Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Many weeks and happenings have occurred since I last wrote. I try not to let so much time pass between my updates, but sometimes the plans of mice and men just don’t work out.

My parents and I planned a one-week vacation to Paris. My parents and two of their friends arrived in Paris a few hours before I did. They were tired and napping when I arrived at the hotel, and I was hungry. So, dad and I went to McDonalds where I ate lunch, and he drank some water. We walked back to the hotel and decided to continue the napping trend. A few hours later, I knocked on the door to my parents’ room and immediately heard a very loud thud. I entered the room to find my dad lying on the floor unable to walk. After an ambulance ride, about 12 days in a Parisian hospital, and a very awkward flight home, we finally discovered that the fall had pinched 3 nerves in his back. What was supposed to have been a one week absence from Niger turned into a 22- day tour through Paris, Istanbul, and Oklahoma City. Many of you heard about what happened and had been praying for us; thank you. Dad has had an operation on his back and seems to be on the road to recovery. He fell on October 28, so it’s been a long road.

When I returned to Niger, both Bible schools where I teach were in full swing. One school is in Niamey where I live and is connected to an organization known as CELPA. The other school is in a village called Makalondi about 2 hours west of Niamey near the country of Burkina Faso. This school is connected to a denomination called EEADN. Both schools are training pastors who speak Gourmatche. Gourmatche is a people group in Niger who tend to be more animistic and less Islamic. Animism is the traditional belief in a broad spirit world which includes rituals, mystic ideas, and occasional animal sacrifices. Many Gourmatche have been choosing to follow Christ in the past few years. Pray for the Gourmatche people, and pray for the new pastors being trained at these two Schools.

Luke 2:24 tells us that  Mary took Jesus to the Temple and offered a sacrifice in keeping with the requirements of the Law of Moses. The prescribed sacrifice for the birth of son was a lamb. However, Leviticus 12:8 provides an alternative sacrifice of two birds if the mother is poor. Mary and Joseph sat on the bottom rung of the social ladder. Since a feeding trough was used as a crib, it stands to reason that Jesus was born in a stable with animals munching in the background. ‘Were you born in a barn?!’ Jesus would answer, ‘Yes’. I usually hear the Christmas story told with great pity given to Mary for the long journey she endured and the terrible accommodations she was given. The reality is that Mary was a poor, agrarian woman who walked to every destination and thought of the possibility of riding a donkey or camel as a fantastic alternative. The vast majority of people in Niger fit this description. Most Nigeriens live their entire lives surrounded by animals because livestock means livelihood. When I see a woman in the  shadows of a village quietly drawing water or pounding grain, I often think of Jesus’ mother. She was the poor, pregnant, unmarried, barely-adult women plodding along in her ordinary life cooking meals and scattering grain. But, God saw something in her, an honesty or a gentleness, that made him choose her to carry the eternal hope of humanity. I wonder if we have, or even want, the eyes that see what God saw in Mary.

Merry Christmas!