Last year’s team during a brief pit stop.
We’re headed out for a trip around eastern Chad today. Visiting some Chadian brothers and sisters in several towns and villages in the east. Looking forward to good times of fellowship, encouragement, and strategizing about how to expand Christ’s kingdom throughout this land!
Please pray for us. There will be two other expats and several Chadian pastors joining me for this trip.
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.
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.
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.
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