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My husband and I are back in the USA after serving with SIL six months in Chad.
Yes, Chad is a 'parched ground,' situated just south of the Sahara Desert with unbearable heat and sand and wind blowing over it. It is a country of extremes: seven to eight months with no rain at all and temperatures of 120º F. It is a country of mixed religions, with 50% Muslims, 30% Christians and the rest Animists.
Five years ago, God gave us the vision to come alongside Chadian Christians to help them proclaim the Gospel and help the orphans and the widows of this country. The children of Chad are beautiful children. I cannot forget one little girl who probably never touched a 'Nasaro' (white person). She was scared to death when she saw me, but curious enough to approach me, despite her fears. She debated if she would touch me or not; she did… then she ran away troubled.
Oswald Chambers writes in his devotional, "My Utmost for His Highest":
God gives us the vision, then He takes us down to the valley to batter us into the shape of the vision, and it is in the valley that so many of us faint and give way. Every vision will be made real if we will have patience. Think of the enormous leisure of God! He is never in a hurry. In the light of the glory of the vision we go forth to do things, but the vision is not real in us yet; and God has to take us into the valley, and put us through fires and floods to batter us into shape, until we get to the place where He can trust us with the veritable reality…
Yes, we went forth "in the light of the glory of the vision" that God gave us for Chad, and now the reality of that vision is beginning to be made real. The new Village Altonodji center is getting ready to receive the forty new orphans who will have a home there. Ten churches in Moundou were involved in selecting the neediest orphans. In one family, up to six children were left without any parent because of AIDS. The selection process was overwhelming: how do you select just 40 children among all of the hundreds of thousands of children needing homes in the country? It was an enormously difficult task, but our brothers and sisters in Christ have done wonderful work.
Three school levels are now getting ready to receive their first students, from kindergarten to high school. Our partner, Spanish River Church from Boca Raton, Florida, sent a 20ft. container that included a water pump and supplies for the village.
We are thankful to God that He not only gives us the vision to do His work, but that He makes it come to pass in His own time and in His own way.
"Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to your name give glory, for the sake of your steadfast love and your faithfulness!" Psalm 115:1
Yours in Christ,
Vivi Wickberg
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