Category: Chad Page 8 of 11

Field trip

On August 5, 2015

A few weeks ago Isaac and I joined a group of friends for a 35km trip south of town to the large wadi (seasonal river) from which our town gets water. We had a great time, and learned a lot too. It felt a lot like a field trip in school.

The water is initially pumped from the wadi into a treatment station a few hundred yards away. Even during the dry season, there is water running underneath the wadi.

Most of the year, this is a river of sand, with the water retreating beneath the surface after the rains are gone.

There is a road, made of stones, that crosses the wadi, which is currently submerged under 6 inches of water.

The road crossing the wadi.

What mud?

Although not really planning on Isaac getting muddy from head to toe, I should have known better. As soon as they saw it, the kids catapulted themselves into the muddy water and we could only watch helplessly from the edge. “Oh well”, I thought, “at least there aren’t any crocodiles or hippos.” A little further south, the rivers have their share of both.

So after checking out the wadi, and Isaac falling into the muddy water several times, we headed back up to the treatment plant. We had gathered quite a crowd by that point, as is pretty normal when a group of white people are found wandering around in rural Chad.

Drawing a crowd…

So after waiting a few minutes for permission from the boss of the plant to give us permission, we entered the plant. You could hear the loud drone of the 810 KVA Caterpillar diesel generator that provides the power for the processing at the plant.

Diesel generator that powers the water treatment facility.

Of course a diesel generator is useless without diesel fuel, so there are two gigantic tanks for storing the stuff.

How long could I run the generator at my house with one of these?

Not the filter, but a date palm. Guess you can grow anything with limitless water.

Then on to the giant filter that filters out sand, debris, and who knows what else from the water that is pumped in from the wadi. This part of the process also adds calcium to the water (unless my French fails me). Why calcium? Why not eliminate giardia, amoebas, parasites, etc. at this point? If you drink a lot of this water in Abeche, you’ll know very soon that these things are alive and well, and you’ll have plenty of time to catch up on reading as you spend your days in the bathroom. Yes, I do speak from experience.

At last, after the filtering process the water is sent out to Abeche through four large pumps. This water travels 35 km and is stored in a large cement tank in Abeche until used.

Pumping water to Abeche

Water is a very interesting topic when you have to work so hard to get it. Of course, similar processes are involved in the U.S., but I always just took for granted that when I turned the faucet on, water came out. Magic. Endless. But now, when water comes from the city (a new phenomenon for us since the coming of rainy season), we scramble to fill up everything capable of holding water, not really knowing when water will be available again. When water isn’t available at our house from the city, we pay to have someone bring it by push cart, as I’ve mentioned before. So either way, we have a new appreciation for water.

And compared to those living in rural villages, we have it easy. Many women and girls walk miles to get water from wells during the dry season, which is most of the year. They carry it on their shoulders, or on the backs of donkeys. As has so often been the case since arriving here, stories from the Bible have come alive to us since the culture here hasn’t changed in many ways since Bible times. The daughters of Jethro trying to get water and being chased away by shepherds until Moses intervened, the Samaritan woman at the well, etc.

Please pray that we’ll be able to effectively relate these stories and others to the people here, and point them to the source of Living Water so that they will never thirst again.

Yeah, but do you have a pet ostrich?

By josh

On July 29, 2015

In Chad, Culture

Visited the palace of the Sultan the other day with some visitors, and I brought Isaac along. The Maba Sultanate dates back nearly 400 years, when it split off from the Sultanate of Darfur which encompassed western Sudan and eastern Chad. When the French finally conquered the region in the early 20th Century, the sultanate was all but destroyed. A puppet sultan was put in place to do the bidding of the French. But after Chad’s independence in 1960, the sultanate was restored. Today it exists, not officially as part of the Chadian government, but alongside the government. The sultan is allowed to run his own Islamic court to decide local matters, and is still very influential in the region. He has the traditional palace, where he no longer lives, but instead lives just across the street. His black Hummer is parked outside. And his pet ostrich is still kept inside the palace walls, fenced in (barely) and strutting around like he owns the place.

Isaac and Lillian pose in front of the ostrich.

A Baby “Prophet” in Chad?!

