I did help the EERN’s media
committee draft a proposed budget, but I was much more involved
in translating their final document from French to English so
that Lee DeYoung of Words of Hope could read it. Honestly, I don’t
think of myself as a translator, but it is a necessary skill with
this kind of work. I have met very few Nigeriens who are comfortable
enough with their English proficiency to write a full proposal.
I totally understand this, as I dread having to write something
official in French. I know that my language skills simply aren’t
up to the task. Using Word software is a kind of crutch for me
because it can correct grammar and spelling mistakes in French.
Yet, that means little if one is unsure of how to adequately express
one’s self in the foreign language in the first place. One
can write a perfectly correct sentence, but that doesn’t
mean that any French speaker would ever actually express her-
or him- self in that manner!
We made some other small advances in the last few weeks on re-launching
the EERN’s community development (CD) program, which is
now inactive. The old version of CD was rather donor-driven in
the sense that they tended to work on things that the donors were
willing to fund and they often followed the donor community for
leads as to what activities they should be involved in. This process
actually created a distance between the church community and the
CD leaders since the CD tended to follow the money, rather than
following the church’s priorities. We’d like to have
a more local church-based community development program in which
the needs come out of the local community and then the CD department
helps local community members to implement strategies to deal
with them. In that light, the EERN and I have had some discussions
with the local representatives of the Christian Reformed World
Relief Committee on how they can advise us on moving to an approach
based on local needs. This is another proposal I need to be working
on!
It is becoming more and more evident to me that we need to place
a greater emphasis on income-generation projects to help the church
and church members. Not only does the church need to generate
more local revenue to carry out its activities, but also it needs
to be more independent and to be better able to manage its own
internal affairs. Foreign donors, of all types—including
missionaries—have taught Nigeriens how to be good beggars
and to wait for someone from the outside to come and pay for everything.
That tends to stifle local initiative and it also limits the effectiveness
of projects since few people have a real stake in the outcome
once the project funds are finished. While it is probably unreasonable
to expect the Nigerien church to pay for big capital projects,
they should be able to handle the operating costs of normal church
activities. And that’s where there is a problem, since few
means now exist to generate those funds. That’s true whether
it’s a Bible School or a local church. I think we need to
incorporate income-earning projects and financial sustainability
into most of our work. Too many good ideas (including those for
evangelization) die because there is no way to sustain them.
Aïchatou has been continuing her rotations and has recently
moved into surgery, although she is not satisfied with the practical
experiences she is getting (she’s had much more contact
with patients doing real medicine in other areas) in this department.
Marie-Florence is able to sit up by herself and has made a few
attempts to crawl, although her arms aren’t yet strong enough
to hold her head up (now her legs can push, but her face is still
making too much contact with the floor). She is over 5 months
old and regularly eats baby food, especially in the morning when
Aïchatou is at work.
Praises and prayers
- Pray for Aïchatou’s rotations and her thesis, which
she needs to complete before she can graduate. Pray for the
EERN as they decide on how to use Aïchatou for medical
ministry.
- Pray for guidance for Tom as he works on these project proposals
and how he can best help the EERN in their development. Pray
for inspiration on how Nigeriens can better generate income
to support their churches and be less reliant on outside funds
for normal church activities.
- Pray for the harvest to come as the rainy season is coming
to an end. In much of Niger the rains have been quite spotty.
- Give praise for the great interest we have been receiving
for Niger missions and pray that we listen to God’s desire
for Niger.
Blessings,
Tom, Aïchatou and Marie-Florence
The 2004 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p.
44 |
