Spring: At Last!

Spring is here, and while you’re thinking of flowers and green grass, for us it’s the hottest part of the year in what is called the hottest capital city in the world.  Thursday night, when I was once again showing a video out my front gate at the request of our neighbors, I could not keep the projector running because of the heat. With the use of 3 ice packs, one on bottom and 1 on each side, I was finally able to keep the projector cool enough to show the video. When our rains finally come, we will see some relief from the heat.

The heat is not the only thing that makes it difficult to live in a third world country.  For Lois and I, it has been another long year at school and we’re now approaching the end when perseverance is needed to help us all finish well. Perhaps like lots of you, we wonder if what we’re doing is really that important.  We would love to be with family and live where it is easier. It  is during these times that we often examine why we are here.

As I was teaching WWII history, this analogy came to mind: During WWII, a small town wanted their tax money to really count for something in the war, so they requested that their taxes go specifically to frontline soldiers.  The answer to their request stated that it takes 9 support personnel to keep one man on the frontline, and that everyone is just as important to the cause as the frontline soldier. 

Here on the field, it may not be a 9 to 1 ratio, but the support team is just as important to the mission as the frontline missionary.  Someone has to be an administrator; pilots and mechanics are needed,  Bible translators must carry on.  Most of those serving on the field have children that need education.  If it were not for the teachers, the entire infrastructure would collapse and the mission would fail. This week, AFN (Armed Forces television Network which we occasionally watch at the American club), talked about the love and support that military children provide to their parents. It was a reminder to us that as we minister to MK’s, we are ministering to their parents. With all the love they have to give, missionary children are part of “the frontline support” for your missionaries. So when we are hot, tired, lonely, or discouraged, we try to remember once again the vital importance of the role God has called us to fill here in Niamey. 

Thank you for your many e-mails and requests for how you can pray for us.   Probably our requests are not much different from yours:

• · daily physical strength
• · patience
• · perseverance
• · encouragement
• · spiritual power and strength
• · wisdom
• · a servant’s heart

Also, continue to pray for Boubacar. He has headed north to Timbuktu to visit family and look for a job since we’re moving to Sahel Academy campus and won’t need him anymore. He says that some of his family in Timbuktu are Christians and that he is going to make the decision to follow Jesus while he is there. Please pray that this will be so, and that Satan will once again be defeated as Boubacar proclaims that Christ is Lord