-team-building-orientation-for-new-members-meeting. Last minute printing jammed, before loading up the kids in the car but can’t find the keys to unlock it only to discover that they are locked inside the car, pulling out the spare that only unlocks the doors (no computer chip in the key) and the engine won’t turnover. Jenn gets behind the wheel while, Cole takes the dog, and the guard and I push. No luck except that Jenn manages to stop rolling just before the mud lake that’s formed at the end of our drive way. A stranger passing by helps us to push the car back into the yard except Cole loses control of the dog who decides this new guy is a threat and goes on the offensive. The dog is now whining in the shed, Ben is crying because he’s late and won’t get a sticker in his day book and Mom decides it’s a lost cause and will take the kids in a bush taxi.

I think my wife (the English teacher) would call those run-on sentences and put an X beside them. I call it a literary device that lets you feel what this morning felt like. The day (and the week) is not done but with a portable solar panel the car is now running and I’m writing a blog that is long overdue. (The other one which I thought had been saved to the desktop is no where to be seen—I will post it when found.) Last night I met with Annie’s Dad for coffee and heard a little more of his story. Please pray for him. Annie is apparently on the way home from Ghana. The political situation seems relatively stable though that seems to require riot police, tear gas and the military on occasion. We are in no danger.

Electricity and Foolishness

2009-07-30T07:29:00.008+01:00

I am feeling kind of foolish this morning and typing as fast as I can, hoping that I will be able to get this posted before the power goes out. Last night we had power for only one hour (between 2-3am). I am so grateful that we have had some rain this week and the temperatures have dropped (it was about 28C last night) so that we could sleep even through we couldn't use our fans. --I still find it amazing how when the whole city is out of power the mosque next door can still find power for their loud speakers at five am, but that is probably because it runs on a car battery or something.
I suspect that we are having rotating power which is why I am concerned about posting this and the biggest problem is that our gas tank is empty and the pumps at the station only work when there is power. Please remember us in prayer.

Election Fever

2009-07-25T22:18:00.000+01:00

Coming home tonight I waited impatiently behind two buses crammed with young people hanging out the windows and shouting “Tzartché!” In another week the president will be holding a referendum that will allow him to continue as President for another three years and run for re-election an unlimited number of times. ( “Tzartché” is Hausa for something along the lines of “continuity”) Tensions are building as all the opposition parties have united to not simply present a “no” vote but a boycott of the referendum altogether. International pressure has also come into play to discourage the president in his current attempt to change the constitution. While we don’t expect any this to have any direct impact on us or our ministry, it does reflect the issues that come up regularly in our conversations with our friends and something that is in the forefront of many people’s minds. Many local churches and local prayer groups have made the political situation a major topic of prayer, and we too invite you to pray for the peace and stability of our country. If you are curious to know more details of what’s happening here , googling “Niger Referendum” would probably yield some fruitful results.

I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone—for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. 1 Timothy 2:1-4

Some Recent Pictures

2009-07-16T15:33:00.009+01:00

I realize the last few blogs have been pictureless, so if the internet will cooperate I add a few:

This is what can happen in a half an hour of rain when the ditches are back filled!

Even without the ditches you can have some fun. Unfortunately this only lasted for about a day and we could really use a lot more rain!

Yesterday's bible study. Pray for Dave as he prepares for tonight's.

I like 6:30 am…

2009-07-09T13:29:00.003+01:00

Dave would say that that is simply because I am a morning person but he rarely sees that time of day, except for school days (the kids have to be out of the house by 7am to make it to school for 7:30).
The real reason that I like 6:30 am is that it is the coolest time of the day here in Niger. I learned from a friend that the coolest time in the day occurs a half an hour after sunrise (at least in Niger where we don’t get the nice frosty storm fronts that blow through Canada and parts of the US—although we do occasionally get rain, keep praying for rain!). So, with sunrise typically occurring around 6 that makes 6:30 my favourite time of the day! The only problem that I have with it is the tough decisions that come with it.—Do I stay in bed and enjoy and just embrace the coolest moments that I will find for the day or do I get up and take advantage of the coolness to get something accomplished that I may not be otherwise be able to get done in the day. Aah! The choices that come with summer vacation! I hope that you are finding a few moments to stop and just enjoy during your summer time.
Please continue to pray for Annie’s dad, good things are happening in his life. Pray for Dave also, he is leading two bible studies and preaching a fair amount lately—all in French which is coming more naturally, but still takes a lot more work. Also, please pray for Sahel Academy, the boys’ school is short on a few teachers for the coming year and there are people that we have been expecting that are being delayed because of the global economic crunch. On that note, pray for me also, this coming year I will be the chair person for Sahel’s school board.
As I put the finishing touches on this blog Dave has just brought to my attention that it is presently 29C at 8:15 pm the first time that it has been this cold at this time of day since sometime last February--all that praying for rain finally paid off in two storms that came through back to back last night! That said we could really use more rain.

