-----Original Message-----
From: Anthisfamily [mailto:anthisfamily@yahoo.com]
Sent: Tuesday, October 14, 2003 1:33 AM
Subject: God is God and Stuff is Stuff

 

Dear friends and family,

 

Salamu Alaikum!  I greet you with peace in the Hausa language from Jos, Nigeria.  We are doing well, but are currently consumed with the business of surviving.  Among other things, we have had a series of mechanical challenges at our house over the last several weeks.  Let me give you a few examples….  I now have a Kitchen Aid mixer thanks to some great friends from Katy who carried it out here to us last week.  The kids and I decided to make some chocolate chip cookies and use our new mixer.  Well every time I touched the mixer I shocked myself.  So what did I do?  I put on my tennis shoes and kept working (don’t ask me why this worked – someone said it keeps my body from being a ground wire).  The wiring of the kitchen has a short somewhere to the hot water heater; every time I turn it on the breaker for the whole house trips.  I have been boiling water to clean the dishes.  Our refrigerator, washer and dryer have been arriving “tomorrow” for the last three weeks.

 

But all other inconveniences with electricity, e-mail, phones, automobiles, and gasoline shortages pale in comparison to not having water.  We have just come through rainy season and have had great water from our well since our arrival.  We didn’t really understand how it all worked.  But we knew when we did not have any water pressure we could flip on a switch to a pump to fix the problem.  We unknowingly, allowed all our stored water to be drained in outside water use last week as dry season started, and on Friday we awoke to dry taps.  Our only water comes from our well which had been nearly emptied.  Our house is at the “end of the line” plumbing wise, and does not get any useable water from the city’s pipes.  We turned on the pump to the well without results. (Of course Joel and I had both decided to begin running again and needed a shower!)  We had to have a plumber and 2 different electricians here all day Friday.  Joel feels like a contractor each day.  They replaced one pump, fixed another, and we now know how to pump from the well to the ground tank and then to the elevated tank each day after Joel climbs the tower to check the water.  It was a costly lesson and we will never take our water for granted again.  Rainy season doesn’t start again until May, and our well is already very low (a bad sign this early in dry season) so we are on water rations.  Last year the occupants of our house had to have tanker trucks haul in water to empty into the ground tank repeatedly during the dry season, which is a big problem.  Please pray that another solution can be found, as water is only second to air in terms of survival.

 

So you ask what else we are doing besides surviving.  We have started meeting with a language helper every day.  When we are not interrupted by a crisis like Friday’s water disaster, we are making progress.  We spend afternoons trying out what we have learned in the market.  My attempts are met with roars of laughter from those I try it out on.  I asked our language helper, why the people laugh.  He told me they are laughing with joy that a Baturi (white person) is speaking Hausa.  I doubt this is the real reason, but it helps my ego to think that is the case!  Next week we will start an intensive month long Hausa course with classroom time from 8am to 1pm daily and then daily afternoon practice time.  Pray for our endurance and that we would not be discouraged.

 

We have had the privilege now to worship in 5 different Nigerian Churches since we arrived.  It has been awesome to see how God is praised in this culture and to hear the powerful Word of God preached in a culturally relevant way.  We especially enjoyed the Church we went to this Sunday.  It was smaller than the others we had visited.  Austin and Allison went to Sunday school and loved it.  Joel was invited to join the choir and I was invited to ladies’ fellowship.  As we left, the children that Austin and Allison met ran down a bumpy dirt road after our van telling them to come back next week.  We returned home encouraged by our time of worship.

 

On our return home we were greeted by our frantic guard.  Our home had been broken into in our absence despite the guard being on duty.  The thieves had taken off a window frame and bent back the burglar bars to slip in.  They kicked in our locked bedroom door and took most of our valuables.  They took our digital camera and accessories, our brand new unused digital video camera, our palm pilot hand computer, our checkbook, all our rechargeable batteries and chargers, and a large amount of American cash that we had because a nation-wide strike had threatened to close the banks this week.  They also went through Austin’s room and took his and Allison’s gameboys, their walkie-talkies, as well as all the money Austin had saved from his allowance (about 40 cents), and his school book-bag (used to carry away the stolen goods).  We are thankful that no one was hurt and that they overlooked our laptop.  We have been told that Sunday church time is a common time for break-ins as missionaries are expected to be out at church then, and that they wouldn’t come if we were home.  The kids have taken it all well.  Austin and Allison were out with a tennis racket and new sling shot as weapons Sunday afternoon looking for clues and finger prints.  The police came and Joel went down to the station to file a report, which was quite an experience in and of it self.  We are having the damaged bars replaced and we will be adding some more safety features to the house.  Pray that He would remind us daily that stuff is stuff and God is God.  By far, the most difficult thing in all this is dealing with all the questions which arise afterwards.  Please pray that God will give us His peace in the midst of this stressful time. 

 

Sunday night after our trying day, we were treated to a praise and worship concert as the guests of a wonderful Nigerian friend.  It was awesome to be with at least 500 Nigerian Christians praising God and focusing on the Master of the Universe.  We were struck by how small our troubles are in comparison to what so many deal with here.  We realized that some we were worshipping with were likely suffering with HIV/Aids, or had lost a loved one this week, or had larger financial needs.  We praise God for His provision for us in every way.  One of the songs we sang said “It is not over, we can not fail”.  We will not be discouraged.  We know God wants us here and we will serve Him.  We know the power of your prayers already, as we feel less anxious now than we did one month ago when we first arrived.

 

Thanks for being part of what God is doing in Nigeria.  Please pray that we will continue to glorify God in all we do.

 

Our first month’s theme verse is the song the kids learned back home and sang to the customs guards at the Kano airport when we arrived one month ago:

 

Joshua 1:9  “Have I not commanded you, be strong and courageous.  Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.”

 

In Christ,

 

Cindy for the Anthis family

 

PS- Some house keeping…. 

 

Please use our joel.anthis@sim.org email address, as we will be closing our mindspring acct soon. 

 

We have a great website with pictures from Jos and a diary with more frequent updates and happenings, for those who want more.  You can visit it at http://www.anthisfamily.com/.  We love to hear from you and we are encouraged by your e-mails.  Please be patient with us as we might not be able to get back to you in a timely manner.  We are fortunate that Joel had downloaded all our digital pictures on Saturday night and gave them on a CD to a friend traveling back to Houston, TX.  So some new pictures should be on our website with in the next week, but those will be the last for awhile. 

 

If you are praying regularly for us will you let us know?  We have been praying for our prayer partners on the days of the week that they are praying for us.  Please send us your prayer requests!

 

If you would like to be removed from this mailing list, please write and let us know at joel.anthis@sim.org.