new challenges

This week has taken several unexpected turns. On Monday, my father was following his usual routine of getting up at 5 AM to go to the exercise room in their condo when a cable broke on the exercise equipment while he was weight lifting. He`s still not quite sure what happened next but he woke up on the floor covered in blood and realized that at five in the morning no one was coming to look for him. He struggled back up stairs to the apartment dripping all the way and got my mother to call an ambulance. After an extended wait the ambulance finally arrived even though the hospital is a couple of blocks away. The paramedics were rather apologetic saying they`d been sent four times to get my dad but were called off for a more urgent call while en route. They think he`ll be fine but for now he has a concussion and over a dozen stitches. Please pray for his recovery.

Tuesday our pastor here in Niamey was informed by the UN officials in charge of refugees that Niger had signed off on the UN protocol ending his refugee status here. As a result he has until the end of March to either be integrated into Niger as a citizen or be repatriated to Rwanda and face three months military training. What will happen to the business school that he owns and the church that is meeting on his property? He could potentially go elsewhere if an official invitation were given from another country. Please pray for this family and the church that God would oversee their situation.

On a more positive note I met with a man from the church this week who has been travelling around villages an hour or so out of town. He  says that in the last couple of months he`s baptised over a dozen people. We discussed what might be the next steps in moving from making converts to making disciples and planting churches in villages where there is no church. He faces real challenges in that he doesn`t read in French, but instead has been listening to audio versions of the bible in some of the local languages. Please pray that we would be able to find or put together some useful tools in the Arabic script that he can read.

The roof has been put on our building (well all but the cooling tower) and the electrician has installed some of the basic wiring. We praise God that we have been able to come this far with that. Please pray that we would be able to finish the rest of the building in a timely manner and that the wiring would be done well with the appropriate types of wire (as this is a major issue in many buildings here in Niger). Thanks so much for being there for us in prayer, may you see God’s hand at work in your lives and ministry this week.

Reunions and Other Happenings

Just before we left for Christmas we had someone new show up at our church. She looked like someone that we thought maybe we should know but we couldn't figure it out until the time in our service where they have introductions. It turns out that she is the sister of Pennine, the pastor’s wife. When they were fleeing their homeland she was two years old and had been separated from them in the confusion and she hadn’t seen her mom until that week –18 years later! Pennine fled with her mother, sister and two younger brothers. This sister who was the youngest was somehow separated but has been kept by another older brother since then. Isaac, one of the brothers who is here, said to me, “All these years, whenever Mama has been sick it’s been because of her—it just made her sick all the time because she had lost our baby sister.”

Although our separation from our homeland wasn’t nearly so long ago, we were richly blessed to be able to go home for Christmas and see our family as well. We thought that we were leaving behind difficulties with internet and electricity only to arrive in time for ice storms that incapacitated much of the electrical lines in Toronto and to a house with no internet or phone. Jennifer had hoped to get progressive lenses for eyes as reading has increasingly become a problem. Our doctor had suggested it might help with the headaches she had been experiencing. We had our own “series of unfortunate events” that in the end we were not able to get glasses that worked before getting back on the plane. We were however fortunate to get on the plane before they shut down the Toronto Airport.
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Lots to be excited about...

I have had a surprising number of questions about my solar cooker blog so I thought that I should follow up by saying that I am still using it but with the days getting shorter and the harmattan winds starting to blow the dust in from the desert there has been less opportunity to do so. This is the before and after of one of my recent endeavours chill and baked potatoes.

We are truly blessed to be able to spend this Christmas with family and as the boys (and our parents) get older we realize how precious it is to be able to celebrate special days together. I hope that you are able to take advantage of the holidays to spend time with family and if not that you will be surrogate family for others that need that as well.

We are excited to hear about more groups interested in joining us to work on the Ministry Centre in various ways. Please pray that the right people would be able to come at the right time and that God would be at work in all of the details. The photos are of a recent inspection we made and I am hoping to be able to post the new roof sometime next week! Please pray for the guys that are working on the ministry centre that God would be at work in their lives drawing them to himself. 

Finally a few other items for prayer. There is a young man in our church that has been very active in some of the villages outside of the capital sharing the good news with those who care to listen. Please pray for his protection and safety. Pray that the Holy Spirit would lead him to those He is already working with and God would use his efforts to build His church. Pray that we would be able to encourage and direct him in his efforts. Pray also for myself and the boys as we enter into exams next week.

Death Sentence

What are you thankful to God for this week?

This is a question that comes every Sunday in our church and I am grateful for the regular reminder that God is living and active in our lives whether we acknowledge Him or not. There are usually lots of responses to this call in our church but this week there was one that really made me think. One of the refugees in our church got up and told us that he was thankful for today because it was the anniversary of his death sentence. He had been imprisoned in his home country and sentenced to the die because of his ethnic background. What would it be like to have a death sentence placed upon you and then to live past it while you saw others receiving for theirs? I can't imagine what it would be like to survive twelve years in jail never mind knowing that you were supposed to die there and that they could give you a new date at any time. What a beautiful thing it was to be free and celebrating eighteen years after your death sentence!

When I think about it I realize that we aren't all that different. When Adam and Eve sinned in the garden we received a death sentence. It is only because Christ paid the price for us by his death on the cross that we can be free of that penalty, we just have to accept that gift. So I hope you are free and celebrating the number of years since your death sentence too.

The school's field day is coming and I would appreciate your prayers for that. Please pray for safety for all who are involved. Pray for my boys that they would learn to be a source of encouragement to those around them and be able to celebrate with those who succeed regardless of their own personal standing.

Please also pray for Sahel as the semester ends in a few short weeks, that exams would go well that the students would be able to perform to the best of their ability and finish the term well. Pray also for  a youth pastor for the coming semester as the young woman (a former student at Sahel) who was leading that team returns home at the end of the term. Pray also for her that she would sense God's leading and direction for what she is to do next.

Solar cooking

"You aren't going to put meat in there, are you?"
"It will cook rice?"

These are some of the questions that I have faced this week as I introduced a friend to my solar cooker. I had demonstrated it once before but they were still skeptical. We were told this weekend that we would be without power for the next four days that coupled with the fact that the rains had ended and the harmattan dust hadn't quite arrived yet made me think that this was the perfect time to put my solar cooker to the test. Last night it was cashew chicken and rice (the first time that I did two pots at the same time), this morning it is pumpkin (that I hope to puree for muffins and other things) and I think I might try baking buns this afternoon. If I succeed it will be my first time cooking twice in one day.

I have been thinking about the choices that we make and how environmentally responsible they are. It is one of those things that we face daily as we drive by garbage piled in the streets or walk by plastic bags hanging from the trees.

As we have been working on the ministry centre we have been trying to consider the ways that we can maximize passive cooling to counter the heat here and hopefully reduce our dependency on electric cooling methods. In reading about some of these things I have been reminded how important trees and plants are to the environment and the effect they produce in cooling their immediate environment. As I have been walking our neighbourhood I have noticed lately that there is a big difference between the shade coming from a wall and the shade coming from a wall covered in vines and hedges. It made me sad to think of how many trees here get over "harvested" for the sake of firewood to cook which brought me back to thinking about my solar cooker. I am just starting to realize how versatile it can be and I know that it has its limitations but it would be great if they were a more accessible alternative here in the land of sun. I know that it is possible for them to be produced here (mine was made in a neighbouring country with local resources), but I haven't heard of them being made here (but I might not be in the right circles for that). Please pray that we will be good stewards in the way that we live both in our spiritual lives and in the practical aspects of our day to day living.