Thoughts While Taking R&R in Niamey...

I have been spoiled today. :) I'm not gonna lie, I have taken advantage of ALL of the wonderful amenities that Niamey has to offer (such as American style bathrooms--complete with REAL showers!, beef fajitas at the American embassy for lunch, A/C at the Phillips house, and indulging in some movie watching and card game playing!)

I look at today and compare it with the past couple of days that we just spent in Boubon, and honestly it feels like I'm in a completely different country when I'm in Niamey! I think I have successfully adjusted to African city life, but village life?? Shoot, that's a different story!

I feel like I could talk for hours about what life in Boubon has been like over the past couple of days. It's probably been the best and worst time of my life. God has taught me SO MUCH, but my faith has been tested in ways that I never expected...which has been hard to say the least. To keep it short, my biggest blessing has been the closeness that I've felt with God from having to rely on Him for EVERY SINGLE DETAIL OF MY LIFE. My biggest hardship has been the physical, emotional, and mental toll that village life takes on my body. I have had more physical problems here in the past 5 days than I have had in the past 5 years! But it's just another thing to give over to God...that's what I constantly have to do: give it to God and trust that He's going to take care of me.

Awhile ago I made a blog post about how my mantra has been that God is so faithful. While God has continued to remain faithful in ways that I can't even begin to describe, my mantra seems to have changed to: Jesus never said following Him would be easy. I think I'm finally learning what it truly means to be a disciple of Christ, and it's a hard lesson to learn!! But I am SO CONFIDENT that it's worth it. It's worth the blazing heat that makes my skin feel like it's burning off my body; it's worth drinking the dozens of bottles of water that smell (and taste) like sulfur; it's worth the sleepless nights and waking up to donkeys and roosters and cats and who-knows-what-else; and it's worth the persecution that we've already had to face.

No matter what happens this summer...whether we see fruit from this experience or not...I know that this will not have been in vain. I think it will be easy to go through all these hardships and become discouraged if we don't see any immediate results. But God's teaching me to rely on Him and HIS time table. He's the one who's COMPLETELY in control and at the end of the day, if I'm doing work for God, I know that in the end He will be glorified. And that's really all that matters. :)

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(This is the blog post that the Phillips had on the Songhai blog about mine and Emily's time in Boubon so far. I thought it covered things pretty well, so I copied it and posted it below so that y'all could read it too! Enjoy!)

Please be in prayer for Emily & Erin this week. These girls are our summer interns who are doing ministry in Boubon. They have completed their week of language learning & their first 3 day stint in Boubon. They have great attitudes & have already formed relationships with women in Boubon. As our national partners have worked in this village for 3 months, their focus was to reach the men of Boubon. Emily & Erin's goal is to find women or groups of women who are interested in the Gospel & begin to minister to them.

The first few nights in Boubon were tough for the girls as it is unbearably hot. They are in a new country, speaking a new language, dealing with a difficult climate in a very unfamiliar environment. Just imagine going from "college life" to sleeping outside in 100 degree weather (at night!) while donkeys bray at 3 am, dogs bark all hours & women are chit chatting way past midnight. You wake up & have to get your own water in a bucket, use the "restroom" which is a hole in the ground, shower outside with said bucket, eat breakfast & then try & figure out what you are going to do that day with your very limited language.

You walk around & people stare at you, they say things that you don't quite understand, you feel like a child because you can't put a complete sentence together ... oh & it's 115 degrees & there is no a/c &, if you're lucky, the power may work for a few hours & you can get a nice cool breeze from your pedestal fan. And that's all before 10 a.m.!

That is what these girls signed up for this summer!! And, although they still have great spirits about their new life & passion to see the women of Boubon worshipping the one True God, the environment that surrounds them is, nevertheless, draining & difficult.

Would you please pray for them this week? Pray for them to continue to find joy in their struggles. Pray for them to excel in their language. Pray for the nights to be cooler & their bodies to adjust quicker to the heat. Pray for them to learn even quicker how to survive in Boubon so that they can begin to thrive. Pray for God to draw them to the women that He is already calling to Himself. Pray for rest & peace at night while they sleep; that they may sleep deeply & their ears to be muted to the 10,000 other sounds that would normally keep them awake. Pray for them to remain healthy & strong as the heat takes a toll on their bodies.