Veteran missionary Bill Shaw explaining the finner points of eating local dish called “boule” and whole fish to Ben Dunlap, future missionary to Africa.

Here we go- this is my first post on our new website. As you can see from the picture I have not been lazying about the pool in Alcapulco sipping virgin Pina Coladas but out in the bush, and I mean the real bush of Chad, Africa! Sleeping under the stars with a mosquito net, waking up to see a half dozen local teenagers observing your sleep habits as you spent the night wedged between the Landcruiser and a pile of bricks under your mosi net, taking a bucket bath with questionable water and an even more questionable bath “house.” Ah, missionary life and work! Ben and Michelle Dunlap, a young couple from Kelso, WA spent two weeks with us to see for themselves if being missionaries in Africa could be a part of their future. Ben and I taught at a regional conference and that is where the picture was taken during lunch.

As I said, our website has gone through some morphing as we switched from our first web service to another. Most of the pages are set up as before, so our site gives you pretty much all the info you could possibly want about Chad and our work, includng recipes, the national anthem, and travel advice should you be so inclined to visit us. The new site is in blog format so our communiqués ought to be more regular and you can even reply and add your two cents worth if you like!

I want to keep this first post a short one, so I am asking you to pray for two people who are friends of ours. The first one is a missionary from Sweden who once worked in Chad. Stephan Ollson has continued to support the work in Chad for several years after his departure in 1999, mostly through raising funds in Sweden. Some time ago he was diagnosed with lukemia, and even after treatment this sickness has returned with a vengeance. He needs a miracle and has asked us to pray for him. Will do you do that?

The second request is for a little Chadian boy named David. A real cute squirt he is. He has the habit of clomping around in his plastic sandals during my sermons but other than that he is just a good three year old kid. His dad is a good friend of mine, Djimsana Bacré. Better men walk this earth but they are few and far between. Djim and Eveline have two great kids and are one of the most serious couples in terms of trying to serve God I have met here in Chad. Unfortuantely, last week they received news from the doctors that David has sicle cell anemia, a genetic disease that deforms the red blood cells in such a way they cannot convey oxygen as they should. There are two types, one that ends life at the age of 6 and the other that goes to age 30. I know life is not fair but Sonia and I are asking you to pray for David. He, too, needs a miracle.

We will let you know what is happening in their lives as we learn more. Until the next post,

God bless and keep your faith sharp.

Bill Shaw

Chad is a former French colony, which means that from 1 to 4 PM shopping comes to a screeching halt for the lengthy, traditional European lunch and siesta time. Therefore, the muezzins generally delay their noon call to prayer until 1:30 PM for the benefit of all the Muslim shop owners. The other calls follow in two to three hour increments: about 3 PM, at sunset and around 7:30 PM. (When your day starts at four o’clock, bedtime needs to come early, as well.) We have noticed that during Ramadan—the Islamic month of fasting during daylight hours—sunset magically comes a few minutes earlier every evening, and platters of food appear next to the prayer mats for the immediate satiation of the adherents’ physical appetites.

Living here, surrounded by these sounds which are a part of our lives but unrelated to us, we have learned to tune out the mosques’ PA systems most of the time. If their message—get up and pray; it is more blessed to pray than to sleep—does break through the fog of slumber from time to time, I do just that…pray for my family back in the USA, for Bill, for the ministry and churches here in Chad, and for Muslims to find Jesus as their own Savior. Generally, I fall back to sleep within a few minutes.

We have now entered Christmas week. Sunday afternoon, the pastor responsible for the Moundou churches came to Bill’s office about the schedule of festivities for the week. One of his requests was for the mission’s sound system to use at 5 AM every morning of the week to “announce Christmas to the neighborhood.” Bill jokingly asked if he was trying to enter into competition with the mosques. At 4 AM this morning I realized that is exactly what the local pastors are trying to do! That was when the first of the area’s church PA systems blasted Christian music into the quarter. Of course, the mosques (a half dozen surround our house) followed their usual schedule, but it seems as though they all had power boosters on this morning. And not only did they call the faithful to prayer, they also broadcasted the prayer leader’s words to the city. Since then, numerous other churches have turned on their PA systems. I gave up on sleep long ago!

