Updates

Sara is doing much better.

Yesterday we celebrated Thanksgiving Day.  There were about 70 people from the compound.

Yesterday we started the day by visiting a M friend of Sara who just had a baby.  It was a great opportunity to greet these folks and show that we care for them.  Below are some pictures.

This is the mother with her new baby.

Here the grand mother is holding the baby but does not seem to want to show a smile for the camera.

Grace loves holding babies.

 

 The mother and the rest of her children.

 

After the visit we went back to Sara's place.  Below are a few pictures of the compound Sani and Sara live in.

The picture below is the street in front of their home.

After this we went to see Sani at his new farm.  Sani actually had to come back and lead us through some winding country trails to get to his farm some 7 km away.  Once we stopped we had to walk a little ways to get to the actual farm below.

The young man below works for Sani.  Here he is working on irrigating the field.

 

 It is hard work putting in a crop. Below a young boy drinks some of the ground irrigation water. Not the most healthy choice, but then again they do what is necessary to survive.

This is the well irrigating the field.  The pump is down in the hole.  There is another hole with tubing attached going down to the water.  SDani indicated there was not a lot of water in the well.

 

 As we headed home we stopped and picked some cotton.  Cotton is sold in Galmi where it is processed and then sold to Galmi hospital as cotton swabs.  Galmi hospital helps the local community in a lot of ways.

 

 Below Grace is holding one of the staple crops of the area - Sorghum, the other staple is Millet.

 

Everyone basically lives in villages, like Galmi, and then travels to their farm by walking, riding a donkey, bike or, as Sani does below, by motorcycle.  Last year Sani had most of  his crop stolen during the night.  He has moved to a new location and will guard his crop more closely this year.  What a struggle.

Thank You

Saturday we travelled to Konni, which is about an hour from Galmi.  We went there to buy text books for the local public school.  Seems they have not been able to get some supplies so we thought we would be able to help.  Thanks to some very generous friends in Canada we had the funds necessary to purchase a complete set of text books for the four levels in the school.  We also bought some chaulk and some blackboard paint. 

What we were surprised at was the lack of books actually availablein the market. We did try a number of locations and although we could not attain all the books the one store would get the books and send them out to us.  We hope they will arrive by Tuesday.  We will take the books we have to the school early this week.

We rejoice in sharing the love of Christ by giving to those in need.  We also enjoy sharing the news that these gifts are because of the generosity of our friends and family in Canada.  People here really do appreciate the generosity of the gifts and effort.

Blessings to all.

View of the school buildings and yard.

Wedding Pictures

Recently A'I, who works for Grace, had a daughter get married.  She asked Grace to make a 5 layer wedding cake.  This is very difficult because of the extreme heat and the effects on the icing.  Grace did a lot of tests to come up with a durable icing.

The first picture is Grace with A'I.  The second is the ladies putting the cake together.  Ignore the date on the pictures, I guess I made a slight error - it should be 2012.

 

October 2012 update

We are in bug season and it has been really frustrating - especially earwigs.  They seem impossible to keep out of the house.  It also seems that our end, mainly our house, is having a big problem with these pests.

The picture below was taking of a praying mantis sitting on the hood of a truck.  His colors are really unique.

We met with the folks at the local public school the other day.  They were planning the up coming school year.  They were really excited about the 34 desks that we were able to repair.  We did a check and found that we need to repair another 55 desks.  The teachers are sitting outside their teachers building.  They are outside because the inside is basically empty.

 

 

Below is a picture of all the teachers for the upcoming year.  This is the entire staff for 540 students covering 4 years.

We surprised the school by providing two much needed desks for the teachers building.

The desks were difficult to get in just because of the way the buildings are constructed.  They have no power at the school and only one boys stall and one girls stall as toilet facilities.  We are hoping we will have resources to change that.  They also need another classroom built and lots of repairs to other buildings.  Little by little the work will be done.

Sara is in our house hooked up to an IV bottle.  She has been quite sick but is glad that she can stay with momma, 

Below, seated next to Grace is Sara's grandmother.

 

 

We also get to feed Sani once in a while.

 

Just as an aside, below is a picture of some of our recent peanut crop.

Blessings to all

Orest & Grace

Travel Update

Our journey Aug 2 to Sep 11, 2012

We arrived in Winnipeg around 7 pm after 26 hours between flights and airport stays.  We were exhausted.  While in Winnipeg we had the opportunity to visit family and the GNM Church, which supports us.  We are so grateful to Orest’s sister who provided a place for us to stay, and to others who supplied meals and transportation.  We were able to do a presentation at the church and are grateful for the strong support we received.

After Winnipeg we travelled to Lloydminster with Grace’s brother.  While in Lloydminster we were blessed with the opportunity to stay at a beautiful cottage trailer in the country.  This was great because it truly gave a chance to rest after many hectic days.  After doing our presentation at our home church SCC we were overwhelmed by the response of people who wanted to spend time and visit.  We were totally booked during the week between dental, eye, and appointments with 54 people.

