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.