Treating Mohammed

2009-07-09T13:29:00.001+01:00

Sometimes I think I went into the wrong profession when I became a teacher, it isn’t that I don’t love teaching, but there are times when I think I would have been better off becoming a nurse (like my sister and all of my sisters'-in-law). These past few weeks were a prime example. Our night guard (Mohammed) didn’t show up for a couple of shifts, which we suspected meant that he was sick and were planning on going to visit him, but before we could get there a couple of his friends showed up because they were very concerned about him and felt that he needed to go to a clinic. We called Annie, a Nigerien friend that is a nurse to go with us. She told us there was no point in going to a clinic because the doctors were on strike and weren’t working at the hospitals and the clinics would only take the patients that had appointments. When we got there, Mohammed was sitting in a basin of water to ease the pain of two days of diarrhea. Annie recognized the symptoms of dysentery and diarrhea and started him on an IV treatment to re-hydrate him (it was reminiscent of the team from Brantford’s trip last summer where one of them ended up with the same situation). We went back a few times over the next few days to make sure that he was doing ok and still taking the medicine that we had bought at the pharmacy. I know that all the medical professionals reading this are cringing thinking that we help set up our guard on an IV in his hut and gave him medicine without a doctor’s prescription and I would like to let you know that this isn’t our normal practice, but it really isn’t that unusual here. Annie however has done this in the past when she worked as a village nurse for Doctors Without Borders.

If that weren’t enough the day before yesterday we came home to find Mohammed really upset. I guess he had been waiting for us for a couple of hours (he was early and we were out to eat). His wife was ill and he had taken her to a clinic and needed medicine for her (in other words he needed us to pay for it—because we are his medical benefits). He was afraid that she might be dying and so we made the call to Annie once again to come with us. When we got to his house I asked if I could pray for his wife and Mohammed said yes, yes, it’s her stomach. I prayed with his wife while Annie gave Mohammed instructions about the medicine and then helped her take the medicine. It turned out that what Mohammed had feared was lethal was a result of something that she had ate.
Please pray for Mohammed and his family. When he has a concern and we offer to pray for him, he is agreeable, but we aren’t sure whether that is because he really doesn’t understand what we are saying or because he is open to having us pray in Jesus name or just because we are his employers.

Perspectives

2009-07-04T19:04:00.002+01:00

We had someone send us an email this week that let us know the city of Toronto had declared an extreme heat alert because the forecast called for 29C and a humidex of 36C. I chuckled because the thermometer in my bedroom (one of the coolest places in the house) was reading 34.4C and I was melting with the humidity of rainy season. Ben had decided to make tacos that morning because it was his turn to cook (The boys were given a choice this summer to learn how to cook or to learn how to do laundry—they both chose cooking. I think that was because they could choose the menu.) So, while I rolled out tortillas he flipped them in the frying pan. I’m not sure who was sweating more, him over the stove or me exerting myself over the rolling pin. We don’t have ceiling fans in our kitchen because our landlord won’t allow them and my floor fan would have been in the middle of the doorway that I had to go through to deliver the tortillas to Ben, so I’m afraid occasionally I added a little salt and liquid to the dough! I started thinking about my friends and family back home that would be complaining about the heat in their homes with central air or while enjoying a dip in their pool or while enjoying a stroll through an air conditioned mall. (Of course they can buy their tortillas and don’t need to make them which takes most of the work out of tacos!) But then my thoughts turned to my Nigerien friend that doesn't have either electricity or water in her house. Her landlord promised water when she moved it but it hasn’t happened yet and the electric lines haven’t been connected to her neighbourhood yet. Or my other friends that are running their entire house (which is probably a bit bigger than mine) off of the equivalent of an extension cord from a neighbours house, so when they turn a fan on the lights dim. They would have their own hook up, but the power line doesn’t quite reach that far and the electric company says that they would have to pay to have a post installed which is way beyond what they can afford. Those thoughts made me realize that I really didn’t have it that bad! It really is a manner of perspective! I hope you are finding a way to stay cool this summer. Me, I just keep praying for rain! Happy Canada Day and 4th of July for those of you in the Americas!

Long Silence

2009-06-22T16:10:00.004+01:00

Sorry for the long silence. I have been battling headaches lately. I finally broke down (ie Dave made a phone call) and went to see a doctor. There are a couple of possible senerios: not drinking enough water, a problem with my anti-malarial or sinus problems. It is such a relief to know what the possibilities and options are. It is also such a rich blessing to have doctors with other missions that are willing to take time out of their busy schedule to advise people like me.
While I have been wrestling with these headaches, Dave has been working on the long overdue newsletter. So if you think that you are on our mailing list and didn't receive it or would like to receive it let us know. We have had lots of trouble with e-mail addresses changing over the years that we have been here and would love to keep in contact with you. If you make a comment on our blog it will go to our e-mail so that you do not have to worry about your e-mail becoming public.
Please continue to pray for the political situation in Niger and for our ministry here.