Sundays are for visiting

Yesterday morning, I went to church with Souleman and Nanna. The service was enjoyable – good music with a mix of French, English, Hausa and some other languages. The kids sang, the women sang (the best part ‘cause they used traditional drums), the youth gave a few songs and even the men got up to do a special song. The sermon was short and sweet. And the announcements were only about half the length of the sermon, so all in all, I considered it a highly praiseworthy service for a large African congregation.

After the service, I chatted with various people under the shade of trees in the courtyard. Very enjoyable, except that my stomach was rumbling away. Souleman was helping count the offering and Nanna was talking to all kinds of people, running around, shaking hands and giving hugs to the other women. She is really an extraordinary African woman. At one point she came up to me apologetically explaining why, an hour after church had ended, we were showing no signs of leaving. “Sunday is our day to visit. It’s the only chance we get to see each other”.

A while later, Souleman came, we hopped in the SUV and headed home, or so I thought. When we were obviously going a different direction, I thought, hopefully that maybe we might be going to a restaurant. Alas, we were going to visit Souleman’s uncle. Unfortunately they were not home, after a brief visit with the guard, we hopped back in the truck and headed out again. This time we ended up at a friend of Souleman’s. They discussed some design issues and then (praise the Lord), the friend’s wife brought out some food for us. Sooooo yummy. We actually didn’t stay too long, and then we were off again, but still not to home. The next stop was Nanna’s mother’s house. Souleman explained… “You see, Sunday is our day to visit people – the rest of the week is just too busy.” No problem, except that I had planned to do some visiting of my own, Sunday afternoon, by catching up with my favourite student "Halmassad".

Nanna's mom feeds us too and the jolly old lady has a hoot practicing English with me. She is surprisingly good and it turns out that she lived in Nigeria (one of the few English speaking countries in the region) and has been an English teacher here in Niger for many years.

When we left there, we started for home, and I got them to drop me at an internet cafe where I could catch up on emails and wait for Halmassad to come and meet me. It was great to see him again. My hope had been to go with him to his home area and visit the work he is doing with his people there. However, right now it is almost impossible for white people to visit the region. There has been a lot of tension between government and rebel groups there and recently 2 French journalists went into the area secretly to report on what was going on. Ever since, there has been a serious case of martial law, and white people aren't allowed in. The news from the region was not to bother even trying to come. This was very dissappointing for both Halmassad and for me, but we accepted the news and decided we would have to try again at a more opportune time.

This may be for the best as he is still waiting to hear from his Doctor about how they will be changing his treatments (Halmassad suffers from some rare blood disorder that I don't understand). That is something that I would appreciate prayer for, by the way. We are talking about an incredibly dynamic man making a huge impact on his people, but suffering from illness. Today I spent a long time praying with him and although he is a Muslim man, he was very grateful for the prayers offered in Jesus' name.

I went to the house where he stays when he is in Niamey here. Wow! Was that ever a huge contrast to where I have been staying with Souleman and Nanna. The slum area is only just metres away from the "Boulevard of Embassies", but there is no water system or garbage system. There are no streets, only pathways between buildings. Some buildings are actual brick buildings, others are mud, others are grass-woven huts. Alhassane stays in a tent in front of a small 1 Bedroom side to a duplex made of cement. It is his family and they let him stay for free, but it is not easy living with others in very close quarters. We ate together and spent a long time chatting with his brothers and cousins. I said, at one point: "I should go, leave you guys - its late". Guess what their response was.

Yep. "Its Sunday! Sundays were made for visiting!"