By josh

On July 1, 2015

In Chad, Culture, Islam

Yesterday my house helper came excitedly to my house telling me of a 3 month old baby that everyone in town wanted to see. The baby supposedly had the word “Mohammed” written somewhere on her body, like a birthmark, and now she miraculously spoke three messages in Arabic related to praying and this current Ramadan season. I listened as my house helper told me how beautiful the baby was to look at and how my friend’s clothes were ripped because so many people were pushing their way into the compound to get a look at this baby “prophet” as they were calling her. People even said the president of Chad, Idriss Deby would come today to see the baby.
Today, I asked my helper if Deby came to town to see the baby. She told me that last night a respected Muslim leader in the town spoke on the local radio station to debunk any of the stories that had been rampant around town yesterday. He told the people he went there and saw the baby and none of the stories are true. The baby’s father and mother either made it all up or it was a demonic presence that they saw. Either way, they now have a stash of money from people who came to see the baby and thankfully this leader told the people on the radio to not believe what they heard.
Our believing friend had many people ask him yesterday what he thought (everyone knows he follows Jesus, is not currently fasting, and sees life differently because he follows the teachings of Jesus). He told them it was not true and today we were rejoicing in a small way that his steadfastness to Truth will today hopefully give him credibility amongst his non-believing friends. We pray that this sparks more conversations and opportunities for people to take a second thought at the things our friend has said about the gospel.
Regardless of whether the story of this “prophet” baby is a lie or something demonic, we are stricken with the grave reality that the vast majority of people living around us are so willing to believe anything but the Truth. They are in the middle of their month of obligatory fasting, hoping to add good points to their lives so God will accept them into paradise and they are even expectant they they may hear from Allah this month. When they do hear something that seems ridiculous to us, they believe quickly and with excitement. Our prayer is that the eyes of many would be opened to the Truth and that they would quickly and excitedly believe the best news of all – that hope is offered to them because Jesus died for their sins!

Chadian Firsts

By josh

On July 1, 2015

In Chad, Culture

We recently went on a family vacation to southern Spain. Getting there was quite the experience. We took our guard’s family in our vehicle to their village and carried Josh’s Arab language helper all the way to N’Djamena. It was a two day driving trip plus a day by air to get to our final destination. Along the way, we had a few first experiences I thought some of you would enjoy hearing about!
We had to drop our guard’s family off in a village, and of course that involved bathroom breaks. When I asked where I could use the bathroom, they handed me a shovel and told me to go behind their (mud brick) house, use the bathroom, and then shovel it over the grass fence. Typically, you find Chadian style (hole-in-the-ground) toilets in villages and in towns here. I assume this is a new village and they just hadn’t gotten around to digging a hole!
The family we visited offered us drinking water that looked like it came straight from a lake. There was no way I could touch it, but it broke my heart, knowing they were giving us their best and this is the best they had to offer.
They tried to give us a duck as a gift for bringing the family to their village (they were so happy because they hadn’t seen the family in four years). We had to turn it down because we were going to the big city and had no way to cook it (not that we would have known anyways!).
Last but not least, we also tried camel’s milk later that night. Our Arab nomad friend stayed in the guest house halfway to N’Djamena and shared dinner with us. He was very excited to have found the camel’s milk in town and couldn’t wait for us to try it. My kids wouldn’t touch it, but I had a small drip on my tongue just to be polite. It was disgusting! I think it was a few days old, because it was very sour. Josh tried it once before and said it wasn’t quite so strong.

Mother’s Day: A Missonary Mom’s Reflections

By kimberly

On May 10, 2015

In Chad, Family

Today is my first Mother’s Day in Africa; it has been a day of much reflection and thanksgiving. It has been a very different day of celebrating than my past Mother’s Days. For one we don’t have a church that we attend, so no one asked me to join other mothers in standing for a moment of recognition. But, that is ok. I spent the entire day with my boys and was thrilled to be on the floor playing Legos, reading books, eating meals with them, singing songs, etc. Really, just the normal things we do every day together. I didn’t get a bouquet of flowers (although Josh arrived home from the capital this afternoon with a few Snickers bars that have my name on them!!) and I had to make all of my own meals…from scratch. But that’s ok. This Mother’s Day has been a very normal day in many ways, but I had the opportunity to slow down, be purposeful in each moment, and ask myself what things I have learned as a mom in the past 6 months since moving to Chad:

