"As Short as I could get it
It was a while ago that I was standing in church and we sang the words “no matter what the cost, I’ll go…” and the words struck me. It is sang so easily, but is it easily met? No matter what it will cost us… will we go where He directs us? Words so easily spoken, “Lord, I am willing for anything… use me”, but what we don’t always understand is that God will take you seriously, even if you did not mean it seriously. '
God took that to the next level when He sent me on the Urgent Relief for Niger outreach with Global Challenge. It has been a dream to go up in Africa and distribute food, so I was excited, but I actually had NO idea what was heading my way and the adventure God had planned. I can say that it was the most challenging thing I have ever done, but just as rewarding.
When I think of our trip, I immediately think of Job, and how God allowed Satan to take from Job, and no matter what loss, family, health or wealth, he remained faithful and refused to curse God. During the Niger trip, God stripped us of comforts… and the challenge was remaining confident in His plan, His purpose and not doubting that He is still in control.
After a 22 hour stop-over in Nigeria, we arrived in Togo the Monday morning, only to find that our luggage did not. This brings us to challenge no.1! An unexpected Luke 10! Luckily for us, as we walked through the airport doors, we were welcomed by Sewa (our Togolese contact). Sewa, his wife Tanti, and their 3 children Wisdom, Stephanie and Kagiso welcomed us into their home. The plan was to apply for our Niger visas immediately, and then hopefully be on our way to Niger by the next day or so. But our bags were promised to arrive the Wednesday… Wednesday came and our bags did not. In the meantime, opposition demonstrations started in Lome, and were planned to continue for 3 days! We had planned to be out of Togo when they started, but God had different plans. We had to stay indoors mostly, as the demonstrations can become quite violent. We would lie in our room and just hear the tear gas guns going off outside. What a perfect opportunity to pray for Lome… and that’s what we did. Cornie was out and about with Sewa to check up on our visas etc... but nothing! That brought us to challenge no.2!
God not only stripped us of our luggage and OUR plans but next up… He stripped us of our team money! Challenge no.3! We couldn’t draw any team money for several days. Yet we had everything we needed! It felt like anything that can usually provide me with some form of comfort… my own clothes, my own things from home, my plans, money… all was taken away. God pointed me right to His feet. His plans. His provision. His comfort.
2 Cor 1:5 “You can be sure that the more we suffer for Christ, the more God will shower us with his comfort through Christ.”
We received a vision/prophecy from our spiritual family in Jeffreys Bay a few days after our arrival in Togo .… “A door that you need to continuously knock on. The knocking process creates humility in the team, and perfect unity. When the door was finally opened, there was an oasis on the other side. In another vision I saw there was a desert and water flowing into the desert, as you go to your destination. I also saw that you have to forgive your brother 77 times a day. The Lord is saying to me through the vision that reconciliation needs to happen in Niger. That which the team is going through now, the ‘knocking on the door’ process will be like the catalyst to bring reconciliation in that country.”
As I continue to tell the story of our trip, I will point out how we saw every aspect of that vision coming to pass. We were so grateful for that word from God, as it was a clear injection of hope in our team and in our journey. God was in control, even though it felt like everything was going wrong. We just had to keep knocking.
I realized that when you are put in difficult situations, you are truly humbled. And when it’s only 4 of you, in a foreign country, with foreign languages, in difficult situations, it immediately creates a deep sense of unity, trust and love. Our knocking process definitely allowed us to be humbled by God’s plan and brought a unity that no training or program can.
2 Cor 6:4b-6 “We patiently endure troubles and hardships and calamities of every kind. We have been beaten, been put in jail, faced angry mobs, worked to exhaustion, endured sleepless nights, and gone without food. We have proved ourselves by our purity, our understanding, our patience, our kindness, our sincere love, and the power of the Holy Spirit.”
God is never late, but He is definitely never early. Our bags finally arrived Friday, 5 days after our initial arrival. The Niger consulate was closing at 13h00 that same day, and at about 12h00 we were still waiting for our visas. We had to sit back and truly trust in God’s plan at that moment! We couldn’t afford to only get our visas on the Monday, as our time was too limited. We surrendered to prayer and purpose. At about 12h45, visas were stamped into all our passports. Bus tickets were bought and we were on our way to Niger early the Saturday morning.