While we were tired we were also greatly encouraged and inspired by all the people we visited with and by the outstanding level of hospitality and fellowship we received.

We were blessed again as wonderful friends drove us from Lloydminster to Didsbury and even had the graciousness to let us have time to stop and visit with friends in Bashaw.  We spent a few days fellowshipping and  relaxing in Didsbury with the former pastor couple from our home church.  Again blessed by dear friends whose home is peaceful and hospitality is gracious and we are treated more like family then friends.

Our experience in Canada, seeing family, friends and supporters was amazing.  As missionaries going home for the first time we did not know what to expect.  What we received was an incredible gift from God in terms of hospitality, friendship, inspiration, encouragement and an overall sense of love.  We are eternally grateful to all who show so much support to us in this call we received to serve in Niger, Africa.  We are also grateful that SIM wanted Orest to go to the international Treasurers Conference in North Carolina and that we were able to add some holiday time to be able to do this trip.

Aug 21 we arrive in Charlotte, NC.  There we spend a few days at the Charlotte SIM guesthouse.  Most of our time is spent in actually shopping for needed items to ship to Galmi – for the guesthouse, for ourselves and gifts.  Amazing how much time can be spent on shopping when cost, practicality and weight are all important.

After Charlotte we would spend time in Charleston where we experienced hospitality of short term medical missionaries who come to Galmi on a regular basis.  We had the opportunity to visit some historical sites and experience directly the deluge of rain that was part of hurricane Isaac.  We valued the time with our hosts and with other missionaries who were also in the area.

The final leg of our journey was in Asheville where we would spend time at the Billy Graham Training Center.  Here Orest would attend the Treasurers Consultation for about 7 days and Grace would participate in a Stormie Omartian prayer conference.

Grace would experience the joy of meeting 11 new sisters of faith who continue in contact with each other.  She would also be able to tell about Galmi and enlist the interest of 2 potential new medical missionaries to Galmi.

Orest would be able to participate with an international team of financial missionaries with varied backgrounds and experiences.  He would hear many testimonies and would be enthralled by the complexities involved in maintaining an international organization where rules from various countries add a complicated and sometimes confusing set of operational rules for those involved.  It is this complexity that establishes the need for administrative strength in such an international organization.  Other organizations have faltered, not because of the strength of their ministries but because of the lack of organizational strength in their administrative bodies.   Orest feels that SIM has a solid strength in this area.

After many hours of travel we returned to Niger on September 12.  After waiting far too many days we received our driver’s licenses and returned to a Galmi that was much greener due to a good rainy season.  We also returned to a Galmi that was experiencing a dearth of deaths due to malaria and cholera.  A hospital that is overrun with patients and an extraordinary medical team that continues to endure despite the hardships.   There have been many rumblings about protests and other difficulties but we remain calm and safe.

It is a blessing to be home at Galmi.  To have our first meal at Galmi with Sani and Sara and to see that our porch had been completed.  For now our garden is green and lush – so far lots of green and not a lot of veggies, but we hope that will soon change.
We want to thank all of you for your support and your love.
Blessings
 
Orest and Grace

Puppet

July 15, 2012 we were resposnsible for the missionary Sunday service on the compound.  As part of the service Orest did a puppet presentation.  He did up a script to start with, Based on the first miracle of Jesus in John 2.  Grace helped with the skit.

After the skit he did a musical number that involved two young ladies dancing along to the song.  This was a true international routine as one of the ladies was from Nigeria and the other from the United States and we are, of course, from Canada.

By the way, the fellow in the first picture is called Douda which is Hausa for David.

Desk Building

Last Saturday Pastor John, from California, and Orest went to the local public school to start building desks.  Things started off slowly as there were several issues to deal with. 

The first problem was taking off the existing bolts so that the new desk tops and seats could be added.  Orest was happy that we had some DW40 to put on the bolts to loosen the screws.  However, when they went to take the bolts off they realized that the problem was the fact that the bolts were welded to the screws.  Feeling a bit discouraged they headed back to the compound and went to the shop.  There they found a bolt cutter and were able to obtain a box of replacement screws and nuts.

Pastor John had the job of cutting off the bolts, which first required ripping off some rather old and dilapitated pieces of wood first.

Orest set to measuring the wood to drill holes for placementt on the desks.  This led to the second problem as he could not create a template for the desks.  Each desk was slightly different as to where the holes were so it required measuring every desk to get the proper holes drilled.  Needless to say this was time consuming.

The third factor was the heat and humidity that just made work difficult.

Overall, however, the day was satisfactory as we did manage to complete 14 desks for the school.  There remains wood to complete another 18 desks and we hope to do more.  At least we now have the procedure set so future work should go more smoothly.

We found that with the humidity the varnish was not drying very well.  In the last couple of shots you see Orest with his hand on the desk which actually started to glue to the desktop.  Took a bit of effort to get his hand free.

The first picture shows Pastor John sitting in the first desk we completed.

We are very grateful to Pastor John and his assistance in this project.