Turning of the Season

written December 12, 2010

Well, as usual, a lot has happened since we last posted on the blog –– each day with its share of challenges and blessings. Thru it all, God is good!

Two Sundays ago Kel went with Augustine (an officer at the hospital here) to look at a piece of property at Delbia, a village about 18 km South of us. There is a small group of church members there –– really nice people –– and they need to put up a building in which to worship. This will be the first of the more than 30 pre-fabricated gauge-metal ““One-Day Churches”” we have to erect here in Chad. (It takes a team of 4 people one day to erect the galvanized sheet metal structure and sheet the roof for one of these. The congregation is responsible for putting up the walls, windows and doors.) Kel walked the property with the delegation and they decided on a suitable location and orientation of the building. A prayer was offered while on the property for God to bless the outreach of this congregation in its village. The designated area has now been cleared and we are getting a team ready to erect the structure.

Work on the steel-framed airplane hangar is moving along. The Fabricator (based in the capital) needs to make a final delivery of material and we can wind up the remainder of the frame, then get it roofed. There have been several challenges and Kel has made some necessary modifications to the framing.

Gary has been away on business for several days. He left, feeling like a bug was getting hold of him - sinusitis and bronchitis has hit all of us here on the mission at more or less the same time. The native children are coughing and have runny noses, so we know where we got it. Josie and Gary seem to be mid-stream as far as getting over it goes. Wendy & little one are almost over it. Kel seems to be nearing the end, but coughing at night breaks up our night’’s rest.

Josie has been to the market several times with Wendy. It’’s good to have someone to go with who knows what price ranges should be, so we don’’t get ripped off.

The birdlife here in Bere is incredible. We have long-tailed glossy starlings in our compound (an 80 metre square compound with 2m high wall on 3 sides and fence in front, complete with guard dog, who keeps undesirables out –– she’’s really a cool hound!), Burchell’’s Coucal, swallows, hawks, ring-necked doves that make the coolest call, a pair of fork-tailed rollers, with the coolest iridescent blue wings, and we’’ve heard a screech owl at night

A week ago 2 of our student missionary girls were badly burned when they opened a pressure cooker that wasn’’t totally de-pressurized. Wendy, a nurse, helped dress the burns. They went home to the States a week earlier than they had planned, in order to recover.

Also, a week ago, we were smelling a bad odour in the piped water to our buildings. Kel got up a ladder and discovered a dead bat in the water tank. Needless to say, he scrubbed the entire tank out and we added several bottles of bleach to the newly filled tank –– now the problem has disappeared. We still filter our drinking water, using some of the world’’s best water filters.

Two weekends ago we noticed a hot wind move thru this area. There were high wind clouds that day. Since then, it has been cooler at night, especially after midnight –– we need to sleep with a blanket on our beds now. This is our winter season. Daytime temps are still hot, but nothing like when we arrived in late October.

For the past few days Josie & Wendy have been painting Jonathan & Melody’’s cottage, to get it ready for the newly-married couple. Jonathan (a pilot, who has been here before) & Melody arrive on Thursday. The octagonal, thatch-roofed cottage has rough-plastered walls, which drink paint, so the ladies will have to apply 3 coats of enamel paint to cover properly. Kel wanted to play a practical joke on them, and move a set of bunk beds into the cottage, but it was too much trouble. Still, it would have been fun to see their faces, if the joke could have been pulled off. Jonathan himself is a jokester –– we hear.

It’’s the time of the year for bush fires –– the veld is very dry, and on Monday a week ago, there was quite a big bush fire near us, moving south and away from us. Gary is thinking of moving the plane off the airstrip and closer to the incomplete hangar, because of fire hazard along the airstrip. He has burned the short grass around the hangar and along the taxiway to the hangar, and it will be safer to park the plane there.

It looks like we are moving closer to getting our own Internet. This is going to be such a blessing. We took over the cellphone (with internet capabilities) from one of the student missionaries going back to the USA –– but, the bad news is that the drivers this person downloaded to Kel’’s thumb drive carried with them 6 viruses, which infected our laptop immediately. So now we’’ve cleaned off the viruses –– no damage done, but one or more files on the drivers have been corrupted, because, try as we may, we can’’t get an Internet connection. Solution: Jonathan is bringing with him a good set of drivers to load on our laptop, then we’’ll be up and running (hopefully), with better contact with y’’all.

