DAILY LIFE

Let me share a little bit about daily life here at the Center in Abéché, Chad. We usually get up around 5:30 am just after sunrise and about an hour after the first call to prayer has blasted from the loudspeakers of the two Mosques in our neighborhood. The call to prayer lets me know it will soon be time to get up. We also have African Ibis which make strange chicken sounds, and doves and roosters next door, so no alarm clock is needed. Some mornings we also have boys reciting verses from the Koranic school over the back fence.

First order of business is a trip to the bathroom. The toilet is a hole in the cement floor. A shower stall is next to it. When there are cockroaches running around I have learned to tap on the floor with my foot and the vibrations cause them to scurry back down the hole. Sometimes there are a number of flies and a constant ammonia-like smell.

"Toilet" and "washbasin". Watch out for those cockroaches

 Then outside to brush my teeth and wash my face. We do not always have city water. On average we get water every third day and not always with good pressure for showers. So we store water in 45 gallon barrels and take bucket showers. I have had the intense pleasure of three real showers with city water in the last two months.

Then I make my way to the kitchen to prepare a delicious cup of instant coffee and head back to my room for Bible reading and prayer through Operation World. Then I check emails from home, say "good morning" to Gloria, and after that have a time of personal prayer.

Each one of the team has a day when they are responsible for cooking. My day is Monday. We set the table for breakfast sometimes with eggs, or pancakes, or oatmeal, apple or banana, or Fangaso (a doughnut, double the size of a Timbit, fried in and dripping with peanut oil, which we dip into sugar mixed with cinnamon) but always French baguettes of bread, with marmalade, Nutella, mayanaise, peanut butter and honey. We cook on a two burner propane stove. We also use a solar oven to make cakes and breads.

Two burner propane stove

Solar oven with cake cooking

After preparing breakfast on Mondays I go to the market to get what I need to prepare lunch. We have no refrigerator so someone goes to the market everyday.

The last meal I prepared, rice with a white sauce and vegetables

We have a type of refrigerator called a Dowaane, which is a large clay porous jar that sweats out water and allows the breeze to cool down the water inside the jar much like body sweat cools down the body.

Dowaane is on left, jar for drinking water on right

On the other days of the week I am correcting homework and reviewing English lessons, reading, writing and doing some Bible study. On Tuesday morning at 6:30 am I have an Arabic lesson. Most of Saturday is used up preparing 8 English lessons for the following week and getting to bed early for walking to 8 am church the next day.

Cooler of Ice on left, purified water on right

The water in Abeche is drinkable but we also have purified water. Every day or two someone will go to the ice man and buy a cooler of ice. Two things I really miss are cold drinks and cold milk. We only have powdered milk. As we add water to the ice we can have some ice water to drink. I am drinking both city and purified water with no ill effects.

After classes, Tuesday through Friday, which end at 7:30, we usually gather in the kitchen for a light supper of lunch leftovers, cucumber, eggs, cheese or someone may make something such as an Avocado/Tomato spread. We have also been having watermelon on a regular basis because it is in season and very cheap. We eat well but have almost no junk food so I have trimmed down to 160 pounds.

After supper I am off to my room to check emails and say "good night" to Gloria. Then some evening devotions and in bed around 9.

Thank you for spending the week with me. Drop in anytime.

ABÉCHÉ LEARNING CENTER

 A JOY FILLED AND GRATEFULNESS FILLED THANKSGIVING TO ALL

The literacy level in Chad for French or Arabic is estimated to be anywhere from 35% (Mundi index 2014) to 54% (Operation World 2010) and considered to be one of the lowest in the world. Primary school attendance is about 50% and drops to 22% for high school (Unicef 2008-2012). At the Learning Center (Centre de Connaissance d`Abéché) we offer basic English classes and basic computer classes. Students join the classes to improve their work opportunities or with the hope of further education in an English context. Our desire is to empower these students with English but also to build relationships that may lead to spiritual discussions. Christian literature is also available at the center in French, English and Arabic should they want to read more about Christianity. There is also a library on site which anyone can join with books available in Arabic, French and English.

Sign at our front door

Let me give you a mental tour of the Center.

Sketch of Learning Center layout (not to scale)

The Center is enclosed in a bricked compound about 141 feet wide facing the street and about 216 feet deep. We are on a major paved street with a gate for cars and a door for entry into the compound. As you walk in the door there is a courtyard for parking vehicles and the library ahead with the generator in the left corner. A conference room is attached to the library as well as a small courtyard. To the right of the gate are the living quarters for the Chadian librarian and his family, who also carries out other duties for the Center. Beside the library building the classrooms and school office can be found and past the classrooms the living quarters for the teachers, the kitchen, and washrooms. Beyond the classroom building and beside the living quarters there is a small garden area.