Thinking the knocking process is over, and the door to Niger has opened, we eagerly rushed to the bus stop early Saturday morning, saying goodbye to Sewa (they were leaving to Benin for a wedding)… bags tagged and packed. 5 minutes before we were set to depart on our bus journey to Niger, we noticed that our ticket showed that we will be travelling through Benin, and not Burkino Faso as we had planned. The problem with this was that we did not have a visa for Benin. The knocking continued.
Finding someone that speaks English, and that is willing to help, is like finding a Magnum in the Sahara. Right in that moment of panic and uncertainty, Talib who works for the bus company (and could speak decent English) walked past us, and obviously saw the utter confusion and ?????? look on my face. He explained to us that all the bus companies go through Benin, and that we will have to find a bus that goes to Burkino Faso and then we will have to switch over to another bus from there to Niger. Continue knocking.
We explored every possible option, rushed around Lome looking for possibilities and trusting random strangers. We found ourselves in certain situations that we entered blindly, only to find out later that it is only by God’s favor and protection that we got out unharmed. After about 3-4 hours of searching and several unsuccessful attempts to find transport, we were back at the bus station where we started. We contacted Talib again, and he led us to a bus that would be leaving at 15h00 to Kopela, Burkino Faso.
During all this confusion, panic and organizing, for some reason for the first time my phone wouldn’t work. When going through difficult times, its so comforting to just contact those you love, and to just hear “hang in there, it’ll be ok!” I didn’t understand why God had to take that too. I mean, was everything not enough??? Immediately God spoke to me and just said “WHY AM I NOT ENOUGH?” Why is His comfort not enough? His love. His promises. Am I holding on and trusting people instead of Him? I realized that He is everything I need, my comfort, my all.
Once our bus departed, at about 16h00, discomfort wasn’t even a concern… you are just grateful that you are finally moving in the right direction. After about 20min of driving, the bus stops… for 3-4 hours… waiting for more ‘possible’ passengers. Several hours behind schedule, finally we are on the move again, only for the bus to break down about 3km later… twice. Every now and again it sounds like the gears are literally going to fall out. The door in front of our seat is opened every now and then to allow some air in… the African aircon! We finally made it to the Burkino Faso border at 14h00 the next day (we were supposed to have arrived at Kopela at 09h00)!
We decided to rather get into a minibus taxi from the border to Kopela, with the hope that it is faster. It was faster… until we were pulled off by the police, and after inspection of the overloaded minibus, found ourselves waiting for over an hour while one of the passengers ‘discussed’ the situation with the police. Corruption is everywhere where we travelled. Openly.
We arrived in Kopela at about 23h00 Sunday evening. We quickly found a place to sleep over and we were overwhelmed with joy to have a bed and a shower. Dinner consisted of a bun, some Kiri cheese from SA and coke! JAfter about 4-5 hours of vital rest, we were once again, on the streets, looking for transport to Niamey, NIGER! The minibus we chose was well on its way, we were comfortable, happy to be on the move, and enjoying the scenery.
About 1-2 hours later, our minibus stopped, our bags were offloaded and loaded onto another minibus. We were just directed to go to the next minibus. At this point, we had only paid half the amount, and when we saw one of the big local Rimbo buses, we chose to rather go on the bus because it was going straight to Niamey, without stops. When we tried to get our bags from the minibus, they refused to give it to us. This was really a tense moment, as we didn’t understand one another. The police did not want to help us, we were outnumbered and they didn’t want to release our bags. There was nothing we could do. Being close to breaking point, I cried out to God with a physical, emotional and spiritual desperation.
About 10 minutes into the drive, I read this from Watchman Nee’s ‘The Normal Christian Life’… “When the Galilean boy brought his bread to the Lord, what did the Lord do with it? He broke it. God will always break what is offered to Him. He breaks what he takes, but after breaking it he blesses and uses it to meet the needs of others. After you give yourself to the Lord, he begins to break what was offered to him. Everything seems to go wrong, and you protest and find fault with the ways of God… My giving of myself to the Lord must be an initial fundamental act. Then, day by day, I must go on giving to him, not finding fault with his use of me, but accepting with praise even what the flesh finds hard…May we always be possessed by the consciousness that we are not our own.”
