Category: Ministry Page 1 of 7

Eye Clinics 2023

On February 26, 2023

We have just finished the 3rd round of eye clinics out in the village and we appreciate all the prayers that were lifted up on our behalf. Dr. Brian and the team arrived February 17th after an unplanned night in Paris due to dust storms in N’Djamena. The week of their arrival, the government office that issues travel permits decided to go on strike, so our entire plan was thrown into uncertainty. We prayerfully moved forward with the plan, trusting that God would make a way for them to come out (and putting together Plan B in case he chose not to). We had planned to have them taken care of by the staff of a guest house in N’Djamena and then Josh would meet them in Abeche when they arrived by plane, but due to the uncertainty of travel permits Josh and the boys took a last minute trip to N’Djamena to welcome them and see what could be done to push the permits along. Our last chance to fly out east (and thus actually have a chance to do the clinics before they had to return to the US) was Friday, February 19th. Thursday afternoon came and went and still not permits. We decided to go anyway, and our church partners wrote us a letter explaining what we were doing and that we travelled with their blessing.

So Friday morning we set out, not flying to Abeche but to another town near the Sudanese border that was closer to the village where we would do the clinics. We rearranged our plans at the last minute, deciding to go directly to the village before passing through Abeche on our way out to provide some eye care to Chadian pastors and missionaries who had gathered there for a conference. We arrived Friday afternoon at the dirt airstrip, and after doing one flyover to check the airstrip for obstacles and a second last-minute aborted landing due to a couple of military guys who decided it was a good time to fly down the airstrip towards us on their motorcycle for no apparent reason, we landed without incident. Abdoulaye was there with our car waiting for us, having travelled from Abeche that morning. We hopped in the car and made the 1.5 hour drive to the village.

The clinics were a great success, and we were able to see about 300 people. Kimberly, Josh and one of our teammates translated for the doctor. The hot sun, wind and dust of the Sahel is a recipe for eye trouble, and as always there was plenty of work for Dr. Brian. Cataracts (we referred people to a clinic in Abeche where they do surgery), glaucoma (we had eye drops that if taken regularly can slow its progress), trauma (how many people did we see who had been poked with a thorn in the eye, or hit with a piece of wood, rock, etc.), severely dry eyes and regular old eyeglass prescriptions were just some of the problems we saw.

We are thankful for these clinics, both because they are a chance to relieve a bit of suffering for those who come, but also because they are a door into their lives, families and villages. Everywhere I go in the east I meet people who have been to, or at least heard about the clinics. “When is the doctor coming again?” is a regular question I hear at the local markets I visit.

Would you join us in thanking God for these clinics, and praying that they may be a door for the gospel to enter into this dark place?

Slow Down

By kimberly

On February 24, 2023

In Chad, Culture, Ministry

Being in the village for almost three weeks had provided many opportunities to examine our own cultural values in light of the culture we have entered. As a young, short-term missionary years ago I learned a saying: It’s not wrong, it’s just different. This is a good first step towards opening our eyes to people from other cultures in effort to understand their mindset and how to best minister to them and share the gospel with them. However, it stops short of helping us really understanding the people we seek to minister as persons created in the image of God. It perpetuates an us vs. them mentality that is not helpful for life on life ministry.

As different as the Makai village people are to us and our way of life, I am recognizing there are many ways we can grow in our own character and as believers by learning and even embracing some of their deep-rooted values. I don’t mean their works-based, fear-based religious beliefs, but some of the deeper cultural values that we in the West have forsaken. Some of my reflections on these things are inspired by Wendell Berry novel I read a few months back called Jayber Crow which really challenged me in ways I am still processing.

Our broader culture, and even the Christian community, often emphasizes fruitfulness and productivity – tangible numbers and results. Yes, God has given us work to do, and this is good. Yet I’m afraid I have lived a lot of my life on a basis of task-oriented productivity, checking off lists in order to feel like my contribution matters, even at the risk of ignoring human relationship and need. Here in the village, and generally in Chad, “henisse” – being together – is of utmost importance. Eating alone, going on a visit alone, doing household tasks alone, spending the evening alone, is viewed negatively. Of course, we want someone with us – all the time!

