A bit of rest

Josiah gives Caleb English lessons over tea

Snack time!

Josiah and Mich and their buddies Iras and Giom

The boys helping pick okra for our lunch sauce

I'm now writing this entry sitting under a fan with the computer plugged into an actual electrical outlet. Yep, we're in good ol' civilisation. Last Saturday we had a bumpy drive up from Ba-Illi and for the past week we've enjoyed being up here and seeing friends and family (grandparents). We've already shared several meals with Krista's parents as well as others who are located here in Ndjamena. Yesterday we went for an outing to a place around an hours drive north of Ndjamena. There we were able to swim all day long and enjoy a nice meal. Was a great day.

Our last little bit of time in Ba-Illi finished up with me teaching a full day of classes and then laying e-hausted (in case you didn't notice, we're missing two keys on our keyboard) on our bed. Krista gave me a home malaria test and sure enough i tested positive. So the trip up here was less than pleasant for me as i was suffering from fever, chills, and achiness. I'm over it now, but after a doctor's visit and blood test, it looks like i may have hepatitis (which e-plains a lot of fatigue i've been e-periencing over the past several months). So you all can be praying for that.

Other than the sickness (sorry it seems like every time i write an entry it's to report someone being sick) life is going well. Down in Ba-Illi daily life continue to be busy with teaching (for me) and with the boys and the home for Krista. Krista actually started up an English club which she is hoping to do every Saturday. It's a great way to get out of the house, and there are a lot of people who would really like to learn (even if there's no way to use it there in the village). On another note, we managed to find a nice little place to get away as a family. Early one morning a couple of weeks ago we drove farther down along the river and we found a more open place with some beautiful spots along the river to sit and fish and have a picnic. We weren't very successful with the fishing, but we are e-cited to have found a little "getaway" spot for our family.

So we've got another week left here in Ndjamena. This Tuesday, a good friend who has been in our line of work for years, is flying in and will be teaching a two week course down at our school. We're e-cited about his coming and how the students will benefit from what he has to share. We also just talked with one of our Arab friends from back in our old village and he told us that his wife just gave birth to their third child. The naming ceremony will be this week and so we hope to make the hour and a half drive out to be there for it. Should be a great time.

Down but not out

Latest family picture

The three Clermont boys

Chad's future missionaries! This year's students.

Students working the fields to help support the school.

Happy Birthday Josiah! Big #4

Hey everyone! Sorry we're so inconsistent with this blog. In between caring for all the kids, daily chores required to live here, preparing for my courses, and relying on solar power and and inconsistent internet connection, it can sometimes be difficult to get on here. So what's been happening lately at the Clermont house.

Well, to be quite honest with all of you, we've been going through a pretty hard period. In the last several weeks all of the boys, including little Levi, have come down with a staph infection that has caused them to break out in little boils all over their bodies. On top of that Josiah has had malaria and Levi has had a cold/flu that has meant some sleepless nights. Now when the kids are sick it's never fun. But when Krista or I get sick, that's when it really gets hard, as all of the workload of keeping our household running falls on one person. Well, for the past two weeks I've had some sort of malady that has kept me pretty fatigued and with a constant headache and neckache. It has culminated this past week in an extremely sore throat that has kept me from sleeping and swallowing at times. So...Krista has been mom and dad for the past week. And I am once again reminded of what a wonderful wife I have. Aside from the tiring task of caring for all three boys all day, she has nursed me along when I have been too sick or tired to do anything. I definitely wouldn't have thought of coming to a place like this without a woman like Krista by my side.

Aside from sharing with you all what a wonderful wife I have and what a wonderful mother my boys have, I also wanted to share a little bit of what we've learned over these past couple of weeks. For some of us coming from western backgrounds and cultures, we have a hard time understanding "spiritual warfare". Is it real? Is Satan really actively fighting against us, our work, and our families. Krista and I were amazed at how we had experienced basically no sickness within our first couple months here...and then, as soon as classes were ready to begin, all of a sudden four of the five of us in our house are laid out with some sort of illness. For some of you that might just be coincidence, but the longer we've been in Africa, the more we see "coincidences" like this as being a sign that we are truly in a spiritual battle. We are an unwelcome presence in a place that Satan has controlled for a long time. And as most of you know, our African friends understand this much quicker than we do. In finding out that we have been sick, their first response has never been to ask what medicine we're taking, but rather to offer up a prayer to God for our healing and for our protection against the Enemy. The encouraging thing about being in the midst of spiritual warfare is that we truly have no reason to fear. In recalling the story of Job we can see that God was fully knowledgable of what was happening to Job and He even allowed it to happen. Just as when we are being "sifted", God is there knowing our pain, fatigue, and desperateness - and He is not going to abandon us!. Ok, enough of the little sermon. I'm going to try and get some pics posted for you all of the students and their wives and maybe some family pics as well. Oh yeah, and hopefully this little discussion will spur you all to stay on your knees for us, we need it! (I start teaching tomorrow and am still feeling pretty lousy!)

