November 22, 2005

Vol. 5, No. 6

Dear Friends,

First of all, we want to wish all of you a happy Thanksgiving and hope that you are able to spend the holiday with close family and friends. We’ll be spending Thursday with Tom’s parents and some cousins near Laurel, Iowa. Second, you’ll be glad to know that Laurey is doing very well. She’s eating non-stop and is really filling out, weighing seven pounds (up from six pounds two ounces at birth) when the public health nurse came out to weigh her. She’s been a good baby and hasn’t given us any trouble at all.

Aïchatou is also quite fine. Her initial nausea (after the birth) went away before she left the hospital. Her appetite is quite healthy now, which probably should be expected for a nursing mother. Getting a good night’s sleep is a challenge for everyone, but especially for mom. Laurey’s crying will sometimes wake up Marie, who then wants a bottle of milk or her mother’s attention. We’ve already seen several nights where Aïchatou has had to hold two little ones in her arms. There’s not much papa can do in these situations!

Aïchatou and Marie-Florence saw their first snowfall last week and tried to make a small snowman. They were both pretty excited and Marie has added the word “cold” to her vocabulary.

The speaking to and visiting with churches hasn’t stopped for me. After two full months in the States, I finally returned to my home church, Ebenezer Reformed in Leighton, Iowa, on October 23 for the first time during our whole visit—Aïchatou has been there more often, since she doesn’t travel every weekend with me. October 30 had me in Coralville, Iowa, where I saw our future Nigerien co-workers, Jeremy and Susan Beebout. The following week I traveled to Byron Center and Wyoming, Michigan. I stayed in Michigan that week to work on my Ph.D. proposal and I did make some progress.

While in Grand Rapids, I worked on a proposal with a group called World Missions, which is trying to bring audio Scriptures to places where people are illiterate (particularly in Africa). Pastor Sani (from Niger), Lee De Young from Words of Hope, and Randy Sampson from World Missions collaborated to write a proposal to bring about 900 “Talking New Testaments” in Hausa to Niger over the next three years. We’ll submit that to a foundation connected to the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). We’d like to be able to connect the distribution of the talking Bibles with the future efforts of the radio programming through Words of Hope. That recording studio, by the way, has actually been constructed, and the next step for the Nigeriens is to hire a staff and to finish the interior of the building. The installation of the recording equipment and professional training of the staff will take place in early 2006. Pastor Sani has returned to Niger and is now working full-time on the recording ministry after his three months in the United States.

Praises and prayers

• Give praise for our beautiful daughter, Laurey Léa. Give thanks that the birth went relatively well and that mother and child are in good health. Also give praise that I was present for the whole delivery.
• Give praise for the good harvest that Niger experienced this fall. (Click on this link to read the article). There are, however, many people who won’t be able to enjoy all the blessing of the bounty because they went heavily into debt to feed their family this year and probably will need to sell everything to repay their creditors. Livestock herders are also going to struggle to rebuild their herds after selling many of their animals to buy grain.
• Pray for our proposal to bring talking Bibles in Hausa into Niger.
• Pray that I’ll be able to get my Ph. D. proposal finished and approved before we leave for Niger on January 12.
• Pray for safe travel as winter weather arrives and trips are still planned for Tampa, Florida; Louisville, Kentucky; New Jersey and New York.

In Christ,

Tom, Aïchatou, Marie-Florence and Laurey

The 2005 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 316