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When you want to drive to the store, but cannot. It is so dangerous to drive that you choose either to walk or stay at home instead.
When you need to go shopping, but cannot. Instead, you must count on others to take you, or on your helper to shop for you, to cook, to do laundry (using a lump of homemade soap), and you must dry your clothes outside when the air is full of dust.
When you want to go into a nice air conditioned house to cool off when it is 120F, and the perspiration is coming down not only on your back, but on your face, your arms, your legs...but you cannot. There is no air conditioning here.
When you discover with joy some new-found Christian friends, and then must attend their funeral the next week.
Then I look to God. Starting with early morning, I thank God that today I am alive and can breathe, there is no dust in the air...
I thank God that this night was cooler and I didn't drench the sheets...
I thank God that I didn't hear the 'call to prayer' in the middle of the night...
I thank God for the clear sky today, the beautiful birds, the tree at our window that is in full bloom with dark red flowers...
I thank God for Jesus Christ and the cross. The words of 1 Corinthians 18 come to mind: "for the word of the cross is the power of God and the word of the cross is the wisdom of God."
I thank God that in Christ, Chadians and Americans are one...
I thank God, He is close to me, He speaks to me, He "delights in me"...
I thank God that even if we are in the intersection of two cultures (Chadian and American), we are one in Christ, and we rejoice in the Lord Jesus Christ.
We have learned much through our experience here. But the most important lesson learned is that even when all the comforts of home have vanished, the Comforter Himself remains. In Him, both Chadian and American are truly rich indeed!
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