New Experiences and New Lessons
Every outreach tip is different from what we expect. No two outreach trips can be compared to each other in the same ways. For some trips, the people are different, for other trips the circumstances are different. One thing is true about all outreach trips, though, and this is that the people that go on an outreach will come back a different person. They will have new experiences, new memories and maybe even new friends or new convictions.
The first outreach trip of this year was on Oct 12-14. It was a trip to a rural village called Makalondi. Since Oct 12-14 was the last weekend of our October break, everyone was very excited and full of energy. After loading up the two vehicles, the 10 team members consisting of Collin, Casey, Ryan, Chris, Daniel, Claire, Esther, TJ, Julie, Suzanne and two adults, Dave Totman and Bob Gillespie, piled in and pulled out of Niamey for the hour long road trip.
When we arrived, Gary Freemen greeted us at his gate with a huge smile. Later we also received a very warm welcome from Joy Freeman. Uncle Gary instructed where in their big yard to set up the tents and we got to work. After the tents were set up, we met on the Freeman’s veranda and discussed what we were going to do this weekend. We had a plan, but we would never know how God was going to use this plan for his glory. The mysteries of the next few days excited all of us. We could imagine the building we were going to paint, but would the picture in our imagination look anything like what we were actually going to work on? We soon found out. The Freemans had planned to take us to their favorite hiking spot, a small hill about 10 km outside of Makalondi. On the way to the ‘mountain’, we stopped and looked at the building that we would be painting the next day. The small building is a dormitory used for kids that would like to attend school but live too far in the bush to come to school. A wonderful Christian couple runs the dorm for the school, the church and the kids. The dorm is small, one large room for the 13 boys and one small room for the 2 girls who attend. Another small room is the dorm parent?s personal space. Cooking is done outside.
Continuing on towards the ‘mountain’ we enjoyed laughing and getting to know each other better. The hike was quick, complete with prickers and antics from Chris, Ryan, Daniel, Casey, and Collin. When we returned from the hike, Aunt Joy pulled out some already made pizza crusts and the chore team helped finish making the pizzas. Everyone enjoyed eating Aunt Joy’s wonderful pizza. After dinner the team practiced some songs in French and Gormache for the church service on Sunday morning. After the serious singing, everyone had a fun time laughing and telling jokes. Finally, everyone trooped off to bed. Unfortunately, the neighbors had planned their daughters wedding for that night, and the loud music kept almost everyone awake until past 2.
Saturday started bright and early with breakfast, and everyone quickly loaded in the Freeman’s truck to head to the dormitory to begin painting. We mixed the paint into a rich blue and began painting the walls. The team worked quickly and efficiently and still had a lot of fun. By noon, we had finished painting the two smaller rooms and we had more than half of the large room done. At this point we ran out of paint, so we returned to the Freeman’s house for some lunch and rest.
At about 4, many Makalondi youth began showing up for a large soccer match. The Sahel team and some of the Makalondi kids split off into teams and played a very enjoyable game of soccer for about an hour. The score ended up being 0-0. The soccer ball was donated to Sahel Academy and was used to demonstrate the wordless book since it had patches of black, red, white, yellow and green to show sin, the blood of Jesus, cleanliness or holiness, the hope of heaven and growing in God. After the soccer game, everyone grabbed a drink, and then gathered with the Christian young people in Makalondi for supper and a time of playing games. The team from Sahel taught the youth group PIT, Uno, Twister and Mafia. Everyone had a blast laughing with each other and learning many new things.
Saturday night, everyone went quickly through the showers and to bed. The wedding was still continuing, but most of us were so exhausted that we could just ignore it.
Sunday morning everyone woke up to a large breakfast of cinnamon rolls, banana bread, banana muffins and more banana bread. Then we went to a nearby EBM church in Baniera. The church was a medium-sized building made out of concrete with rows of benches, and a pulpit at the front. Women sat on one side, men on the other, and many children were crammed in the middle. The entire service was in Gormache, although the Sahel team did sing a few songs in French and even one in Gormache!
After the church service we returned to the Freeman’s house, ate a quick lunch and packed up the cars.
After every outreach trip, there seems to be something disappointing–and that is that the time is over. Many people look forward to rest and a nice shower, but the memories from the trips will always last and the lessons that God has taught us will always be with us.