Friday, April 15, 2011

Bits and Pieces


Cold drinking water


In a burning hot land like this, it’s nice to have cold drinking water – but how to get such, when the cold tap yields warm to hot water? I remember how they did in the old days – when I was a youth – and probably still do: one could buy a canvas water bag with an aluminum spout fitted with a cork. You filled the bag with water, corked the spout, and hung the bag somewhere on the vehicle. Then as you drove along, the air cooled the water. Well, we do it with one of my old (laundered) socks. We put the stainless steel water bottle in the sock, soak the sock until it drips, and hang the sock from a wire in the shade. After 15 or 20 minutes you have this nice cold water. Very refreshing in this boiling hot weather.


Overnite in the bush


Well, Kel’s opportunity to spend a night in the bush came sooner than he expected. And, you’ll never guess – Josie came along! This is how it happened: last weekend of March Jonathan and Melody invited us to go birdwatching in the bush at the river. They are keen birders, and we know the African birds quite well by now. The plan was to leave mid-afternoon Sabbath, do birding until sundown, then sleep at the river on Saturday night, then return the next morning. All went well – we loaded our gear onto the motos (we had our plastic mats rolled up and secured to the handlebars of the moto – we looked like a bunch of Harley bikers when we left the house). Birding was great! We saw several new species and it was a refreshing break from the mission compound.





Christmas comes early



We received 3 packages at once on Monday, March 28. It was like opening Christmas presents. Lots of food items – and some surprises! Then another volley: 2 packages on April 13 - Thanks to all of you who sent them. If you only knew - these are our survival kits.



Pressing on with the house



The roof framing on the house is about 85% complete. We hope to start sheeting the roof in 2 weeks time. That will beat the rains by a few weeks. We poured concrete for the main steel column (inside the house) as well as for the 6 roof overhang posts a week ago.



The Hangar



The steel framing for hangar is on hold for a while. We are working on some modifications and hope to be ready to start the last phase of this project shortly.



Trip to the Capital



On April 5 & 6 we flew to the capital to get several things taken care of, one of which was Kel’s passport renewal. It was quite interesting to visit the United States Embassy in N’Djamena. Also we visited the local big hardware store to get a list of the various structural steel items that are locally available.



A miracle



During our visit to the Capital, Josie and I witnessed a miracle. Last year, as we waited at the airport for our plane to Johannesburg, we got chatting to one of the airport guards. He was one of the few who spoke English. He asked if we could bring back an English Bible for him. This we agreed to do, and wrote down his cell phone number for future contact. We selected a nice Bible in South Africa and packed it in our luggage. Not being able to locate the man when we arrived back in Chad, we planned to get the Bible to him at a future date. The opportunity finally presented itself on our recent trip to N’Jamena. I sent the guy an SMS message as we left Bere, and he texted back, saying that he’d be working Wednesday. We were at the airport, about to depart for home, and still we had not been able to see the man and make the delivery. I prayed and left it in the Lord’s hands. About one minute before Gary arrived to escort us to the plane, the guy arrived and we were able to give the Bible to him in his hands. God’s timing is perfect! And the recipient was ever so grateful.



Communion at Dabgue



On Sabbath, April 9, we went to our “church in the bush” at Dabgue, as usual. But this time we were surprised. Noel, the native chaplain at the hospital showed up with an entire kit and we celebrated the Lord’s supper, complete with foot washing, just like Jesus did in the Upper Room with His disciples. A special time, it was.



Thanks for your prayers and support. Courage to you! – from the One who gives us hope and a future.



Kel & Josie.

Natalie's Frog Dress

About a week ago, as the airplane was doing touch-n-go training flights, I noticed a small girl in the group of kids who was wearing (literally) a rag for a dress. It was torn in so many places that she was a bit embarrassed trying to cover her little body. I asked Benjamin, one of the teenagers who speaks a tiny bit of English, in my broken French and English to have her come with us. I asked Benjamin to accompany her because she was so shy and

acted scared. We went to my hut where I pulled out a tape measure and decided to just measure the rag dress she was wearing. Benjamin took her home and I drew a simple dress pattern from the measurements. Learned her name is Natalie (they say nah-TAH-lee) and she is 7 years old. Found some fabric I brought – from Hobby Lobby – with bright rainbow-colored frogs all over the black background. The pattern I drew fit perfectly on that small piece of fabric. So two Wednesdays ago I sat at Danae Netteberg’s table, borrowing Danae’s sewing machine plugged into a transformer, and sewed the little dress (same pattern piece for front and back, simple).


Yesterday, I asked Benjamin to bring Natalie because I had the dress ready. He brought a very scared little girl to my hut, but I showed her the dress and she smiled for the first time. I asked her to help me (Benjamin helped, too) pick up the plastic bags that had blown into our part of the yard, and to rake some leaves, then she could have the dress. The principle here was to have her do a little work to “earn” the dress. We only worked for, maybe, 15 minutes, then I folded the dress and gave it to her. When we got to the gate of our compound, Natalie’s mother with a baby girl on her back, and Natalie’s little sister were waiting for her. They were all smiling and the mother spoke to me in French.



Today, (Monday) after teaching English to the 2nd graders at the Adventist Elem, I walked home and was greeted by small groups of children coming to me and trying to sing the song I have been teaching them when I walk to and from the school, the chorus of “Jesus Loves Me,” in their home language of Nangjere. (A lot of children do not go to school.) There were 3 different groups of children today, and in the last group were Natalie wearing the froggy dress and a bright blue head scarf (adorable!), her mother and little sister! A surprise for me!


Something I really enjoy is telling children stories and teaching them songs. The Nangjere language is not difficult to pronounce (French is more difficult to wrap your tongue around in my opinion), and our local Chadian translator, Frederick, has been helping us with French and Nangjere words to choruses. I mentioned previously that I had the nature story at the branch Sabbath School in Dabgue two Sabbaths ago. Well, this past Sabbath I had the lesson – Abraham’s test in sacrificing Isaac. I prayed that everyone would understand the parallel beauty when comparing that story to Jesus’ sacrifice for us. Frederick translated English to Nangjere. Just in the telling of the story, it came alive again for me.


I have been praying for a way to reach the people because of our language barrier, but I saw today, in the simple chorus of “Jesus Loves Me,” that the children understand the words and want to learn it. Continue to pray that we will find small ways to reach them with the Gospel.


Jesus is coming soon and we don’t have much time left. Every day is a day closer!

Monday, April 11, 2011