Author: josh Page 8 of 9
This is a post for those of you who have a heart for what God is doing but aren’t exactly sure how to be practically involved in addition to giving financially or praying for general requests that we send out (both of which are infinitely important!). We are ever grateful for all of you, and we truly consider you as our partners in this ministry. Our heart’s desire is for you to feel ownership along with us, not because of who we are, but because you share God’s heart with us to reach Muslims with the Gospel that has power to change lives of people, families, and cultures in Chad. So, we want to give you some useful suggestions of how you can be a good “sender” and in another blog post we’ll share with you some specific ways to pray on a more regular basis. Many of you are already doing some of these things and we have been blessed by your thoughtfulness and encouragement.
So first, here are some practical ways you can be a good sender. Do you have other suggestions? Please let us know or just surprise us!
- Don’t forget about us! Put reminders on your calendar or phone to pray for our family and for God’s work in the hearts of those we are working with.
- Send emails, Facebook messages, or handwritten letters to keep in touch and remind us of your prayers.
- Adopt a person who we are ministering to. Commit to interceding regularly for just one person who we mention in our updates. You can email us and ask for updates or how to pray more specifically for that person. We’ve had prayer partners do this in the past and it is not only an encouragement to us in the ministry, but truly makes a difference in the hearts and lives of the lost!
- Set up Skype times with us – we love seeing familiar faces and it makes us feel not so far away!
- Send a Christmas card, family photos, birth announcements, etc. We may be farther away, but mail is always, always appreciated!
- Have your children color pictures for our boys or write letters to them. Or commit to having a pen pal relationship with them!
- Think of ways to encourage our family members in America (especially our parents who miss their grandchildren) and let them know of your prayers. Send them a card, take time to talk to them about any struggles they may be having related to us living far away.
- When we come home on furlough in America, be willing to donate items or help us get set up for our time at home. Ask what we need and how you can help make the transition easier for our family and our boys. Talk to our boys, set up play dates with your children, show them you are interested in them, and that you pray for them. Ask them about their friends and their life overseas.
- Come visit us and get your hands dirty and your feet dusty sharing the gospel and serving our family and our community. We love visitors, especially if you’ll bring Goldfish for Isaac and Judah!
Over the course of the last year, we have shared the statistic with you that there are 18-20 unreached and unengaged people groups in Eastern Chad. But, what does this mean and why does it matter to our family? Why does it matter to you? We want to take some time over the next few weeks to answer this question in a helpful, but concise way. Our hope is that you will gain a better sense of how you can be involved in God’s Kingdom work in Eastern Chad – what part you can play in bringing the message, hope, and life-changing realities of the gospel to these people.
For starters, what does an “unengaged/unreached people group” even mean? Simply put, an unreached people group is an ethnic group with few or no followers of Christ. A people group is considered “unreached” when the number of Evangelical Christians is less than 2% of the population. This means the people group doesn’t have enough Christians to evangelize the rest of the population. Furthermore, a group is considered “unengaged” when there is no gospel witness among the people group. A people group in not engaged when it is simply the object of focused prayer or is part of an advocacy strategy.
So, how does this information affect your family and our family? We believe that the information above is unacceptable! What a tragedy to know that in 2000 years the church has made very little progress in pushing back the darkness in this part of Africa. Over a million people have yet to hear the good news of Jesus Christ! So, with God’s guidance, our goal is to take His life-giving message to a part of the world saturated with unreached/unengaged Muslim people groups. Our challenge to you is twofold.
First, we challenge you to ask God to burden your heart not just for these people, but for God’s glory to be made known in these hard places.
May He grow in all of us a heart to pray for His word to go forth and transform lives.
Second, we challenge you to ask God not only if he is calling you to GO, but that he would make you WILLING to go the unreached/unengaged peoples of the world.
Over the next few weeks, we plan to highlight a few of the people groups in Eastern Chad who are waiting for someone who is willing to come tell them about Jesus. As always, we are grateful to your generous, faithful hearts in supporting our ministry through prayers, encouragement and financial partnership.
