Dangdut: March 2020

With my friend Nadji's grandkids

It’s been a while since I’ve written. I haven’t really been in the mood to document my life these days, though I can happily report that I am seeing the Lord do really good things through our work, and that is exciting and encouraging.

So a quick “so far in 2020” update on my life: I got the new Director for Neverthirst and our new Chief of Programs (or I always forget what his title is, but he’s the Boss) out to visit our programs in Africa. After a smooth and fulfilling visit to projects run in Uganda, a country where education and infrastructure seem rampant compared to the wilderness of Chad, I was a bit nervous to bring them over to the Wild West(er) Part of Africa. But I’m happy to report that they LOOOOOOOOVED it (their words), in spite of, or perhaps because of, the challenges of working here. We ate a lot of camel meat, rode camels, spoke with many communities, pastors and government officials, and were gifted many goats and chickens, which we donated back to whomever was with us at the time. Most importantly, they saw how huge the need is out here and how big the hearts are of the local pastors and churches who want to help in the name of Jesus. So they’re all in for Chad, and that makes me happy, in spite of the fact that I just attended a packed meeting with a government official I will not name who really desperately wants to make life difficult for everyone who is working here trying to make life less difficult for his people. These are the little things that get to you sometimes, but if it were easy, would it be as fun? Maybe not? Of course long pointless meetings are not fun either…

Matt and Jason visiting an biosand filter home in Uganda-
excellent project.

Photographing the drilling team in Uganda-
also an excellent project.

And I got to see a wonderful friend and faithful prayer partner for the first time since South Sudan!

Then we get to Chad and I realized I forgot to tell Matt
to bring passport photos because I always have them and I assume everyone else does.
So I took him to get passport photos--Chadian style.

Second day in Chad--flat tire. Yeah, that's about right.

Free chicken!

The weapon in the car of our friend who helped us get a rental car.
He said he shoots those metal balls to defend against thieves.
Another welcome to Chad!

Joe also loves camel meat and bones!

The woman in the nomad village who really impacted
Jason and Matt when she showed us the water she and her family have to drink.

Also in 2020, I took a nice little break from life to adventure with a wonderful friend who showed how much she loved me by last-minute planning a trip with me when she is NOT a last minute person. But we had a wonderful time because she is a wonderful person. Also the beach was there.

And work marches on…thanks to Jason and his love of documents and organisation (with an ‘s’ because he’s Australian), I have lots of documents and I am way more organized (with a ‘z’ because autocorrect doesn't want me to be pretentious).

Moussa's hôtel des milles étoiles at sunset

This past week, in pursuit of documents and planning, I took a 10+ hour car trip, bumping along the sandy roads, down down down to the riverside in a small town few people know about, including our driver hired so I wouldn't have to drive. I was hoping to camp out with the guys outside of the church, but because I’m female, propriety dictated that I pitch my mosquito net tent inside the storage room in the pastor’s house. “Don’t worry,” he said, “it’s only hot now, but later around 2am it will be really cold and you will prefer to be inside.” Personally, I think it would have been nice to have slept on a folded up rug on the sand like our driver did, but I threw down a sleeping bag on top of a yoga mat on a hard brick floor, and managed to sleep until 4:45 when the rural world gets up with the sun to sweep, start the cook fire, pump water for the day, and make the nasara feel bad for being so lazy. I meant to take photos, but I forgot. The house also had a walled off area (no door) for showering and peeing, but if your toilet needs are more than “Number 1” you are requested to find a private place behind a bush outside of the compound for that.

When you're on a 10 hour drive through the bush and you run into people you know!

Nesie and I were there two nights and one full day, which was a very full day, actually. We met in the morning with the pastors who had come in to hear about our project and learn how to follow our application process to find villages where the need is highest. Since the need is high everywhere, we have to find ways to prioritize. It’s never very fun doing that.

Telling the pastors how to fill out the applications.

We also had a bit of time to hear from the pastors about their work and pray for each other. It’s in these moments when I am sometimes overwhelmed with how truly impressive these guys are. You know that bit in The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis when the narrator sees a woman who is really being celebrated and admired and he asks the guide to Heaven who she is? He thinks he knows who she is because she is clearly an extra-impressive person, so surely she was famous on earth too. The guide says, “She is one of the great ones. You have heard that fame in this country and fame on Earth are two quite different things.” He goes on to tell why this woman who was an unknown during her life is being celebrated for her faithfulness and the way she lived her life and how many people she influenced for good. I think about this a lot when I meet certain people out here and see their faithfulness and their joy in spite of the difficulties that they face on a daily basis. They are out here fighting for others, and you will hear about them someday. Here’s a sneak peak:

Some pretty wonderful men there.