Tomorrow night—Christmas Eve—all this noise will come to a head when the cabarets add their disco music to the mix. They have been blasting away till after midnight each evening since Christmas vacation began last Friday. The night before Christmas here in Chad is definitely not “still as a mouse”! The churches will celebrate all night long with feasting, Christian videos, worship, skits, a message from the Word, and lots and lots of loud music. In the neighborhoods, the bars’ PA systems will be playing dance tunes all night long. At 4 AM, all this noise will be joined by the usual call to prayer. Shortly afterward, both the Christians and the unbelievers will stumble home to sleep most of Christmas day away. Is it any wonder that many Muslims equate unbelief with Christianity?

Although this gives us pause, we know the truth. Christmas and Easter—the two official Christian holidays here in Chad—are days when believers in Jesus can truly celebrate well. This week we remember the fact that God Incarnate came to earth as a baby, walked among us, was tempted as we are but without ever sinning, and became the perfect sacrifice for all our transgressions with His death on the cross. At Easter, we celebrate His resurrection from and triumph over death. The grave itself could not hold Emmanuel—God with us! He arose to give those who believe in Him power over sin and victory over death and hell.

During two brief ceremonies in April, certificates of completion were given to twenty-five students, twelve beginners and thirteen intermediate learners, ranging in age from seventeen to forty-one.  Each student received a certificate of completion and a handshake of congratulations while a recording of “Pomp and Circumstance” played in the background.  (Corny, I know, but I wanted them to get the full American graduation experience.)  Several recipients were teachers, some were businessmen, a few were secretaries, and the rest were students in one of Moundou’s high schools.

For a variety of reasons, some of my students did not complete the necessary work to receive their certificates.  There was illness—one of Africa’s constant circumstances—as well as a couple of deaths in the immediate families of my students.  Some received new jobs or training opportunities requiring a move to another location.  One of my beginning students, Percide—a young bride of just one year—had to drop out of class when she gave birth to twin boys, whom my husband and I were privileged to name, tiny Josué (Joshua) and Jean-Luc.  (Denis, their daddy, was the salutatorian in the intermediate class.)  Unfortunately, several beginning students were caught cheating on one of their last tests, and thus were not allowed to finish their course.

               Class standing is very important in Chadian culture, so the valedictorian and salutatorian were recognized in each class.  Nasson Bemba, who heads up our Bible school construction team, was the top intermediate student.  He is a young man with a teaching degree from a Cameroonian university who is working on campus while waiting to be hired into the Chadian school system.  Not only did he ace every test he took, but he speaks English so well that he was asked during a recent telephone conversation by another multilingual African if he had studied English in America.  He closed the graduation with an impromptu speech thanking me on behalf of the class for the lessons they had learned and asking for continued classes, so that their language skills could be perfected.

               The beginners had to play catch up, doing three lessons per week, in order to finish their studies on time.    Unfortunately, the evening classes missed a couple of weeks of lessons due to the attempted coup d’état in February and the resulting curfew.  The top two students in the beginning class were Béram, a teacher, and Véronique, a secretary at Moundou’s city hall.

               Both classes celebrated the end of the course with generous servings of warm mulberry cobbler and Kool-Aid, definitely an American beverage.  The berries grow on spindly trees right outside our kitchen door, and I can pick about a cup each day during the dry months from December till March.

               The third class, which began several months later and is using a different curriculum, will finish their course this fall.  New classes for continuing students are also scheduled to begin in October.  Due to my time limitations, I will probably not be teaching another beginning class again until next January.  English lessons at the Centre de Jeunesse (Youth Center) are so popular that I could teach several classes every day and never run out of students.  Since that is physically impossible, I need to limit my classroom time to a few hours per week plus prep time.  Other English teachers reading this article who are interested in teaching in a third world francophone nation would definitely be more than welcome in our home and in the Youth Center classroom.  Hundreds of eager students are waiting!  This is a viable ministry opportunity for you to pray about joining.

