Our Involvement with the Local Evangelical Church in Niamey

A brief and partial history of the church in Niger

Many people have asked us: “If Niger is predominantly a Muslim country (>95%), what kind of church presence is there in Niamey?”

Much of the evangelical Nigerien church exists in large part due to the early work of SIM missionaries (Serving in Mission, previously known as Sudan Interior Mission). SIM began working in eastern Niger in 1924 and established several schools, non-denominational churches, agricultural projects, and hospitals (of which Galmi Hospital is the most well-known). Sahel Academy International School, the ESPRIT theological seminary and Foyer Évangélique Universitaire (computer and resource centre for university students) are three more recent initiatives of SIM.

Three local denominations developed out of the national churches established by SIM: EEI, UEEPN, and EERN. The EEI church (Église Évangélique Internationale) has a stronger presence in capital city Niamey. They have one French-only congregation (the one we attend), and several other congregations that worship in local languages as well as French. The EERN church first developed in the East and is mostly attended by Hausa speakers. The UEEPN also is mostly Hausa-speaking. Each denomination has their own “flavour” or style. Most churches, for example, would have the women sitting on one side of the church (wearing head scarves) and the men on the other side. The French-language congregation we attend is mostly made up of international students and business people so the environment is more “relaxed and western” (men and women can sit together, women can wear pants and don’t need to have their head covered) although the worship is as vibrant as in any African church!

The Evangelical Baptist Mission began ministry at about the same time as SIM but in the western part of the country. The Southern Baptist Mission arrived in Niger in the early 1980’s; the Assemblies of God came to Niger in 1990. There is one Presbyterian Church that we’ve heard of in Niamey (although the Presbyterian Church is much stronger in Togo, as we noticed on our recent trip over the Christmas holidays).

Although many churches and mission agencies/groups are involved in evangelism and church planting, not all of them are necessarily establishing churches with strong denominational ties. The Christian & Missionary Alliance (C&MA) does a lot of community development and evangelism, but their goal is not to plant C&MA congregations in Niger but rather to support local Christians. This would be the same for the Christian Reform World Relief Committee. The Summer Institute of Linguistics (SIL) came in 1982 to work on Bible translation and literacy training. Other para-church mission groups working in Niger include: World Vision, Samaritan’s Purse, Campus for Christ, GBU (InterVarsity), Navigators, Youth With a Mission (JEM), Alliance Biblique, Ligue Biblique (Bible League), Child Evangelism Fellowship, Horizons Mission, Open Doors Mission, and the Norwegian Lutheran Mission (CELPA), Lutheran World Relief. This is by no means an exhaustive list of Christian NGOs or churches!

Every 3 months, the representatives of the Christian NGOs meet to pray, discuss certain issues in common, and present various projects to the group. Tim has attended a number of these meetings, and has found a great supportive community within this network of Christian NGOs.

Neighbouring countries (Nigeria and Benin) have also been instrumental in sending missionaries to Niger. Calvary Ministries is a Nigeria based agency that has an outreach to prostitutes and has a rehabilitation facility for women at risk. Agape Ministries was also started by Nigerian family a few years ago. Besides evangelism and outreach to the local community, their goal is to serve and encourage the leadership of local churches by offering conferences and motivational speakers.

In 1998, about 20 churches collaborated together to form an association of Christian churches in Niger called “Alliance des Missions et des Églises Évangéliques au Niger” (AMEEN). The regional AMEEN committees across the country unite local churches and missions for monthly prayer, fellowship and ministry outreach. AMEEN has a youth and young adults committee that brings together the youth of the various churches for sporting events, retreats, musical concerts and worship evenings. In November, Tim and I joined the young adults of our EEI congregation for a day-long “retreat” and sporting event organized by AMEEN and hosted by a local church.

There are 2 English language worship services in Niamey. The International Christian Fellowship is a church which only 2 years ago resurrected itself after a number of years without any leadership. The church serves the English-speaking African business class. It’s much smaller than it used to be (about 25-30 people each Sunday) but is an active congregation that is growing with the new leadership.

Every Sunday evening at 6pm, there is also an English worship service at Sahel Academy. This service tends to draw a large crowd of missionaries and English expats who are also quite involved in local churches on Sunday mornings. There are always friends to see and new faces at the service: long-term missionaries coming into town to do business and buy groceries, people traveling through, short-term mission teams coming and going. It’s like a big family where everybody helps out in the “family of Christ”. Various musical groups take turns leading worship (even the high school students take their turns), the little children enjoy passing around the offering baskets, visitors and travelers are welcomed and prayed for, and missionaries take turns sharing a message/sermon.

