Investing in People: Glimpses of God’s Goodness

“Let your work be shown to your servants, and your glorious power to their children” Ps 90:16

Investing in people is difficult and costly. It usually consumes way more time, energy and resources than you expect on the front end and I think maybe the most frustrating part is that you rarely get to see the results. But God is truly gracious and every once in a while we get to catch a glimpse of what He is doing. This week was one of those times. We went to visit a friend that we haven’t really seen in a long while—partly our fault, partly his... Anyway, while we were sitting around drinking tea he told us that he had heard recently from a really good friend of ours that had left the country about 7 years ago and that she had been asking about us. I got excited and asked for her phone number because the old one she had given me hadn’t worked for awhile, but before I even got the number in my phone she sent him a text message. He took our pictures and sent them to her through one of his apps and she sent us some voice messages telling us how much she appreciated the bible teaching and discipleship that Dave and I had provided when she had been in Niamey and went on to mention how she was using it to invest in those around her.

It made me think of a poster that I had seen on fb (see above) that read:

“People will let you down—welcome to life. People will also lift you up, save you, love you, embrace you, teach you, guide you –welcome to life!”

My first response to that poster was, “Lord let me be one of those people that does a whole lot more of the latter!” May that be your prayer as well.

Here is the latest updates on the building:

The look of the week: arches forming and stair case going up!

Adjustments needed on the main floor before the roof goes on the second floor

Hand made windows

Have to finish the staircase to help support the roof.

Family

Over the years there have been a number of dinner table conversations in our house that have gone along the lines of: “You know that the people who are seated at this table are some of the best friends that you will have in this life because they are the most constant. They understand you better than most anyone else can because they know your past and lived it with you. Family is about loving and always being there for you because that is what family does.” Sometimes those conversations were followed with the “so you better get over whatever the issue is and start living like it...” (any of you with siblings or kids I’m sure can relate). But more often than not these conversations were the result of dealing with our transient life style and grieving the loss of a really good friend or extended family and just remembering that when everything else in life seems to be changing there are still some constants that you can depend on.



Yes, I bought both!

This week I had a reminder that we are blessed with multiple families in this world. The reminder came in the form of African cloth for a wedding. I need to explain that African printed cloth is sometimes used in a similar way to printed t-shirts in North America; they can be used as a “uniform” that gives you a sense of belonging and identification with a group. When important occasions occur like a wedding you will see a number of people wearing the same cloth, the outfits may be entirely different but the cloth will be the same. Usually at weddings the family of the bride will choose one print and the family of the groom will choose another. I had the unique experience this week of being asked by a member of the groom’s family if I wanted to buy the uniform cloth after I had already been asked (and had purchased) the bride’s family cloth. I was deeply touched, because I have been to a number of weddings where I was seen as the outsider and not invited to wear the “uniform” and here I was not only asked to wear one but both! (This was a young couple in our church that was getting married and the groom’s family had been neighbours of ours long before he started to attend the church.) That was when it struck me that the church is a big family. It doesn’t matter where we go in the world the church is there. And in the church we should be able to find people who will understand us, forgive & love us (with all of our warts, wrinkles & other peculiarities) and help us as we grow and develop into the people God wants us to be. Because that’s what family does.

An example of a "uniform" from a friend's wedding a while back

Praying that you have a special sense of family this week in your church and thanks for praying for the election. The first round of voting seemed to go well the next will be on March 20^th.

Elections

Elections look a little different here. We see banners of flags strung across streets in the colours of the various candidates parties (I believe there are 15 different candidates running for president this time). In some traffic circles they intersect making colourful spiderwebs in the sky. Posters are plastered on street signs. vehicles. support pillars, on larger billboards or basically anywhere someone thinks they might be seen (and usually in large quantities). Candidates rent billboards and there are shacks or tents put up around town decorated in the appropriate colours to meet with other likeminded individuals in the evenings. Not to mention the parades of vehicles that will drive through town honking horns and showing off their parties colours. All this to say, tomorrow is election day here in Niger.
Please pray for a peaceful election and that God would be at working putting into power individuals that will put the good of the nation ahead of their own self interests. That we might continue to live and work in a peaceful place.

Sometimes life is like my garden hose...

