Mullings & Musings

• "Trapped in Sand, Hail, Rain and Pitch Darkness: My First Maduhu Storm Experience" (Definitely click on over and take a look at these photos... and then I'm sure you'll want to read the story that goes along with the photos. A desert sand storm is like nothing else...)

"I took my last set of pictures at 6.13 … ending with this picture of Arwen facing the storm at 6.14 pm - seven minutes after the Maduhu was first spotted on the horizon.... For the Maduhu storm brought something new along that I had never experienced in my life (except during a solar eclipse some years ago but even that was not as bad): a forever moment of PITCH DARKNESS. The name Maduhu comes from Duhu, which means dark, and the definition of a Maduhu storm (which is the only storm in Niger that to my knowledge has a name) is that it is so dark that you cannot even see the light of your torch."

• "Malaria Vaccine Could Have Extra Benefits" (Amazing... Malaria is one of my least favorite things about living in Africa... It just doesn't seem to be one of those things I've gotten "used to.")

" 'We have had a moderate reduction in infant mortality from interventions like bed nets and insecticides but malaria remains the leading cause of infant mortality,' he said. 'There still needs to be an additional intervention.'

The multi-country trial of the malaria vaccine RTS,S, made by GlaxoSmithKline Biologicals, is one of the largest ever carried out in sub-Saharan Africa. With funding from GlaxoSmithKline and the PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative - an NGO that develops research for malaria - 15,000 newborns and infants are being inoculated at 11 sites across the region.

The children are then monitored over a period of 36 months to assess the effectiveness of RTS,S, which in previous studies reduced cases of severe malaria in infants by 53 percent. If the results, due to be released later this, year confirm the vaccine's efficacy in preventing malaria, it could be made available as early as 2015."

• "Monday Mishmash: 6/27/11" (must admit, I was surprised by the source...)

"Here are some thoughts on sacrifice from a source ...

*  Sacrifice means that no matter what the cost, I’m willing to pay that price ... the destruction or surrender of one thing for another of greater value ..."

• "Man-Centered Missions" (Convicting thoughts... for missionaries... for anyone in ministry who struggles with the temptation to think s/he - or his/her ideas - are essential to the forward movement of God...)

"We have become desensitized to selfish ambition, empire building, and poor strategy because, well, it’s missions. I am not simply giving vent to cynicism, though at times I am disillusioned with traditional western missions and its celebrity status. But I do blush to think how national believers would respond if they saw the average missionary update. Would we present it the same way if they were watching? Would they feel exploited? Are they aware that their child is the poster boy for poverty and that their story is the closing illustration of our sermon? Would local believers validate all of our achievements? Have the local works been accurately and fairly represented?..."

• "The Unoccupied Fields" (I recently saw a quote - and I can't remember who said it - "Go, send, disobey." It is a challenging thought. Either I go, I send... or I have chosen to disobey. And it isn't a choice that is made once for all - it is a choice that I must make each day living and working here in Niger... or anywhere else in the world. )

"...Just this year I’ve seen African believers penetrating unreached parts of Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea, sharing Christ for the first time to people of the Loma, Golla, and Susu tribes. In northern India, Frontline’s team is systematically reaching 15 new unreached villages this year. Over the past decade, 170 villages representing a mosaic of tribal groups have been reached in this way and several churches planted and pastored by Indians. On the Siberian front, Ukrainians and Russians are joining hands to evangelize migrant workers from as far away as North Korea and praying for outreach further up to peoples above the Arctic Circle. This is just a glimpse of the Big Picture of how Christ is building His Church. Thankfully it’s not dependent on us—it’s dependent on Him!

Here at home our King is still calling faithful men and women to risk-taking Gospel ministry to the hard places. Oftentimes, though, the first barrier they encounter isn’t a distant border crossing—it’s a lack of vision and resources in our churches for the unoccupied territories. Missions in such places requires the sending and the sent to embrace creative, non-traditional roles in order to get in and stay in....

The simple, life-changing joy of the Gospel is what sustains the pioneer and draws others to take up the hard, unfinished task. Christ alone can help us see past the mounting statistics, past the beards and turbans, past the fierce faces and the dreary, lonely places to the happy work of bringing men and women to the King."

-----------------------------------------------------------
Photo by AC.