People Groups of the World (each red dot represents an unreached people group)
For His Glory,
Josh and Kimberly
I had a fantastic trip to Chad from January 27th to February 3rd. The purpose of the trip was to visit a town in eastern Chad where we are considering moving shortly after our arrival this Fall. Since many people have asked about the trip, I thought I would post a summary of our activities to give you a better idea of what it was like.
Sunday, January 26th
I left the house around 6AM Sunday morning and took a 3 hour train ride to Paris. I flew out of Paris in the late afternoon and arrived in Chad that evening around 10PM. Same time zone!! My other trips to Africa have started in the States, which makes for killer jetlag after changing 5-6 time zones. Spent the night with a friend and fellow team leader in N’Djamena.
Monday, January 27th
Met in the morning with a family working in the north. Wow, wish I could share more about their situation. Amazing perseverance.
Spent the afternoon having tea with some African church planters hearing about their work and their needs. These guys train church leaders among the Christian church in Chad to reach out to their Muslim neighbors with the Gospel. Very encouraging. One of them from West Africa is the son of a very high ranking Muslim leader, and has lost all contact with his family since he followed Jesus. There was a sadness in his voice as he told us his story, but he serves the Lord with great joy and excitement, leaving his family for months at a time to train church leadership in Chad.
Tuesday, January 28th
12 hour bus ride from N’Djamena to Abéché. Long day, thankful for air conditioning on the bus.
Wednesday, January 29th
Spent the night at the WEC guest house. WEC is a mission organization founded in 1913 by CT Studd. They have been in Chad for at least 50 years.
Spent the day meeting with a couple from our organization who live in Abéché. Enjoyed fellowship with them, and they took us to see the market, various neighborhoods, the sultan’s palace (along with his pet ostrich that sticks its head over the wall when you drive by), and the area just outside of town where bricks are made. Talk about hot work!! 
Thursday, January 30th
Visited the WEC Education Center where they teach English and basic computers classes.
We had tea in the afternoon with a lady who has been doing translation work in Chad for 20 years. She’s done many language surveys among various people groups and worked on literacy programs. She speaks Arabic and one of the tribal languages fluently, having lived in a village for a few years.
Had dinner Thursday evening with an American family from a different organization that has been in Chad less than a year. Great time of fellowship and learning from their recent experiences.
Friday, January 31st
Met with another family recently arrived in Chad. They arrived when their youngest child was 2 months old! I was able to talk with the husband about solar power, buying a vehicle and other practical matters that we’ll be facing before too long.
Visited a Chadian association that provides a place for street boys to come a few times a week and have a meal, wash clothes, learn skills,etc. There are many street boys in Abéché who have no family, little or no education, and no one to help them.
The leadership of the association. Go Colts!
Saturday, February 1st
12 hour bus ride back to N’Djamena. The bus had TV screens that featured a wide variety of programming: Sudanese music concerts, WWE professional wrestling, Jackie Chan movie in Chinese. The Chadians especially liked the wrestling. Not one of my proudest moments to be an American.
Sunday, February 2nd
Back in N’Djamena, I treated my hosts to a meal at a Lebanese Restaurant before catching a flight back to Paris at 11:55PM.
Monday, February 3rd
Back in Paris around 5AM. Caught a train back to Albertville, home around lunchtime.
We are enjoying our Christmas season with little ones in our home this year. Josh surprised us with a tree and a strand of colored lights that we hung in the window. Isaac likes to play with the stockings each night and guess what might be in his on Christmas morning.
Our favorite thing this season has been spending each night doing a Jesse Tree devotional with Isaac. We’re reading Bible stories and learning about the family tree of Jesus. Each night, Isaac has an ornament to hang on our Christmas tree that corresponds with the story we read. Isaiah 11:1 and 10 says, “Out of the stump of David’s family will grow a shoot – a new branch bearing fruit from the old root…in that day the heir to David’s throne will be a banner of salvation to all the world. The nations will rally to him and the land where he lives will be a glorious place.”
