To give you a summary of everything that happened... we left on Friday morning and spent the entire day traveling. We arrived at the guest house we were staying in around 8:30 that night which is much later than we hoped to arrive. We found out once we got there, that apparently we took a very roundabout way of getting where we were going... and we could have made it in about 2 hours less time. But the good thing is that we made it there safely! We left the guest house in Yaouri on Saturday morning and headed towards the Kambari tribes.
We stopped first at the ECWA establishment that is closest to the Kambari. We got a brief tour of their facilities there, which include several classrooms and a church building. They offer a 3 month theology course in both Hausa and English there at the ECWA site. Their hope it that some of the kambari will attend that 3 month school in the future. This is also the home base for all of the ECWA outreaches to the Kambari. We actually brought along a large amount of clothing that the ECWA employees and students will distribute to the Kambari people in the near future. We picked up one of the employees who was going with us and got back on the road.
Now just to clear up any confusion that I might have created in my previous post, I am going to post all the information I now know on the Kambari people. Apparently there are 500,000 kambari people all over Nigeria. They span a huge region of the country and speak several different dialects of the same language. The kambari that we visited in the Arabo-Lafia region are just a small portion of the entire Kambari tribe. So... the chief we visited is just the chief over his village there and there are hundreds if not thousands of other chiefs throughout the Kambari. These people have been heavily oppressed by the Hausa district heads that control their area. Most of these men are not bushmen, they are more of politicians that happen to have jurisdiction over a particular area that contains some of the kambari. These men have oppressed all of the villagers over the past few years with fear and used their authority in many negative ways. It has prevented development in the villages and brought ruin and destruction to many of these people's lives. As I mentioned before, the majority of the Kambari people don't wear clothes. Some of them do so for cultural reasons to preserve their way of life, but many of them are honestly just at such a low level of poverty that they don't have any clothes to wear. They have been oppressed and help as this low level of poverty for such a long time now. So... we headed to one of the kambari villages on Saturday morning to meet with several different people and commence our outreach.
The first man we met was the pastor in that village. A few years back in this particular area, a Nigerian missionary came to the Arabo-Lafia region of the Kambari and planted a church in their village. He has been living there and sharing the gospel for the past few years. We met with this man and he gathered all the recent converts to Christianity in the village into one small area for our meeting. There was a total of probably 6 or 7 men and 20 children that were all gathered together for this meeting, along with the 5 of us who ended up going for the outreach. Emmanuel and Nuhu who were both with ECWA were the people doing the outreach and in charge of the work with the Kambari. Chuck and T4Global is there to support these men and their ministry with their communication strategies and small media technology as I'm sure you've all heard Chuck discuss. Speaking with the pastor, the elders in the village, and many of the converts there... it was devastating to see the poverty these people are in.
Their two biggest needs are clean drinking water and education. They have one "bore-hole" which is the close equivalent to a well where they can pump water... but that is the only bore hole for miles and miles so all the people from that village and neighboring villages come and scramble over the small amount of clean water they do have access to. Many of the people don't bother fighting for that water and are content drinking the Niger River water... which is very dirty and full of disease. This is the main cause for all the diseases contracted by the villagers, most of which lead to death because they have very little access to health facilities or hospitals. They don't have cars, and they have to travel miles and miles to reach the nearest hospital. These people are suffering from Malaria, Cholera, Dysentery, Measles and many other diseases like these. The worst part is that the majority of these people have no idea about these diseases, their causes, their symptoms, ways to prevent them, or how to cure them. They are completely uneducated about all of the things that are destroying their lives and the lives of their children. Many people there don't even realize that the mosquito is their enemy and that they should avoid it at all costs. People don't have any idea that there are such things as immunizations for measles and other things that are easily cured. The lack of health facilities as well as the lack of information and education is causing so much destruction for these people....