As a missionary from the West, I have a choice: I can continue to acknowledge that this “henisse” lies in stark contrast to my own cultural value system and figure out how to crate boundaries, barriers, time slots to fit people in to our day. Yet here in the village, there is no framework for that. We have people from 6am in the morning until late in the evening coming in for short or long visits. Some people bring us gifts from their fields, others need help with something practical or medical, others stop by for a short greeting, others sit down for a cup of tea or whatever food they might find served at our home, while still others come to offer to help me wash dishes or rake the yard.

At times in Jesus’ ministry, he sought to get away for prayer, but the crowds would follow Him. Instead of complaining or becoming frustrated, He had compassion on them and gave more of Himself. In Jayber Crow, the main character (Jayber) sees the God-given beauty in everyday, normal interactions amongst the townspeople. Simply being together adds value to their lives in a way that rushing around, fulfilling all the tasks cannot provide.

I had a local lady compare two missionary women recently. It was a Mary and Martha sort of comparison. The one woman was so busy in her kitchen and hardly came to sit with her visitors; the other woman provided the best food she had to offer but also sat with them, giving her visitors the best gift: her time and herself. I think this also has a lot of implications for us as believers, not just as cross-cultural workers, but as team members on the field, or as fellow believers attending the same church. Living out the “one another” commands can’t really happen if we’re so busy rushing around in our task-oriented lives. We must intentionally slow down to consider one another, pray for one another, encourage and build up one another. So, as I receive one more visitor and my natural, fleshly, Western cultural self is tempted to look at my husband and roll my eyes or let out a sigh, I’m trying to remember the significance of giving myself and my time for the sake of the gospel. I’m learning that I have as much to learn from these new friends as they may have to learn from me.

Little Things With Great Love

By kimberly

On February 15, 2023

In Chad, Ministry

Audrey Assad has some great song lyrics and some of my current favorites are from a song entitled “Little Things With Great Love“:

“In the garden of our Savior

No flower grows unseen

His kindness rains like water

On every humble seed

No simple act of mercy

Escapes His watchful eye

For there is One who sees me

His hand is over mine.”

Washing dishes. Fixing broken water-well parts. Serving tea and dates. Hand-washing laundry. Sitting with a mother who just delivered a baby. Taking eye drops to an elderly woman. Reading a story to my kids. Taking an extra minute to pray for a poor woman with no family. Driving people to another town to attend a funeral. Helping a neighbor pound her millet.

In the village, a lot of our family’s “little things” look different than normal. But regardless of where we find ourselves, we all have opportunities each moment to do these little, insignificant things with great love. And sometimes, that makes all the difference.

Eye Infections and Insect Repellent: How do these things belong in the same sentence?

By kimberly

On February 15, 2023

In Ministry

A friend came two afternoons ago to tell me that Bonnie, one of the elderly women in the village, was about to get on a donkey and travel to another village unless we took her in her car. She wanted to find a person who could perform some traditional healing treatments on her in order to “get out” the “something” that was in her eyes – by licking them with their own tongue!

She had been battling an eye infection for 4 days and I knew she originally had antibiotic eye drops, but afterwards found out she had lost them. I, of course, in good conscience, cannot transport someone with an eye infection to a place where they will perform such an unhygienic act. Thankfully, I blamed it all on our eye doctor friend who will soon be coming here to serve the community. “The eye doctor would be very angry with me if I took you now to the next town. Be patient. I will see if he can receive a message in America from my telephone. Maybe he can help us.” Thankfully, Bonnie waited, and thankfully, Dr. Pyron responded so quickly!

I visited Bonnie, saw her eyes, and noticed a white substance above her eye and on the bridge of her nose. “What is this white stuff?” I asked.

“Oh it’s insect powder. The flies won’t stay away so I started pouring this insect repellent powder on my face to keep them away.”

“Oh no, you can’t use this on your skin and eyes. It could make you sick or blind! I’m going to have to take it away now and bring it back to you later. Use oil on your skin. You know that’s what helps keep the flies away.”

I sent the doctor a photo of the infected eyes and the insect powder. He recommended a certain eye drop and said “the insect powder is NOT RECOMMENDED” for keeping flies away!

