October 2004
Vol. 4, No. 5
Hello Friends,
The rainy season has definitely ended here in Niger and the cool
season is coming. Harvest is well under way (and disappointing
for many people). The roads that are reasonably compacted when
it rains are now all turning to sand. We are shutting off the
air conditioner in the middle of the night. The winds are changing
and bringing more dust from the north and more sneezing and runny
noses.
Another quiet month for us. Aïchatou has been continuing
her medical studies, I’ve been doing miscellaneous proposal-writing
and helping out with some computer issues at the EERN church in
Niamey. I’m no computer expert by any means, but the problems
have been rather simple and straightforward and involve basic
questions about using computers in an office. This has been a
positive development as I see more EERN (Evangelical Church of
the Republic of Niger) leaders wanting to upgrade their capacities
for modern communication and office procedures. Even three years
ago, almost everything in the church was done on pen and paper
with important documents being typewritten. Now we have some computers,
printers and cell phones, and it has resulted in much better interaction
among decision-makers and a better exchange of important information.
Simple stuff, but we all work better with better tools, including
the African church.
I’ve been continuing with the Dogon Gao Bible School infrastructure
proposal (I attached a rough draft last month) and submitted a
final copy to my Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) supervisor at the
start of October. He showed it to some interested funders and,
he told me, they were very intrigued about Niger and the church’s
situation here. So, that’s something to pray about. Also,
in early October, I went to a planning meeting about reviving
a defunct farm school at Maza-Tsaye and turning it into a Christian
vocational school in collaboration with another mission. I volunteered
to work on the proposal for that, too and I’m very excited
about the possibilities that could result from this, although
it looks like it all could be a bit tricky, with no sure chance
of success. I also assisted the EERN’s health committee
to discuss their ministry objectives and future responsibilities
of Aïchatou. Health ministry is new to the EERN, so there
are a lot of great ideas, but no one really knows where the means
to carry out activities will come from.
We’re also preparing for the next round of volunteers in
January and February. Both of our anticipated groups will be largely
comprised of health workers, which will be a big change from our
past groups and requires us to be more creative to put them to
good work. It doesn’t look like we will have as many visitors
in early 2005 as once expected, for a variety of reasons, but
certainly increased costs, in particular higher airfare, are part
of it. The cost of living, in general, seems to be rising in Niger
and fuel is getting terrible (about $3.00 for a gallon of diesel).
I’m sure things are similar in the United States.
Marie-Florence is quite steady when sitting now and she is so
close to crawling. Her first teeth are coming in, but she laughs
quite easily¾so there is some compensation to the periods
of teething pain. She’s mostly babbling these days, although
she said “mama” a few times.
Our family is excited because on October 25, we’ll fly
to Kenya for a Reformed Church of America African missionary retreat.
This retreat is held once every two years and it is a time to
get updated on RCA business, worship in English, and see all of
our missionary colleagues. We’re actually chartering a small
plane from SIMAir, and it will take us two days of flying with
our route being from Niamey-Maradi, Nigerto Ndjamena, Chad, then
an overnight in Zemio, Central African Republic, on to an unknown
airport in Uganda and, finally, to Nairobi, Kenya. Believe it
or not, taking a charter was comparable in price to flying commercially
and actually it will arrive sooner, since there are terribly long
layovers to fly between West and East Africa.
Praises and prayers
- Pray for guidance on dealing with organizational challenges
in the EERN. Pray for EERN leaders as they consider reforms
to increase the effectiveness of their church. Pray that EERN
leaders will be led by the Holy Spirit when making decisions.
- Pray for the group that is considering funding needed infrastructure
improvements at the Dogon Gao Bible School. Pray that God will
place Niger on their hearts.
- Pray for various EERN committees that are now making decisions
about the Maza-Tsaye vocational school, the creation of a health
ministry, the re-launching of their community development department
and the kick-off of their computer school.
- Pray for our safe travel between Niger and Kenya in a small
plane. Pray that Marie-Florence will enjoy the plane ride.
In Christ,
Tom, Aïchatou and Marie-Florence
The 2004 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p.
44
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