We want to remind ourselves, and help Isaac understand, that Christmas doesn’t begin in the manger. We want him to know the whole story of God’s redemption plan. So far, we have studied Creation, Adam and Eve, Noah, Abraham and Sarah, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, and Rahab. Eventually we will make our way through the Old Testament stories and spend a few days before Christmas talking about how Jesus is the fulfillment of God’s promises and prophecies from the Old Testament. He is the ONE we are waiting for this season! We are excited about this new family Christmas tradition. It is something we can take with us anywhere in the world, even in a place like Chad where Christmas is not celebrated – where we won’t have trees and pretty lights. We pray this tradition is an eternal blessing to our children in the years to come.
Speaking of Bible stories…in French class each Friday, we are beginning to learn Biblical vocabulary. We started with pronunciation of the books of the Bible, but quickly dove in to learning how to communicate stories from Scripture in French. We are trying to write up a small summary of the stories in French to have our teacher correct each week. By the end of the year, our goal is to have a completed Creation to Christ set in French to use in Africa. Many people in Chad are illiterate, so one important way we hope to be able to communicate the gospel to our Chadian friends is to share stories, similar to a Jesse Tree style, showing through Scripture that Jesus is the promised Messiah, the fulfillment of all prophecies, and the Sent One to take away their sin and shame.
Isn’t it encouraging to think that stories simple enough to share with a 2 year old are the same stories that encourage our faith and can be used to bring others to salvation? Thank you, God, for the blessing of having access to your life-changing Word!
Since we had exams on Thanksgiving day, all the students agreed to celebrate Thanksgiving the following Saturday. We woke up to a beautiful snow falling, and Isaac helped make a snowman with his friends!
Since we couldn’t get our hands on any Campbell’s Cream of Mushroom Soup for green bean casserole (my favorite Thanksgiving dish), I decided to take on the challenge of making a green bean casserole from scratch using The Pioneer Woman’s recipe. It got lots of complements and was much tastier than the traditional mushroom soup recipe!
Judah got in on the celebrations with his turkey attire 🙂
At our Thanksgiving feast that evening, we had about 60 people to feast and give thanks with, and about 6-7 different nationalities were represented.
Isaac playing with his friend, A, before the meal.
Our Thanksgiving spread (notice Isaac in the bottom right corner checking out the food!)
Our Thanksgiving in France was perfect for making special memories, spending time with our family, and remembering all we have to be thankful for!
“Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18
Our family’s holiday season looks different this year. Because we are overseas and in transition, we won’t decorate a Christmas tree, we won’t wrap lots of gifts, and we won’t visit all of our family. Is your holiday season promising to be as magical as the TV commercials suggest, or is the reality of life for one reason or another creeping in and taking away the “wonder” of the holidays? May we encourage you this Advent season with what God has been teaching us lately? No matter how big or small your tree is, no matter how many family and friends surround you this December, and no matter how many gifts you receive or are able to give this year, our sovereign God, in good times and bad, is at His very core, a Giving God. This is what Christmas (and each day) is all about as a follower of Jesus! God gives us good gifts in Jesus, and He gives us grace in each moment of each day. Even the difficulties are full of abundant blessings because God is using those things to make us into the image of His Son. Sometimes, it is all too easy to have a mouth overflowing with complaints, isn’t it? Ann Voskamp, in her book One Thousand Gifts, says “Complaint is the bitter howl of unbelief in any benevolent God in this moment, a distrust in the love-beat of the Father’s heart.” Our family is learning to keep a thankful heart, believing that God has sovereignly ordained our every minute. We look for God’s blessings in the ordinary things by keeping a thankful journal to recount God’s grace in our lives. This Christmas season, will you join us in practicing His presence? Give thanks to Him in everything and receive much joy in return! Is there any better gift exchange could we ask for this Christmas?
