The tremendous support the URN project has received has enabled the Explore Africa 2010 team to distribute food in two different towns the past weekend.
Tânout is a town about three hours drive to the North of Zinder. The town is set in arid and almost barren land and the entire district has been severely affected by the ongoing drought and food shortages. The need in Tânout is big and expanding at an alarming rate.
Pastor Issa is a man from the Fulani tribe who lives in Tânout with his wife and four children. The church at his house is also one of the main ministry points the Explore Africa team visited this year. The church's ministry focusses mainly on the Fulani people and especially the chiefs and headmen from the different villages. From the beginning of the URN Project, this was going to be the main point of distribution as this was perceived to be the place where the most people living in the greatest need could be reached.
The team set out for Tânout on Friday 4th of June to be there for the Saturday market. Market day in Niger is quite an experience as most Nigeriens from different villages will come together on a specific day of the week to buy and sell goods of different shapes and sizes. The only product that caught the interest of the Explore Africa team was, of course, millet.
Hundreds of people showed up for the distribution and the queues just kept on growing and growing. After all of the headmen and chiefs (called an Ardo in Fulani) received some bags of millet for their villages, the elderly received two tiyas (local measurement – 2 tiyas is similiar to about 4 litres) of millet each followed by the rest of the people for as long as the millet lasted.
The next day the team set out to the South of Zinder to a town called Kantche, 68Km from the border with Nigeria. Pastor Omar and his wife Awa moved here from Zinder about 11 months ago. The church in Kantche is still in its baby shoes but the Lord is already doing amazing things here and we trust with them for more and more miracles in the future.
The distribution process was a bit more organised than in Tânout mainly because the crowds of people were so much smaller. The need in Kantche is still grave and the people came from far and wide when they heard about the possibility of receiving food.
The URN Project was able to give food to approximately 930 people in Tânout and 300 in Kantche. This brings the total number of people reached by the URN Project, thus far, to an estimated 1378!
This week the URN Project will be distributing food in the far reaches of the Sahara desert in the village of Aderbissinat as well as in Zinder, the town that has been serving as a base for the project.
For the completion of the project we still need to raise an amount of R8000! Thank you for all your contributions and support thus far. If only you could see the appreciation in the recipients' eyes. Please continue to pray with us that this project will open future doors for the Gospel in the specific villages and that they will come to know the truth and find life in our Saviour!
With regards
The Explore Africa Team