The Good Lord

The Good Lord…

He Giveth…

Today was awesome. So awesome. Ridiculously awesome. Best day since we’ve been back. Today was Sabbath. Our day to escape the hospital. We went back to Nangjere for the first time since our return to Tchad ten days ago. And it was so much fun. We sang all the songs we had translated into French and Nancere. We prayed. We told Bible stories. We high-fived. We blew a tire, but we didn’t care. We just changed it and moved on. We went and did the same thing in Guissa Goro. Then we went to Moungoulou and did it all over again. So very much fun.

And here’s the best part… We discovered we’re useless! We aren’t needed any more! This is awesome!!! During our two-month absence, the youth of the church continued going out to the each village several times each week. People from the villages attended Jonathan’s Bible classes. They were baptized. The pastor, who had thought we were rebels and wanted to start a competing church, had at one point forbid me from going out to the villages and telling Bible stories. Well, he finally agreed to come visit and came several times and was dutifully impressed with what the kids were doing in these villages. What were once perceived as joyrides for kids, are now respected evangelistic efforts. And supported efforts! The chiefs of the villages are giving us lands for churches and now with the pastor on board, they are finally breaking ground! Well, not exactly breaking ground, but ready to use the lands. Now that the pastor is backing them up, they are building wood and cloth and grass mat churches. And the elders are getting involved in it too! Pierre has been faithfully going out to preach whenever he isn’t schedule in church. They have enough coming now interested in earnestly learning, they are now splitting the groups into kids and adults. The adults are going through pretty earnest Bible studies and the kids are so enthusiastic and attentive. These villages are now getting to the point they are ready for genuine evangelistic efforts! In the meantime, we will buy some mats and benches and drums for the churches! What the youth (and some older folks too!) are doing here in Bere is just so exciting. PLEASE pray for them young men (and a few women!) who are telling the story of Jesus several times a week. They get nothing for this. They do it purely out of love.

Today we had some more selfish fun too. We got to pass out a few of the GodPods we bought! We even stopped by our friends in the Muslim village and gave the imam a GodPod of the New Testament in Chadian Arabic. So cool. They were listening to it when we left them. Danae also bought more literature while we were in America, but we haven’t started passing that out yet. Maybe next week.

We even took a little time after lunch to go swimming in the river, drive through the sacred forest and climb up a big ol’ tree. 

Sometimes, He giveth so rootin’ tootin’ much… But then… 

He Taketh Away…

While ruminating on how incredible of a day it was, there was a knock on the door. Danae’s patient died. Not just any patient. A patient Danae operated on many times. For free. Danae had been feeding her for a while now, trying to get her to fatten up. She was so skinny. She just kept wasting away despite it all. At about 8pm Danae went up to the hospital to give her condolences to the family. She also paid for them to be able to get the body back to their home village (several hours away). It was a patient Danae had given a Mesme GodPod to just this last week. Life is just so tenuous here. It’s now midnight and I still can’t sleep. It occasionally doesn’t seem fair. But we were never promised fair. My dear wife has the purest conscience I know and can always sleep no matter what. I’ll put my wife’s medical skills, surgical skills, compassion, love and Christ-focused nature up against anybody’s. But even that can’t save them all. Edith was suffering. She was ready. She had made her peace. It seems she willed her way out, assured of her Paradise. 

Sometimes His taking is out of mercy and love, taking from a fallen world He never intended to fall so far.

Sometimes He taketh away…