Settling In

Week 3 Summary

This past week was relatively uneventful. We have grown in our comfort level here and time has begun to fly. I worked hard on the dictionary, while Lornel continued her work in the SIL financial office, working with the girls club at Sahel, and helping with a children’s club in our neighborhood. Our neighborhood has mostly Zarma speakers so the children’s club is in Zarma. The guard at our house is a Zarma speaker, he introduced us to a boy in the neighborhood who speaks English that is willing to teach me some Zarma. We learned some Zarma greetings and basic questions Friday night. This coming Monday we are getting some African cooking lessons from a Fulani woman; she will also be teaching us some Fulfulde. This past week my mentor here, Milton Watt was having his Joseph story, and the Pastoral Epistles checked by a language consultant who has had a lot of experience with Fulfulde. I was able to observe some of the checking sessions, which was great exposure to some of the practical elements of Bible translation. Lornel and I celebrated Valentines day on Wednesday. We cooked up some fillet of beef and had a nice romantic evening together. This week's picture is of me serving up the beef.

Highlight of the week

The highlight of our third week here in Niger was definitely the Fulani prayer meeting that we attended on Wednesday from 9:30-1:00. We got to meet church planters from four different missions who are living in Fulani villages. We had some time of singing, a devotional, and a meal; but the largest chunk of time was devoted to letting each missionary family share about their work and giving specific prayer requests. They gave Lornel and I a chance to share as well. They were very excited to learn that the Western Fulfulde dictionary that I will be working on will be in both French and English. It was very encouraging to see their excitement about the work we are devoting our time to while we are here. It was also encouraging to see their love for the LORD, and their unity in the work of the gospel. Their care and concern for one another was also evident.


Prayer Requests:

• Pray for the church in Torodi (Torodi is a Fulani village where 2 of the families we met at the prayer meeting are ministering. One family that has been influential in the start of the church there is about to go on home assignment and is asking prayer for the church to grow in their absence as Fulani church leaders are forced to pick up some of the slack from the missionaries departure.) Side note: We will be visiting Torodi for a long weekend in March.

• Pray for Lornel’s ministry in the girls club at Sahel and our neighborhood Bible club.

• Pray for Strength and perseverance for Scott as he continues to work on the dictionary.

Praises:

• Praise God for the encouragement that he gave us as we met the missionaries who would be using the dictionary.

• Praise God for the good health that we have experienced so far.