God never fails me, never leaves me, and always supplies the words, wisdom, energy, and strength I need – even on the hardest (and hottest!) days.
My husband is amazing in the way that he unselfishly serves me, helps make life as a wife and mother here as easy as possible, and provides for and protects me and our boys.
Kids need stability and consistency and they especially need quality time with mom and dad. I am learning to look my kids in the eye when they talk, and really listen to what they have to say. I want them to know they are heard and important – even more so in a new environment where they often can’t communicate with others.
My kids need traditions, things to look forward to – things that are always the same, day after day and year after year. For us, this means: our family Thanksgiving journal during November, Jesse Tree at Christmas, Lenten Tree at Easter, pancakes with sprinkles on birthdays, morning devotions, bedtime stories and prayers. Making a big deal about holidays is now solely my responsibility – if Josh and I don’t do something to signify a holiday, my children would return to America and never knew the day existed (like Valentine’s Day, Fourth of July, etc.).
Nothing I do (not even missions) is more important than the time I invest in my kids. In many ways, I am a stay-at-home mom just like I would be in America. My house-work looks very different here, but my job is the same. I do want to learn language and have some ministry outlets here (just like I would in the States), but my first job is making sure my children learn to love the Lord and know that mom and dad love them too.
Helping my kids maintain relationships with family back home requires being purposeful, but is so worth it. I am thankful for Skype to be able to have real face to face conversations (and singing/dancing sessions with grandparents and cousins!).

In many ways, mothering in a new country is very similar to mothering in America. In other ways, things are much different for me. I am grateful for how God is growing me and stretching me in motherhood in ways I wouldn’t pay much attention to in the States! Happy Mother’s Day!!

Chadian Wedding

By kimberly

On May 6, 2015

In Chad, Culture

A new worker in town, me, and one of our friends at the wedding.

I had the privilege of attending my first wedding a few days ago. Remember the baby who was born prematurely? His mother’s sister is in the process of getting married. Yes, you read correctly. The wedding I attended was part 1 of 2. Part 1 is called a “fatee” – this is where male representatives of the bride and groom’s families meet together, formally agree to the marriage of their son and daughter, and the groom to be is expected to make a down payment towards the bride price. All of this happens relatively early in the morning and the bride and other women are in another compound, sometimes miles away. Afterwards, the men hang around, drink chai tea and juice, and play cards. Meanwhile, the bride is in a separate compound with her close friends and the other women in the family as well as close friends are in the mother of the bride’s compound cooking an elaborate meal of salad, sugar rice, goat, beets and potatoes, ground beef, etc. Around 2pm, the meal is served on a big platter and 6-8 people gather around to eat together. After this is finished, some girls from the bride’s family come very dressed up but still covered, sit together on a mat and sing songs. (I am trying to post a video but internet is slow now…).

The second stage of the marriage is still mostly a mystery to me at this point, but I do know that it is the time when the groom has raised all the required money to pay the family and the wedding is complete.

Chadian weddings are one topic of conversation, but Chadian marriages are a completely different subject. Soon, I plan to share with you the little I have heard, learned, and observed about marriages in this culture.

Solar Panel Array

By josh

On April 26, 2015

In Chad

Got my panels cleaned today, and remembered that I never did post a picture of the setup, so if you’re interested here it is. The metal frames were constructed by one of the MBBs here in town who is a welder. Same guy who built our water tower. Six panels, 185W each.

(Dirt) Road Trip – Day 2

By josh

On April 26, 2015

In Chad, Culture, Ministry

After a very fitful night’s sleep, I was up with the rooster’s crow the next morning. Having come from Abeche, where we were sweating both day and night, I didn’t think to pack a blanket, or even a sheet. So when the temperature dropped overnight I realized my mistake. Looking around for something to cover up with I found only my other clothes, so I positioned them over my body and tried not to move.