We got her started on the proper treatment yesterday after a trip to a bigger town with a pharmacy (there’s none here). She’s slowly feeling better today, and I trust if she continues her treatment she will return to normal in a few more days. Now if we can just find someone in the community to wash her laundry other than me, the missionary, I will be ok letting her stay here in the village. Otherwise, I really hope we can all convince her to move to the big city and live with relatives who can take care of her.

Death of a President: The End of an Era

By kimberly

On April 25, 2021

In Chad, Ministry

For the 6 ½ years we have lived in Chad, we’ve never taken for granted the relative peace and freedom as missionaries we have experienced. From Josh’s first vision trip, he was impressed by the fact that Muslims and Christians could live side-by-side, selling at the same markets, and that missionaries were legally allowed to work for the church even in Muslim areas.

A landlocked nation surrounded by war-torn countries, Chad’s borders have for years been dotted with refugee camps from surrounding nations: Libya’s ongoing battles, Sudan’s Darfur crisis, Central African Republic’s ongoing civil war. The Chadian military, lead by President Idriss Deby, was committed to fighting Islamists across the Sahel region as well as on their own soil (Boko Haram for example).

We would often reflect together how thankful we were that even though the president had been in power since the 90’s and the people here are very poor, hungry, and lack quality health care, at least there was peace. “When Deby dies, ‘all bets are off,’” we would comment. What we meant is that for the time being, things were somewhat predictable, and peace was likely to continue. We would often stop there, refusing to let our minds dwell on ‘what would happen’ when the president died. We both assumed it could very well mean the end of ministry here.

Now, we’ve just watched the nation bury their president after incurring wounds from fighting rebels on the front lines only 300 km from the capital city. All bets do seem off, in some regard. There is a lot of speculation about what might happen and when. Many workers have evacuated the capital and other remote locations in the country because of the uncertainty of what might come in the weeks and months ahead.

It’s been an interesting week here, feeling the emotions that our Chadian friends also feel:

from the fear after hearing news that rebels were approaching the capital a week ago,
to the outright shock physically and emotionally that the president had died,
to the uncertainty of the future of the nation, to the desire for things to continue like normal,
to the frustration and even anger at the fact that the Chadian people have had no say in who assumes power after the president died (the military transitional council dissolved parliament and the constitution immediately after the news broke that Deby had died).

So much of our lives here is lived trying to understand the hearts and minds of Chadians – we sympathize with their suffering, but we never have experienced the helplessness of the works-based Islamic religion. Nor have we suffered unnecessarily at the hands of incompetent health care providers. We ache at the sight of beggar children on the roadside or malnourished children, but we do not know what it’s like to be desperately hungry. But this week, we have certainly been able to identify with the thoughts of many of our friends.

Thankfully, we have God’s word and character as an anchor. As we have had moments of shock or feelings of uncertainty, we are able to call to mind our sovereign, good Father who is working all things together – even presidents dying, rebels fighting, constitutions being dissolved – for His glory and our good. We commiserate with our Chadian friends but can point them to a God who is trustworthy and faithful because of His promises in His word. We remind people that we may be surprised, but God never is.

We have so much to be thankful for as we reflect at the events of this past week. In addition to a good and faithful God who has given us the gift of His word and the Holy Spirit to comfort us and give us peace, we also have had many people reach out assuring us of their prayers for safety and wisdom. We have had such great communication amongst the other missionary leaders in the country to provide us with a lot of helpful information as we make decisions for our team here in the east of the country. We have felt the support and guidance of our sending organization as news was pouring in and go-bags were being packed. We have experienced peace in our city all week.

Thank you for your prayers for Chad – its people and government – and for us as we have walked through a week of uncertainty. For now, we feel confident that the best thing we can do is stay here and continue with the work God has given us to do. We continue to monitor the news and consult with others who can help us make informed decisions. We pray that many Chadians will hear the good news of a Kingdom that will never fails and that many will trust in Christ as a result of this political crisis.

Videos from VBS

By josh

On July 13, 2020

In Chad, Ministry

Back in June we participated in a VBS in East Texas. We had a blast, and part of our participation was creating a few videos about our work in Chad. A big thanks to Covid-19 for exposing my video skills (or lack thereof…). Regardless, we had fun so I thought I’d share them.

