Last spring, we were hoping that the gospel of Luke would have been fully checked, published and delivered to the Dadjo people. Unfortunately, due to the death of one of the translator’s father, the checking slowed down tremendously, and only half of the book of Luke was done. We are still waiting to have the rest of the book scheduled for checking. Because of the few consultants available in Chad compared to the number of translations being worked on, we will probably have to wait another year until Luke can be finalized.
At the same time, with the progress that we are making on the book of Acts, we are hoping that much of Acts can also be consultant checked at the same time as Luke. So far, we are on target for finishing the “testing” of all of Acts by next spring. When Luke and Acts have both been checked by a consultant, then the Dadjo people will not only have Genesis (telling creation and the fall of man), but they will also have the life of Jesus (the Savior of mankind) and how God’s message of salvation spread around the world.
Cotton Spinning
During one of Art’s times in a nearby Dadjo village a few years ago, he came across an older man who wanted to show Art his handiwork. Art was more than happy to learn of this man’s expertise, so on his next visit there, he brought his camera and listened, learned and took photos of this man’s work with raw cotton. It was a great time to watch this man turning puffy cotton into a fine thread. He placed the cotton balls on a board and rolled the seeds out with a skinny metal bar. He then stuck the cleaned cotton on a stick and pulled thin threads out, twisting it as he pulled. With the finished thread, he wound it around a long spool, examining it carefully continue reading>>
get-away
As a missionary in Chad, and in most 3rd world settings, there is rarely any understanding for the need of some degree of privacy. From early morning to late in the evening, there’s always the potential to have visitors. Whether it is welcomed or at the worst possible time, there isn’t much you can do but receive them graciously. As much as we wanted to spend time with or help the people who would come, sometimes we just wanted to have some family time without the possibility of hands clapping outside our door. That’s the way the local people “knock”. continue reading>>
How to sweep a dirt floor
When we grow up in houses with wood floors or carpeting and have front yards with grass and concrete sidewalks, keeping the floor and the walkway clean is a norm. But what if your house has dirt floors, and what if your yard is nothing but sand or dirt? What is the purpose of sweeping a dirt yard? I’ve wondered that when I saw our neighbors doing just that on our first year in the village. They would come out early every morning with a short grass hand broom and sweep the entire area around their house, moving any would-be debris away from the house. I think I’ve come to realize a good reason for this. continue reading>>
TEAM publication
There are several mission organizations that work in Chad, and during our time there, we got to know several people who work with TEAM. We’ve shopped many times at little boutiques that became known as the team shops because they were next door to their compound, and we’ve also stayed at their guest house a couple of times. We recently came across a magazine that TEAM puts out quarterly, and we grabbed onto it as soon as we realized that this edition was exclusively on Chad. There are many interesting articles on the varied ministries they are involved in from digging wells, to Christian radio broadcasting and Bible translation, literacy to ministering to Continue reading
New Website
The Dadjo Ministry now has an official website! Created by Josiah Aviles, the Dadjo Ministry website has more about Art and Denice Aviles and their ministry. Go there for tons of pictures of Chad and the official “Dadjo Ministry News” videos. You can also learn more about the Dadjo people and their history. We’re so happy to finally have our official website up! Please comment to tell us what you think about it and what we should change.
Rainy Season
Better late than never. Rainy season is a very important time of year for everyone in Chad. So many people are sustenance farmers that if the rains don’t come, the people have nothing to eat for the next year. Millet, which is their main staple, is brought in from neighboring countries at very high prices which not many can afford enough of.
But thankfully we received news that August has brought some good rains. It’s over a month late, but it’s better late than never. Another thing to consider with this is if there will be enough rain at the end of the season to ripen the crop for harvest come November-January.
hospitals
There are some hospitals in the capital, and one of the things that we liked about moving into Mongo many years ago was that there was also a hospital there. But as we became more familiar with these places, we realized that it was not a place that we would want to go to be treated. So the book, “Where There Is No Doctor” became a very important and well used book for our family’s health issues. continue reading>>
gas stations
When we first arrived in Chad over ten years ago, there were a few gas stations in the capital where we would fill up, and one of them never had gas. Most of the local people who drove cars or motorcycles went to little stands by the road. There were little tables, like this one pictured, with a few recycled alcohol bottles or jugs that they used for holding fuel.
In the village, we only had really one option for getting gas. There was a man who would sell it, usually by the barrel, and his son would filter the gas through an old tee-shirt as it went into our tank. This worked out well for the most part. continue reading>>
market place
While we were last in Chad, the government was constructing a new site for the marketplace in Mongo. They finished building all the structures for the boutiques and layed a nice walk area around the market. So we were surprised that, as the months went on, the vendors were still selling at the old market. This went on for a couple of years with the old market still busy as ever and the new place more of a ghost town. So it’s good to finally hear that very recently some of the vendors are starting to move over to the new site. There are still many at the old market, but maybe at this pace, next year will have the new site crawling with business and the old one a ghost town.
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