Packed and ready around 6AM, we headed out towards our next destination. It’s a town next to a refugee camp holding more than 30,000 refugees, mostly from the Darfur region of Sudan. The church has had a presence there since just before the refugees started pouring over the Chad-Sudan border, and they are in a good position to reach out to these refugees. For over a decade now the camp has been growing steadily, with no end in sight. The initial hope of returning quickly home has been squashed by the harsh realities of the conflict. They’re not going home any time soon. The initial surge of international concern has faded with the day to day difficulties of caring for so many displaced people. Many NGOs have long since gone home. Some remain to do the thankless work of providing food, sanitation, education, etc. to these seemingly God-forsaken people. May the God who heard the cries of the Israelite slaves in Egypt also hear the heart cry of these people and redeem them for His glory!

We arrived at our first destination around 8 AM, welcomed once again with a huge breakfast meal. Esh, or boule, a paste made of millet and formed into a large ball, was on the menu at each stop. This time it was complimented by a chicken sauce. Also a favorite for breakfast in Chad is a fried donut called “fongasso”. This is good for dipping in coffee or tea, or just eating as-is.

An example of “esh”, pictured here with a green sauce made from the leaves of the hibiscus plant.

Eating quickly and adding the missionary and his wife to our crew, we set out for a small town, village really, on the border with Sudan. The missionary, his family, and a few others are the only Christians in town. They have had some problems buying land there due to being Christians and Southerners. The missionary’s wife has been very sick, and they have struggled under the weight of discouragement. They haven’t received a visit from the church leadership in the entire 9 years that they’ve been there due to the lack of transportation. I imagine that I would have packed up long ago and headed back to familiar territory. They’ve persevered, and were refreshed by the visit from their brothers and sister. We gathered under a shelter made of sticks and straw and they discussed the situation there and how we could help. We drank tea (of course), prayed, sang and just chatted.

Spending time together talking, praying, and singing.

We went as a group to greet the government leadership in the town, to pay our respects and also to try and gain a hearing regarding the land issues. The local leader was friendly enough and and assured us that Christians and Muslims, we’re together and that he would see that the land issues are resolved fairly. This is a familiar refrain from local leaders in Chad, even if it doesn’t quite work like that in practice. Chad is officially secular in government, providing Christianity and Islam equal status under the law. But for Christians encroaching into Muslim areas, they often find fierce opposition in their attempts to buy land and build churches. Often they are relegated to the outskirts of town. But they can find encouragement in remembering that the one who sent them with His Great Commission also provided the Great Assurance, that he has been given authority over all things in Heaven and on Earth and that He will be with them always. We can’t fail, in the grand scheme of things, if by failure we mean that God’s will is thwarted. Hallelujah!

Some praise and worship time just before sending us off.

Unfortunately, due to time constraints, we had to leave again after just a few hours with these brothers and sisters. We packed up and retraced our route back the way we came, stopping for the night in the town near the refugee camp. After several hours of intense driving, constantly trying to choose the best path (meaning least likely to get us bogged down in sand), I was exhausted. After a quick bucket bath and a bit to eat, I crashed on the cot I had brought along. Having borrowed an extra blanket from the missions director, I slept soundly all night long. I would need to be well rested for our drive the following day, which would bring lots more rocky terrain and deep sand and we headed back west to our next destination.

(Dirt) Road Trip

By josh

On April 20, 2015

In Chad, Ministry

Many people have been praying for my trip around the region, so I thought I’d post a recap of the trip for those who are interested. I initially suggested the trip while meeting with the Director of Missions/Evangelism for the church denomination with which we partner – Les Assemblées Chrétiennes au Tchad.This is a French-speaking church made up mostly of southerners, and it’s the second largest denomination in Chad.

Much of the first couple of months in Chad for me was spent writing and negotiating a partnership agreement with this denomination so that they would sponsor our visas. This was necessary because we entered the country on 3 month tourist visas, and we were planning to switch to one-year missionary visas. So this partnership was critical to our long-term strategy.

Thankfully, the Lord provided open doors and toward the end of January we signed an agreement – basically that we would work together in whatever ways possible to further the Gospel in Chad. One of the ways I found that I could serve them is to provide a vehicle to allow them to visit some missionaries in far flung places that they have difficulty reaching. Most church members and leaders do not own vehicles, so travel is restricted to public transportation, and traveling outside of the major cities is extremely difficult and unpredictable.

So a couple of weeks ago the Director of Missions caught a bus to our town, and then we set off together with a few other people. The pastor of the local ACT church went along, and I brought a friend who works with me often and was interested in visiting the places on our itinerary.

