a few videos

Eli, Hannah & Shawna with the kids in the village.

This is PART of our ride from the village back to the clinic in the bush taxi.
There is no such thing as a "road" here.
I'm pretty sure this sucker is a cousin to the Humvee!!

H.....O.....T......

It's Doug again....Today was a HOT one! We had a very hard time getting painting on the clinic finished today because there were so many women and children there getting shots! In a couple hours tomorrow it should be done. The painting group moved to the school, which was a dubious, dusty, dirty mess. It is only four large rooms which means less trim work and more roller work, so we should be able to get it done faster than the clinic.

Did I mention it was hot? It is starting to take a toll on all of us and we don’t even realize it. Kasey was “lucky” that she didn’t feel good this morning so she stayed back and did not feel the wrath of the sun. The heat is a dry heat and it is so hot that when we do sweat it evaporates so fast we don’t even know it was there. This means that when we are covered in sweat, we have really lost even more hydration than we realize.

This became a scary truth when Eli had a mild heat stroke today. One minute he was fine, the next he told me he just felt a little “off”, and only seconds later we are carrying him to a place with shade and rubbing cool water on him while we waited for the bush taxi to zoom through the village streets (which were NOT made for a van). Getting him to the van made him feel better, but when he tried to get out he almost lost consciousness.

No one on the team panicked, everyone helped out, and the veterans of the area knew just how to handle it. Eli is PERFECTLY FINE right now! We will check how he feels in the morning to see if he gets to go out. Just know that we are playing it on the safe side for everyone!

That being said, I got to go out in the village with two different groups thus far (June/Natalie/Matt and Eli/Shawna/Hannah) and I could not be more proud! They know the truth of the gospel and have NOT been afraid to share it to a people group that does not believe Jesus is the Son of God. We proudly walked the streets sharing with those that would listen on the day when most Muslims attend mosque.

We learned more about the culture today as well. It is important to show them that we are interested in how they live and do things because they are a very relational people. When we give weight to what they share and say, it means they will give weight to what we say. The group I was with today got to watch a family building a house. Not with wooden beams, brick, or finely crafted stone, but with mud bricks strengthened with straw. They then use a mud paste to make the mortar. It is strong when it hardens, but it is back breaking labor that can only be done a few layers per day. Their patience is something we can learn from!

THIS is an African village school.
Cephas was showing them some arabic letters.
If we ONLY knew how good we have it in America!

Justin sweeping the school floors so that "most" of the dirt was gone before we painted.

Outside the school with some kids!

This was actually from yesterday, but after Eli's episode we could all use a reminder from Shawna, "CHUG THAT WATER!!"

day #???

Doug here! I tell you that so when you realize how poorly written this is you won’t wonder if Kasey has lost her touch. That being said, I have honestly lost track of the day of the week here. All I know is that today was work day number 3. After a hard day yesterday (the village elders went around and told the people to avoid the white people and their lies/magic) we met people today that seemed to really want to hear what we wanted to say. Some groups even wanted to hear the Gospel after older men would tell them that they should not. That is a victory in and of itself.

It is amazing to see how well the youth do in sharing the word of Jesus without fear. My prayer is that this bravery will translate back into their schools and community when we get back to the states!!! There will be a missionary here in Niamey in a few weeks that will be ready for the village (Tagabati) in a few months (after language training to learn Zarma/Songhai) and I hope that the work done this week will provide an “in” for them.

On a down note, we are behind on painting which if you know our group is super unusual. Being in the heat seems to have slowed us down a lot. With luck we will start on the school tomorrow. It is only four large rooms so that will reduce the amount of edging/trimming that will need to be done so we hope that ground will be made up there.

The students (along with Kasey and I) have been able to do and see things which I would have never thought we’d ever have an opportunity to. We have pumped water, ground millet, seen a dust storm, used primitive farming tools, seen poverty on a level that would make every person in Greensburg feel like a king, and basically have been transported back in time to something much more similar to how Jesus lived.

Being in the village and seeing how important water is has allowed for a much fuller understanding of some of the things Jesus said. He is the living water! I have a deeper appreciation for how the woman at the well must have felt when Jesus told her she would never have to draw from the well again. Water here is so vital, no matter if it is the well or the Niger River. Without water there is no life…none! It is hard work to walk down to the river, where the hippos destroy their crops and just as hard work to pump water and carry it home, but it must be done EVERY DAY!

Water is vital and necessary for all aspects of life. Jesus is the living water…that makes sooo much more sense to me now.

Here are some photos we took of the village today.

Eli and Hannah sharing the gospel with some welcoming villagers! I think they spent the whole afternoon with them!

Hannah in her element!!

PART of the village of Tagabati - you can see the river in the background.

day 3 on the field

Our internet was down again last night so here is the post I wrote to share with you!!