Dreams and Visions

By josh

On July 8, 2020

In Ministry

Is God Using dreams and visions to bring Muslims to Christ?

This is a question we’ve heard often, and there are certainly many reports of Muslims having dreams and visions and which cause them to be open to the Gospel or to follow Christ. Many missionaries even pray for God to send dreams and visions to Muslims in order to make them open to the Gospel.

I came across this article from Costi Hinn the other day that provides a lot of wisdom in navigating this issue. Since it pretty accurately sums up our thoughts, I’ll just post a link without a lot of commentary.

How to View Claims About Dreams and Visions

Don’t Waste Your Quarantine

By kimberly

On March 30, 2020

In Ministry, Other thoughts, Suffering

How a Global Pandemic Can Strengthen Your Prayers for World Missions

As the COVID-19 pandemic spreads around the world and impacts our own lives, we have a unique opportunity to better understand the circumstances of those in other parts of the world. In very real ways, Westerners have felt the desperation of wondering whether we will have the food and supplies we need for the coming weeks. We’ve questioned whether we’ll have a job and means of supporting our families. We have seen the fallibility of our healthcare system, one of the best in the world but still unable to keep up with the demands of a pandemic. We have experienced the way many of those who are least reached with the gospel people live daily: at the mercy of God to provide the next meal; placing their lives in the untrustworthy hands of ill-equipped doctors and under-equipped hospitals. So many men spend their days idly sitting around, unable to find work that could give them dignity in providing for their families.

Even more, on a spiritual level, we are now faced with the odd and challenging reality that we cannot meet together with our local church family for Sunday worship. Weekly fellowship may be happening, but not in the way we are used to: we are having to get creative. Parking lot coffee dates. Zoom Bible study and prayer meetings. For Christians living in Muslim-majority countries, these challenges are not new. Many are not legally allowed to gather to worship in the name of Jesus. Others, in Chad for example, are technically allowed to meet but are met with death threats, lose their jobs, face beatings or death from family and tribal members. You can see why convincing unbelievers to consider the truths of the Gospel, much less planting a church, is a challenge.

What does this have to do with your quarantine? God is sovereign over this pandemic, and He is working in many ways at once. We cannot attempt to understand all He is doing, but we do know that His character remains the same. This means that His love, mercy, justice, righteousness, wisdom, are all on full display during this season. It also means that His heart for the nations and for His church does not stop. He hasn’t put aside His desire to draw all people to Himself so He can sort out the mess of COVID-19! Your quarantine is meant to draw you closer to God’s character, His truth as revealed in Scripture, and to His heart. Part of that might mean that His Spirit reveals sins and grants you repentance. Maybe He gives you a new love for His church as a result of not having the privilege of meeting together with your church family.

I pray that it also causes you and me to pause and consider how we can better pray for unbelievers in other places who struggle to find food to eat and jobs to provide for their families and who don’t have good health care. These are the ones who are too busy just trying to survive to have much capacity to think about spiritual concepts such as life, death, sin, and salvation. These same ones in the Muslim world are unwilling to consider Jesus because of the severe persecution they will experience as a result of following Him. I pray that this pandemic causes us to love Christ and His Bride more so that we might better pray for believers around the world who don’t know the privilege of freely gathering for worship and preaching of the Word.

This quarantine may seem like a retreat from the world. However, God can use you and me to impact the world for His kingdom through our prayers.

Let’s keep our bodies inside, our hearts on Christ, and our prayers towards the growing of His kingdom. Don’t waste your quarantine!

Words, Worldview and the Gospel

By kimberly

On March 8, 2020

In Islam, language, Ministry

When Chadian Muslims ask forgiveness from someone they have wronged, they use a word which we would translate in English as “forgive me.” Embedded in their request for forgiveness from the offending party is a strong sense that God has forgiven them, whether or not the offended party forgives.

The Arabic words for “sin” against God and “error” against man are two different ideas. Biblically, when we sin against our brother, as Psalm 51 shows us, we are ultimately, primarily sinning against God and His law. In Muslim thinking, an “error” against their friend or brother is not necessarily seen as a sin against God.