Despite constitutional religious freedom in Niger, pressures exist to make the nation more Islamic. Thankfully, Niger is a relatively safe country in which to work despite some persecution towards Christians. Please pray though for the administration and leaders of this country. Pray for men and women of integrity who are trustworthy and just and have the best interests of the country at heart.

Signs that Christmas is Coming (has come) to Niger

Niger is a predominantly Muslim and animist country that does not celebrate Christmas, but nevertheless there are signs that Christmas is coming!! (or did in fact come)

1. The first sign is the increase in dust/sand (called “harmatan”) in the air making the sky look hazy. It also makes the sun a beautiful red ball at sunset!

2. The next, similar to the first, is the increase in smoke in the air from all the fires that seem more frequent at this time of year. Fires from burning dry leaves, burning the dry fields and most commonly just burning the garbage that has piled up in the dumps. Arriving home in the evening smelling like burning garbage after biking from school isn’t so pleasant! Although, I do love the smell of burning Eucalyptus leaves. It reminds me of Christmas as a child in Cameroun.

3. This is the season when the mango trees are beginning to blossom with tiny pinkish flowers. The neem trees also are covered with tiny white flowers that look like wedding confetti when it falls on your head. Some evenings you can smell the sweet fragrance from these flowering trees.

4. The water level in the Niger River is at about its highest in the months of December and January! Although the last rains in Niamey were near the end of September, somewhere upriver must have received rain more recently. The Niger River is the 3rd longest in Africa (4100km) after the Nile and the Congo/Zaire Rivers. The Niger River has its source in the highlands of Guinea and meanders through several other countries (Mali, Niger, Benin and Nigeria) before flowing into the Atlantic Ocean along the coast of Nigeria.

5. I know Christmas is around the corner when the talk in the staff room and among missionaries is about what plans people have for the holidays and when people are going to put up their family Christmas tree.

6. The most vivid indication that Christmas truly exits in Niger is stepping into the director’s house for the Sahel Academy staff Christmas party and gift exchange. The director’s wife is the Martha Stuart of missionaries. Her house is always nicely decorated, often with homemade crafts and manger scenes (crèche in French). Her hobby is collecting crèches from every country she’s been to!

7. If you feel nostalgic for Christmas carols and songs about snow and sleighs, just walk down the aisles of one of the 3 western-style grocery stores or the large department store called “Tout pour la Femme et L’Enfant”. Christmas music can also be heard drifting from kindergarten and grades 1 & 2 classrooms at school.

8. The only place you’ll be certain to see Christmas lights is on the outside of the department store “Tout pour la Femme et L’Enfant”. This year the city went all out decorating the most important round-abouts (called “rond point” in French) and the boulevard on the main street called “Embassy Avenue”. Rather strange for a largely Muslim country. But then it all began to make sense when I saw a sign with the words: “50 ans”. On December 18, Niger celebrated its 50th anniversary of independence.

9. It’s certainly getting close to Christmas when the African church we attend is decorated with balloons, garlands and ostentatious Christmas decorations (even stockings and Santas!) and a small Christmas tree! The Sunday school children also present special skits and songs the Sunday before Christmas.

10. The high school choir often sings some Christmas songs at the assembly on the last day of school before the holidays. This year, my 2 elementary French classes also sang a few songs in French and then presented a Christmas skit of the 3 magi visiting Jesus at Bethlehem.

11. The last Sunday evening before Christmas, the English-speaking community in Niamey meets together outdoors on the soft green grass at Sahel Academy for a special evening called “Carols by Candlelight”. This is a time to ponder and celebrate the true meaning of Christmas – the arrival of God in human form to the little blue planet (brown in Niger) that He made and loves very much.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all our friends and blog readers.

Painting the Galmi Hospital December 4-7

High School Outreach Trip to Galmi

December 4-7, 2008

Sahel Academy organizes several outreach trips a year for high school students to become involved in community service projects which share the love of Jesus with others. Last year, Tim and I helped chaperone one of the trips that went to Inates, a Tuareg community near the boarder to Mali. On that trip, we helped assemble 60 desks for the primary school in Inates, and we also had an opportunity to share The God Story movie in the Tuareg language (Tamajek).

This year, I helped lead a team of 7 high school students along with another adult. We were invited by Galmi Hospital to re-paint the inside of outpatient building and also do some other odd jobs around the mission station. Galmi hospital is a small (120 bed) but very significant SIM missionary hospital about 7 ½ hours drive east of Niamey. People come from all over the region (even from neighbouring Nigeria) to get quality medical care.