WOW!! What a day we had today!! Someone back home MUST be praying, because despite the opposition and indifference we faced as we tried to share yesterday, God opened hearts today!! There were many groups of villagers who were willing to listen to our stories about Jesus. Several had questions about how Jesus could be the Son of God as they believe he was just a good prophet. With the help of our translators we were able to break through to many groups today. One group of men, in particular were joking around with us trying to get us to give them money so they could have full bellies without having to go into the fields to work. We joked back saying we had none and Justin shared the Parable of the Sower with them (connecting to their knowledge about farming). Then he and Paul, with the help of our translator Cephas, shared the gospel message and although the men were questioning everything they said, they always had a response and by the time they were finished they were asking us to pray for them and thanking us for coming to tell them about Jesus. It was so cool to sit back and watch TEENAGERS share their faith!! I’m pretty sure that EVERYONE had the chance to share today (even our shyest ones) and everyone was met with gratitude and a desire to learn more. Continue to pray that we will keep poking holes of light into a village darkened by Islam.

We also worked hard in the clinic again today, but we didn’t finish!! Hopefully tomorrow we will and we can move on to the village school. Here are some photos. Kala tonon (see you later)!!

June's arm after a long morning of painting!!
Good thing that is water based paint and washes right off!!!

Our sweet Natalie - doesn't she look like a natrual missionary!??!?!!!
I think if we let her, she'd stay here.

Eday says, "Abodeh-gomo" (very good) Doug!!

SEVEN loads of laundry (for 14 people after only 3 days on the field)
Not sure how the Lindsey family does it!!

more photos

Here are a few more photos from day 2!! The sun came out which probably means our chances for rain are slim now, but we are thankful for a cool day today!! Love to all!!

OUR TEAM
with (from left to right on the front row) Heday (the expert painter), Mark (the resident missionary), Cephas (our translator sporting his WKU shirt), and Billo (our bush taxi driver - God bless his soul)

Dirty feet after a long day of work - it looks like we're getting tan, but this is ALL dirt!
Sure does give us a new perspective on the significance of Jesus washing the disciple's feet!!

a better shot of our bush taxi - we'd LOVE to bring it home with us

the inside of our bush taxi - it's actually rather comfortable with the windows open

more photos and video from day 2

Here are a few photos from today.

Our bush taxi
For those of you who think Doug's driving is bad - you should ride in a bush taxi!!
Yesterday Molly looked up at me and said, "He's going 90!"
(don't worry though - that's 90 kilometers per hour)

This is a photo of the desert during the dust storm!! That really is how dark it was.

Hopefully that means rain SOON!!

Paul holding an African baby - he's a natrual!!

This is a wall in the clinic we are painting - every wall in the clinic was that dark brown color before we started. It's looking a million times better!

This is a short video of our ride to Tagabati today - in the dust storm.
Normally it is 100% sunny so this was an experience today!!

Another video of the kids latching onto our girls!! How precious.
Notice that Cephas has a WKU t-shirt on today - no more of that Tennessee stuff!!

day two on the field

We had ANOTHER great day on the field today. We had a dust storm this morning on the way which you can clearly see in some of the photos and video from today (yes, I said VIDEO - YAY)!! But dust storms are good news for TWO reasons.....#1 it takes WIND to make a dust storm, so we had a NICE breeze today and #2 dust storms are usually followed by RAIN which they have not had here in nine days (and it's rainy season). Hopefully in the next day or so it will rain which will make the temperatures even that much more cool. Mark made the comment today, "tell whoever it is back home that's praying for the weather here to KEEP PRAYING even after you get back!"

My team painted first this morning and the clinic is actually beginning to look white instead of dirty brown!! It was also baby vaccination day at the clinic so there were several mothers with their babies there. Molly, Breanna and Megan had a hayday holding them and one of the African women insisted that Paul hold one too!! It was too precious. Doug's group went down to the village and you can see that the children were just as excited to see them today as yesterday. They followed them around all day.

This morning we talked about making a point to build some relationships with folks before we began just sharing our stories about Jesus. We have learned that the African culture is very much relationship-driven (as opposed to our American task-driven nature) and although yesterday went well and we were able to share the gospel a NUMBER of times, we were met with much indifference and even some opposition. Today was a little better. We made a point to TALK to the people first - to ask about their families and homes and to be interested in their way of life before we got to the good news about Jesus.

Please continue to pray for our health; some of our girls are starting to feel a little off; nothing to be worried about, but every uncomfortable feeling is maximized in the heat. We forced one of them to come back about halfway today because she felt hungry, but didn't want to eat anything - everything sounded yucky. I know that sounds minor, but we want to make sure they are 100% when they are out. I brought her back to the missionary house and she is reading and journaling - the air conditioning is already helping. So just continue to keep us in your prayers. Everyone else is HEALTHY and happy today so that is a blessing!!

Here is a video of the kids as Doug's group is leaving the village. They are INSIDE the bush taxi. They felt like ROCKSTARS!! (I'll post more photos a little later.)