We trust you are all in good health and we wish you God’’s blessings in your lives and in your day-to-day plans.

We miss you all. Thanks for your prayers, interest and support.

Till next time,

Kel & Josie

Back In Chad

We got to the airport in Johannesburg this past Tuesday, only to find that our names were not on the passenger list for that specific flight. This was odd, since this was our return flight, and not an inbound one. Once that hurdle was over-leaped, the desk clerk informed us that our checked suitcases were 12 kilograms (26 pounds) overweight. The penalty would be R60/kilogram (about $9.00). This caused us to re-shuffle a bit, and get 2 of the four checked items within the weight limit. They wouldn’t let Josie take a backpack AND a roller-case on the plane as carry-on luggage, so she had to check the roll-case. This meant 8.5 kg more on the overweight side, but the clerk worked with us and said we need only pay 8 kg overweight. BUT they only accept Rands as payment, so Kel had to rush to the arrivals hall and exchange dollars for rands, come back, settle the amount, go back to the check-in desk; then only did they check our bags thru.

By this time we had been 2 hours checking in, and needed to still get thru security and passport control. However, the Lord was in charge, and the flight was delayed. Good, but not good, when one has a short time between landing in Addis Ababa and getting the connecting flight to Chad.

The flight from Johannesburg to Addis was a good one, once we got airborne – they kept us waiting on the plane for an hour before we moved out to the runway – so, by the time we took off, we were delayed by more than an hour and a half.
When we got to Addis, we were shuttle-bussed to the terminal, and from there we got on another shuttle to our plane to N’Djamena. The plane was quite full, and we landed after midnite. Gary had called ahead to the capital and arranged a taxi driver to meet us and take us to the TEAM Mission, where we grabbed 3 hours of sleep before the same taxi driver arrived to take us to the bus stop to catch the bus to Bere, about an 8-hour (max) road trip.

We were pleasantly surprised by the comfortable Toyota bus (we had thought it would be like a school bus), which was a 25-seater. We sat on the left side that had 2 seats together, the right side had just one seat. Our luggage was placed on top of the bus, a tarp covered all the bags then they were all tied down. Lurching along the tar road, the bus seemed top heavy as the driver alternately drove fast, then braked when he approached pot holes and steered around them. We had to pass through three check points with guards, bars that cross the road like a railroad crossing, and ride over “sleeping policemen” that made the bus hop.
As we were waiting for the bus to leave N’Djamena, there was a dignified man, dressed in the traditional long tunic and trousers, walking around. He stood out in the crowd, but not haughtily, just self confidently. As he was going to board the bus, Kel recognized him as a shopkeeper from the market in Bere that he and Gary had spoken to. The man recognized Kel as well, so we felt like a guardian angel in human form was with us on the bus.
Our first leg-stretch, toilet stop was Bangor (say Bong-gore) where we used the “squat pot” for the first time. Our new friend, the shopkeeper, showed us where to use the toilet and helped us all along the journey, even though we couldn’t really communicate with him. We are realizing more how important learning French is. Back on the bus, a man opened a large orange cooler (we thought it was for drinking water), and he passed out cokes and Sprites to each passenger. Part of the bus service!

We also had a short stop in Kelo (that’s where the hospital’s post box address is located), then turned down a sand road – we lurched and leaned even more, careening around people on bicycles, children, goats, herds of cattle, for several more kilometres, all the way to Bere. When the bus stopped, Josie didn’t recognize the Bere market, not having been there before. As the men were starting to unload the luggage from the top of the bus, Gary arrived on his motorcycle. We had 8 pieces of luggage to transport, but it was quickly taken care of by the use of 3 motorcycles – one man drove with 4 bags tied on, Kel and Gary had 3, and Josie had her backpack on while sitting behind another man on his motorbike.