One pastor was a mechanic and a successful businessman. He earned a lot of money and instead of spending it on himself or his family, he and his wife spent a month fasting and praying about what to do with it. He felt the Lord called him to go to seminary. At seminary he was called to be a missionary. He finished his studies as a pastor and missionary and went to this remote town where he saw a need for schools for the children around him. He started teaching the children at the school and then went to get a degree in education. Soon he was noticed by the local government and asked to be the director of a local government school. He is doing this, but he is also working to start schools in all of the churches in the area (open to students of any religion) to make sure that children who can’t travel far to the government school still have a chance to learn to read and write.

Church school blackboard. Local village children are taught by the pastor.

Another pastor was up for a chance for a good job also in the education sector. He passed the exam and was told by the person in charge of the test to go find his name on the list because he had been accepted! He went to go see the list, and his name wasn’t on it. He checked with the administration at the main office—his name was not on the list. Someone had taken his name off and replaced it with the name of their friends and relatives and he didn’t get the job he worked for and earned. As he told the story, I found myself getting angry—injustice, unfairness, cheating—it really gets to us middle children. But he told the story without malice. “God had something else for me,“ he said. “I trained to be a missionary and I’ve been serving the Lord all over and it has been exciting.”

Church instrument--turns out it is more for rhythm than melody.
Very cool sound. Really spices up the Chantes de Victoire

Another pastor has been working with nomads all over Chad, and he said, “I’m basically a nomad myself. I travel all over.” When asked if he had any prayer requests, he said, “Well, I’m really trying to learn a new tribal language. If I learn it, I can speak to 3 unreached tribes in this area. They have been really interested in the Gospel, but we haven’t been able to communicate much.” The man is probably in his mid-50’s and this is his eleventh (11^th!) language. How many 50 year old men at church have you ever heard ask for prayer to learn their 11^th language so they could share the Good News with people who have never heard it before? I feel like our prayer lists tend to be sickness related. We should pray for sick people for sure (now as much as ever), but not one of the 10 people who asked for prayer that day asked for protection or deliverance from illness. One guy did ask for protection from hippos and snakes when he is fishing though…

Speaking one of his 11 languages.

So those are some of the great ones! People giving their lives to serve others in relative obscurity, though now the 2 people who read my blog will know about them. It’s pretty cool to work with people like this. They know the water needs in the area so well, and they know that clean water is not enough to change lives forever. Just like Jesus telling the Samaritan woman, “whoever drinks from this water will get thirsty again, but whoever drinks from the water of Life that I give will never be thirsty again,” we want to help people get access to the Water that quenches thirst for eternity.

River near the pastor's house at sunrise.

Side note: when Westerners read that story of the Samaritan woman at the well, do we talk about 2 cultures that had been at odds coming together through water? Because Nesie pointed that out—Jews and Samaritans speaking kindly to each other, listening to each other, sharing a resource. He reminded everyone that we can use water to bring reconciliation between estranged tribes and communities too. It was a reminder to me as well about the relevance of the Bible across cultures and times. There is no specific language you have to learn to speak with God. There are no rules and regulations tied to a specific location or time zone that you have to keep. There is no superior culture that everyone should strive to attain at some point. To all who are thirsty, let them come and drink from the water of Life.

A few other photos from recent days, if you want to keep scrolling down:

Two of the best people ever to walk the face of the earth,
neither of which know how to take a photo without smiling with their whole face.

Moussa photographing his food--nowhere is safe from the food photographers!

I gave him the bag so that he could carry a bunch of stuff he had accumulated.
He proved that he is actually a normal guy because he was going to refuse since it looked too girly.
Then he decided that he would keep it in honor of women's day, and he now uses it all the time.

Nadji broke his foot! I went to visit him and hang out with his grandkids
(first photo on the blog)

Took them for a short ride in the car.
It was the BEST. Day. Ever.
It's nice when kids are easy to please.
And also adorable. The one in my lap definitely knows his power, though-
he gets what he wants because he is irresistible.

Henry (our Finance Director) and I crashed a wedding.
As a Kenyan, he was disappointed that they didn't dance as they do in Kenya.
He said: at my wedding, we danced SERIOUSLY.

It was a packed house, celebrating the marriage of a man who
lost his wife suddenly a few years ago and was left with small children.
God blessed him with a new wife who loves his kids and will serve alongside him in the church here.
There was a lot of rejoicing for this couple.