One of the most helpful tools in language learning, other than the willingness to make a complete fool out of yourself (actually a requirement), is having someone to meet with regularly to speak. In a situation like ours, it is possible, even easy, to get through the day without actually speaking much French. We live in our own little community, and we can accomplish much of what we need to on a daily basis without leaving the campus. The challenge, especially for a natural introvert (both Kimberly and I), is to get out and speak. It may seem obvious (OK, it is obvious) but there are people who spend months or a year learning a language and still can’t communicate because they don’t get out of their comfort zone and practice. If left to my own desires, I would rather flip through notecards than go into the community and babble like an idiot, but we must babble like idiots in order to improve! This is a humbling (and humiliating) experience!
So, one way to get more practice is to get a language helper. This is someone who agrees to meet once or twice a week to just talk. It’s very painful at first, especially if the person speaks little or no English. But something happens, so we’ve been told, as you struggle more and more to speak. PROGRESS. Little by little, after hearing that verb 27 times, you remember what it means or how it’s conjugated for third person singular.
After being in survival mode for about the first month, Kimberly and I started talking about trying to get a language partner for each of us. We asked for help from the school staff, and they found one for Kimberly. They met for the first time last week and Kimberly was amazed that she was able to speak French for 45 minutes. Sylvia, her language partner, is very pleasant and helpful (and speaks SLOWLY for Kimberly’s benefit). As of last Friday, I didn’t have anyone to meet with.
I had just finished putting the car seats in our rental car when an older gentleman walked into the parking lot of the school and started speaking to me in French. I caught bits and pieces of what he was saying, but couldn’t really communicate so I brought him in to the school administrator and let her talk with him. I stayed around and listened, and it turns out the gentleman is a 93 year-old retired Catholic priest who spent 22 years in the Congo (formerly Zaire). He had been communicating with a former student and had come by to say that he received a letter from her. He lives in the retirement home, on a floor just for priests, about 300 meters from our school. Upon finding out that I am an American, he said he speaks some English but doesn’t have a chance to practice. Seeing this as an obvious answer to my prayer for a language partner, I asked him if we could meet together and talk – he can practice his English and I can practice French. He was delighted and gave me his email address. I emailed him that afternoon and we decided to meet the next morning.
Thank you Lord for answering prayer!
I will write about our meetings in separate posts. We’ve already had two meetings and they were great! Hopefully I can write about them soon.
Yesterday, I took Judah to get his 6 month immunizations. The process for getting shots or visiting the doctor is pretty different in France than it is in the U.S. First, I took Judah last week to have a consultation with the doctor. Thankfully, his office is within walking distance, and he speaks excellent English. He checked Judah’s weight (8 kilos – 16 lbs) and height (27 inches) and wrote me a script for the immunizations he would need. A couple days later, I took the prescription to a pharmacy to purchase the immunizations and then keep them in my fridge all week until the next appointment. The doctor does house calls during the day (minus his lengthy pause in the middle of the day) and doesn’t start seeing patients in his office until 5:30 pm. We had an appointment at 6 pm (typically, that is Judah’s bed time these days, but he did great yesterday at the appointment!). We sat in a tiny waiting room and finally the doctor called us in. He answers the phone in his office, makes his own appointment schedule, takes the payments for the visits, and makes change out of his personal wallet. It is quite a different experience from a Doctor’s visit in the States! Not wrong, just different.
It is a huge temptation for me to take this whole language learning experience into my own prideful hands and try to do it in my own strength. I can study as much as is possible (with two young children!) and do my best on tests and in the classroom, but not be doing it in a manner that is pleasing to the Lord in my own heart and attitudes. We have learned close to 1,000 vocabulary words, over 100 verbs, and 4 verb tenses in the past six weeks. That is a LOT! I was convicted recently that I have been doing precisely this: studying, attending class, taking the tests, and either being disappointed in my failures or prideful in my (small) achievements with the language, but never considering the role God has in my studies. Yes, I know He has shown His gracious hand in our family and children as we have adjusted to life here. He has reminded me that He is the one who has a great plan for the people of Chad. But I forgot that He is God even over this little detail of us learning French. Please pray for both of us that as we strive to learn French well, we will humbly remember that it is God who gives us the mind and understanding for learning. We want to remember during our studies to ask God to help us and give us His strength to persevere. We want His blessing as we give our best efforts to learn. Without His grace, we would not be where we are today in our French studies.