How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news?

The Apostle Paul was obviously not talking about my feet when he was writing that passage in Romans. A couple of weeks ago I woke up in the morning to find that something had managed to get inside our mosquito net and feast on my feet, leaving me with between 20-30 incredibly itchy bites all over my feet. Anyway, I don't know if this picture really shows it or not, but suffice it say my feet didn't feel or look beautiful (but then again that's never been a great concern of mine).

Wow, so things have begun to settle down for us here in Ba-Illi. For a while both Krista and I felt that we had been called here just to fix up the house. It took a long time to get all the major projects done around our house and then we ended up with the surprise trip up to Ndjamena with Levi's sickness. This last week however I was able to begin spending every day preparing for the courses I will be teaching starting in just a few weeks. Though I feel incredibly unworthy and unqualified to be teaching (I'll be teaching Theology of Missions, Contextualisation, and Survey of OT and NT), I'm excited about the task that lays ahead of me. Already while reading through articles and books I've enjoyed the process of learning and relearning different things. So while I've been sitting over in my office, Krista is the real trooper who has been taking care of the boys and keeping the house running.

It's amazing how different life is for us here Ba-Illi as compared with the village where we lived before. There, from sunrise to sunset, we were immersed within a Mu-lim culture, spoke only Arabic, and were active witnesses amongst an unreached people. Here, we live with the other students, teacher, and director of our little school. We speak French with them, they all come from non-Mu-lim backgrounds, and they're all believers. Instead of us living day in and day out amongst the unreached, we're now training these future missionaries to do it. We've found both to be valid roles, just different and we're still getting used to the change. In some ways, we're living in a totally different Chad than what we knew before. Thankfully once we leave our little school "campus" and make the fifteen minute walk into town, we have the opportunity to once again be surrounded by unbelievers from all different tribes. On market day we can meander through all the stalls and feel like we're back in our old village as we converse in Arabic with all the traders. So in some ways now, we have the best of both worlds: the opportunity to work side by side with our national brothers and sisters in preparing them to reach the unreached of Chad, as well as opportunities to develop relationships and be active witnesses amongst the many unreached that are right around us here in Ba-Illi. So, it's exciting to be here, we'll see what happens!

A scare from Levi

Levi just before his little bout with bacillary dysentery

Seeing as our internet access isn't that great, we haven't had much opportunity to really sit down and let you all know what's happening. Well, we're actually now sitting up in the capital city of Ndjamena, having made an unexpected emergency trip due to Levi's health. For those of you who aren't on our mailing list and didn't get the story, Levi began having diarrhea with blood in it and then to the point of just having just blood in his diaper (sorry for those of you out there who are a bit squeamish). Anyway, to make a long story short, after consulting a lot of people by phone, we agreed with the recommendation to get an emergency MAF flight out to the capital city. A lot of people were lifting our situation up as we hurriedly packed up some bags and waited out on the dirt airstrip, praying that God would hold off the rain that was coming in the dark clouds that surrounded us. The plane landed, we loaded up, and as we taxied off the airstrip rain began to fall on our windshield. After five days now in the capital and having spent several long days at the hospital, Levi is in good shape. He ended up having basillic dysentarry (Yeah, i really have no idea how to spell that), something which we didn't have the medication to treat back in our village. So flying out was the right move, especially since the road to our village is just about impassable at this point due to the mud and rain. Needless to say, God answered many prayers and his gracious and merciful hand was upon us throughout the whole ordeal. It's through situations like these that we're overwhelmed by His care for us. Thanks to those of you who were lifting us up in prayer.

We're now getting ready to return to Ba-Illi as we hope to take a MAF flight down tomorrow, trusting that the rain holds off down there and the airstrip isn't too soft. Other than that we are doing well and have gotten fairly settled into our new home. A lot of work is still to be done to feel completely settled. I (Justin) will begin teaching at the small training school in less than a months time. I'm not sure I've ever felt so unworthy or unprepared for a task, but maybe I can be of more use to God that way! Anyway, it will be fun, but it will be a challenge. Krista's challenge is just the day to day routine of taking care of the boys, keeping them clean, keeping us all fed, and building relationships with the other women around us. Well, would like to write more, but really need to get going and get us ready for our flight tomorrow. Pray that we have a dry airstrip!

Josiah and Micah enjoying the remnants of a big rain

Josiah just having a good time, what else is there to say?