March 2008

Vol. 7, No. 10

Hello Everyone:

As of this writing, the baby hasn’t yet arrived. That’s OK, because we expect an April 1 due date and we’re not now together in one place! Aïchatou and the girls have left Dogon Gao and are now staying with her family in Zinder, Niger’s second biggest city, as it has better health options than here in rural Maradi. I plan on joining them this weekend and together we’ll wait for the baby in Zinder. We’ll announce the birth via email as soon as we know.

While we’ve been apart, I helped out with another volunteer team from Coralville, Iowa, for a week in Niamey. This group of five from New Life Church represents the home church of the Beebouts, our new RCA missionary colleagues, although the church is also one of our supporters. They were here to learn more about Niger and our mission partners to encourage the Beebouts in their ministry and to help them in various ways. Since the Beebouts were the organizing hosts, my role was more supportive, so I often drove, ran errands, and pitched in however necessary.  It was a pleasant change not to be “in charge” for a group and to just assist.

Since returning to Dogon Gao, I’ve been supervising the last stages of construction on our new addition. Things have been going well, as the roof is being added this week. The only downside has been the falling dollar, which means the project is getting more expensive by the day, as we have less money to spend and the costs of materials are rising weekly here, as fuel prices and commodities soar (six dollars for a gallon of diesel).

There’s a lot of news at the Bible School. It has its largest student population ever. I believe there are 23 couples and 23 single (all male) students for a total of 69 students (since the wives also take classes). We’re really fortunate that a new Nigerian missionary teacher arrived from the Evangelical Church of West Africa to bring the teaching staff up to five (including me—and I’m not yet teaching). Pastor Aliyu is a Hausa and English-speaker and grew up only four hours from the school. He has recently learned that his denomination may not be able to pay him for the rest of the year, and he may have to return to Nigeria. It would be a shame to see him go and we’ll pray that he can stay, since he is such an asset for the school.

The school is now having some problems with our students. The Bible students claim that they have run out of food and that they can’t attend classes if they are hungry. To a certain degree, they’re asking for hand-outs, but if we could pay them for some work, they would accept that. The problem is that we currently have no funds from any projects for that purpose, and they don’t have the skill set needed to work on our home addition. This is a constant problem that we have in Niger, particularly because last year’s harvests were poor due to the lack of rainfall during the last weeks of the growing season. When you are working with a subsistence population, they often have no reserves when something goes wrong. The other reality is that the majority of our students aren’t adequately supported by their home churches and many come to the school without enough money to even pay their nominal school fees. The best thing would be to turn those students away at that time, since they will most certainly struggle to meet their basic living expenses while they are at Dogon Gao and can hardly focus on their studies. Indeed, we probably have more than a few students who primarily come to our school to escape a humdrum village life. Learning the Bible may be a secondary reason for enrolling at Dogon Gao for some. There are lots of issues involved here, and we need wisdom both in who we admit for study and how we prepare the students for life and ministry while they are here.

Laurey Johnson with new puppy.

In other news, prior to Aïchatou and the girls heading to Niger (and during the time of the visit of the volunteers from Leighton, Iowa) our dog Patience had her first litter of seven puppies, of which six survived. Marie and Laurey visited the puppies each day behind our house and watched them grow and develop. The puppies have been in high demand among the Nigeriens, and we’ve had about 10 people express interest in these puppies, so it looks like they will all have homes.

Prayer and praise

• Pray for the safe and normal delivery of our third child in the next few weeks. Pray that mother and baby will have good medical care and that both will be healthy. Pray that the family will be united for this big event.
• Pray for the Dogon Gao Bible School and the needs of its students. Pray that we will be able to help them in an appropriate manner. Give thanks for the new missionary teacher who has come to help teach and pray that his denomination will be able to keep him working in Niger.
• We are thankful for the visitors that we’ve had in Niger and for the resources and encouragement that they offer.
• Please pray for the completion of the classroom addition and the final equipping of the volunteer apartment that are attached to our home. Pray that we’ll have a volunteer teacher to work with our girls this fall.

In Christ,

Tom, Aïchatou, Marie-Florence and Laurey

The 2008 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 7