As discouraging all this is, it is very encouraging to see how much we can help and all the changes that are soon to take place. T4Global is based entirely around oral communication and spreading information through groups of people who specifically are illiterate. In all seriousness, I don't think there is a better group of people on the planet for this ministry and method of teaching. Thanks so much for all the prayers, the village chief and elders were MORE than willing to accept help and were filled with joy knowing that we could help to educate their people. The missionary and church planter has taught 2 or 3 of the converts to Christianity to read and write over the past year... but even with those newly taught readers... there are absolutely no books around for them to read. Schooling and literacy is something that will come in the future for the Kambari, but it will take many many years before the majority of the people are educated. The encouraging part is that we don't have to wait until then to share the gospel with them and liberate them from the diseases that are plaguing their lives. ECWA and T4Global, now with the blessing of the village chiefs and elders, will begin preparing content to educate the villagers. This will include information on diseases, to basic hygiene teaching, to the importance of drinking clean water, to prevention and treating of sickness. All of these neccesary teachings will be followed up with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. As soon as this content is put together in the language and dialect of the local people, ECWA and T4Global will distribute mobile schools to the people and begin training them to use the devices and pass them along. This program in the near future, with God's blessing, will liberate these people from the evil that is crushing them. They will be enlightened and set free from the physical and spirtual evils pressing down on them. Christ will set these people free and give them life to the fullest. Please keep this group of people in your prayers. Pray for swiftness in completion of the content for these people, and pray God's blessing upon the entire process. Pray that very soon, these people may recieve the knowledge and englightenment that will truly set them free. The great news is how fast all of this will begin to spread once it is put into play. Once the people in the village have listened to the content and begun to apply it to their lives, they will pass it on to a neighboring village, and these mobile schools filled with life changing information will hopefully plunge their way deep into the heart of the bush and the Kambari people. I can't stress enough how perfect this group of people is for the type of ministry and project that is about to be completed. It is obvious God has brought Chuck and his organization here for a reason to partner with ECWA and thier outreach to the Kambari. Please pray for these people and pray for T4Global and ECWA and the success of this program. It could lead to many other programs just like it reaching out to all of the Kambari people, with the realistic future of seeing all of the kambari people touched by the grace of God and knowledge of Christ (that is 500,000 people keep in mind!). It was very hard to leave the people and the villagers, but it was a blessing to meet them and to be a part of a program that is about to change their lives forever. Most of the adults in the village we visited were wearing clothes... but most of the children were running around naked. It was interesting to see them, because they weren't embarrased at all about being naked, it is perfectly normal to them. If we kept going deeper and deeper into the bush, I suppose we would have found less and less clothing even among the adults. Many of the children there (as most of the children living in the bush) were scared of us at first. I don't blame them since they have never seen a white person... when we would get out our cameras or even look their direction and wave, they would all scatter to a hiding place. They warmed up to us pretty quickly though and it was fun to get to give them high fives and bring a smile to their face. We left the village with our eyes opened to how real the poverty is there, but with our hearts encouraged at the bright outlook of the future. Below is a picture of one of the girls who couldn't stop smiling. Any time I would look at her, she would get a big smirk on her face like the one she has here... she was adorable =D
We left the village and went to meet another man who is working with the Kambari Language Project, which is entirely devoted to translating the bible and other resources into the various languages and dialects of the Kambari. This man was ecstatic to meet us and more than willing to help in whatever way we needed for this project. This organzation will be partnering with ECWA and T4Global in this project as well as others to come it is certain. Please pray for their success and that they may be granted swiftness in their translation process.
We headed back the next day and our travels were very uneventful... which is a great blessing. God kept us safe during every part of the journey and his hand was very apparent throughout the whole process. Thanks so much for the prayers.
Today being Monday... I have less than a week until I'll be on a plane leaving Nigeria. The time has gone by very quickly, that is certain. Pray that I might take advantage of every last moment I have here and I will be able to complete anything and everything I need to before I leave. I will probably post one more time with my reflections as well as long term prayer requests. Please keep the Kambari people in your prayers in the near future... as well as the people putting together the program for them. It has a been a blessing to have all of your support.... so until next time =P
Grace and Peace
1 comment:
We will certainly continue to pray for your continued opportunites while you are in Africa. However, I have to say that we are excited about you coming home! We love you and miss you Colin!
Vickie, Terry, Ian, and Matt
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