This talk was given on Sabbath, May 20, 2012

From Matt’s Mom:

Was able to speak with Matt on Tuesday this week. That was the last time for us to talk before we see him on Friday. He was giving his Chadian cell phone away to someone there, as it will do him no good once he leaves Chad. He was also giving a lot of other things away. That is the custom there with the missionaries. Things are so scarce that when someone does leave, they give what they can to others and come back pretty much with souvenirs and the clothes on their back. He said that was pretty much all that was left in his suitcase.

His last night in Chad he was going to sleep outside. He said his village friends from nearby were coming, and they would all sleep outside on their mats together. That was their way of saying good-bye.

He seems to be in good health and good spirits, for which we are thankful. They did purchase the horse for Pierre, and it is a beauty. A young horse, light brown, and very well behaved. Matthew said he rode it around Pierre’s yard, and that Pierre was busily building a little hut-like enclosure for the horse to go into for shade. Not sure what they named it, but he is bringing pictures. A huge thank-you again to our readers who contributed to buying the horse!

So Matt is flying home on Air France. He board the plane tonight in Ndjamena to fly to Paris. He will have a 7 hour layover in Paris before flying to Detroit late Friday afternoon. We would appreciate your prayers for safe travels for him.

Also, I heard from the Netteburgs that baby Zane and his sibling Lyol were both running fevers in Chad this week. I invite Matt’s readers to put those two little ones, together with Miriam Appel, on your permanent prayer list!

Rain! The rains have finally arrived. After seven months of blue skies, we started to see little clouds forming. Finally, one afternoon, it poured. Dani and I had just finished eating lunch when it started.

Dani is a severe rainaholic, so she made a b-line for the door as soon as the first drop made its landing, but I waited until it picked up a bit. We went out into a big open area by the dirt road where a bunch of kids were gathering and just stood in the rain. The moment before it had been so incredibly humid that our shirts were stuck to our bodies with salty sweat, but now we each got a free shower.

The kids were all running around and jumping while shouting “Kuma ma ageh!” That means “the rains have arrived!” Dani and I joined them, and soon we were sprinting up and down the now muddy road in bare feet, racing little kids and laughing. Big puddles started to gather (the road has giant holes in it), so I encouraged the kids to swim in them. Of course they tried, even though the water was only about three inches deep.

We hopped into a big one and were soon showing off our back strokes and dolphin kicks. It was such a great feeling. After days of having the sun beat on our heads like a fiery hammer, finally some sweet relief. As I made my way home that evening, everyone seemed to be in a great mood. Food has been very scarce lately, but now they were all chatting excitedly about plowing their fields, and all of the different things they are going to plant.

Even though I’m not going to experience that part of the year with them, their good mood transferred over to me. I sat and listened to them. Here in Chad, Africa, just miles from the Sahara desert, God causes the rain to fall, and bring life to the barren land. He has quite a big job, the Big Man up there. The whole world relies on Him. Sadly, many of them don’t realize it, or thank Him.

Thanks God, for the rain all around the world!

Have you ever had a neighbor that’s a little different? Like it’s kind of awkward every time you come in contact with him, and you’re not sure what to say? Well… let me tell you about Lej Beh. Lej Beh, a middle aged man (married with kids), was very normal until about two years ago. Sadly, I cannot say the same about him now.

Lej Beh burns his houses down, threatens to kill people, comes home naked randomly, talks to people who have been dead for a while, and says ridiculous things. The other day I was visiting another neighbor when Lej Beh stormed into their compound uninvited and started speaking very harshly to me. It was in Nangjere so I couldn’t understand the most of it, but my neighbor translated it for me. It was something like this:

“Hey, white person! Do you like airplanes? I see you have an airplane over at the project. Yeah, well I’m going to give you an awesome airplane! If you want, I’ll give you a motorcycle and a truck as well!” This was all shouted into my face. I wasn’t really sure how to react, so I thanked him generously for his kindness, and told him to deliver the said vehicles to my house whenever he had the time.

Lej Beh doesn’t have the money for a tricycle, let alone a motorcycle. What makes him think this way? I have a feeling that he’s demon possessed or something, but I’m not sure if it’s that, or if he just banged his head up really bad a few years ago. Either way, I’ve decided I should pray for Lej Beh, and his family, who must have a very strange life together.

