Puppets

This last Sunday was a thanksgiving celebration at our local EERN Church.  This is the Church we are members of in Galmi.  It was a five hour service.  Then there was lunch afterwards.

On this Sunday there is the usual worship music to start and then a message.  After the message the fun starts.  Nothing but singing, dancing, drama and a few little speeches.  This was the Sunday we did puppets for the first time at the Church.

We had planned a number using music by the Ebenezer Group, which is a local band from Galmi.  There were four puppeters Orest, Grace. Sani and Sara.  We did some rehearsing and had Sani build a puppet screen to use at the Church.

We were the first 'performance' after the message.  The most memorable thing was that as soon as the puppets started the Church erupted with shouts of joy and clapping.  When these people like something they come forward and put money on the forhead of the performer.  The money goes to the Church.  Well, they were not sure about the puppet thing so they were putting money in the mouth of the puppet.  It was a riotous good time.  We have never done anything like that where the crowd reaction was so spontaneously overwhelming.  They kept clapping and cheering through the whole performance and gave a thunderous ovation at the end.

Afterwards we heard many stories, after Church and at the hospital for the next several days, of how much people enjoyed the puppets and how they want us to do it more often.

Lunch

Last Saturday we invited all the teachers from the local public school for lunch at our home.  It was just a time to get to know each other and hopefully build a stronger bond with these people.  We greatly enjoyed our time together.  We were able to express how much we appreciated their work as teachers and how important their roles were in the development of these young people for Niger.

We were able to inform them that we had funds available to build a toilet for the teachers.  They are happy about that.  Orest was also able to get more lumber and will commence the rebuilding of 55 desks for the school. 

We hope in the near future to repair all the windows and doors in the classrooms and to build an extra toilet facility for the students.

Please pray for the education of the young people of Niger.