It is hugely important to communicate to our new believing friends as well as to those we are sharing the Gospel with that when we speak of sin, we are speaking of the big and little things – all are against a Holy God. If I use the Arabic word “zanib”, translated in English as “sin”, with the average Chadian Muslim without explanation they will not understand it in a biblical sense. I may assume they’re understanding me, and they will probably say they are if asked, but they aren’t. For one thing, Islam rejects the idea of original sin. And as long as they haven’t committed the “big sins” (murder, adultery, blasphemy, etc) they’re doing ok. The petty stealing, lying, gossiping, and other fruits of the sinful nature are not that big of a deal. These “errors” are not seen as offenses against the Holy God of the Scriptures. If they don’t understand sin as the Bible describes, then God’s love and mercy, His holiness and justice, in fact, all the gifts he bestows on us through Christ, frankly are not such “Good News” after all. In order to understand this Gospel, they must understand the Biblical definition of sin.

Why spend this much time in language learning? We can’t afford not to! We can’t afford to spend our energy sharing, assuming they’ve understood us, when they really haven’t. The Gospel is too precious. We don’t continue learning language because we’re good at it, or even because we like it. We press forward in order to understand the nuances of the language, religion, and culture so that we can communicate very clearly the richness of the Gospel we are seeking to proclaim.

Would you pray for us to learn to communicate the Gospel clearly? Would you also pray that we would find a homeschool helper/nanny to return to Chad with us next year to allow Kimberly to focus full-time on language for 1-2 more years?

Eye Clinics in the bush

By josh

On March 7, 2020

In Chad, Ministry

A few weeks ago we hosted a team of 4 from Hunter Street Baptist Church in Hoover, AL. They visited Abeche and we spent 3 nights in the village doing eye clinics. The team included an optometrist, Brian, an old friend of ours. In fact, he was the one who invited me (Josh) on my first trip to Senegal, where I met Kimberly and initially considered doing mission work full-time. Quite an eventful trip, I am forever indebted to Brian for that invitation!

Josh and Kimberly, February 2008, Casamance Region of Senegal
I “just happened” to sit next to her many times during the trip…

Ok (shakes head and snaps out of daydream), back to 2020.

The team arrived on February 12th, and after a day to recover in the capital we headed out by car for the 900km trip to Abeche. Three of the four team members are old hats, having traveled all over West Africa. Regardless, they were good sports and we had an uneventful trip, which is the best kind here in Chad.

We spent the weekend in Abeche, just resting and preparing for our trip to the village. The kids enjoyed having some new activities to play with Mrs. Nancy and Mr. Wayne. Our friend Fatime took the visitors to the Abeche market. Sunday morning we went out to the hills just outside of town. It was great to spend a couple of days showing them our town.

Monday morning early we loaded up and headed out to the village. We had two vehicles, with 10 adults and 5 children. Another worker friend of ours came along in order to do a test on a well near the village, where he’s doing a project to replace an old broken foot pump with a solar-powered electrical pump.

We arrived in the village around lunchtime on Monday, and took Monday afternoon to set up and plan how the clinic would work. All day Tuesday and Wednesday we did eye clinics, with the doctor seeing around 300 people. Many had cataracts and he could only refer them to one of the larger towns for surgery. Lot’s of eyes had been damaged by trauma, usually thorns. The thorns in Chad are often several inches long and can puncture the sole of your shoe, so you can imagine what it would do to an eyeball. We were able to help some with glasses, and most people went away with a bottle or two of artificial tears at least. The desert sun, winds and sand are really tough on eyes!

After finishing the clinic on Wednesday afternoon we rode down to the wadi (a seasonal riverbed) where we enjoyed the huge mango and guava trees. We came upon a family of monkeys playing high in the branches of one particular mango tree, and as we stood below watching they threw several mangoes at us.

Thursday morning it was back to Abeche after saying goodbye to the village and promising that we would indeed be back, but it will be after our time in the U.S. this year. We enjoyed our last afternoon and evening with the team in Abeche, and Friday morning they flew back to N’Djamena with MAF. That night they started the long journey back to the U.S.