Speaking of praying for people, Freddy is in another pickle. This time, his neighbors used a Maribou (witch doctor) to “steal his wife’s name”. Apparently everyone has their known name plus a name hidden deep inside them as well, and the Maribou has stolen this from Beatrice (Freddy’s wife). The neighbor claims that unless Freddy pays him some ridiculous amount of money in ransom, his wife will die. He claims that her soul will leave her, come live in his hut, and vomit up money for him as long as he wants.

Beatrice is very scared, mainly because of what her parents are saying. Beliefs here among Christians can be very messed up. They keep telling their daughter that she needs to have Freddy pay the money to the Maribou. I went and talked to Freddy about it on Friday night. I told him that if he paid the money, he’s acknowledging that he believes Satan is more powerful than God. He says that he knows this. He just doesn’t want his in-laws to be so upset with him.

I told Freddy that I would post about the problem on my blog, and that a lot of people will be praying for him. So please do! This thing is real, and unless God is trusted and believed in, Satan has the power to work whatever evil wonder he wants to make these people continue to live in fear. Please pray for Freddy.

Darren and Joanne Lea. A pilot and his wife from South Africa who have come to work and fly in Africa. They are some of the nicest, most Christian people I think I’ve ever met. Darren is always witty and smart. I’ve really appreciated him because while some others didn’t care, he did. He really took the time to teach me some of the skills I learned on the Job site here. Him and Jonathan Dietrich.

There were times when the welding would have been much faster if they would have done it, but they allowed me to do it so I could have some experience, and do a job that I liked. I really appreciate them investing in me. I think they really showed me Christ’s love in that way.

Joanne has taken up wound care while she has been here. She takes personal interest in each of her cut/scrape/wound patients, and really spends time with them. I see her singing Nangjere songs with little kids as she bandages them up. She even massaged a lady who was paralyzed from a stroke, and the lady is walking around fine now! I can really see that they trust in God, and that He is working through them. They don’t have a ton of sponsors, like some of the other missionaries, but they trust God day by day, and watch as he fulfills their needs, day by day.

Even though they just scrape by some days, they are still so generous with their belongings. Every time I’m around the house, they are always offering me a slice of bread or a glass of water. Awesome couple. Darren’s dream is to fly somewhere in Africa, do mobile health clinics, and bring God’s news to the distant and out-of-reach.

Issues with airplanes have hindered him a bit, but he still seems content wherever God has him, which right now is building Gary’s house. He also would really love to somehow obtain his airplane mechanic’s license, but it is a rather expensive schooling ordeal. Apparently it is necessary for the work that he wants to do over here, and he could run into a lot of problems if he doesn’t get it. There is a less expensive flight school in Grand Rapids, Michigan that he would love to attend for a year if he can find a sponsor, so if anyone feels called to help a brother out with some missionary airplane schooling, his e-mail address is darrenandjoanne@gmail.com. I really hope to see it happen for this guy, because he and his wife are passionate for God’s work, and for His children.

More on Pierre. I love this guy. He came home the other day with two brand new handcrafted hoes, and told me that they are my souvenirs from him. I can’t think of a better gift to receive from the hardest working person I’ve ever met. He then told me to sit down, and proceeded to translate back and forth between me and his wife, since I only speak French well, and she only does Nangjere. It was so nice to finally have a conversation with her. We talked about when her daughter, Ella, passing away. We also talked about how we’re going to have a great big compound that we all live in in heaven, and that we’ll all speak the same language there. I can’t wait to see how happy they will be that day. Some people have it rough in the States as well, but I invite you to come to Chad for nine months, live with the people here, and learn what a hard life is really like.

Horse shopping! For those of you who have given to help Pierre have an animal to plow with, I wish you could have his response when I told him that we’re going horse shopping in Delbian this Monday. I’ve never heard so many “Merci’s” escape someone’s mouth. He was almost speechless, until he got really excited and started telling me about the great year his crops are going to have and how thankful he is to God for always bringing his family through. It was very interesting trying to explain the Internet and blogs to someone who had never seen a computer until I brought one home to do e-mails on. I’m going to miss this family, a whole lot.

I think this is my last blog from Chad, folks. The rest of this week I’ll be visiting people and giving all of my things away that I brought to Chad. I’ll be taking a bus up to Ndjamena on Wednesday. I’ll be sure to wrap up my blog when I get home though. I’m not sure what feelings of culture shock I’ll have when I return, but I’ll be sure to fill you in on all of that, as well as any stories that I’ve forgotten to blog.