We arrived on Wednesday afternoon, and Thursday was Thanksgiving. Thank you so much, Juanita! The student missionaries had picked up boxes from Kelo a few days before, so 3 student missionaries, a doctor, and a couple from the Bere SDA Church, Gary and family and K & J enjoyed Thanksgiving together as an evening meal. Homemade gluten steaks, cornbread dressing, green bean casserole, pumpkin pie, sweet potatoes, “apple” pie made from squash, salad, it was soooo yummy! The student missionaries kept commenting on how delicious everything was.

Today is Friday and we have cleaned up ready for the Sabbath. The sun sets here early, around 5:30 pm, same as the U.S. in the winter. Miss you all, love and hugs from Chad.

Happy Sabbath!

P.S. today is Sunday, also, please continue to use our blog and email addresses! Love you all!

new Chad cell phone number: country code (235) 620 78 587

Happy Birthday, Mom, from South Africa!

Kel and I are visiting his sister, Desiree, in Pretoria and we have come to the mall to an internet cafe to post another short message. First, we want to wish Josie's mom, Beverly Joiner, a very happy birthday today, November 16! We also want to mention that we seem to be over our first bout of malaria, thanks to meds and the Good Lord! We have just a week left in South Africa, then we will be back in Chad, with very limited access to the internet. Hopefully we will have one more time to post a blog before flying north. God bless all of you as you look for souls for His Kingdom!
Thanks again for your kind support and prayers for our mission. You are also in our prayers.
K 'n J

Working out the kinks

We may forget that the World Wide Web is not quite as wide in some parts of the world as others. As often as we can get to an internet cafe' we'll post a message or atl east begin the process of getting a message posted.

Posted for Kel & Josie,

LP

More news from S.A.

We needed to contact family in S.A. to let them know we missed the flight. A kind office worker at the Addis airport let us use his internet to e-mail a message, since attempting a phone call did not go through. Temps in Johannesburg were considerably cooler than in Chad - a good respite from the incredible heat. But we will have to acclimatize! Well, the dreaded malaria finally is upon us, but just a mild form, we think. We have headaches and body aches and general fatigue. The doctor prescribed some meds for us, but Josie being allergic to sulfa meant we had to contact the doctor again and get a new prescription - we started taking treatment Mon evening. Slow going because we have the dizziness/fatigue all the time. Even if we feel good in the morning and try to accomplish a task, by lunchtime we are totally wiped out. We are sitting at this computer in an internet cafe near Kel's dad's farm, and our heads are "swimming" this afternoon. But we know this, too, shall pass! God bless you all, and we thank you for your prayers for us! (((HUGS)))

Finally, a fast internet in SA

When we arrived in Chad, stepping off the plane onto a bus was like walking into an open oven. We spent two days in the capital, N'Djamena, finalizing business, then Gary flew us in the small plane to Bere - only about 2 hours flight. We were shown our living quarters "across the street", actually a sand lane, from Gary's and Wendy's house - it is an octagonal hut with thatched roof, a cottage. On Monday, Nov 2, Gary flew us back to the capital to catch our flight to South Africa. Because our flight from N'Djamena only had a few passengers, as we took off the pilot informed us that we would detour to Sudan to pick up more passengers headed to Addis Ababa. As a result of the detour, we missed our South Africa flight. We spent 24 hours in Addis waiting for the next flight - at a hotel with meals provided. We met a man also in our predicament who encouraged us so much in the mission for Chad - he had spent some time in Sudan and was heading home. Let's try posting this message . . .

VW miracle - we're on our way

Dear Family and Friends,
The Lord woke Josie early Sunday morning to drive the VW beetle over to the campus of SAU where a flea market had just begun and park it in front of the Village Market. Just before 8 am she walked back home. A short time later some phone calls were received re the little car, more than one from a very interested young man and his mother. By evening, the VW was sold - a miracle of blessing! We fly out of Atlanta Monday 6 am, on the Lord's business. We're tired but ready. May God keep you faithful while we are apart - Jesus is coming very soon!

Leaving the U.S.