Classrooms and office (taken from the garden area and facing the front gate and librarian`s residence)

Right side of living area (first door is my room) On other side of the small courtyard is the kitchen and other rooms and beyond the trees ahead are the bathrooms

On Thursday we spent the morning cleaning our classrooms in preparation for classes on Tuesday. It was hard work but a joy to work with others and to see the final results.

Dusting, sweeping and washing all four classrooms. In the background is the garden area and living quarters building

Saturday, we had registration for classes. Each of the 9 English level classes is limited to 15 students and the computer class is limited to 10 students. We had a total of 64 registrations.

Everyone was given a number and registered in order

Please pray for the teachers, Judith, Adrian, James and myself, and for the students and especially that this will be the beginning of a journey to spiritual life for some of these new students.

FROM N'DJAMÉNA TO ABÉCHÉ

After a few days in N`Djaména, the capital of Chad, we traveled across the country by bus to the city of Abéché were I will be staying and teaching at the Learning Center. Abéché is the fourth largest city in Chad, about 80,000 people, about 750 km from the capital, and about 180 km before the border of Sudan.

The Green circle is the Abéché ministry area

Four of us traveled by bus, the Center leader and three short-termers.  We left the bus station just after 6 am. The bus station was a commotion of Ruckshaws, food and product vendors, buses, passengers, motorbikes, goods being loaded and unloaded, security, with no apparent order to the crowded bustle. We were asked for our passports by some men dressed in white whom I would not have identified as men with the authority to ask for such papers but the Center leader assured us of their authority and we gladly complied.

This is not a picture of our bus. We traveled in a newer comfortable Chinese bus with air conditioning but no bathroom onboard. The bus was full and crowded. After a check of the main component for bus travel, a loud horn, we were on the way. The horn sounded at least once a minute and sometimes more often to warn motorcycles, other vehicles, passengers and animals that we were behind them and not slowing down. We zigzagged through goats, and cows, donkeys, and sheep and a few horses. We did have one encounter with a rather large turkey sized bird who was not fast enough to miss the front passenger windshield. The fellow sitting in front of the window got some glass in his eye and on his clothes but we kept on busing. A fellow passenger blew the glass out of his eye.

Pushing the windshield back in place and plugging holes with tissue.

We made two stops along the way, one for a bathroom break and the second for lunch. The bathroom break was in the middle of nowhere. Men went to the field on the right and the woman crossed the road to the field on the left. A few scrubby trees did not provide any privacy. Squat, use your robes as a temporary enclosure and do your business. Remember to use your left hand only. Luckily I was in no need to go to the bathroom but it was nice to stretch my legs. Blow the horn again four or five times and we are ready to keep busing to our destination.

We also stopped in a very small village for lunch but we had brought our own boiled eggs, hot dogs in a can, cheese, bread and water. Good to stretch out the legs. Then four or five blasts of the horn and we are on the move again.
We were given a nice cold soda to drink in the late afternoon and arrived around 5 o'clock in Abéché. As we were trying to find two Ruckshaws to take us to the center, along with all our luggage, we were asked for passports again.
I am grateful to God for the enjoyable trip across the beautiful raw country of Chad. I particularly enjoyed the mountains which have a very unusual shape and structure. Next week I hope to tell you more about the Center.

Amazing rock formations

HELLO FROM CHAD

On September 2nd I was dropped off at the Toronto airport for my flight to Chad via Addis Ababa in Ethiopia on Ethiopian airlines. The check in was not open when I arrived and when it did I was third in line. I praise God that I was early because when I went back to go through my gate the line had grown considerably. Most people were either returning home with purchases made in Canada or bringing goods to their families in Africa. It is amazing that the 777-200L Boeing plane left the ground. With 9 seats across I estimate their were over 300 people on that plane.

Lineup at Ethiopian Airlines. Notice all luggage and gifts for family and friends

I arrived in N'Djamena Chad just after noon of September 3rd from Addis Ababa after a pleasant flight and transfer. I met a wall of sweltering heat. Before being allowed to enter the airport building I was checked for Ebola by checking my body temperature. There is no air conditioning at the airport. I was met by my team leader and two other short-termers. We went to a restaurant and had lunch and then some shopping and unto the guest house to settle in for a couple of days before heading by bus to Abeche. Our time in N'Djamena was spent filling out paper work for immigration and others, visiting the market and resting up.

