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>>
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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.
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>>
sad news
We just received news this morning that a good friend in Chad died last night. He was a big, yet very kind Dadjo man who has always been very helpful in gathering people to help test different portions of translated Scripture. Art got to know him over the years and has helped him several times getting medicine for a heart condition that he’s suffered from. Art has been able to spend time visiting with him on his visits back to Chad, and this friend shared with Art how he’s been reading the newly translated Scriptures. We pray that he took to heart God’s Word before his end came and that his family would be comforted and provided for in their loss.
Summer progress
The two man translation team in Chad is taking some time off, their alotted vacation for the year. They work on doing and redoing the drafts of Scripture with Art’s guidance. During their time off, Art has a little breathing room to catch up with them. They tend to give up quality for speed sometimes, which adds more mind puzzles for Art to think through.
Art is also involved with ministering to international students at a nearby university. Who knows, maybe he’ll run across a student from Chad there someday.
New Video
literacy
Teaching people how to read doesn’t seem that difficult. Teaching children how to read should be easier with their minds that absorb so much. But how do you think it would be to teach illiterate children how to read a language that they don’t even know? That is what’s happening in many african languages. Children are brought up speaking their tribal language, and then when they become school age, rather than teaching them in their own language, they are sent to school where they are taught their different subjects (in Chad) in French. Continue Reading>>
hungry?
Thanks to the French military and UN presence, there is a growing variety of food available in the capital of Chad. We took advantage of that often when we were in the capital. But if you really wanted to eat the way most Chadians do, you would probably get tired of their food after one day. That is because they eat what they call boule for most of their meals. It is made of boiled ground millet. (You can buy millet seed in the States, usually for bird food.) It’s boiled into a consistency similar to that of play-doe, but the part that makes it nice most of the time is the sauce that you dip it into. This is usually made of a leafy sauce spiced up to be quite tasty… most of the time. A platter for the boule for everyone to share off of, and a bowl for the sauce for everyone to dip into. No table and chairs, and best of all, apart from the one platter and bowl, no dishes to clean up afterwards. Bon apetit!
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