The next you’ll hear from me, I’ll be in Michigan! Wow… that’s so crazy. It almost doesn’t seem real, I’m so used to this being home. Thank you so much for following me on my journey here. It’s been very difficult at times, but so, so rewarding. If I was sent back in time, I’d do it again in a heartbeat. Oh, quick question for my readers. If I wrote a small book that expanded on my adventures, struggles, and experiences here, would you read it? Let me know with comments. Thanks again for following my blog! And thanks especially to God, for leading me, and never leaving or forsaking me. He’ll do the same for you.

Note from Matt’s Mom: just talked to Matt and here’s the update from Chad, which I wrote (not him

Matt has been helping brick up the new Bendele church. He said they had planned to hire some local masons to do the work, but they had a meeting and the people coming to the new church were unhappy. They said they had masons themselves who would do the work for free, and they wanted to do it. So about 30 people came and they’ve all been working on it. The women made boul and tea for the men who were working. The foundations for the walls are in, and they are progressing nicely, although he doesn’t think it will be totally complete before he leaves. He wasn’t sure how many people were at church last Sabbath, but it was a lot.

Clarisse (Pierre’s wife) went to church for the first time, and she really liked it. Matt said the church needs more benches, and he is going to look into ordering those before he leaves.

Matt said he ate a mango the size of a football yesterday. The pit was really small, and mango was really big, and he was stuffed after he ate it. He hasn’t been sick much lately and has been eating a lot, but is looking forward to fattening up a bit when he gets back to the States!

They had a few rains this week, the first ones since the dry and dusty season. Matt said it was really cool. All the little kids were out splashing in puddles, so he and Dani ran out and splashed right along with them.

Some of Matt’s blog readers have gone together to help buy Pierre a horse. Matt is going to tell Pierre about it tonight. Jonathan and Dani are going to help loan Matt the money to purchase the horse now, and the donations will be sent over from the States. Matt said the market in Kelo is open on Sunday, so his plan is to take Pierre there on Sunday and pick out the horse together.

The MP3 “godpod” players sent by the Cedar Lake SDA Church have finally arrived in Bendele! Matthew said they seem to work really well. They listened and could hear the entire New Testament in Nangjere, plus the gospels are loaded on too. Matt and Jonathan are working on them, they might reduce the quality of the recordings so there is room to fit even more on. He said Jonathan is really excited about the project and working with him on it.

Matt said he was over at Jonathan and Melody’s for supper and they turned on the MP3 player. This lady was there named Naomi, she works for Melody. Matt said Naomi got so excited about being able to hear the Bible, that it was just really fun to watch. When they first turned the recording on, it frightened Naomi. Then she turned around and started looking at the player curiously to see where the sound was coming from. Then she raised her hands up in the air and started running around, running in and out of the house in excitement, saying “Oh, it’s so wonderful! It’s so wonderful!” She was like in awe, and at one point even got down on her knees as part of her celebration and thanks to God.

Matthew and Jonathan thought maybe she would like to take one home to listen to. She lives by herself with her four boys. Naomi was really happy about that, but she said they weren’t going to sleep at all because they would be listening all night long!
We sent 11 of those little players over there, and they are quite inexpensive (only $15 each). They can be recharged by the sun, and are built hardy to withstand whatever Chadian handling they might receive. We will be anxiously awaiting word of what good work these little players can do. Hopefully they will have a great impact in terms of helping people learn the Word of God much better, together with health messages. If so, we will work on sending some more.

One week from tomorrow Matthew is leaving to come home

Greetings! Sorry friends, it’s been a while since I’ve posted very much, but I got my hands on Dani’s computer for the night, so I’m going to see what I can remember. How about some stories to start off? Let’s see…

Scorpions! These vicious critters are everywhere. I don’t kill one every day, but every other day would probably be realistic, and sometimes two or three in one day. Some of them are three inches and longer, even with their tails coiled up, and they are fat little things. It takes about three full-forced stomps to kill one, but it gives you a good feeling, like you prevented future crime.

Well, the other night I was resting outside our grass fence, on my grass mat. I was writing in a small journal, and using my headlamp as lighting. All of a sudden, I felt something rather large and quick scurry across my leg. I immediately turned my head in order to light up that side of my mat.

“What’s up Mr. Scorpion?”

He was a big guy, and I didn’t have any shoes or solid items to end him with, so I smushed him with my journal. I wanted it to look African, and what does that better than dried scorpion juice? When it comes to scorpions, the locals are tough beasts.

