December 2003
Vol. 3, No. 7
Merry Christmas and happy New Year!
Aïchatou and I want to wish all of you our best during this
holy season. We pray that you and your loved ones will enjoy the
holidays and that you will celebrate our Lord's birth with joy,
peace and love in your homes. Our plans are to spend Christmas
with Aïchatou's family in Zinder. Unfortunately, during this
season of rejoicing, we sometimes must grieve. We learned yesterday
(Sunday), of some very sad news for the Nigerien church. Hannatou
Dan Karami, the wife of the Evangelical Church of Niger's Secretary
General, Hassane Dan Karami, died after battling cancer for 18
months. Hannatou was a relative of Aïchatou's (her father's
cousin) and I had stayed in her and Hassane's home for five weeks
in February and March of 2002, shortly after my arrival in Niger.
She leaves behind two small children, Naomi, 8, and Joseph, 3,
plus three stepsons. For Hassane, the grief is especially painful
because his first wife also died of cancer. Please pray for this
family during this very emotional time. It is a terrible loss
for all of us who knew her and we are especially concerned for
how the family will cope with this second tragedy. We take comfort
that Hannatou will be suffering no more as she is with our Heavenly
Father, but we know the next few days, weeks and months will be
hard for those who loved her.
I happened to be in Niamey, returning a visitor (Steve Salowitz)
to the airport, when we learned of the death and thus was able
to attend the burial. Because of the Muslim culture, all bodies,
even those of Christians, are buried within 24 hours of death.
All the necessary arrangements are made in this very short time.
Therefore, it is very common for close family members and friends
to miss the internment. However, it is much more important here
to comfort the survivors than to attend the funeral service (which
takes place at the cemetery and not in a church or funeral home).
The family will be receiving visitors bringing their condolences
for the next week and probably longer as word spreads of their
loss.
Last week had brought Steve Salowitz of FARMS International to
Niger to help train our first supervising committee in Maradi
to start a micro-credit project at the Dogon Gao Bible School.
The training went very well and we have an enthusiastic group
of men and women who want to bring micro-credit to the Nigerien
church. Once we begin the project (hopefully this spring), Niger
will be the first African program for FARMS. They are currently
working in Southeast Asia, Latin America, and in the Caribbean,
but have never started a program in Africa. It was a leap of faith
on their part and we are praying that micro-credit will help break
a legacy of dependence that the Church has long-suffered under
in Niger.
Otherwise, November and December has Aïchatou and me living
at the compound of the SIM Leprosy and Health Center in Danja,
which is just south of Maradi. Aïchatou is doing her rural
practicum and I have been working at the Bible school. She has
really enjoyed consulting the patients at Danja and has seen many
interesting cases, thus making her past medical studies come to
life! I have been coordinating the construction of three bathroom
additions for the Bible school's teaching staff homes. Just a
year ago, there were no toilets or latrines at Dogon Gao. Now
there are four, not including those that will be in our duplex.
Speaking of the duplex, work has again begun on our house and
its new bedroom additions, but we still do not yet have enough
funds to finish it. January will bring Aïchatou and me back
to Niamey. She'll continue her studies, while I will work on various
churchwide projects and proposals.
I'm not exactly sure what I'll be doing, but there is never a
shortage of good ideas or work to do, here.
Prayer requests:
- Pray for the family of Hassane Dan Karami as they mourn the
loss of Hannatou.
- Pray for Aïchatou and our developing baby as we enter
the fifth month of pregnancy.
- Pray for volunteers Ted and Eleanor Vonk from Battle Creek,
Michigan, who will arrive in Niger on January 12 for a one-month
stay. Pray that their educational experiences and expertise
will help the Church in Niger.
- Give praise for the soon-to-be-started micro-credit program
and pray that God will give us good leadership in the Nigerien
supervising committee and that the program can give its first
loans before the next growing season, in June 2004.
- Pray for our health and safety. Pray also for my laptop computer,
which has been sick and shows signs of having serious problems.
In Christ,
Tom and Aïchatou
The 2004 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p.
44
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