Galmi is also well-known in Niger for its tasty onions. I’ve even heard it said that the MAGGI company in Niger uses Galmi onions in their bouillon cubes!

The trip to Galmi went as planned but much of the way we had to dodge large potholes in the broken pavement AND several bright green chameleons that were crossing the road! I’m so glad that I didn’t have to drive; thank God for Mr. Potratz.

The area just outside of the town Dogondoutchi has some really unique geological features.

Galmi hospital and compound is a green oasis surrounded by scrubby Sahel (semi-desert), thanks to the foresight of missionaries years ago who planted many trees and gardens.

I particularly took a liking to this unusual plant that people call “desert Christmas cactus” since it seems to flower around December.

Mr. Borody (on the right) gave us a tour of the hospital. We’re standing on the foundation for the future Operating Room and wing.

On Friday, we did a bunch of odd and end jobs. The boys emptied the water from the pool and washed the walls. This proved to be an all day affair! They came across several obstacles along the way: the drain at the bottom of the pool was plugged and never was able to be cleared, the pool pump was unreliable and stopped working, and bailing the pool by buckets is harder than you think! To top it off, they finished the afternoon by helping trim some branches that were covering the Galmi wall sign along the road. But we girls didn’t sympathize with their hardships because it looked like they were having WAY TOO MUCH FUN!

The girls had a lighter workload, but with its own share of frustrations. We helped program 4 new American cash registers (we became experts at entering and re-entering codes in the machines!) and also help clean the dusty mailroom of the Galmi hospital office.

Mr. Potratz (SIM computer technician) and his oldest son had other responsibilities over the weekend. Their job was to help troubleshoot computer problems and install computer software in the office.

The girls and I took a break that morning and visited the Galmi day school for the missionary kids. This year, there are only 3 kids (all from one family). Mrs. Borody is their very animated and “motherly” teacher. The kids were busy making Christmas decorations (icicles). It brought back special memories for one of the girls on our trip who had attended the school in her early elementary years. It also reminded me of the small mission school in Cameroun where I attended until the end of grade 4.

Just beware! Scorpions and cobras hide in rock piles and under front steps at Galmi. Cobras have been known to crawl into the school house if the screen door is not properly latched!

Friday night, we had the dirty job of sweeping the walls of the outpatient room (lots of dust collects everywhere in Niger) and washing off as much "grime" as possible.

We were ravenous and tired by 9:30pm, but still we managed to have a family dinner around the table (African peanut sauce “à la Christine”). The students also surprised me with a special birthday “cookie” and a little gift.

Saturday morning came way too early! Especially for Susana and I! We woke up before 6am to join Yoko and Lawrence (the 2 ladies in the photo with me) on a walk up a hill overlooking Galmi for a time of prayer together.

Our first job was to paint the top half of the walls white. That took all morning!

We had a lot of fun with the blue!

But it wasn’t easy making a straight line without any masking tape to guide our brushes!

Mission accomplished!

On the drive back to Niamey, we passed a lot of overloaded vehicles and people on the road. People were travelling back to their home villages to celebrate the Muslim holiday of Tabaski (or Id al Ada) on Dec 8 and 9. Packed alongside the people and bags were sheep, calmly awaiting their fate the next day. This Muslim holiday of excessive feasting commemorates the sacrifice Abraham made in obedience to God. In one village, we passed several men carrying large legs of recently butchered beef on their head (most likely in preparation for all the feasting).

We came across this accident not long after it happened. Thank God this wasn’t us! Many accidents on the “highways” here occur due to speeding, carelessness, and unsafe passing practices.

Just around lunch time, our van hit a large pothole which dislodged some wires in the electrical wiring of the vehicle and gave us a short. We lost engine power and rolled to a stop in front of a large tree. (This was no coincidence. The countryside behind us and ahead of us had very few shade trees and none close to the road that could shelter a van-load of students! This was definitely a God-planned event!) So while Mr. Potratz and his son worked on the problem and got it fixed, the rest of us got lunch ready. We arrived safely back to Niamey covered with “battle” scars of white and blue paint.

NEEDS• The hospital is about 60 years old and is in need of constant repairs and renovations. A portion of the foundation for the OR wing was poured a couple of years ago, but since then it has sat unfinished. An elderly American builder was out helping for a few weeks, but so far there is no one who has come forward to help oversee completing the rest of the construction. Can you help? Do you know someone who is willing and able to help?

Visit the amazing Galmi Hospital website! http://galmi.org/