Second Term Updates – Niger

Updates from our Second Term June 2006-June 2009

Surprise in Casablanca

Did you hear that? We just took a deep breathe. We returned to Niger last Sunday and literally hit the ground running. In fact, it was only yesterday that I was able to unpack; some things are still not put away yet.

Thank you for praying for our trip. Not only was it relatively smooth, but we enjoyed a special surprise. At the airport in Casablanca, I heard someone call my name, and was warmly greeted by friends of ours from Cote d’Ivoire who are now in Casablanca. We were able to spend some time with them and exchange personal ministry updates. What a blessing! We came away very thankful for being able to share the gospel openly here in Niger.

As we arrived home, we were greeted by Boubacar who has been watching our house this summer. As we noticed before, he is very interested in us and everything about us. We’re not really sure how truly interested he is in our Savior. Continue to pray that Bob will have opportunities and find ways to continue his witness to Boubacar.

My busyness has included fixing things that quit working sometime this summer, both at Sahel Academy and a few in the wider mission community. Bob has been busy helping to remove all the clutter from the hallways that accumulated as closets and storerooms were cleaned out this summer. Of course, we’ve both been busy with lesson plans for our classes which will start in just 2 days, August. 14th.

The staff at Sahel Academy is somewhat depleted this year. We are starting without a principal (one may be coming in January), and our math teacher leaves at the end of December. Please pray that God will send His laborers here to Sahel. Might that be you?

During last year’s closing assembly, an 8th-grade girl shared about her fears and how she deals with them. Those fears involved her mother’s loosing battle with cancer. As we begin this year, her mother has taken the ultimate field trip; she has gone on ahead to heaven and is with our Father. Because this mother was on the school board and even taught for a time at Sahel, we will celebrate her life in our opening assembly. Please pray for this girl and her father and 2 younger brothers during this time.

As we sit here on our first full Sunday after returning to Niger, we want to mention one more time how blessed we have been by the time we spent with many of you this summer. Although we weren’t able to talk to all of you, even our phone meetings were a blessing. You have encouraged us by your interest in the ministry God has given us and in your prayers not only for this ministry, but for us personally as well.

Time of Refreshment

“I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty,”  Rev. 1:8

How awe-inspiring to know that the God Who is not only in our todays, but in our yesterdays and tomorrows as well, is also the ‘Almighty’. 

I am writing this update from the back porch deck of my father’s home in beautiful West Virginia. One of the things most refreshing to us during our summer visit has been all the ‘green’; another is the pleasurable driving, especially amidst all this beautiful greenery.

While we have been busy, we’ve been especially refreshed by lots of time with family and friends in the past weeks. This weekend, we will head south where I will attend classes in Tennesee while Bob heads to Florida to visit his parents and one of our supporting churches. We will then have a few days with family in Ohio before returning to Niger and a new school year at Sahel Academy.

Here’s how you can prayer for us this month:

Travel. We’re not the only ones traveling in the next month. Many of our co-workers are traveling as well. The Totmans return to Niger in July; the Goldes arrive in Niger for a one-year ministry, the Marines and Gillespies (us) return to Niger in August.

Staff needs at Sahel Academy. We do have specific needs which you can view on our website. If you think that God is directing you our way, we want you!  

Please visit www.sahelacademy.com so that you can get a picture of the ministry at Sahel Academy. Through your gifts and prayers, you are a part of this ministry. 

Many thanks to those of you who helped to make this trip possible. We will feel better equipped in the ministry God has called us to because of time spent in training and with many of you.

Let’s Praise

Let’s start this month’s update with some praise:

Remember when we asked you to pray for ‘customs’ work to be completed on our container – in a way we could all afford? Those prayers have been answered at last: we received official documents this past month totally exonerating the contents of the container. In other words, we owed no more money for bringing the container contents into the country. This is significant in that we could have been charged as much as 50% of the value of the contents. In fact, because we had paid monies ‘up front’ to help cover costs, we actually received a ‘refund’.

Five weeks from today, we will be returning to the states for the summer. Lois will be taking some additional training, we’ll be doing some personal and school shopping, we’ll be taking care of some business, and we’ll be spending time with our family and friends. We are so thankful that God has given us this opportunity.

We thank you for your many prayers for us as we endure the heat of Niamey’s May. Lois probably feels it most, as it is over 100 degrees most afternoons in the kitchen. We’re told this is called ‘crock-pot season’. Lois is most definitely thankful for her crockpot!

We know you’re continuing to pray for Boubacar. He hasn’t asked many questions lately, but we believe that God works in his heart even when we don’t see the evidence. He has told me that he would become a Christian, but the cost of family rejection is too great. I tried to explain that if the gospel is really true, then no cost is too great in exchange for eternity. It made me wonder how much we really believe that this life is only temporary. What are WE willing to give up for the sake of eternity’s values?

Last of all, we ask you to pray once again for a renter for our home in the states. Our current renter has been wonderful, but she is moving out this week. So far, we don’t have another renter. Please pray that just the right person will find our little house is just right for them.