Niger: Pizza ovens and People's lives

We decided on a "stay-cation." Nick and Parker had been working for about 3 months without any time off. They asked for a four-day weekend, so we were deciding what to do. In case you couldn't tell from pictures, Niger doesn't offer much in the recreation department. We could have chosen to spend the weekend in another rural town in Niger, but packing up two kids and food just to have different red soil and African thorn trees to see didn't seem too appealing to me. So we chose to stay put and do some things we had wanted to do for awhile, but hadn't had the time. Like go for a long walk through the fields. Like fly our kite with Anna's son, DJ. Like sleep in. And for Nick... build a pizza oven. Hundreds of hours watching YouTube videos and reading articles were finally culminating in an actual pizza oven. The process was intense.



A hospital translator connected Nick with a brickmaker so he could learn about mixing clay soil and where to find it. A guy from the compound shop helped him find a pile of rocks he could transport to build the base.

Another guy knew another guy who would sell Nick some straw and millet chaff so some of the clay would have more structural integrity.

Hausa people are big on greetings. There are 3-4 standard questions you almost always ask when you meet someone on the road. "How's your morning? How's your work? How's your tiredness? How's your family?" During this oven-making process, the greeting Nick and I often received was "How's your oven?"

The hospital and missionary housing compound had 3-4 guards working most of the time. ("Guards" is a bit of an exaggeration, they were mainly there to keep away door-to-door trinket sellers and to kill snakes. Both of which they did well!) All the guards stopped by at least once on their rounds to check out the oven and compliment Nick's work. One of our favorites even helped Nick for a few minutes. The shop guys started coming by as well.

The local people are very grateful for missionary doctors coming to offer health care for people who need it so badly. And they have high admiration for health care workers since most local people have not finished high school, let alone post-graduate school. But when they saw Nick could work with his hands and make something from the ground, they had a respect for him that no degree could bestow. I'm going to differentiate between admire and respect. I don't know what Webster's has to say about it... but when I admire someone, I think what they are doing is impressive.  However, when I respect them, really respect them, I think what they are doing is legit. Hopefully you catch my drift?

The 4-day weekend was close to the end of our time in Niger, but it was a clear turning point for our relationships with local people. Our language had really taken off, and Nick was doing work the Hausa people could finally relate to. Don't get me wrong, the medical work was amazing. Nick saved countless lives with his training and some basic medicine. And that's important. Jesus healed people, and He has given Nick training that allows him to do the same. And while we want Nick to use his training to benefit people's lives, we didn't go to Niger just to buy some people extra time on earth. We went because Jesus has changed our lives. He has given us peace with our Heavenly Father and a joy beyond anything this earth can give. He has given our lives purpose by calling us to build His house, His "kingdom" that will last forever. And we want to see Jesus change Hausa lives, too. We want to see Jesus change American lives for that matter: the lives of our kids and parents and siblings and neighbors. But Nick has a profession that is needed in countries across the world - countries where there aren't very many people who want to see Jesus change lives. Countries where most people have no idea that Jesus does change lives, or that God even cares about them enough to want good for them.

We weren't in Niger nearly long enough to see lives really changed for good by the gospel. But we went for training so that someday we are better equipped to go to a place and see that very thing happen. Lives may be impacted by doing medical work in Jesus' name, but lives won't be changed unless we really enter the world people are living in and live it with them. While medical work may get us to a place, building a pizza oven seems more likely to get us into people's hearts and lives, the places where respect is earned and where the life-giving life of Jesus can take root and change a person.