Sometimes life is like my garden hose and that is especially true of this past weekend. To understand this fully you need to have a picture of my garden hose and I am not sure that my phone camera can do it justice (my regular camera was stolen last fall), so I’ll describe it to you. When I bought the hose new (not that long ago) it was 25ft of pliable plastic. It had the odd kink but was easy enough to straighten out and it didn’t leak. Not long after I started to use it, it started to disintegrate and the sun, the sand and the heat have since done a number on it. Now it is hard to find 3ft of the original that isn’t patched or spliced together with plastic bags and inner tube rubber. I think you have the picture.
This past weekend was like that we had lots of plans and ideas that we were going to accomplish. We planned a surprise party for Ben’s 15^th birthday and the school had field day this Friday not to mention Valentine’s Day. Our plans although they seemed good at the time all seemed to fall apart. Ben got sick so his party happened without him even knowing about it (how is that for a surprise) and then one after another we all got sick too and so our plans went out the window.
But there is a funny thing about my hose, I have tried on a couple of occasions to get the guy who sometimes helps with our yard work to buy me a new one but instead he just keeps patching and repairing. I think that he likes the fact that he can water in more than one place at a time, even if he can’t control the water. Maybe we didn’t get to go to Ben’s favourite restaurant for his birthday and he only got to watch the video of his surprise party. Maybe our Valentine’s celebration consisted of what we could manage of the leftovers in the fridge, but we did have a weekend of memory making over chicken noodle soup and really corny B movies. (You know when you are pumped full of cold meds and feel awful it doesn’t matter that you only get a few laughs in an hour or two). I guess what I am trying to say is that I am grateful to a God who takes what looks like flaws and mistakes and turns them into something really good if not what originally intended.
Please pray that we can finish the rest of our term well!

It's Hot Season again

We have been a little off the radar lately. The counselors with the West African Mobile Member Care Team recommended we take some time out. In the meantime Jennifer has been diagnosed with cataracts. She has been in Canada since early April in order to see the surgeon and prep for the surgery. While she’s been away we have experience the height of hot season and it will continue until the first rainfall.

Giant dust storm. Still no rain.

Hot season is a dusty dry time and this year it has brought meningitis with it. Many of you have probably seen this on the local news. While we were vaccinated before ever coming to Niger, most Nigeriens never have been. The government has tried to provide vaccines for children but the reports I have heard suggest that some have still not been able to be vaccinated. A nurse told me that meningitis usually impacts the young and the weak but this year it appears to strike without prejudice. I was told that a student at the Pastor’s business school excused himself from class saying he had a headache and wanted to lay down. He never got up. I’ve heard similar stories from others. The Pastor has brought a nurse into his school and the church to vaccinate those had not yet received the shot.

Jennifer had her surgery this past Monday and everything seemed to go without difficulty despite the horror stories she had heard before going in. Before leaving the clinic the doctor asked to do an eye exam. Despite the cloudiness in her eyes from the procedure, she appeared to have 20/20 vision! What the final result will be when her eyes finally be when her eyes clear is yet to be seen but regardless she is very happy with her new vision. If only she could finish with those drops…

The night before her surgery the power in the house here started going haywire. Around the midnight I heard the ceiling fan speed up and the air conditioner started making an awful noise. Power irregularities and blackouts are normal for hot season. I started going through the house shutting off everything I could. In one room a light bulb POOFED the moment I switched on the light. When I finally reached the kitchen both the fridge and the freezer were making an awful noise. I powered both down and waited five to ten minutes thinking the situation would stabilize itself but every time I tried the larger appliances they made awful noise. I resigned myself to going back to bed without air conditioning. [Our daytime highs are in the mid-forties and it doesn’t fall below thirty degrees at night.] I woke at five I tried plugging but once more they made an awful noise and I was afraid they had both been fried. I waited until seven and called the technician who fixes fridges and air conditioners.

When he arrived around half past nine I tried to show him the problem I was having and low and behold they both worked fine. I got him to look at the air conditioner that had made all the noise and he figured it might be low on freon gas. He added some gas and told me to run it for half an hour see if it how it worked. I was happy to comply! Around noon I was work in the room (of course I had “forgotten” to shut the air conditioner off) when suddenly the fan started speed up the phone charger plugged in beside went POOF and started to smoke, and the air conditioner started making a racket. I once more ran through the house shutting everything off, mumbling unkind words about the power company. I called my neighbour Jeremy and asked if he was asking problems at his house. He said no but said it sounded like the time one of the breakers at the clinic was going bad and sending surges throughout the building. I called the electrician and when he finally arrived he said the main breaker in the house was shorting and sending 380 volts from time to time through certain phases of the house while shorting others down to about 100. (Outlets here give normally give 220 V like Europe). When he finally installed the new breaker it was almost nine o’clock at night.

The next morning, our worker found the water bill at the front gate. He came to me saying, “Are you sure there isn’t a water leak some place in the house? Your water bill is outrageously high!” In fact, the readings covered a period when we had mostly been away. I asked him to check the meter to see if was turning right now even though all the taps were off. Nothing. “You know there’s water all over the outside wall by the kitchen,” he said. Nope, didn’t know that. I called the landlords plumber who said he couldn’t come until four in the afternoon. When he finally arrived and saw what was happening he said, “Oh we got open this up right away and block this up,” and started hammering away at the wall. He opened it up and found the broken pipe capped and said, “Well, I can’t fix this today. Hopefully I’ll be able to get the materials to fix it tomorrow.” We still have no water in the kitchen.

This morning the light won’t come on in the fridge and the water bottles don’t feel very cold despite sitting in there all night.

I guess its just another hot season in Niger.

Despite the challenges God is good and there are many here who would be happy just have some electricity and a fan that blows everyone once in a while. Pray for Niger and for Jennifer’s recovery from surgery.