A Gentle Breeze

A gentle breeze

It is the end of rainy season.

The rain brought cool weather and a much-needed crops. There was no rain in the month of October, and some of the crops may not survive. The mango trees that are growing in some areas lack the water needed to produce their delicious fruit. The same can be said about guavas and lemons.

When Art arrived in Chad on October 26^th, he was not sure what to weather to expect. It turned out that the average temperature in Mongo was around 97 degrees Fahrenheit. With a bad cold, Art had trouble sleeping most nights. Thankfully, there would come an occasional gentle breeze that would blow through the dusty windows of the room he stayed in.

I’m reminded that God sometimes works through a still small whisper, a gentle breeze, as he did in the time of Elijah. The heat tends to drain us, but God’s gentle breeze refreshes. As Elijah stood on the mountain there was a strong wind, then an earthquake, and finally a fire. The Bible says that God was not in the strong wind. He was not in the earthquake, and He was not in the Fire. He was in that still small voice that whispered to Elijah, a gentle breeze that rushed across his face.

During Art’s time in Chad, he did not see miracles occur among the Dadjo. He did not see God reveal himself in a supernatural way. What he did see is Dadjo sitting in small groups listening as he read God’s Word to them. He was able to share the simple, yet powerful message of salvation through faith in Christ. That’s really all we can do. We can proclaim Jesus. God needs to do the rest. He may not do it in the timing we wish, and He may not do it by the numbers we wish, but He will accomplish His purpose through His Word (Isaiah 55:11).

After all, it may be just a still small voice with which He speaks and makes himself known to the Dadjo.

Please join us in praying for the Dadjo people of Chad, Africa. Pray that God will break our hearts for the unreached people. Pray that He will provide for their everyday needs. Pray that they will thirst for living water in the dry desert land, a thirst that only Jesus can satisfy.

Bad News and Good News for Chad

Last April we wrote about a French citizen who was kidnapped in Chad. Unfortunately we find no updates on him. What we do know is that Boko Haram has been making a come-back. There are reports that 381 civilians died at their hands since last April, with the terrorists often using women and children to carry out their suicide bombings. This is mostly in Nigeria and Northern Cameroon, but it also has been impacting our beloved Chad.

“Across the Lake Chad region, millions of civilians are in need of urgent humanitarian assistance as a result of Boko Haram violence.” Here is a link to the article.

Art is planning another trip to Chad in the next couple of months. He has made great progress in translating more books, so at this point it’s time to test the translation. Testing helps Art’s team see if God’s Word is understood and sounds natural to local Dadjo speakers who have never heard it in their own language before. He will be gone for close to three weeks from the middle of October and into November.

There is much to be done before he leaves in order to prepare him for much that has to be done while in Chad. Please pray that his next trip will go smoothly and be fruitful!

A Time of Transition

Checking for the book of Acts starts this coming Monday. It goes for two weeks leading right up to Christmas. We were really hoping that Abdallah would be able to be the back-translator for this time, but once again, he said that he would not be able to go. This is a big disappointment to us because he has been the best back-translator we’ve had for checking. He is fluent in Dadjo, he knows French, and he caught on really fast as to what the consultant needed from him. The replacements that we’ve had to use the last few times have not worked that well, making the time for checking last a lot longer, along with increased frustrations of the team trying to help the back-translator through the meaning of the verses.

All this to say, another man was found that will hopefully/prayerfully work as the newest back-translator. We are leery about another man filling in because of the struggles we’ve had with past back-translators, but maybe this is all in God’s plan. There are some negatives in that he is from further North where they may understand some of the terminology differently than in the Mongo area. Also, because he has not done this before, will he be good at it or not???? On a positive note, he speaks his Dadjo like Izzo, he knows French, and he’s educated. Another note that may prove to be a big plus is that he apparently has some kind of background with the Catholic church. This is a big surprise to us as we’ve never heard of another Dadjo with anything but an Islamic background.

So we can pray not only that the next two weeks of checking go well, but also that this new back-translator will be touched to the core in hearing the Word of God in his own language.

What's Happening in Chad Right Now?

During Art’s time in Chad, he was able to visit friends in the village. One of these men owns a little boutique in the market. Art was surprised how empty his shelves were compared to all of the other times that he visited him in the past. It all has to do with the gov’t employees not getting paid. It had a trickle down affect that has hit even the small business men who are trying to sell cookies, soda, water, soap etc. Now his shelves are almost bare. Some of the hospital personnel have been paid a month’s wage, but they are still behind 3 months, so it has not made much difference. The schools will likely stay closed the rest of the year at this point. Up till today, there still has been no change.

On another note, Izzo’s older son who went into Libya to stay with extended family was kidnapped in July. Libya is controlled by many different militia groups that war against each other. There are two that kind of work together to run eastern Libya with it’s capital there, but it’s control even there is tenuous. So it has become a very unstable country. They demanded a ransom for his release which the extended family helped to pay, so Izzo is greatly indebted to them and now needs to figure how to repay them.

He made it!

Art arrived in Mongo last Friday, no problems. He said several times that it was hot. Mongo tends to be a bit hotter than the capital, and then living right up against the “mountain” is worse as more heat reflects off of the mountain that his Mongo housing backs up against.

Then Art had a meeting for Scripture Use that several people were a part of including a few past and present Chadian missionaries to the Dadjo. The discussion went very well among all in attendance. Art is now starting the week going over Galations before testing it in nearby villages.