Day 1

We set off around 7AM driving south from our town. The paved road ended before we even got out of town, and we wouldn’t see pavement again for 3 days. The road varied from hard packed dirt and rocks to several feet of sand. I had decided to drive because I wanted to gain experience driving in the bush. And no one else volunteered…

We drove for several hours over teeth-rattling terrain until we made it to our first stop. We stopped in a small town to meet up with the leader of all the missionaries in eastern Chad. In addition to keeping track of the missionaries in the East, he also pastors the ACT church in town along with several other elders. I immediately liked him.

We got a tour of the church compound where he lives along with another elder and their families. Part church campus, part residence, part farm, and part school, it serves as a gathering place for the Christians in town. Since this part of the country is predominately Muslim, most towns have very small Christian populations – often just government workers and members of the military stationed there.

School building being built. It will serve not just the children of Christians but many others in the community.

Meeting place for Sunday School and worship times.

Missionary residences.

After some time of fellowship, a meal of wild boar and sauce, and a little rest we continued on to the next town, where we would spend the night. The missionary and another of the elders joined us, bringing our total to 6. We drove for another few hours, now navigating much more sand and the road becoming less and less obvious. We finally arrived at our destination in the late afternoon. This is a larger town, and a missionary from the ACT has just been stationed there. We arrived just in time for prayer meeting, so we joined the local brothers and sisters for prayer in the compound of one of the elders. We sang some songs – some in French and some in southern Chadian languages, had a brief time of introduction for us, and then prayed. At every stop there was great hospitality – hot tea, cokes, and lots of food. It was a great cultural experience to spend time with these new friends, and also lots of fun.

The newly constructed missionary residence.

Prayer meeting in the home of one of the elders.

After eating we prepared our beds, all of us sleeping outside in the courtyard of this compound. Coming from Abeche, where the days were reaching 118 degrees and the nights still warm, I didn’t bring anything to cover up with. So I was very surprised when I woke up in the middle of the night freezing! I was so cold I pulled my arms in my shirt and curled up in a ball. It was a miserable nights sleep. Lesson learned the hard way…

I will continue with Day 2 in a separate post.

Running Water and Living Water

By josh

On February 20, 2015

In Chad, Ministry

Water in the desert is never a simple thing to find. We are in the very small minority of people here who actually have “running” water in our house. For this blessing, we are grateful, although we once took it for granted! In order to have water readily available at the kitchen sink or toilet, we needed to have a place to store large amounts high off of the ground, where we could take advantage of the law of gravity to provide some pressure to make the water “run”. So, we hired a welder and other workers to construct a tower capable of holding a large (550 gallon, nearly 5000 lbs. when full) tank.. The base of the tank is nearly 12 feet off the ground, and the tank itself is about 6 feet tall.

Every day, we pay for multiple “pousse-pousse” deliveries. A “pousse-pousse” (pousser is the French verb for “to push, or roll”) is a push cart with 10 jerry cans of water. This is how water is delivered to homes in Abeche. Young men fill their carts with water from a well, paying a small fee, and then push the cart around town to deliver the water. The cost for a single pousse is $1.50 – $2.00. When they arrive, they pour the water into a small holding tank at the base of the water tower, and we turn on a pump that’s connected to our solar power system. The water is pumped from the holding tank up nearly 18 ft. to the top of the large tank. The large tank has a pipe feeding our house and voila, we have running water!

There have been a few learning curves for our family, however, when it comes to our running water. Because it is such hard work and costs money to get it to our house, we are trying to teach our boys (and ourselves) to be very conscious of every bit of water we use. We still allow them to play with a small bucket or two in the sand each day. However, their bath water gets dumped from the big basins onto the trees next to where they bathe. We turn the water off each time we don’t need to use it while brushing teeth or during a shower. Instead of flushing our toilet (which is possible), we are trying to get into the habit of flushing manually by pouring water down. Otherwise, an excess of water is used to fill the tank each time it is flushed.

Are there ways you try to conserve water in your home? Is there a place in your home next to a water source where you could put a reminder to pray for those unengaged groups of eastern Chad who not only have no running water but also don’t yet know or love the Source of Living Water?