That brought me through the next few hours, as we finally arrived in Niamey at about 19h00 the Monday night! 3 days of travelling and minimal sleep.
As soon as we drove into Niamey we were amazed. I immediately experienced the door opening. I experienced relief. 2 days before getting to Niger, we heard that Niamey (known as a desert) was flooded. The biggest flood they have ever experienced after a dam wall broke in Mali. Masses of water flowing into this desert. And as we entered Niamey, our destination, we drove over the Niger River, which was now more than double its normal size. Goosebumps filled my body as I remembered the prophecy… When the door was finally opened, there was an oasis (water in a desert)on the other side and another vision was a desert and water flowing into the desert, as you go to your destination.
Everything fell in place in Niger. Although our original plan was to head up to Zinder which is another day’s travel, due to the floods, the roads were not accessible and so God actually planned for us to stay in Niamey. And this was His perfect timing as the need was HUGE after the floods.
We had 2 contacts in Niamey, Ps Ayoba, and Yazi! When Yazi picked us up and we started to talk about what we would like to accomplish, we were all amazed at how God already prepared them for our arrival. And amazingly, Yazi and Ps Ayoba knew one another!!!! God-ordained. We were privileged to be able to stay in Yazi’s neighbor, Mimi’s house! A mattress on the floor was pure luxury!
Yazi and Ps Ayoba started showing us around, and where the greatest need was. They told us about the 3000 homes lost in Niamey alone, and each family has an average of 6-7 people. People were placed in the local school buildings (as it was school holiday). They showed us several camps, and we decided on 2 camps that we would reach out to in the following 2 days. The first was a small camp of about 100-120 people living in 9 rooms. People lost their homes, their crops and most of their belongings. The flood came suddenly, and Niger is not prepared for this type of disaster. The following day we were blessed to be able to supply them with 1 ton of rice. That was enough to feed them for a month.
Each area in Niamey has its own chief/king. We were privileged to meet the chief at the first camp and he showed us around. At one point, we were looking at a farmer’s crops that were completely submerged in water. As we were leaving, Yazi just said “There is reconciliation happening right there!”… between the chief and the farmer. The prophecy said “The Lord talking to me through the vision about the reconciliation in Niger that needs to happen. That which the team is going through now, the ‘knocking on the door’ process will be like the catalyst to bring reconciliation in that country”. WOW!!
The second camp we chose was one of about 1000 people. On the day of distribution, the chief and the mayor were both present. We were able to give out over 5 tons of rice. According to Yazi and the others, this was the first time that food distribution was done during the day, as they usually do it very early in the morning to avoid masses of people coming for collection. But right in the middle of the day, everything went smoothly. Faces were lit up and were unforgettable. We prayed over the people, prayed for the sick, we claimed the ground for God. Time passed so quickly and seeing the people’s response made every challenge worthwhile.
2 Cor 8:2 “Though they have been going through much trouble and hard times, their wonderful joy and deep poverty have overflowed in rich generosity.”
The second week flew by, and before we knew it, we were on the bus back to Togo. We were fortunate to get our Benin visa in Niger, all in a day, so that we could take 1 bus straight to Lome. After 21 hours on the bus, the people at the bus station welcomed us with great smiles as they remembered us as the ‘lost South Africans’ most probably. We spent a chilled Saturday with Sewa and his family, and had the privilege of meeting his brother-in-law, Ps Toni, who is the president of more than 1200 churches in Togo. Impressed by Global Challenge’s simple methods of travel and ministry, he invited us back next year, to go with them into the Northern parts of Togo to do church planting. Ministry of reconciliation!!!
2 Cor 5:18b “And God has given us the task of reconciling people to Him.”
We arrived back home safely after 2 weeks, in absolute awe of what God had done. I thought the testimony was going to be the distribution of food, but it was so much more than food. It was, and is, all about God’s will, His plans, His timing… and His glory. I know for a fact that I would not have been able to endure this trip if it had not been for Christ’s strength and power. There is no way that I would have persevered on my own and in my own strength. It is only by His grace that I could have been a part of this journey.
2 Cor 4:7 “But this precious treasure-this light and power that now shine within us-is held in perishable containers, that is, in our weak bodies. So everyone can see that our glorious power is from God and is not our own.”
Thank you Lord for leading us along in your triumphal procession. All glory to Him!"
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