Home Assignment Updates

Updates from our Home Assignments

Back in Niamey

Praise the Lord we are back here in Niamey. Amidst our 3 vehicles, we experienced 4 flats and 3 other breakdowns. We only traveled with our trucks through Cote d’Ivoire; during that time they experienced 4 breakdowns. UGH! But we are here – our trucks aren’t. They were held up in customs; hopefully we’ll get that cleared up tomorrow. Such is traveling in West Africa!

Thank you for your prayers for our safety. We truly did experience safety during our ‘adventures’ of these past few weeks!

Back at ICA

After 23 hours of traveling over 2 days (1500 km, about 200 km of which was horrendous), we arrived here on campus and were warmly greeted by the campus pets, some of our workers and some of the French soldiers with whom we had made friends. We were pleasantly surprised to be invited to eat all our meals with them, and we are eating well! Tonight was special. We dined privately with the Colonel (of all the French forces here in Cote d’Ivoire) and were treated to a 6-course french meal, some of which I didn’t recognize. (But then, I don’t recognize some of the African foods I eat either.) Having our meals prepared for us enables us to concentrate on the packing, something we really appreciate. We hope to be ready to leave by this weekend.

Thank you for your prayers for our safety. We ask you to continue in prayer on our behalf for our safety as we travel this weekend with 2 40-foot trucks over some unbelievable roads. We also ask for prayers that God will make clear His direction for our future ministry as we visit in Niamey, Niger.

Another Airport Experience

Just a quick note to let you all know we arrived in Niamey, Niger tonight – only 2 1/2 hours late. Some abandoned luggage in the Paris airport caused them to clear out the international waiting area and move everyone out beyond the check-in area. We stood around for 2 1/2 hours before they declared it ‘safe’, then it took about 2 more hours for all those people to go through security again. No flights were allowed to board or unboard during that time. Just one more adventure for the books…

We were warmly welcomed by friends from ICA and look forward to spending time with them tomorrow as they show us around Niamey, including Sahel Academy. The guys have some arrangements to make for our trip back to ICA, but they already have the trucks (2 semis) waiting for us.

We’ll keep you posted. Thanks for your prayers.