Vol. 2, No. 12

Hello Everyone,

Now is the hottest time of the year in Niger. The temperatures are often close to 120 F. It will stay like this until the rains come, which could be any day now, or it could be in three or four weeks. In this type of heat, it is so difficult to be productive. One is sweating from the moment one wakes up to the moment one falls asleep (and often during the night, too), and there seems to be no relief. One looks for any reason possible to stay inside and avoid the heat outside. Yet, on some days, like today, there is a good breeze and working outside in the shade where you can catch a breeze is preferable to sitting under a ceiling fan that circulates warm air all around you.

Well, Aïchatou and I have been already married for a month (April 19 was our wedding). It is certainly nice to be married, but now that we’re apart, there isn’t much difference for me here in Maradi, although for Aïchatou she has left her family and is now living alone in a small house in Niamey that we are renting. In Niamey she spends her mornings doing an ophthalmology rotation and her evenings in medical classes. I’ll probably take a long, hot, bus ride to Niamey to see Aichatou in person within the next two weeks. We communicate every day, mostly by SMS (short messaging service) using our cellular phones. Not ideal, but it would have been impossible to do that much just 18 months ago in Niger. Technology is great and can bring about dramatic changes in life! It really is a sight to go to a meeting now and see these old Africans trying to determine whose cell phone is ringing, as they all simultaneously search the pockets in their flowing robes and boubous.

Now that I’m back in Maradi, I’m supervising the “food for work” program that we started at the Dogon Gao Bible School. Three afternoons a week, the students come together to work on campus projects like plastering walls, making bricks, painting, and other similar activities. They receive millet grain as their salary. It is really neat, after doing this for almost two months, to see things progress at the school. The two semi-constructed buildings are almost ready to be used, since they now are equipped with cement floors, new blackboards, and new tables and chairs. The existing classrooms now have their first-ever coat of paint. You can see pride in both the professors’ and the students’ faces. Everyone is taking the work seriously and they are generally doing a good job. It is encouraging and believe you me, if you can’t find some source of encouragement in this dry, dusty place, it is easy to just give up. I arranged my first “agricultural demonstration” with the students last week, by inviting two people from the SIM Maradi Integrated Development Project to show us how to make compost for the upcoming growing season. The students seemed interested and now they have the knack of working together, so the work did not take long. I also finally received the funds to buy the drip irrigation equipment that will soon be part of the students’ practical experience. While it is too late in the year to start an irrigated garden (the rainy season is just weeks away), we can get things ready for when I return to Maradi this fall.

Yes, we’ll soon be leaving Niger for a visit to the United States (and maybe a week in Quebec). I’ll be in the States for three months, while Aïchatou can only stay for less than two months because of her studies. We’ll leave Niger on July 2 and arrive in the United States the following day. This is really more of a work trip than a vacation, because we will be meeting with lots of churches and other supporters and we will begin the process of Aïchatou officially joining the mission and raising funds for her work. But, we will have a wedding reception at the Ebenezer Reformed Church in Leighton, Iowa, on Saturday, July 5 (not sure of time yet), so I hope that will be a time to see many of you. Ideally in the June newsletter, I’ll be able to post our definite schedule for our time in the States. Currently, everything is too tentative for me to make any announcements.

This month, I’d like to share with you two articles I recently read about Niger from a United Nations reporting service. I thought you might enjoy learning a little bit more about the context we’re living in, since few knew much about Niger.

Prayer requests

• Thank God for the wonderful marriage and for the time Aïchatou and I have had together. Pray that we will constantly find ways to communicate and see each other during this time when we have to be in different places. Pray that we will continue to grow closer as husband and wife.
• Pray that the rains will be gentle, but plentiful in Niger this year. Pray that they will soon arrive and will continue regularly.
• Give thanks that a local Christian crusade that was almost canceled because the foreign speaker (from Nigeria) could not attend at the last minute was held anyway, as local church leaders decided they could organize it themselves. It was moved from the big stadium to a small EERN church (Evangelical Church in the Republic of Niger) in a poor neighborhood of the city. The EERN permanent secretary told me that in three nights many healings took place as the blind saw, the deaf heard and the lame walked through the name of Jesus. The last night of the crusade, all the handicapped of the neighborhood packed the church.
• Pray that the Lord will arrange our schedule in the United States well, so that we can do all that we need to do and see the people we need to see. Pray that we will be well prepared to leave Niger (particularly with our housing here). Pray that Aïchatou will receive visas from the United States and Canadian embassies to travel. Otherwise, she can’t go!

In Christ,

Tom and Aichatou

The 2003 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p.35