June 2007

Vol. 7. No. 1
 
Hello Everyone,

We’re now in the rainy season, which came very early this year—in mid-May. This has certainly cooled the temperatures and brought much-needed relief from the hot season. While it may still reach 100 degrees Fahrenheit during the day, at least we have regular winds and periodic storms to cool things off, particularly at night. We were a bit worried because of a 15-day stretch of no rain, but our fears have been allayed with recent rains, an answer to many prayers.

Life at the Bible School has changed greatly in the last month. Once the rains started, classes stopped and all the students went to their fields on the 270-hectare (675-acre) terrain. Their primary concern now is farming, not studying; thus, little academic work will be done until August (or so). This “spare time” has allowed me to start a leadership course among EERN (our partner denomination) leaders in Maradi.

On June 15, we welcomed Steve DH from Pella, Iowa, to Dogon Gao and Niger. Steve is a senior at Northwestern College (affiliated with the Reformed Church of America). He’s helping me this summer with various projects at the school, including teaching some English to the Bible School students on available afternoons. He has a long-term interest of going into ministry, with plans of enrolling in seminary and perhaps serving as a missionary in the future. While I knew Steve was from a farm, we didn’t know his family lives less than 10 miles from my family’s home in Mahaska County! I also didn’t know that Steve has worked several summers for a heating, cooling, and plumbing contractor, which makes him a particularly handy guy to have around. I remember well when retired RCA Arabian missionary Rev. James Dunham took me aside and told me that he wished he had studied plumbing at seminary—as plumbing was more often needed in the mission field then some of the seminary courses he had taken. Steve’s skill set also reminds me of the well-known quote by James Gardner that “An excellent plumber is infinitely more admirable than an incompetent theologian. The society which scorns excellence in plumbing because plumbing is a humble activity and tolerates shoddiness in theology because it is an exalted activity will have neither good plumbing nor good theology. Neither its pipes nor its sermons will hold water.”

Steve and my assistant Usman, with the help of some Bible School students, got the wind-and-solar-powered system working within days of Steve’s arrival.

I mention this because Steve came with our long-awaited multi-voltage well pump and its control box. You may remember that our Iowa volunteers in February had brought all of the solar-and-wind-powered equipment for the school to have constantly running water—almost maintenance and cost-free. Well, after all their work at installing the system, something was wrong. The control box couldn’t indicate whether or not the pump was connected and therefore the pump wouldn’t operate. So, not knowing which one had the problem, the volunteers left with both units. The equipment was tested in the United States, and it turned out the control box was faulty. For us in Niger that meant we needed to continue to pump our water every two or three days into a reservoir using a gasoline generator that could provide constant 220v electricity to the other pump. This often proved problematic because of difficulties in getting gasoline, small breakdowns with the generator, and the fact that someone had to be present to get it all started. For Nigeriens, it meant that a portion of their small incomes needed to be saved to purchase gasoline so that they wouldn’t need to lose several hours a day in hauling water for their families.

The long-awaited multi-voltage well pump and its control box.

Steve and my assistant Usman, along with the labor of some Bible School students were able to get the wind-and-solar powered system working within days of Steve’s arrival! A float was installed in a reservoir so that everything will remain automatic. One week later, the system is operating fine, and we appreciate the fact that we now always have enough water pressure to take a shower, since before, when the water reservoirs were half-empty, we couldn’t take showers! Next we’ll look at how we can begin irrigated gardening at the school. Additionally, we now know that we’ll have enough water for a goat herd and can begin on this in earnest.

These new developments, along with our presence at the Bible School, have resulted in the EERN studying how to change the school’s curriculum. I’m on a committee that is making recommendations, but we all know that the real challenge comes in implementation as we try to find the necessary human, monetary, and material resources to make new vocational and theological courses come alive. Teaching gardening, forestry, masonry, sewing, dyeing, carpentry and livestock husbandry and related skills all look good on paper, but it will take organization to make it all happen.

Meanwhile, Aïchatou and the girls stay busy at home, mostly cooking, painting, reading and watching children’s DVDs. Aïchatou’s brother came from Zinder to install a Free-to-Air satellite system using a large parabola antenna at our home. This means we get about 200 Arab-language stations and a handful of English and French ones (since these are the stations we can capture). Just like you in the United States, we find that there’s just not much interesting to watch!

Prayers and praises

• We’re thankful for Steve’s arrival to Niger and that he brought our long-awaited pump and control box. Thank God for Steve’s time in Niger and pray for his health during the seven weeks he’ll be with us. Give thanks that we now have our solar-power and wind water system fully functional!
• Please pray for regular rains in Niger and that the 2008 harvest will be a good one. We give thanks that the early start to the growing season should help improve yields.
• Pray for needed curriculum changes at Dogon Gao and for the wisdom and necessary resources to implement them so that our graduates will be able to support their families and church communities as pastors and evangelists. Pray also for qualified and dedicated teaching staff to make this happen.
• Pray for our upcoming home assignment in the United States this fall, starting in September. We just learned that it will extended by one month—to January 2008—to allow us to visit more churches. This is necessary, as you will recall, since the PC(USA) will not continue to support us after June 30, 2008. Please pray that we will be able to replace their contribution toward our ministry.

In Christ,

Tom, Aïchatou, Marie-Florence and Laurey Johnson

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