I want to share with you how I lived before knowing Jesus

In Psalm 133:1 King David exclaims, “Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity!” Fellowship with other believers is something precious that we often take for granted. Scripture tells us that fellowship is a means in which we can strengthen one another spiritually (Proverbs 27:17, Hebrews 10:24-25), grow closer in our walk with God (Colossians 2:2, James 5:16, 1 John 1:7), and demonstrate the love of Christ (John 17:23).

My understanding of the benefits of Christian fellowship was deepened after meeting Abdoullaye, a Samaritan’s Purse beneficiary who recently gave his testimony during morning devotions. Abdoullaye, a quiet elderly Fulani man, opened his talk by stating, “I am grateful for being here, and I feel fortunate to be in the presence of God’s people.”

To fully grasp the meaning of the genuine appreciation of this statement, it is important to understand Abdoullaye’s background. Abdoullaye is from a small village near Niger’s border with Burkina Faso. His village is extremely under-resourced. Very few of his nomadic neighbors finished secondary school or speak French. Further, the security situation in this region has deteriorated over the previous few months, which has further inhibited the community’s development.

Abdoullaye is also the very first Christian from his village.

Abdoullaye first heard about the Gospel through Pastor Chaibou, a Samaritan’s Purse evangelist, who was meeting with Samaritan’s Purse’s beneficiaries in the area. Samaritan’s Purse intervenes in Abdoullaye’s community through ALFARI (Assisting Local Farmers to Adopt Resilient Improvements), a program which provides agricultural, nutritional, and financial trainings for farmers. As the population of Niger is less than one percent Christian, the Samaritan’s Purse Niger office is frequently unable to employ Christians who can share their faith with our beneficiaries. For this reason, Samaritan’s Purse hires and trains local evangelists to provide spiritual and emotional counseling to those we serve.

“I want to share with you how I lived before knowing Jesus,” Abdoullaye continued. “I am from a village where no one understood the Word of God, and everyone, including myself, was very resistant to accept the Gospel… One day, the pastor shared the Gospel with me, and he taught me from the word of God, and he taught me how to live according to the Word of God, and how to lead my family, and how to live in the village.”

That day, Abdoullaye decided to follow Christ, and Pastor Chaibou began to mentor and disciple him. Abdoullaye’s wife and children peacefully accepted his conversion, and even began to join him in praying.

“After [my conversion], even the villagers began noticing how my life changed.” As a result, many of Abdoullaye’s neighbors expressed interest in the Gospel and began asking Pastor Chaibou to teach them. Together, they constructed a hangar to provide an area with shade for Pastor Chaibou to hold his meetings in.

Pastor Chaibou teaching Abdoullaye and his neighbors.

Today, 40 community members consistently attend Pastor Chaibou’s Bible studies, and 15 people have proclaimed their faith in Jesus. Pastor Chaibou has earned a lot of respect in the village, even among those who do not attend the meetings.

As expected however, these changes frustrated the local Islamic witch doctors, also known as marabouts. They began pressuring the new believers to leave the village if they would continue attending Pastor Chaibou’s meetings. In one incident, some marabouts urged a group of women to return home as they were walking to Pastor Chaibou’s Bible study. One of the women, obviously frustrated, lashed out, “We have been listening to your teachings for years and nothing has changed! You are not our husband. Leave us alone and tell your own wives how to live!”
Tensions also grew after the marabout attempted to burn down the hangar.

“Pastor simply told me to be patient,” Abdoullaye recalls.

“Abdoullaye was very discouraged when the community tried to kick him out,” recalls Pastor Chaibou. “But I told him, ‘Even though your community and family disown you, God has promised to give you a new spiritual family.’”

One of Abdoullaye’s family members, the village chief, was approached by the marabout to expel the new believers from the village. For weeks, the local marabouts had been sending community members to report on the content of Chaibou’s messages as evidence against the small Christian community.

Tensions between the two groups grew to the extent that Pastor Chaibou realized that he needed to speak face to face with the village chief before things would escalate further. Fortunately, the chief was curious to learn what exactly the pastor was teaching.

“So I preached the gospel to him, and he listened very carefully,” recalls Pastor Chaibou. “And he told me, ‘if this is really what you are telling people, there is no reason to expel any of them from the village.”

(L to R) Pastor Chaibou, Abdoullaye, and Abdoullaye's wife.

Since then, the local believers have been able to meet without fear of being driven out of the community. Abdoullaye is still hungry to understand God’s word deeper, and continues to teach his family everything that he has learnt. Please pray that God will continue to grow and protect this new family of believers.

Camels!

It is always great to find new outlets to help decompress from the daily grind of working in international development. Last weekend, two of my friends and I became tourists for the morning and rode camels. Needless to say, this experience helped me get me over the hump of a very busy month.

Camels can sprint up to 40 mph.
Unfortunately, we rode these one-humped camels at a leisurely pace for an hour.

I was not aware until this trip that camels have two knees per leg.

Have a great day!

