December 2006

Vol. 6, No. 7

Dear Friends,

Our family wishes your family a merry Christmas and a happy New Year for 2007. May God bless you all during this holiday season. Our plans are quite modest. We’ll stay in Niamey, attend the various church services, and then we’ll either call on or receive Aïchatou’s aunts and uncles, brother and sister who live in Niamey. Even though Niger is largely Muslim, December 25 is an official holiday. This year Christmas is closely followed by the Muslim festival of Tabaski, so the whole population will be in a festive spirit these next few weeks.

This can be a time when there’s always something going on, but not much gets accomplished. That’s certainly how I feel as I look at this past month. No visitors came, not many meetings were scheduled, no trips were taken and yet the month seemed to fly by. I suppose our best excuse is the holidays and that our family is in a period of transition as we prepare for life after Niamey.

We’re planning on making our big move from Niamey to the Dogon Gao Bible School at the end of January. We’ll need to pack up our house in Niamey, rent a truck, and haul all our possessions to Maradi. We’re seriously considering renting one of the vacant SIM Leprosy missionary homes that are close by (about three kilometers) until our new house is properly ready to be lived in. For that to happen, we’ll need to construct a perimeter fence to give us a little more privacy and to keep our young girls from wandering off. We’ll need to repaint the whole interior with an oil-based paint, since the current paint doesn’t deter either termites or lizards from climbing the walls (neither like walls with oil-based paint). We’ll need to fix some cracks in cement blocks that have developed with some settling and past rains. Also, termites have already damaged some of the interior doors and cabinetry, and that will have to be replaced. We’d like to add some glass windows to the house to keep out dust and rain, since they were built with only the traditional French-styled metal louvers. Finally, we’d like to put something on the floor—either a floor paint or vinyl tile since the floors are now just poured cement. The RCA is accepting any donations to help cover these costs. If you’d like to contribute, please direct funds to the Reformed Church in America, P.O. Box 19381, Newark, NJ 07195-1938. Please make checks payable to “Reformed Church in America” and indicate “Johnson House Expansion” on the memo line of the check. We’re anticipating that electricity will finally be installed at the school (the state electric company was working on it earlier this month) when we arrive and that we’ll have running water by the end of February when an RCA volunteer team from northwest Iowa is coming for that purpose.

Going to the Bible School will certainly be an adjustment for our family, although I’m personally looking forward to leaving the busy and growing city of Niamey for a friendlier, quieter place. Living in rural Africa certainly has its challenges, but it seems clear that now is the time to start our life there. I won’t elaborate too much on my work right now, but it basically will involve developing the Bible school’s programs and facilities so that there’s a new emphasis on practical instruction and, ideally, a commitment for the school to be more self-supporting with the related workshops, livestock, and gardening that we envision at the school. Aïchatou is still undecided about what she might do there, although taking care of the children is her first priority at this time.

Marie’s preschool class ended this week for the fall semester and we’ve enclosed a photo of her fellow 2-and 3-year olds and her two teachers. Look for the yellow arrow to find Marie. Her cousin, Deborah, is seated directly behind her. For some reason, smiles are never encouraged in photographs in Africa! I’ve never found out why that is so. Sadly, Marie won’t be returning for the next term, because of our plans to leave Niamey in January. We’ll need to find something else in Maradi as a substitute, but we’re not sure what might be available. In the longer-term, we hope to have volunteers from the United States teach our children.

Before we leave 2006, our family would like to thank all of you for your prayers and support on our behalf. They are always much appreciated and truly needed. As you know, 2006 has been difficult for Aïchatou and her studies. For me, it has been full of personal ups and downs because of the decisions I’ve made in regard to my studies. However, for our children, it has been fun to watch the girls grow and mature throughout the year and to see them laugh and play.

Prayer and praises

• Jay Harsevoort of the RCA Volunteer Office has contacted me about hosting some Northwestern College student-volunteers for the summer of 2007. Please pray that we’ll be able to discern the number we could accept and that any who come will be right for Niger. Also, there’s a possibility of a University of Michigan library science graduate student from the RCA coming to Niger and working with the Library of Light in Maradi as part of her coursework in the summer of 2007.
• The EERN development unit has been invited by the mayor of one of Niamey’s neighborhoods to operate a community health hut just seven kilometers outside of Niamey in a Fulani village. The existing building is in very poor condition, but the proximity to Niamey offers a lot of potential for medical ministry and witness. Pray for this decision, which we first pursued when looking for a place for new missionary Dr. Susan Beebout (RCA missionary coming in 2007) to conduct community medical outreach with Christian health professionals.
• Pray for the preparations of two volunteer groups coming in February and March of 2007. The team from northwest Iowa will work on installing water at the Bible school, while the one from Hopewell Junction, New York, will work on creating a playground that will one day be used for a Christian preschool.
• Pray for all the details as we get ready to leave Niamey for Maradi. Pray that God will prepare the Dogon Gao Bible School and its community for our arrival.
• Give thanks that the EERN General Assembly has given their approval to our proposal to separate the management of the Bible school land from the functioning of the school. This should allow for more professional management of the school.

In Christ,

Tom, Aïchatou, Marie-Florence and Laurey

The 2007 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 319