I don’t know if I’ve blogged about this before or not, but get this. When a foreign visitor (like me) gets stung by a scorpion, it’s very dangerous. I would be taken in the hospital, and put on IV fluids. I would be given this pill and that tablet, and told to lie down for the day. However, when my Chadian papa, Pierre, got stung twice the other day, he came near the house, sat down for about ten minutes(telling me about how annoying these things are), and then went back out to make more bricks.

He’s probably gotten stung tens of times every year since he was young. What a guy. I’m still so impressed by Pierre. Many people here who are in need ask the missionaries for free handouts, but Pierre nearly breaks his back working harder than any Chadian I’ve ever met in order to see his family through. He made close to ten-thousand bricks in the last few months. Read one of my recent blogs and you’ll possibly understand how much work that is.

Okay, story time again….

(NOTE FROM MATT’S MOM–if you have a weak stomach, are reading to your children, or don’t like gross or things (like me), you might skip from here down until a place where I mark to start reading again!)

The other day I was in my usual resting spot outside of the hut (we actually almost never go inside the huts because of how hot it is inside. They’re just for storage), and I noticed my dog chewing on something strange. Now that in itself is not unusual at all. Tabuong has brought me lizard heads, goat jaws, human feces, and all other manner of strange things.

The other day she dragged in the whole skin of a goat. Apparently the neighbors had hung it up to dry (they were making a tom-tom drum), and Taboung decided that it would be a nice gift for me since I’m leaving so soon.

Well, this time I couldn’t tell what she was gnawing on. It looked long, twisted, and brown. I left my grass mat momentarily to shine my headlamp on it, and noticed that it was definitely the intestines of some animal that had been drug through the dirt, hence the color. I chuckled, and then returned to my mat. A few minutes later, Tabuong decided that it would be fun to enjoy her intestine supper on Pierre’s mat while he was lying on it. Pierre, who didn’t like the idea, decided to throw them high up into a tree so she couldn’t bring them back again.

I grabbed my camera and took some pictures of him holding the innards, and asked him if he know where they came from. He then explained how my Chadian brother, Jacob (15 years old), had killed a cat (yes like a house cat) to eat with his friends, and left the intestines out for the dog. This was very cordial of them, since usually the Chadians eat everything minus the skin and bones.

Since I was on the subject of meat, I learned something very sad recently. The people in my village who kill and eat dogs (nearly everyone), don’t do it in a very gentle manner. They either hang the dogs by the neck, feet, or anywhere possible from a tree. They then beat the dogs to death with sticks. I was pretty horrified when I found out. Why do they do it this way? Because they’re scared of slitting the dogs throat. They don’t want to get bitten by the dog. I just wish they could stick to eating goats and chickens, but dogs are very cheap meat. A dog is sold for $2-3, while a chicken (much less meat) goes for $6, and a goat $20-25. I’m glad that my family appreciates my dog. I’ve made them promise me numerous times to protect her from dog-eaters after I leave.

(START READING AGAIN

New church! It is very exciting how many people are coming. Close to a hundred today, and I think that more will show up if we have more benches. Many people are able to attend an Adventist church now without walking 3-5 miles. It has been such a blessing.

We are also having many people come that are not Adventist. They are very interested in our message, and I think that is exciting. Today I did the adult Sabbath School lesson. I prepared a short study on how God loves us, and how He is our example for how to love one another. I challenged them to think about how they’re treating people every day, and to ask themselves if that’s how Jesus would treat someone. I learned a lot from the study myself.

Afterward, Dani and I sang a song titled “Love Never Fails”. The people didn’t understand of course, but they enjoyed seeing me “hit” my guitar, as they say. Speaking of that, I translated for two of our branch Sabbath Schools today. The missionaries that I helped weren’t quite comfortable doing their lessons in French, so I translated from English into French for them. I really hope I can find people to practice with when I get home. That’s in thirteen days by the way! I can’t believe how the time has flown by. I’m going to miss this place… a lot.

Today after church, Dani and I went a few miles away to a friend’s house. Her name is Naomi, and she is such a sweet lady. She moved here from Nigeria ten years ago. She’s one of few people who speak English around here, which is nice. When we got to her house, we saw her and her four sons (she is single). She revealed a kings feast to us. I couldn’t believe the delicious meal she had made us. It was rice (given), with some leafy green sauce mixed with goat chunks. She also had killed a chicken and cooked that up for us. I ate a leg, and Dani took an arm. She also made us a delicious salad which only consisted of lettuce and peanuts, but she seasoned it very nicely. After the meal, we sang Nangjere hymns, chatted, laughed, and took pictures for several hours. It was such a great time.