And if that was not enough, Sonia and I just received note that a new missionary has been assigned to Chad for the AoG USA. This fine family is not new to Chad. They worked wirth SIL as Bible translators for several years but felt they needed to be with a mission that was closer to their vision and ministry so we welcome David and Sharon Faris. Their ministry will be to continue the translation of the Bible into a local language. We cannot share the name of the ethnic group or their language due to the sensitive nature of their work. They add a vital diminsion to the work here. I met David for the first time back in 1994 when we made our first investigative trip to Chad. He hosted our stay and provided much needed information on the conditions. They are from the Northern New England area and plan to be done with their fund raising by the beginning of 2009.

• Pray for our church and the FM radio station in N’Djamena. The war caused a migration of people out of the city and this includes families in the church and personnel at the radio station. Both the church and the radio station have been hit economically by the troubles. Neither were looted when the city was in anarchy but the general undercurrent has discouraged people from supporting them as before.
• Pray for the continuing construction of the Bible institute campus. Our construction team is working on the professors’ duplex and the finishing of the main admin library and classroom building. Pray for the funds needed to have this campus ready by September of this year when the new school year begins. We still need to install the drilled water well and the initial electrical system.
• Pray for the two African pastors and their families coming from Togo and Burkina Faso who will be teaching at the Bible institute this year. Pray for their fund raising and for the courage to come and live in Chad.

Sonia and I are staying put as the situation in Moundou is not serious. People are nervous and there is definately tension in the air. Our main concern would be if the government falls to the rebels, there will be a following period of anarchy. During this time people take advantage of the lack of law enforcement and begin to loot. The other possibility is the fleeing members of the existing government have in the past stolen vehicles at gun point so our main concern is to avoid this kind of a scenario by leaving when it is priudent. We are only 75 miles from the border to Cameroon on a paved road so we have our evacuation route planned out.

One complication is the absence of our passports. They were in the capital city getting our residence visas renewed when the fighting broke out, so right now we are looking for someone who has them and a way to get them to us. The Cameroon govt. has announced they will allow anyone to cross their border in this time of difficulty even if they do not have a passpoort or an entry visa so this is less of a burden to us. It would be nice to have our passports in hand should we have to leave. The other challenge is the national cell phone system has not worked regularly so our means of communication has been very limited and access to the internet very spotty. In this case, kindly assume that “no news is good news.”

The situation is calming down right now but the rebels have threatened to attack again. Banks have stayed closed since 31 january so we are running out of cash but making do. The constant stress does make it a bit harder to concentrate on our daily lives as you never know when things are going to erupt. I was down in the market buying vegetables on 3 Feb, and as I was negotiating the price of carrots with our “veggie lady” people all around us began to stampede, leaving the market in a rush. Merchants began to hustle their wares into their shops and shutter them away, other veggie ladies bundled their produce into their bags and disappeared, teenagers were running around laughing, but hey, I was going to get a good price for those carrots! As I loaded my purchases into the truck one of the street kids I know told me a policeman had shot and killed a woman in the market so that is why peole panicked. On the way home I saw no evidence of this but it shows how nervous people are.

Go to our webpage on Chad’s history (in the left column of buttons, titled “Chad, A Study of Tragic Hope”) and you can see a map to know how far we are from N’Djamena, the capital city and to read up on how often this country has gone through this trial by fire. I was taliking to Percisse, a widow woman with several children that Sonia and I are helping with a small scale business project (real small scale- like $60 of investment so she can at least feed her chldren!) and I said that this current coup situation may continue indefinately and her reply was quite sobering. Without blinking and quite matter of fact, she said in all seriousness to me “Pastor, if this fighting continues for very long, I and my chldren will simply go home and die of starvation.” What do you say after hearing that?

In spite of it all we are continuing the construction at the Bible Institute. We are not yet free to travel to N’Djamena to asses the situation and see where we can be of assistance. One positive report was that although government buildings in the area were looted, the FM radio station was not. They have been off the air but hope to be back up and running this week. We certainly covet your prayer and concern. Once we can get with our church leadership in N’Djamena we will know better what can be done to help relocate and re-establish the refugees.

Our intention is to remain unless the situation deteriorates. We are scheduled to be stateside from May to mid July to attend Bethany’s graduaton from Northwest University and to raise awareness and funds for our Bible institute project. We will base out of the Seattle area during that time. We will also try to keep this webpage updated as things happen but we never know when we can have access to the internet.