Hello Family and Friends,
Our departure date is Monday, Oct 25, 2010 from Atlanta at 6 am. We pray to be used by God and to praise His Name always. Jesus set us a beautiful example, and we can encourage each other to follow Him every day.
It has been suggested to let you know how you can help the mission and ministries in Chad.
Click here to donate online to the Gospel Ministries International website. Please specify in the box "payment for" that you would like to donate to "Kelvin and Josie Burgoyne, Africa Technical Ministries".
Thank you, thank you! And God bless you!

Holding Pattern

After reading some of the "real" missionary stories, our news seems mundane . . . but wait until we arrive in Chad! I just love seeing how the Lord is putting the puzzle pieces together - there have been a couple of delays to our departure, but we are okay because the time we can spend with family and friends in the U.S. is very precious. We still have "loose ends to tie up," so a couple more days are very welcome. Kel is ready to sell our little '73 SuperBeetle, we have packed 2 suitcases, and are camping in our sons' living room. To finish the passport saga, we have received both of them with visas stamped inside for Chad - thanks so much, Lord!
And we will post the definite departure date, soon!

Homeless - it's a good thing!

One more step toward leaving for Chad - we are now officially homeless! Our apartment was checked out and we are temporarily sharing accommodation with our two sons. We praise God for giving us the energy (and help from family members) to cope with this gigantic job. A few more boxes to sort through. Need to pare down to two suitcases each. "This world is not my home, I'm just a-passing through . . ." "I'm just passing through, I don't have time to play, I'm on business for my King and I can't stay. Just like Abraham, I'm just passing through, a messenger am I with a song about Salvation from on High."

Passports lost . . . finally returned!

Hello Family and Friends,
Rollercoaster might be a good word to use to describe the situation we have just experienced. But we have asked many of you to please pray with us, and the Lord has come through again! Three weeks ago we sent our passports (certified) to the Embassy in Chad, but alas, to an old address. (I am always nervous putting important documents in the mail.) They arrived a couple of days later at some point where they were scanned as undeliverable. Our local postmaster called the destination post office who could not trace anything - we were hovering between trusting that God knew exactly where our passports were and despairing ever seeing them again and having to replace them. Yesterday we spoke to our mail carrier, gave them the tracking number on the missing envelope and planned to wait a day to see if they could possibly trace it. This morning we received a call from our mail carrier - the missing envelope containing our passports was delivered to the post office this morning!! Praise the Lord for His goodness, for His compassion on us!! We drove to the post office and signed for the envelope, hardly believing we had them in our hands. Tomorrow we start the process again, this time with a correct address and a more secure way of sending them. So we again will be praying that they get to their destination and are returned soon with the required visas. We'll keep you posted . . . sing His praises, thank you Lord!

Yellow fever shots, preaching/singing appts, etc!

Receiving the yellow fever immunization was uneventful, then the joint aches showed up the next day. Still waiting for our visas . . . in the meantime trying to sort through books and photos - oh the memories - shedding a few tears. Not sorry to see the apartment getting emptier. Another step toward Chad.
September was fully booked with singing appointments, and Kel will preach end of the month.
The Lord is so good to us, giving us the energy we need every day. He will be with us always! Claim His promises and watch things happen!

Asking questions . . .

(Thursday 9/9) Last night 13 of us met at Gary and Wendy's place for a meal and to talk about Chad. All were young people -34 and younger - so we are oupa and ouma in the group, especially with little Cherise running around. Some of the young people had been to Chad before, and others of us are going. Gary encouraged us to ask questions, and those who knew shared "tricks of the trade" so to speak, such as what to bring, what not to bring, and how to live in 120 degree heat combined with humidity and mud and rain.
We have applied for visas, wow, Chad sure knows how to charge for a piece of paper!
Next week we go for immunizations. Our apartment is slowly but surely being emptied. Quite a bit of the furniture has gone to people who had nothing. The Lord brings them to our door.

Post # 3

Well, it's been a busy weekend. We moved out several large pieces of furniture yesterday. They went to people who wanted them. Josie had a yard sale today - first of several. We did quite well, and sold more stuff. Amazing how much you can collect over the years!

Our first post

Hi Friends,
This is to let you know that Kel and I have been praying and deciding and, and, and . . . guess where we will be going in October!  To Chad in north-central Africa, just below the Sahara Desert.