PS from Matt’s Mom–I think we have enough money raised for Pierre’s horse, thanks to all who have helped! We’ll post a picture when we get it.

Note from Matt’s Mom: Matthew said he just finished up some welding on the aircraft hanger today. He said he welded up some window frames, and they are getting ready to put the roof on the airplane hangar. He said the airplane is still grounded, but that Danae is bringing airplane parts back with her when she comes from the States next week. If they are the right parts, they can all just be put on and hopefully the airplane can start flying again. I’m sure they will appreciate your prayers in that direction!

Baby Zane is doing great still, that’s why they get to go back next week. Hopefully he will continue to do well once he arrives back in Tchad.

I asked Matthew if he thought Taboung would be O.K. after he left. Matt said that Pierre has really bonded with Taboung. He thinks that Pierre watched how he (Matt) played with and treated the dog, and now Pierre treats her that way too. So he thinks the dog will be fine, although I’m sure he will miss her and that she will miss him too.

Matthew repaired Gary’s motorcycle today. He said the motorcycle fell over in the rain and the clutch was broken as well as a cable. So he replaced both.

Some of Matt’s blog readers wondered how they could improve the quality of life for Pierre. He is such a hard worker, but he makes all those bricks and has to carry them all by hand. Matt did some research on the topic and thought the best idea was to get Pierre a horse to haul bricks with. He can hitch the horse up to the cart, put the bricks on, etc. We have $100 committed for that, but we probably need $200-250. If any one of our readers would like to help with that, please let me know. I don’t want to post my e-mail address here, but if you comment on the blog for me to contact you, I will get the e-mail address that you put in.

We are trying to see if a missionary over there who has cash can just go ahead and buy the horse while Matt is still there. Then we will just reimburse them. Some of the student missionaries are about to come home and have more cash on hand than Matt does at this moment, so he is checking on that.

Two weeks from tomorrow Matthew is coming home! He said he will try to blog again soon, maybe tomorrow…

Note from Matt’s Mom: Spoke to Matt yesterday in Tchad for about five minutes. Then we lost our connection and were unable to reconnect the call despite numerous tries. In any case, he sounds well and seems to be feeling well. Hasn’t been sick in a bit, for which we are thankful.

He said that 70 adults, plus children, attended the new church in Bendele Sabbath. This was up from 35 adults and 35 children the first week. So that was exciting. He said Gary Roberts preached the sermon in the Bendele church this Sabbath, and it was a very good one.

Also, for those of you who have been praying for little Zane Netterburg, he seems to be doing very well now and will most likely be headed back to Tchad with his mommy very soon. There is a touching thank-you for all of the prayers on Netteburg’s blog (see link on the side of this blog), praising God for saving the life of their son. I’m sure they and the others in Chad will appreciate your continued prayers for their health and safety over there–as it is such a difficult country with regard to health and disease.

Less than 3 weeks until Matt comes home…and counting the days!

Heat, that is what I am feeling. In the last few weeks it has been reaching 112-114F everyday, and it will get hotter. I’ve been drinking 5-6 liters of water everyday. I sleep with a wet sheet or shirt draped over me (it dries out in about 15 minutes), and I soak my shirt with water three to four times every day in order to avoid burning up. It actually makes such a big difference to be under some shade, or “l’ombre” as I’ve grown so accustomed to calling it. When you’re out in the sun, it feels like it’s just what it is, a giant burning ball of gas. It feels so close, almost as if you could reach up and touch it, but you don’t try because you’re too hot to lift your arm. So now that you understand the climate, I’ll tell you what has been happening.

New church!! The “Bendele Adventist Church” as it’s being called, is up and running. The reason I say it like that is because it’s not actually in Bendele. It’s in Nergae Ena. I live accross the dusty road, in Nergae Wijubah. There’s three Nergae villages all right next to each other. Our first Sabbath was not extremely organized, but we’re making steps toward being that way. Dani gave a nature lesson on how seeds grow with the right resources/treatment, and so do people (physically and spiritually).

Most of the kids were pretty convinced that there was already a full tree inside of the mango seed that she presented them, but she informed them of the mind boggling truth that was otherwise. After this, Cria, one of our regualar Dabgue church goers came and told a Bible story in Nangjere, so I didn’t understand much of it. After we sang a lot of songs, we heard a great sermon by my friend Freddy. He preached in French, and Cria translated for him.