New Chapter in Niamey, Niger

A month ago I arrived in Niamey, Niger to start my new job as Program Manager of Heath & Nutrition. My hiring for this position could not have occurred at a better time and was a huge answer to prayer. The position opened unexpectantly, and I was unofficially hired the very last day of my internship. Further, delays in retrieving my visa and work permit allowed me to take care of some personal tasks, such as editing a scientific manuscript and visiting family members. Time and again, God demonstrates that He is sovereign over all things. All too often, we waste time worrying about the future instead of trusting in His provision and timing.

I am working for Samaritan’s Purse, the same organization I completed an internship with in the Democratic Republic of Congo. As the Program Manager of Health & Nutrition, I am currently in charge of two projects:

• World Food Program (WFP) Supplementary Feeding Program. In collaboration with WFP, Samaritan’s Purse targets children under the age of age of five and pregnant and nursing mothers for malnutrition. Potential beneficiaries are identified through measuring the child’s weight-for-height score and the circumference of the child’s or mother’s arm with a tool called a MUAC (http://www.pih.org/blog/need-to-know-muac-and-malnutrition). Individuals diagnosed with severe acute malnutrition are referred to the appropriate health center, while those diagnosed with moderate malnutrition are educated on health and nutrition topics and provided food supplements. Beneficiaries are only discharged from the program once their weight-for-height and/or MUAC scores improve to normal levels. In 2015 year, a remarkable 82% of our beneficiaries recovered from malnutrition before the end of the year, and none of our enrolled beneficiaries died.
• Bridging Gaps in Community Health (BGCH) is a multi-faceted health program which aims to strengthen the local public health capacity and educate the public on maternal and child health (MCH) issues. The program uses the care group model, a method which trains a group of community members to teach their neighbors on the various health topics. The male care groups will focus on family planning (Niger has the highest fertility rate in the world), while women will be educated on a wide spectrum of MCH topics. The hope is that by educating couples, men will allow their wives to apply the information learned in the training sessions. To help strengthen the local health capacity, community health workers will be trained on how to screen for pediatric diseases. We will also be working with the local Ministry of Health to train local health care practitioners on MCH topics. 

Each of these two programs takes place in western Niger. We are hoping to start two additional health programs in the coming year in Karofane.

Below are some facts about Niger:

In 2014, Niger was ranked by the United Nations as the least developed country in the world. Food insecurity, the lack of industry, high population growth, a weak educational sector, and few prospects for work outside of subsistence farming and herding were among the reasons for this ranking (https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ng.html).

Niger is a predominantly Muslim country, with some estimating that the country is 99% Muslim (http://www.pewforum.org/2009/10/07/mapping-the-global-muslim-population-sub-saharan-africa-overview/). Historically, Niger has been a peaceful country. This has all changed in the last few years with the advent of religious extremism in the region. One example of this is the public’s response to the Charlie Hebdo attacks in France. Within a few days of the attacks, much of the world gathered to together in solidarity to promote free speech and proclaim “Je suis Charlie.” The Charlie Hebdo issue following the attacks, which depicted the Prophet Muhammad holding a “Je suis Charlie” sign while crying, sold close to 8 million copies worldwide. The issue was even sold in predominantly Muslim francophone countries, such as Chad and Niger. Residents in these countries were obviously offended and took their anger out against local Christians, whom they associated with the West. Within 48 hours, over 70 churches in Niger were burned. By God’s grace, none of the Christians in these communities retaliated and the violence resided. Samaritan’s Purse is currently assisting the reconstruction of many of the destroyed churches.

The run-off presidential election has been boycotted by the opposition party (http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/03/opposition-coalition-boycott-niger-runoff-poll-160309050119175.html). The run-off election, which will be held on March 20th, pits incumbent President Mahamadou Issoufou against former Prime Minister Hama Amadou, who is currently in prison for his alleged involvement in trafficking babies from Nigeria (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-35280576). Thankfully, the first round of the election, which took place during my first week in the country, did not result in massive rioting or violence. Read here for a great resource on the political and security situation in Niger (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2016/01/28/heightened-concern-about-security-in-run-up-to-nigers-february-elections/).

Maternal and child health (MCH) is a major problem in Niger, and most of the health programs that I will be involved with will have some type of MCH component. The maternal mortality rates in Niger are the highest in the world at 513 deaths per 100,000 live births (INS Niger 2014). Further, Niger is ranked with having the tenth highest under five mortality rates with 104 deaths per 100,000 births in 2015 (http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/niger_statistics.html). Family planning is another important, yet sensitive issue in Niger. The fertility rate in the country is extremely high (and growing) at 7.6 in 2012 (http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/niger_statistics.html). Projects like BGCH will attempt to teach men the importance family spacing and family planning strategies in a culturally sensitive manner.

I realize that many of the facts I just listed are discouraging, and the reality is that the country has much more to offer than the aforementioned maternal and child health problems and religious persecution. I greatly encourage you to take a quick look at the following Business Insider story about Niger. It likely provides a more well-rounded presentation of the country than what I have just written. Plus, it has many pictures. http://www.businessinsider.com/niger-food-animals-history-slideshow-2015-10