Lightening Strikes --Roll With It

Yesterday morning we awoke to an incredibly loud clap of thunder that sounded almost simultaneously with a brilliant flash of lightening. I wasn't sure whether it had struck our house, a nearby power line or the power plant that is only a few buildings away from where we live, but I was certain that it must have done some damage just by the sheer force of the impact. This was quickly confirmed when all our ceiling fans went from full speed to barely moving and we checked the regulator on the fridge that should read 220V and it was fluctuating between 80 -100V. Which is really not good for anything that was trying to run!

We reported to the electric company and where told that we would be put on there list but where a bit concerned that they wouldn't get to us that day and we knew that nothing would happen the next day because of the Ramadan holiday. I asked some teachers at the boys' school if they would pray because I knew that they were meeting to pray for various school concerns. When we checked in with some of our neighbours we discover that the problem extended into much of the neighbourhood.

Thankful we were only without power for twelve hours and things are running normally now but it really interfered with my plans to get computer work done. Dave just kept reminding me that this was life in Niger and not to expect too much, but to "roll with it". I confess that there are times when it is easier to "roll with it" than others and this was just one more complication added to a long list of them over the last few weeks as I have been trying to get ready for school (that starts next week) as well as keep on top of my church/ministry/mission work. Please pray for me that I would continue to be able to "roll with it" and not get pulled under by the set backs. Pray that we would be able to maintain our spiritual, emotional and physical energy even in the face of difficulties. And please pray for the boys' school that everyone would be ready to go next week when classes are scheduled to begin and that this would be a really good school year, despite some staffing gaps.

PS Sorry the last post was just a family picture there was other comments that I wanted to make but ran into technical difficulties :)

New Look

How can we pray for you?

Our church in Niger has decided on a month of prayer during the summer break. So every night from 9-10 they are meeting to pray. For anyone who knows me well this is a real stretch for me because I am not an evening person (and more or less shut down around that time). The first night I wasn't able to make it because Ben had a stomach bug, so I got to stay home to clean up after him. But yesterday he was feeling better and I was able to participate. It was good to meet with God as a body in prayer. It is my prayer that God will use this time to awaken the spiritual gifts that He has given to His people, so that the church will be more effective in their ministry and that He will give guidance and wisdom to the church as they seek a deeper relationship with Him. One of the themes for this season of prayer is church planting; the pastor feels that it is time the church become active in reproducing and planting another congregation. During part of the prayer time the people also pray for the various needs that individuals from the congregation bring, are there things that we can pray for you?
Please know that you are a valued part of our ministry here in Niger. We are grateful for the many ways that you partner in our ministry and we are praying for you.

Workers and the Long Run

After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them two by two ahead of him to every town and place where he was about to go. He told them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore to send out workers into his harvest field. Go I am sending you out like lambs among wolves. Do not take a purse of bag or sandals; and do not greet anyone on the road.” Luke 10:1-4

I have been reading Luke in my personal devotional time recently and came to this passage this week when we have been focusing on short and long term goals. In one of our discussions we were talking about friends that where having some positive results in their ministry and realized that theirs is in the “third generation” of missionaries. There were (at least) two other rounds of missionaries that had come and gone that had laid the groundwork for the response that they were presently having. Dave’s response to this was a series of questions: Who will work with us? (My thought was, --are there others crazy enough to be "lambs among wolves"?) Who will follow us? What will happen to the church if no one follows us? God is capable of sustaining and building far beyond what we can think or imagine and His ways are far beyond ours, but He has also told us to ask for workers to join in the harvest. Will you pray with us that God will send others? That we would be working along side the Holy Spirit to bring in His harvest.

Please continue to pray for the building process as things have slowed down because of Ramadan and other delays.

Catching Up

The last month and a half has been somewhat chaotic. In late May, Dave travelled home to accept his diploma. He arrived home to crazy power outages that led to us losing every thing in our freezer and a power surge that killed our modem and took us offline. During one of the blackouts, Pastor Soter was driving home and passed a gendarme training camp when suddenly they started shooting! I've heard no real reports on what happened but various rumours suggested that some anxious trainees got frightened in the dark. We drove to Lome in Togo to escape the power outages and the  heat. Lome is on the coast and so we were able to visit the beach. We travelled with some fellow Canadians from Saskatoon. On Sunday we visited the local Free Methodist Church. They had a baby dedication that morning and our friend Nathan was called out to come and pray for the baby.

Our journey home was relatively uneventful but the morning after arriving I awoke to find that the one of the front tires was flat and beyond repair. This week the priming pump went altogether on our truck, leaving it immobile. Needless to say, we are glad these issues waited until we arrived home to happen.

Since coming home I've been looking at some "next steps" that we need to take in working with the church here and moving towards church planting. Ramadan has started so many of our friends are now fasting daily. Please pray that we will have wisdom in charting our course forward and relating to friends and neighbours.