He had a good message on not turning back to your sins, and keeping your eyes on Jesus. I understood almost all of his French, but I still had to check my pocket dictionary for a few words. I have an annoying obsession of looking up any French word that I hear but don’t understand. I’ve learned a lot this way, but people don’t understand when I start reading a little book in the middle of their sentence.

Back to the church. We had around forty-five adults there, and probably around thirty children. This is a brand new church. Some people might just be coming to see what it’s like, but our year-and-a-half old church in Dabgue only has about four adult members. We’re going to continue sending people over there every week, but I think it’s very important that we have this church here. People are very excited about it.

We have been having a slight dilemma about tom toms in the church. The big Bere church (when I say big I mean bigger than this new one) has tom tom players who tap along with every song and hymn. I appreciate it a lot because the rhythm that they have is the only thing that makes what they do “music.” Otherwise it sounds awful. It is a huge part of their culture as well. A few missionaries down here want to avoid having them in the church and are totally against it, but it’s going to be hard to convince a congregation of fifty or more people that tom toms are from hell when they’ve grown up with them their whole life, and praised God that way their whole life as well. We’ll see what happens, but I hope nobody gets upset. I’m not taking any sides, but when they don’t have drums, the music sounds like a pack of howling wolves that speak Nangjere.

Bricks! We’re still finishing the brick making process for the church. Thanks to the generous donations and God’s help, we were able to buy 3000 bricks for the Bendele church and avoid a lot of hassle, but it has been fun making the bricks in Dabgue. The process is very intense, and very manual.

They start by loosening the dry sand with pick axes/hoes, wetting a portion of it, and trampling all over it for a while with their bare feet. When it is a good consistancy and starts making awkward gaseous noises with every step, they start shoveling the wet sloppy mixture into a pile. Then they make their hole bigger, and repeat that many times. There’s constantly someone going to and from the well, which in our case was about 500 feet away. They brought water in a giant metal basin, which they carry on their heads.

Finally, when a large pile of squishy brown mud is achieved, dried grass is heaped on top of the pile. This guards the moisture from evaporating, and they keep the grass in to strengthen the brick later on. They let it sit for a few days like that, and then mix all of the grass in. They then start pressing the mud into molds. The mold has no bottom, so they just lift it up after it’s pressed, and let the bricks dry on the ground. It doesn’t take long with this African sun. After the bricks dry, there’s the process of scraping each and every brick with melted down re-bar metal scraper. They work every brick until it is a decent rectangular shape, and then leave it on the ground until they all are finished. They then stack the bricks, staggered, and with charcoal in between each brick. It’s a square stack about 10ft x 10ft x 10ft, depending on how many bricks you’ve made. They then cover the entire stack with mud. There’s a place that has been kept open under the stack, and the slide large branches underneath, and light them on fire. People come and gather around to watch it burn and chat. Quite the process! It reminds me of the process that some of us hardheaded people have to go through in life. God finds us in the dirt, and has to shake us/mix us up in order to wake us up to our dirty condition. We realize how messed up we are, and it just seems to increase and increase when we think about our giant pile of muddy sins, but then He covers us with His grace, just like we covered the pile with dried grass. After we accept His forgiveness, He begins to mold us into a soldier for him. It feels strange and sometimes hurts as He presses us into situations that will help us grow, and molds us into His character, but He knows what’s best.

We cry and complain with trials that God gives us (i.e. being in Chad for me), and as he chips away the excess mud that has stayed on our backs, that we’ve tried to hold onto from our previous life. When He has completed His forming though, we’ll be ready for the fiery trial that is set before us, and nothing will be able to shake or break us. Sadly the Chadian bricks (even after the fire) break very easily even after fired, but that is NOT how we will be after God completes His good work in us.

1 Peter 4:12-13
Philippians 1:6

PS last word we heard on little Zane Netteburg is that he is doing well in the U.S., and if he continues to prosper, he and Danae will head back to Chad in the next week or so…Praise God and thank-you again for the prayers!

Update from Matt’s Mom:

Just talked to Matthew, he was in the middle of vespers. Guess it is already Sabbath in Tchad! He said he was feeling fine this morning, coming down with a headache this afternoon but thinking it’s not malaria. I asked him how Dani was and he said she is doing well too. He said they are all set for the new church to open tomorrow. He said he is bringing his camera to the service and will be taking a lot of pictures. He is going to try to write a blog post with all the news sometime over the weekend.