It was a new experience for me to be waken up by the call to prayer before sunrise around 4 AM. By 5:00 am there is much activity taking place as the men and women prepare for their day. Then around 5:30 about 30 boys would gather just next door to the guest house to do their daily memorizing of the Quoran. Dressed all in white they recite their verses aloud and in unison under the guidance of their teacher and some older boys.

Young boys memorizing and reciting the Quoran early in the morning next to the guest house

Mosque across the street from the guest house. Evening prayers

Across the street from the guest house was this simple mosque. On the roof, at the left hand near corner, are two speakers which blast out the call to prayer early in the morning before sunrise and at the other appointed times of the day, a constant reminder to remember and worship Allah.

May we determine to train our own children in the ways of the Lord and to pay attention to the voice of the Holy Spirit who calls each of us to intercession throughout the day, for fellow believers and for the unbelievers around us.

Thank you for your many prayers for me. If you want to be included in my weekly private prayer email send me an email at <rtulip231@gmail.com>. May God give you a growing commitment to make disciples of all nations. ron

CANDIDATE ORIENTATION

Greetings on my second-to-last weekend in Canada before I leave for Chad, by the mercy and provision of God. Unless God has other plans, my next posting will be coming to you from Chad. Praise God that I have received my visa.

Last week and this upcoming week, I have been and will be in Hamilton for candidate orientation (CO) at the Worldwide Evangelization for Christ (WEC) Canadian office. Part of my training is walking up to my room on the third floor (large roof dormer window on left)  : > )

WEC-Canada Headquarters in Hamilton Ontario

I am so encouraged by what God is doing in calling young men and women to overseas missions. We have a class of 12. Excluding myself I believe there is only 3 who are over 25. There is one couple and all the rest are single. Most have already done some short term mission work and are now wanting to go long term. Four of us are called Trekkers which means we are going short term. Our CO is only two weeks long but the other 8 will be in candidate orientation and will remain in Hamilton for 4 months. What is tremendously exciting to me is that 8 out of the 12 candidates are men. The mission fields that these young men and women are seeking to serve in are difficult and unfriendly to Christians. God is still working to bring the lost to Himself through His people.
I sense no age barrier between myself and these young men and women because of our love for Jesus and our mission goals. However I cannot stay up until past midnight listening to music and talking and then be fresh in the morning. God bless those young people who belong to Jesus and are going forward to serve Him.

CO class with our teacher Heather

WEC is truly a faith mission. WEC does no marketing or advertising or appeals for funds. You will not receive a monthly news letter asking for donations. That is one reason why WEC is not so publicly known as other missions. Also WEC does not take a percentage from donations off the top for administrative fees. What is given to the missionary goes to the missionary. For over 100 years now, God has provided for WEC, now with nearly 2,000 missionaries and working in over 75 countries around the world.
WEC also counts prayer as vital to the work of missions. WEC does not count prayer as important in name only but prays. Three times a week the staff meets for morning prayer for 45 minutes. We have had the privilege of joining with them this week. There is a day of fasting once a month and a monthly public prayer meeting which is very well attended. Prayer and faith is counted as most important in the work of missions.

Prayer in the morning with the staff

I praise God that He has led me to serve with Worldwide Evangelization for Christ. I would encourage you to read the story of our founder C. T. Studd who put the practice of faith and prayer into practice having seen and experienced prayer and faith in action in his own life and when working with Hudson Taylor and the China Inland Mission.

I am looking forward to writing you from Chad.Thank you for your faithfulness to the Lord.

If you would like to receive a private weekly prayer email send me an email at <rtulip231@gmail.com>. For financial information see this blog entry <http://ron-east-west.blogspot.ca/2014/07/the-holy-spirit-and-means.html>

HOME (FOR AWHILE)

Greetings from Welland, Ontario. I flew home July 25th. I am glad for my time working in Alberta but disappointed that I only worked about 40% of my days there because of rain, holidays and the occasional use of the equipment that I was driving.

Plans are to attend World Evangelization for Christ (WEC) orientation from August 18th to 29th in Hamilton and then to fly out to Chad on September 2nd arriving September 3rd and staying until December 22nd. I have not yet received my visa for Chad. The application is still at the Chadian embassy in Washington DC so please pray for its completion so my passport with the Chad visa stamp can be returned to me. Finances are coming in and I am thankful to God for His provision and continue to trust Him to provide what is still needed. [see July 5th entry on finances by clicking this link] I now have 30 prayer partners which receive a short weekly email with prayer requests. If you would like to be part of this team that is "holding the ropes" email me at rtulip231@gmail.com.

