About the Niamey, Niger Project

Niger is located in West Africa and 80 percent of its land is in the Sahara Desert. Most of the country is desert plains and sand dunes, droughts are frequent. The climate is one of the hottest in the world. Its estimated population of 11 million are 98% Muslim. Niger is ranked 172 out of 173 countries in the United Nations Developemnt Program's Human Development index, and only 13.6% of its population is literate (6.6% of women). The Reformed Church in America partners with the Evangelical Church of Niger. Their focus in the region is to help with community development, theological training, literacy, medicine, and agriculture. The Mission project for this winter is to build a guest house to assist the Evangelical church's programs. It will give them a facility to house people who come in from the countryside for training in evangelism, leadership and other minstry skills. Bruce and Laurie Hawley are the missionaries responsible for the project and will be working closely with Kay and Sue. More information is available on the Reformed Church website at http://www.rca.org/.

Kay and Sue will be in Niamey from January 26, 2009- February 10, 2009.

Monday, February 2, 2009

Sunday joy

Dear friends and family --

Things are going well! I'm writing on Sunday -- so first an update on church here: I got a little teary during "Holy, Holy, Holy" today and when we took communion. Cool service (actually quite hot!). They make all of the announcements regarding attendance and finances during worship because there is no bulletin or e-mail way of communicating. It was 2 3/4 hours long but it really did not seem so long. The youth sing, the children sing, the women sing, the men sing, the choir sings and then the sermon was preached in Hausa and then translated into French. Susan (permanent missionary) sat next to me and translated into English. The people were lovely, so welcoming and friendly. Lots of good African drumming and also electric keyboard! After church we went to a Chinese restaurant with a young woman who is a Calvin College grad working here for the Christian Reformed Church. No electricity on the bathroom meant they had to light a candle so we could see. Eating out here is sure not like home!

We had the afternoon off, so I crashed and slept hard. Sue went to the airport to pick up a new member of our team and one is leaving tonight so we are still at 10. I went with Susan and Jeremy and 2 others to the Missionary school for an English service this evening.

Tomorrow we dig again... As the days typically go we lost power while we were doing dinner dishes so I washed dishes with a headlight flashlight!!!!

Sue continues to be such a good friend and inspiration, her devotions are wonderful. We had a good laugh riding as 11 people squished in the car today....

Thanks for your love, prayers and support.

Kay
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