An Insider's Perspective

Making New Friends
About a week ago, I met a gentleman on the street as I was walking home from work. His name is Omar. He could not speak much English, and I can't speak too much French or Zarma, so we had difficulty communicating. After trying for about 15 minutes, our guard told him of the other Omar who might be able to translate for us. Omar was not home so he told me he would come back the following day at 4:00. He did come back but Omar was sleeping. He came back another day with a gentleman named Adama. Adama speaks fairly good English so we were able to communicate through him a little. This past Wednesday they came again and we talked on our porch for a couple hours. Lornel made Oatmeal Apple Cinnamon Muffins for us to share. I told them of my desire to learn to make green tea the way they make it. Omar told me that he would bring his materials and make tea with me the next time they visited. We also got talking about the poverty that abounds in Niger. I discovered that Omar is unemployed. They told me that it is extremely difficult to find jobs. The jobs usually go to someone in the family of the owner of the business. If you do not come from the right family, it can be nearly impossible to find a job. Adama is working as a French tutor and barber to help put himself through the university. Adama told me that he believes that Polygamy plays a big part in the poverty cycle here in Niger. He comes from a family of 16 children and his father has 3 wives. Niger is an extremely poor country to begin with, but by men taking multiple wives it makes for too many children to be provided for. The children are not able to get an education and often do not get the nutrition that they need. He told how many of the children that do go to school do not get any lunch to eat, which makes it extremely difficult for them to concentrate and there learning suffers. Many end up dropping out of school.

Hamsatou's Wedding
We attended Hamsatou's wedding on Saturday or at least part of it. The portion that we were invited to, I would describe as Henna Ceremony and reception for the bride. We never saw Boubakar. We visited for about 3 or 4 hours. They wanted me to take some pictures of the guests. Many of the women including Lornel were decorated with Henna. As we walked home from the wedding, God directed our steps to come across the home of a man we had been praying for at SIL. He is the father of the receptionist here. He is dying of cancer. We visited with him for a few minutes and gave them some dates that we had bought as we were walking. A couple hundred meters after we left that home, we met two women who talked to us for awhile. One of the ladies is a Christian. She invited us to her home. We went and met her family and visited with her for a few minutes. We invited her to our house tonight. So by the time we arrived home we were very tired, but thankful to the Lord for directing our steps.

Our calender here is quickly filling up. We are having several missionaries and nationals in our home this week. Lornel keeps saying how hard it will be to leave Niger and I have to agree with her.


Prayer Requests:

• For Hamsatou and Boubakar as they begin married life together
• For God to work out all the details of putting the dictionary together

Praises:

• For continued good health
• For God's Sovereignty in all things