On a different note, the strikes that I mentioned about last week continue. It’s been four months that teachers and health workers have not been paid, so the strikes continue. There is a skeleton crew of health workers who have been put back on duty, but many of the hospitals have closed, and those that are open are way under staffed.

Not only is the lack of pay affecting teachers and healthcare workers, it is having a trickle down affect on much of the population. Because these people are not getting paid, they don’t have the money to buy in the markets, so the marketplace is fairly empty. And because there are not many buying in the market, the shop owners don’t have the money to feed their families AND keep their shelves full. It seems like some of them are on the brink of closing their doors. A friend that Art got to know pretty well used to have his shelves packed, but now the shelves are nearly empty.

Also, as far as the harvest of millet goes, apparently rainy season did not end very well. Several areas dried up too early in the Mongo region leaving much of the grain not ripe enough for harvesting. This is true for Izzo’s field and many around his. So it doesn’t sound like 2016 is ending up that well for many people in Chad. We can pray that they would find our heavenly Father to be the provider of all their needs.

"Please Fasten Your Seatbelts."

October 24th marks the date for Art to be back on a plane to Chad, Africa. Tickets have been purchased, we just received the Chadian Visa this morning, reservations for housing has been made, more work on Galatians and Colossians are being done for this trip, etc. There is still much to be done, including making sure that his vaccinations are up to date. He’ll also be missing our presidential election in November, so he’ll need to vote early:)

When Art arrives in Chad, it’ll be the end of rainy season. Even though the rains do a decent job of lowering the temperature for the rest of the year, the rains also leave behind a lot of humidity for the next couple of months. But the countryside is pretty in October with everything green, the low mountains, and the fields of millet ripening. The towns are a different story. Also, the roads around Mongo will be more easy to travel now that things are drying up.

Some good news we also received recently is that a door of two weeks opened up for more of the book of Acts to be consultant checked in December! We are so thankful for this slot of time. It is probably not enough time to finish Acts, but it will come close. And hopefully Abdallah will be available for the back translation. He is the best person for this, but has been unavailable for the last couple of checkings.

It's Almost That Time Again!

Art stands next to Bang Bang — The good old days, when people had to push our truck through the water. There’s a bridge there now.

With more progress on translation and with the year already half over, it’s time for Art to plan another trip to Chad! We were hoping to plan it for September, at the latest, October, so very soon we’ll have to change gears and put more focus on prepping for this. Normally, now would not be a good time for this kind of trip. With rainy season well under way, most village roads are not good to travel on, so we are thankful for the progress that has been made on the country’s infrastructure as well over recent years. I do admit, though, that I will miss needing our landcruiser pushed across the big wadi near Mongo after a good rain! Those were the good ol’ days.:)

Please pray that everything comes together for this trip in good time. Also pray that God would provide the finances for not only this trip, but also the monthly expenses we incur for us to continue this ministry. Our monthly support level has been very low for quite some time.

By the way, you can see more pictures of Chad Africa at chad.portfoliobox.net using the password “dadjo”!

Almost There! Consultant checking for the book of Acts

There are only a 2 more days of checking left for the book of Acts! We were hoping that around 12 chapters would be done in these two weeks(there are 28 altogether), but the work has been slower than desired. It seems that the consultant checking would go faster and smoother if the original back-translator would be available for these times of checking, but it has not worked out for him to participate in this way for quite some time now. We are thankful for the replacement back-translator and pray not only that he would be a good help for translation, but that he would be touched in an eye-opening way as he hears God’s Word spoken to him for the first time.

Back-translator: A person who interprets a document previously translated into another language back to the original language.

For example, he translates verses written in Dadjo back into French to see if the Dadjo translation is good.

Checking the Book of Acts (finally)

We received news that one of the Chad language teams is unable to keep their scheduled time with the consultant. We are so thankful that the consultant is opening up this new vacancy time for us, and the Dadjo team, to start on the book of Acts. We were thinking it would be another year before Acts could be scheduled to begin the final phase of consultant checking, so we were both surprised and very pleased to hear of the news. We have two weeks for this, starting at the end of March, so although it is not long enough to finish the whole book if Acts, we should be able to get a considerable amount done (if everything goes well).

On another note, we are also thankful that Boko Haram has not made recent attacks in Chad in the past 2-3 months. Unfortunately, they are still making deadly attacks in the neighboring country of Nigeria. Just a week ago, they attacked and killed over 60 villagers including women and children.
The Sydney Morning Herald

REUTERS News

More Suicide Bombers

We have received news of another recent attack in Chad’s capital. According to reuters, an international news agency headquartered in England, “A man dressed in a woman’s burqa blew himself up in the main market in Chad’s capital N’Djamena early on Saturday, killing 15 people and injuring 80, a police spokesman said. No group immediately claimed responsibility but Chad has blamed Boko Haram, the Islamist militant group based in neighbouring Nigeria, for a series of bombings and shootings in recent weeks.”
This is a repeat of what happened a month ago. Last time there were two attacks at the police headquarters, and this time it was in the main market. There was also an attack on a village at Lake Chad where Boko Haram killed 6 people. We were very saddened to hear of the attacks last time, yet also relieved that Art had just returned from his trip to Chad a few weeks earlier. As far as we know, our colleagues from other missions still have no plans to evacuate the country, although we know of one stateside who has been told to delay her return to Chad.
We continue to be sickened with what is happening regarding these incidents and others like them in neighboring countries, and ask for your prayers that there would be an end to this violence.