An encouragement has been to see the enthusiasm of the ladies in the nomad camp in wanting to learn to read. Even if they can’t make it to class they come to see me or when I visit they want to practice or catch up on what they missed.
A discouragement was having arguments between students erupt in class on two separate occasions. On the second I had to pack up because teaching became unrealistic. Please pray for a way forward in this.
An encouragement has been the warm welcome and developing relationships in the camp.
A discouragement has been the getting to and from. It is now taking 2.5hrs to wait for vehicle.
An encouragement is that the road is now paved and smooth and it only takes about 40mins once the vehicle is moving (and in good condition).
A challenge was going to visit a lady who had just given birth to a baby. This involved walking across a sand dune in the sun, and wind for an hour and a half.
An encouragement was the people’s reaction to me actually doing it.
A challenge was finding H when she moved from the camp into town.
An encouragement was sitting reading with her short stories and having a number of other ladies in the neighbourhood ask if I could teach them to read.
The challenge is that this will need to wait for a while as I don’t currently have enough time in the week. But hopefully we can see something happen in a couple of months.
An encouragement has been reading with S and J in the prison. Almost as I arrive J is sitting next to me wanting to continue in Genesis and wanting to keep reading more chapters than we have time for.
Another encouragement was meeting the relative of another lady in prison who saw us reading. She also wants to read. So we read the first chapter that day. The next day I visited her at her home and in front of others she asked if I had brought the book, then read two chapters.
A discouragement was going yesterday and finding that she wasn’t home. Please pray for wisdom and a way forward with this lady who is keen to read. Also pray for an openness in her family that they too will either want to listen or at least not be opposed.
A challenge is the weather. It is now +40C in my house during the day, +60C in the sun. It is also starting to get humid and so quite draining.
An encouragement is that I only have another 3 weeks and I will have a month’s holiday outside of Chad. I am really looking forward to this time where I can relax, sleep, recharge and be renewed. It is also planned that my mum will come and join me for a week of this which will be nice.
Well, the month disappeared in a flash. We did have a BIG rain in thenomad camp, on my first night back! Everyone, apart from me, is happy that we can now drink the surface water…..
This month is going to be fairly busy: in town English exams and getting a computer class started and out of town would like to round off the school year in the camp on a good note, and make one more visit to the religious teachers in AG.
I am writing to you all from Hadjer Hadiid, where I am away from the family this week and will be for most of the next month, as we start our Enhanced English and Teacher Training course for the English teachers of Breidjing and Treguine. Sonja has been a great help in designing the training for these seminars and I am excited to be teaching it. Please pray that the course is received well and benefits these teachers, while clearly demonstrating our love for God and our love for them (by the work we have poured into it).
Last week, I was walking through a major sandstorm in Hadjer Hadiid. I had to throw a shirt over my face and close my eyes, as the wind carried loads of sand in straight-line gusts for about 45 minutes. I couldn’t stop it or ask it to pause until I was safely inside a building. It reminded me of Jesus’ words: “Do not be amazed that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
The wind was blowing with one teacher I spent time with last week, though I am not sure where it will go. He really believes education is the answer for his people. He repeatedly stated that the white people have helped them with many things while others do nothing. I shared with him that it is not our whiteness of our skin that leads us to help, but the conviction of our beliefs. I read Isaiah 58 with him and talked about the fasting (actions) that is pleasing to God and that the “light breaking forth” was what he was seeing and testifying about. I told him that while I believed education is one of the ways God blesses us and something he calls us to apply ourselves in. The foremost answer for Darfurians is not just any learning, but the learning of the true way of God. We talked about many other things and read Isaiah 49 and Revelation 5 together as well.
May was a good month. I continued teaching English on Wednesdays, and
started an English Club on Saturdays. I have been passing out an average 3 tapes a day this past month. Even gave a box of 10 to H and he said someone in the taxi van asked “What have you got there?” and in one sitting he found takers for them all! I do find some folks who don’t want the tape, but most do. And it’s given me some great opportunities to share.
Yesterday, as I headed to Jackie’s, I asked the Holy Spirit to anoint me so that people would take notice. I got out of the taxi-van and gave a tape to the driver, explaining as I always do, that it concerned JC who died and rose….As I walked a few yards away I heard another taxi-van driver leaning out the windown calling out to me, “Give me a cassette!” “How do you know I have a cassette?” He saw me give one to the other man. As I told him and the others straining to hear out the windows the good news found on the tape, a few others walked up to listen too. I love it when I have opportunity to share with a little crowd like that. The other 5 tapes were happily received, and I felt Father heard my request. I should carry more with me, as sometimes there are many more who want them. A week ago two old men fought over the tape as I didn’t have enough to go around.
And a few days before that on my way home in a taxi after dark from the English Club, I had a captive audience of one woman and three men all attentive to the gospel message I shared….to the point that two of us missed our stops!
