Link Letter No.10 March 2016
Dear friends,
Simon is one of our co-workers in Niger
and has spent much of the last 15 years
living amongst the nomadic Wodaabe people.
For months at a time Simon has walked and
camped with his Wodaabe friends, transporting
his own drinking water on the backs of the
ubiquitous donkeys. These days, security
concerns make it too dangerous for a foreigner
to live alongside the nomads, so instead he
spends time with his Wodaabe friends when
they visit the town.
One of Simon’s friends is Buuga, who has
Miranda & Tim
CMS mission partners
North Africa
Miranda and Tim, with Keziah and
Emmanuelle, are CMS mission partners
working in North Africa. They travel
widely in the region to support workers
already ministering in the different
countries.
been a believer for some time. Buuga and his
family travel with their cattle and have relationships with several groups of people in different
areas. They share their faith in Jesus and play handheld radios to their friends, with prerecorded programmes in several
languages, then discuss the things
they hear. Buuga is discipling
Hausa, Tamasheq and Sapato
believers.
Recently, Buuga sat with
Simon to talk through how he
and his friends could share
Communion in nomadic bush
camps that lack bread and wine.
Buuga realised that he could
use millet porridge, crisp from
the bottom of the cooking pot,
and a bowl of drinking water to
remember in their desert homes
Sunset over the River Niger
the death of Jesus. Meanwhile,
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they wait patiently for the
annual rains to come and
fill their ponds. The cattle
will then have plenty to
drink, pastures will grow,
and water will be deep
enough for Buuga to baptise
some of his Wodaabe friends
who have come to faith in
recent months.
Niger meetings
Tim met with Simon in
Niamey, the capital of Niger,
where he had travelled to
help facilitate a series of
meetings for leaders from
Meeting with leaders from around the region in Niger
around the region. The
meetings went well and it was especially good to spend time in prayer for the region, in particular asking
God to send many more strong pioneers like Simon to work in our region.
Not all future pioneers will come from outside North Africa; many will be from within the region. For
example, we would love to see Algerian Kabyle Berber believers working among the Tuareg of Niger. The
indigenous Berbers have retained their own culture and language over centuries and are revered by the
proud Tuareg people. Kabyle believers could be part of the key to unlocking the Tuareg in large numbers
to the Lord. Pray for this movement of cross-pollinating believers across the Sahara region.
A Korean group learn new “perspectives”
Our team here in Spain has long
sensed that we are called to be a bridge,
connecting the people of North Africa with
believers around the world. It is fascinating
to see how this happens on a daily basis.
This month, the main language spoken
in our villa is Korean, and the smell of
kimchi wafts from the kitchen through
the building. We’re hosting a group of 20
Korean believers for four weeks while they
Tim with some of the Korean trainees
participate in the well-known “Perspectives
on the World Christian Mission” course. It has been wonderful to interact with them, and we
have enjoyed teaching some of the content.
During our most recent time of weekly worship, Harry brought a devotional message (in our
last link letter we introduced you to Harry, a Kabyle Berber and recent addition to our team).
It was hilarious to hear him speaking first in Arabic, then being translated into English and
finally Korean – one of the challenges of multi-national missions!
A married couple from this Korean group are preparing to move into one of the hardest
countries in our region. Please pray for them as they prepare for this challenging move. Over
recent decades Korea has become one of the biggest mission-sending nations in the world and
we have several Korean co-workers living in different cities across our region. It’s been great to
have this large team with us and we anticipate relationships developing in some strategic ways
over coming years.
Villa Isabel
The training and hospitality we are able to offer this group of Koreans is typical of what
we offer out of our old Spanish villa. Villa Isabel is perched on a hilltop overlooking the
Mediterranean Sea; the North African coastline is just a short ferry ride away. At Christmas
time we celebrated 25 years since Villa Isabel was purchased for the North Africa Centre. As the
team marked this milestone together, we acknowledged those who have lived and worked in this
building over 25 years – supporting and sending workers throughout North Africa. Through
these years hundreds of people have been trained, thousands have enjoyed hospitality and
many significant partnerships have been formed. We have a sense that today we are following
in their footsteps building on the faithful work others have done. (“We are surrounded by a great
cloud of witnesses” as it
says in Hebrews 12.)
As we look back
on 25 years, we also
look forward to the
next 25 years of fruitful
ministry. We want to
be good stewards of
our building, which
is old and in frequent
need of maintenance.
One of our prayers is
for a long-term team
member to oversee
maintenance projects.
A visiting work team from the US
The villa has 13 bedrooms and in
this January-March quarter alone
we will host around 100 different
people, staying a combined 1,000
nights! During this year we
hope to renovate several of the
bedrooms and bathrooms. If you
are interested in helping in any way
with this please do contact us.
An American work team
We were recently blessed
by a fantastic work team from
a church in the USA, when six
hard-working men stayed with us.
Over the course of a week, they
created a beautiful outdoor patio
under one of our lemon trees and
The American team at work...
waterproofed our basement storage
room. We love receiving visiting
work teams like this!
Warmest greetings from us all!
Miranda, Tim, Keziah and Emmanuelle
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