Can't Keep from Praising

"Praise the Lord, O my soul;
all my inmost being, praise his holy name.
Praise the Lord, O my soul,
and forget not all his benefits -
who forgives all your sins
and heals all your diseases,
who redeems your life from the pit
and crowns you with love and compassion,
who satisfies your desires with good things
so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's."
Psalm 103:1-5

I had a conversation with someone this week who couldn't keep the praise from coming out of his mouth if he had tried.  J cleans my classroom so we get to have frequent conversations in the afternoon as he cleans and I work.  He was marveling over all that God has done in his life this summer.  He lives in an area that has been flooded by the Niger River.  At times he has left his house in the morning to come to work and waded into water up to his thighs to get on his way.  The mud wall around his compound collapsed due to all the water and yet amazingly, the water has not flooded his home.  All of his neighbors have left the area but he and his wife have been one in heart and mind that they are to stay put.  They are trusting that God will protect their house, something that they have been very vocal about with their neighbors.  This has opened the door for them to openly testify to God's protection and provision in their lives.  Their neighbors are amazed that they are still there.  They were also amazed when a group of our students went out to help J with his wall...they stood around marveling at this group of white people helping.

J went on to share with me how he has four school age children and he wasn't quite sure where the money for school and school supplies was going to come from but they were also trusting the Lord for this need.  This past week the director of the school called them together and said that they wanted to help each one of the families with a set amount of money to be used expressly for schooling for their children.  It was just what he needed to pay for the tuition and the school supplies!  Now they are trusting God for the bicycle that his son needs to ride to school.  Near the end of our conversation, J summed it up by saying that this has been the first miracle that he has witnessed in his life - the miracle of God's provision for him in the midst of a very difficult circumstance.  It was such an encouragement to hear God's praise flowing off J's lips and to know that in the midst of darkness, the testimony of J and his family is illuminating his neighborhood.

It Takes a Village to Get a School Ready

Tomorrow is the first day of school. 

If you have ever taught before you know that it takes a lot of work to get a school ready and that's not even factoring in the Niger dust which probably doubles the amount of work at our school.  However, if you had been hanging around our school these last couple of weeks you would have noticed something interesting.  An amazing amount of people have been pitching in to help us get ready!  There are the regulars...the janitors, the teachers, the youth pastor, the dorm parents, the principal, the director, among others.  But its our job to get the school ready, after all.  The surprising and really awesome thing to see has been the students pitching in.  I have seen high school students right on down to second graders helping out.  There were even two dorm students who arrived today and instead of hanging out with their friends and settling into their rooms they were out mowing the lawn.  How cool is that?

We have even had alumni and parents of alumni and students helping us out.  Wow! What a blessing to be starting another school year in a community like this.

Psalm 23

Good Shepherd,

You provide wholly.

You lead peacefully.

You renew daily.

You guide righteously.

You follow closely.

You protect carefully.

You prepare abundantly.

You honor undeservedly.

You pursue lovingly.

You are...

My Good Shepherd.

Currently Making Me Happy

Books - millions and zillions of beautiful books.

I love these books!  I don't quite have millions and zillions of them but someone donated roughly 200 or more of these leveled books.  They happen to be from my favorite company too which makes the gift even sweeter.  I'm excited that my kids are going to have so much quality stuff to read. 

As I sat leveling these books, I thought about what a difference the ability to read can make in a life.  The last year I taught in Georgia I had a little boy who was quite the troublemaker at the beginning of the school year.  In fact, I caught him stealing the first week of school.  It was only after he qualified for the Reading Recovery program and spent several months of intensive one on one time with a teacher learning how to read, that I realized that his bad behaviour was evidence of the frustration he felt over his inability to decipher the words on a page.  His behaviour improved exponentially once he learned to read.  He was no longer a problem in the classroom and other teachers noticed the difference, too.  Learning to read literally changed his path.

That same year, the janitor that cleaned my classroom retired.  It was only near the end of his time at the school that I learned that he was illiterate.  At his retirement party, he had to hand the cards he received over to his wife because he couldn't read.  I wonder how his life would have been different if he had only learned how to read.

Teaching children to read is such a privilege and maybe, just maybe, it will change their lives.

Road Trip

Just last week I took a road trip with two of my fellow teachers at Sahel.  We drove about six hours to the southwest to Ouagadougou, the capital city of Niger's neighbor, Burkina Faso.  Now you may think that crossing a border wouldn't bring any significant change but here's a difference I noticed right away.  In Burkina Faso women ride bicycles. 

I can't recall ever seeing a woman riding a bike in Niger.  Motos, yes.  Bicycles, no! 

Then there were the taxis.   Niger's taxis are a combination of white and red and they are almost always Toyotas.  In Burkina, however, when you take a taxi you are likely to have the privilige of riding in a green Mercedes Benz.  Don't jump to any conclusions about riding in the lap of luxury.  Even a Mercedes Benz can be old and dilapitated!

Now let's talk about the motos.  

Motos here. 

Motos there. 

Motos everywhere.

Just look at this intersection that we are trying to make a turn in.

Then we would drive by places like this...

which you might think was a moto dealership.  In reality, these are all motos belonging to the people that work within this compound.  I'm not even sure how you would find the moto that belongs to you in all that mass.

All in all, I enjoyed the cooler temperatures, the frequent rain and the green everywhere but I was happy to hit the road home...

...to my quiet little city of Niamey.

Never dreamed I'd refer to Niamey as quiet!

In the News

Did you know that my class made the news in the great state of Texas?  We had a class with whom we were penpals just outside of the Ft. Worth area.  In the last week of school, we arranged a skype conversation with them which had to take place very early in the morning for them and right before school let out for us.  Unfortunately, partway through the experience our internet started acting funny which put an end to the conversation.  We continued to try to reconnect and in those moments I would catch little sound bytes of what sounded like an interview leading me to believe there were reporters there.  Sure enough, my suspicions were confirmed by the teacher who had been notified early that morningy by all three of the local tv stations that they would come to record these childrens experience connecting with their international penpals.  Later on, a friend of mine living in that area confirmed that they had actually seen the newsclip on tv.  Really wish I could find that clip to share with you but I think that would be a waste of my time so instead I'll share this link to a news article featuring one of the families that joined our school community in January.  They are in the midst of starting a hospital for CURE.  It's a great article and there's even some talk about Sahel.  So here it is.

The Beasts

  I have a house sitting job this summer. It comes with 24 hour air conditioning, satellite TV, a pool and these two beasts and I do mean beasts. Don't let the pictures fool you, they are big!  The cat has some issues but the dog is just a big one.  He could easily push me down if he wanted to.  Thankfully, he loves people and is very gentle unless he is harassing the cat or greeting you.