January 2008

Vol. 7, No. 8

Hello Everyone,

Christmas in Iowa for Marie-Florence and Laurey Johnson.

On January 31, we leave the United States and return to Niger. We’re all getting apprehensive. There’s a fair amount of sorting and packing to do. We need to sort because we can’t bring everything back that we would like to. We’re allowed two bags of 50 pounds each (100 pounds per person or 400 pounds total), but you’d be surprised at how quickly this can be reached, when you include such items as kids’ toys, new clothes for the next two years, household items like sheets and towels, and the fact that most pieces of luggage weigh over 10 pounds. Throw in gifts to Nigerien friends and family, books for kids and adults, DVDs, gizmos that we think we need—we soon find out that we’re out of space. It is possible to pay for extra luggage, and on most trips we have brought one extra bag along. Still, one feels a bit too materialistic when one is traveling to (and living in) the world’s poorest country. You would hope a missionary could escape this desire to be surrounded by nice things, but it isn’t easy. The fact that the dollar has fallen a great deal, so everything in the United States seems like a bargain makes it hard for us to resist accumulating things.

We’re certainly ready to return to Niger. It is quite strange to be a “visitor” for these past five months. While we appreciate the hospitality my parents and others have shown us, we sometimes feel a bit disconnected from life here. We know we’re not really a part of daily life in the United States, so we’re a bit reluctant to invest our time and energies in many activities or events that we know we can’t be a part of long-term. Now that our family has grown to four, we find that we enjoy spending time together in our own space. On the plus side, we’ve had lots of time to relax, and we do feel refreshed and ready to engage with life in Niger again.

Diagram of the Johnson house at the Dogon Gao Bible School.

We’ll definitely be busy upon our arrival in Niger. We’ll be in transit for about 42 hours, so we’ll arrive on February 2 at 2:00 a.m. We’ll likely spend the rest of that day with Aïchatou’s brother before driving the following day to Maradi—about a 10-hour trip. We’ll have about a week to get our house in order before we receive 11 volunteers from Leighton, Iowa, including my parents and my mothers’ cousins! They are going to build an addition onto our Dogon Gao home that will serve as a classroom for our girls, plus some extra storage, and a place to park our cars under shade. This will be the largest group that we have ever hosted, so we’re a bit concerned that it goes well. Fortunately, Reformed Church of America missionary Jeremy Beebout is now in Niger to help with some of the preparations, so that will make the arrangements go smoother.

How different this next month will be from our past month! Here in Iowa, we’ve experienced a fair amount of cold and snow, with temperatures largely remaining below freezing. We enjoyed Christmas with my family in rural Oskaloosa, as my parents, my sister’s family and my bachelor brother celebrated together with us. The girls had a blast opening presents!  On New Year’s Eve I took the family to a high school classmate’s home and saw some friends from Oskaloosa High School that I hadn’t seen in a long time. On January 3, I participated in my first Iowa Presidential Caucus since 1988; it was neat to be a part of this now-national event. After the caucuses, our family went to the RCA Mission House in Orange City, where we enjoyed two weeks of solitude, and I was able to work in the Heartland Synod office, which had an empty office and a great Internet connection for me to use. It was a very productive time for me and restful for the rest of the family.  Every weekend after Christmas was filled with visits: to First Reformed-Sully, Iowa; Bethel Reformed-Brantford, Ontario; Riverside Reformed-Bloomington, Minnesota; New Covenant Reformed-Oradell, New Jersey. We’ll finish up by visiting Wellsburg Reformed in Wellsburg, Iowa, this weekend (my 40th birthday!). Three of these are new churches, and we learned that we have now totally replaced the PC(USA) support, which will stop in mid-2008.

Prayer and praise

• Pray for traveling mercies as we make the long and tiring trip from Oskaloosa to Danja, Niger. Pray that we’ll be able to get a complimentary room in Casablanca, Morocco, as we’ll have a 14-hour layover there. Pray that we’ll find everything in our Nigerien home to be safe and secure and in good working order after five months away.
• Pray for Aïchatou and our developing baby (April 1 is the due date). Thus far, the pre-natal visits have indicated a healthy baby. Pray that she will have adequate strength for these last two months of pregnancy.
• Give praise for the news that we have met our fundraising needs and we’re thankful for new churches and individuals that have decided to support us. We’ve really enjoyed meeting so many of you during this home assignment and experiencing all of your warmth and hospitality.
• Please pray for the Iowa volunteers who are coming to Niger in February. Pray for their protection from illness and accident as they work on our house in Niger. Pray too that God will use their time in Niger to impact their lives and those of the Nigeriens at the Bible School.
• Give thanks that the RCA will designate Niger as one of its “volunteer sites” for either 2009 or 2010. That means that, for two months, two RCA volunteer coordinators would come and supervise a major construction project for our partner church. Pray that the project they choose will house a fruitful ministry in the future.

In Christ,

Tom, Aïchatou, Marie-Florence and Laurey

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