It is great to be with Gloria again and also to see Michelle and Kris and the grandkids. I am thankful for Rosedale Baptist Church and the worship and preaching of God's Word.

Four grandkids in Welland

I have also been doing some home renovations both planned and others unexpected but needed.

Replacing ant infested window frame (pictured is insulating foam not ant colonies)

And keeping an eye on the downtown bridge renovation project.

Sandblasting and painting downtown Welland bridge

Soon my time in Welland will be over. Thank you for your many prayers and encouragements. If this is your first time receiving this blog you can view other postings by clicking on the sidebar to the right or viewing the archives at the bottom right of the page.

Jesus said, "All authority in heaven and on earth is given to me". God has given us the assurance in His Son and in His Word that history is unfolding as He has ordained it. Those who have put their trust in Jesus Christ and follow Him as Lord have a great eternal future ahead of them. Let us press on to that end.

FULFILLMENT

Let me share with you about God's guidance in my life over these last 20 years and why I am going to Chad. God does not lead me with audible voices or visions but He has impressed upon me over my 42 plus years as a Christian 3 significant verses. The first is my life verse which I was impressed with when I graduated from Bible College in 1983. "So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it" 2 Corinthians 5.9.
The second verse came when I was seeking God's direction after spending a year in Chicago studying at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. I was sitting in the old Alliance Church (the beehive shaped one) in Nipawin one Sunday morning when God impressed this verse upon me. "I will put my Spirit in you and you will live, and I will settle you in your own land. Then you will know that I the Lord have spoken, and I have done it, declares the Lord" Ezekiel 37.14. That was in 1995. Shortly after receiving that verse we moved to Cambridge Ontario where I began to work as a Millwright. On a mission trip to Tunisia in 1999 I received a very special filling of the Holy Spirit which consisted of 1 1/2 days of waves of God's Spirit coming over me. I consider this as an anointing for the ministry that shortly followed and a fulfillment of Ezekiel 37.14.  During a layoff from work in 2001 I preached at Rosedale and became its full time Pastor. These nearly twelve years at Rosedale fulfilled God's 1995 word to me from Ezekiel.

I have always had a desire to serve overseas. Gloria and I seriously attempted to serve overseas at one point in our lives. I have also always had a desire to teach God's Word. In 2012 a third verse was impressed upon me from Isaiah 42.9 as I began to think it was time to end my pastorate at Rosedale. "Behold, the former things have come to pass, and new things I now declare; before they spring forth I tell you of them". The former Ezekiel verse was fulfilled and a new direction was in store for Gloria and I. Please take the time to read from verses 5 to 8 of Isaiah 42. They outline my new job description and a serious warning to give all the Glory to God. In searching for a mission to work with, by God's guidance He led me to World Evangelization for Christ (WEC) and through WEC working in Chad was suggested. Chad may not be my final destination for overseas work but God has led in that direction for now and I am rejoicing in that calling.

I trust this will give you a fuller background to what may seem to some as a rash and radical decision to go to Chad. My goal is to please God and I am thankful that God is allowing my adventurous spirit, boldness, and inquisitive mind to be satisfied in following His will.

Yesterday I mailed out my application for a visa for Chad to the embassy in Washington DC.
Thank you to those who have sent in support for this 4 month trip to Chad. For information on finances see the blog entry <The Holy Spirit and Means> from July 5th.

This week I purchased my ticket to Chad. I leave on September 2nd on Ethiopian Airlines arriving in Chad on September 3rd via Addis Ababa.
I finalize my vaccinations with a Yellow Fever shot and my second Hepatitis B shot on Friday.
I bought my 220 volt to 110 volt converter/adapter.
I am thrilled to report that 27 people have asked to be on the private weekly prayer email that I will regularly be sending out. This will not be a long email and will have specific prayer requests each week. The first email will be sent this week. If you would like to be included in this mailing send me an email <rtulip231@gmail.com> and I will add your name to the list.
I think I will be returning home from Alberta at the end of July as there is not much work for Packer drivers at this time and there is maintenance needing to be done at home.
I have been reading two "can't put them down" books on the history of Islam and Shari'a and understand much better the present turmoil and some of the conflicts and factions within the movement. Islam has a rich heritage but over the centuries has struggled to determine the true way of Islam and how to interpret and apply the law, a fascinating struggle that all religions go through.

Send up a prayer for our persecuted brothers and sisters who love Jesus and are willing to die for that love. How precious is our God and Father, His Son Jesus, and the Word He has left us to treasure.