May 2004

Vol 3. No. 12

Hello Everyone,

We’ve just celebrated our first month of parenthood with Marie-Florence. Our daughter has been rather calm, just getting upset when she is hungry. She is growing rapidly and it is only just in the last week that all her “newborn” baby clothes have started to fit her. Her nights are still unpredictable, and her days aren’t very well defined either. She wakes up at least twice each night, but sometimes as many as five times. Just today, she rolled herself over for the first time! In general, she seems pretty healthy and happy. She appears to be taking after my side of the family—at least the babies in my family. We’ve attached some photos so you can decide whom she resembles!

The week after the baby arrives is a very busy time in Niger. Friends and family fill the house to wish the new parents well. This lasts until the naming ceremony is conducted, traditionally eight days after the birth. After the naming ceremony, things calm down rapidly and the parents are left relatively in peace. While the naming ceremony is customarily held at the home, Aïchatou and I decided to have a child dedication at the church, instead. As I mentioned in our April newsletter, this is still pretty unusual and we knew that we could be setting an example for others in the future. Indeed, several young couples told us after the ceremony that they would like to do the same thing. The traditional naming ceremony at the house really puts a lot of additional stress (both financially and emotionally) on the new parents and the church ceremony was simpler and more meaningful to us, as we created the text with scriptural guidance from the Reverend Tom Stark. We did have one surprise at the dedication ceremony. Instead of pronouncing “Marie-Florence,” when announcing the name (the first time the child’s name is said in public) the pastor said something closer to “Mary Florissent.” We’re not sure where that name came from, but we spent the next hour repeating the right name to everyone we talked to.

The last five weeks have been the hottest of the year (it is the peak of the hot season). The heat makes everything difficult and is very physically draining. Work is almost impossible to do, since even inside the temperature is usually more than 90 F during the day (once I measured 98 F under our living room ceiling fan at 4 p.m.) As you can imagine, everyone’s tempers get a little shorter and problems seem to multiply, as we are all uncomfortable. The old missionaries used to leave the country for their vacations in the elevated plateaus of Jos, Nigeria, in April and May and I can see why. You just won’t get much done here that is productive and that itself is frustrating. In fact, there were several times I thought to myself “I’m on the verge of doing more harm than good—I need to cool off (figuratively and literally!).” Air conditioners exist, but they are terribly expensive to operate and even most foreigners will only use them at night to get a good night’s sleep. Our home does have a water or “swamp” cooler, which cools the room using a fan and water droplets, but its effectiveness is limited when the humidity is over 60 percent. As we get closer to the start of the rainy season, there is more humidity in the air, thus increasing our overall misery. Fortunately, Niamey has already had two sizeable rains in May, which may mean the season will start early and we’ll get our relief soon.

The Bible school at Dogon Gao is always at the top of my concerns. While our house is getting closer to being done (we still need about $800 to have the last interior items finished), the Bible school still has plenty of needs regarding classrooms (two more are needed, plus a sewing room), latrines and student housing. I have been advancing a proposal to start a goat herd for the school and have been doing some more research for a water pump (solar or electric) and constructing a water tower and reservoir for the school, since everyone uses well water that they pull up from 130 ft. I’m also coordinating three (and possibly four!) volunteer groups that will come to Niger in late 2004 and early 2005, including teams that want to do medical work.

Of course, our family is ready for our vacation in the States. We’ll be in the United States from May 25 to June 24. While we are hoping to get some rest and relief from the heat, we’re really looking forward to introducing Marie-Florence to our family and friends. Two of Aïchatou’s relatives will be with us. Her sister, Absatou, is taking her annual vacation with us and will go just about everyone we will go. She’ll gather some information on graduate programs while in the States as well as help her sister with the baby. Her uncle, Abdoullahi, will represent our partner church, the EERN, at the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) General Assembly in Richmond, Virginia. He will arrive in Des Moines on June 15 and will see Iowa and hopefully visit a few Iowa Reformed Church of America churches before he travels on to Richmond on June 25. Abdoullahi lives in the least evangelized region of Niger, near Lake Chad, and has helped start three churches in that area. He has never been to America and we would like for him to share about the Church in Niger with some mission supporters while he is here.

We hope to see several of you during our visit, but because we won’t be there very long and because it is our personal vacation, our opportunities to do so will be limited. Here’s our tentative program:

May 25 - Arrive in Des Moines; stay with parents in Oskaloosa, Iowa
May 27 - Leave for Glen Lake, Michigan for retreat house stay
June 1 - Visit Spring Lake and Battle Creek, Michigan
June 2 - Visit East Lansing and Mason, Michigan
June 3 - Return to Oskaloosa, Iowa
June 6 - Ebenezer Reformed Church in Leighton, Iowa, in the morning with open house/baby shower in the afternoon
June 11 - Visit Iowa City, Iowa
June 13 - Johnson Family get-together in Grinnell, Iowa
June 17 - Classis lunch in Pella; possible evening mission committee activity with Abdoullahi Abba Moussa on “Christianity in Niger” in area church
June 19-20 - Abba-Moussa family visit in Omaha, Nebraska (followed church and Sunday school at Westwood Church in Omaha)
June 24 - Leave for Niger

We’ll also have to squeeze in some doctors’ appointments, shopping trips and other activities, as well as relax, so we apologize if we simply can’t see you all!

Prayer requests

• Thank God for the early rains that have arrived in Niger and pray that the rainy season will be regular and abundant in 2004.
• Pray for the local elections that were supposed to have taken place in May, but which now have been moved to late June (in order to better prepare). These are the first-ever local elections in the country and whether Niger will remain secular or start on the road to Islamic law could well be at stake in the outcome. Niger has been watching the Christian-Muslim riots in northern Nigeria very closely.
• Pray for our travels in the next month and that we’ll be able to take care of all our errands and “things-to-do” that you can only do while in the United States!
• Pray for the health and well-being of our family
• Pray for the Nigerien church, as it tries to adapt itself for effective ministry and for partnering with others.

In Christ,

Tom, Aïchatou and Marie-Florence

The 2004 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 44