Trip Update Four

LT24 DISCOVERY MISSION

THURSDAY
Where do we begin to try to communicate the joy that has been felt these past two days? It starts off at a school for the deaf where we watched as members of our team were able to pray for these students through sign language. 
 

At Banifandou School, we were swarmed by over 800 children from kindergarten through middle school. Banifandou has grown from 160 students in 2003 to over 1300 (including high school) today, due in large part to support from Schools for Niger, Africa (and Chick-fil-A). This is also one of the many schools damaged by the violence in January. Surprisingly, the school's director told us church attendance has been up since those attacks.
 

 

Before returning to REMAR Orphanage for some crafts with the kids, we stopped by to show our support to the construction team that traveled to Niger with us. 
 

We were able to make a few blocks as well as point out where they missed a few spots painting. :) Now we can say we actually helped the local church by working on their building.

 

FRIDAY

We began with a journey, over an hour away, to the Africa we usually think of and the religious people about which we hear more often. We visited a clinic for women and children which offered prenatal care and assisted childbirth to women living far out in the country. Most of the women walk to this facility, traveling miles to receive medical care or deliver a baby. Because of the clinic's high demand, these women are released to their own care only six hours after delivery. Incidentally, we learned culturally they are not permitted to receive any pain medicine or cry out during their labor and delivery. For many of these women, the care they receive in this clinic may be the only glimpse of Jesus they ever see.
 

 

This afternoon, the construction team joined us as we visited Good Samaritan Orphanage. As our vans pulled in, the children lined up to welcome us. They sang songs for us and the boys played soccer and the girls braided hair and painted finger nails. What a time we had playing together and loving these children. 
 

 

 

CHURCH REPAIR MISSION

THURSDAY
Our second and third days of church repair were just as inspiring as the first. Once Paul (LiveTen24 Niger Project Director) realized we had completed two churches on the first day, he upped the ante and told us we were going for three churches on day two. 
 

 

We loaded our equipment and headed down those wonderful, dusty roads of Niamey. We had a few complications with the paint sprayers and the repairs required utilizing the epitome of teamwork. 
 

We had American, English speaking guys attempting to repair paint sprayers with Nigerien, French speaking guys who have never worked with this kind of equipment. With smiling faces and waving hands, we were able to get them up and running. No language barrier or unfamiliar machinery was enough to stop the work that God wanted accomplished for that day. We were able to paint the first two churches in rapid succession and headed for the third. The walls of the third church just seemed to soak in the paint as we sprayed it on. We discovered the most beautiful part of painting these churches isn't the freshly painted walls which make the church glow, but the prayers we have the privilege of praying with the pastors and their families before we leave. That's what restores hope. We know the pastors appreciate the work, but, for us, knowing they are doing God's will in the face of opposition and that these pastors are not shaken, has been an inspiration for how we should live out our faith back home. 
 

FRIDAY
We began our third day by returning to the church where all the paint got sucked into the walls. While men were outside making mortar blocks to expand the church facilities, we finished the painting. We moved on to the next church where the congregation had already primed the walls. We got right to work, two man teams switching off on the sprayers while our LINK™ Niger co-workers, Paul and Edouard, rolled out any runs in the paint. We finished early and were able to accompany the LT24 Discovery team to the Good Samaritan Orphanage. 
 

 

There are no words to describe the simple joy of demonstrating love to these children, even though they aren't our own. We spent four hours with them and it was simply a blessing.

Our prayer is that the churches we have helped will teach future church leaders in Niger and that God would multiply their efforts.