Amanda’s Musings

Garth on Emerging Blurb has come up with a practical way that those of us who are interested in the problem’s in Niger (and Africa in general) can do something. You can find out about this at Blogger’s United For Africa or on his blog. His suggestion includes having a garage sale and donating the money to one of the agencies that is delivering food to the needy. A good idea.

SIM is one of the agencies that has a designated project to work in this area. Not to knock any of the other agencies that are doing a great job but I really do like the way SIM is handling this. They are giving the food to the local church to distribute so that it’s Nigerien’s helping their own people and testifying of God’s love for them as they go. Information on this can be found here.

This article on the Reuters website caught my attention and caused a lump in my throat. It seems that aid agencies are ‘tagging’ infants in villages in Niger, red for ’severely malnourished’ and yellow for ‘moderately malnourished’. The red ones aren’t expected to survive the crisis. It also seems that most of the men have left the villages and even the country to head to the city or surrounding countries to find work. It also seems that it’s too late.

I really feel for those who are working amongst these people in Niger, I have quite a few friends who are missionaries there and plan on trying to contact them for some direct information. Maybe we could use the red and yellow tags to promote the cause somehow. Anyone got any ideas?

More Nigerien kids from our trip, this is how they’re meant to look.

Thought this was well put:
“We could learn a lot from crayons: some are sharp, some are pretty, some are dull, some have weird names, and all are different colors….but they all exist very nicely in the same box.”

I don’t apologise for going on about the situation in Niger once again. I receive ‘google alerts’ of Niger news stories and so it’s in front of my face each morning when I read my emails. This article from The Times Online sums up a lot of why Niger is forgotten.
The journalist Richard Dowden makes this interesting statement:

“Unnoticed in Niger that was exactly what was happening. Children were starving to death. Niger is not a war-torn, collapsed state with no communications. It may be the second-poorest country on the planet but it is a democracy with a free press and a Government that is not among the world’s worst. What is more the early-warning system worked and the Government and the United Nations had appealed for help. So why was nothing done? “

He questions why the World 8 concerts and following meetings didn’t work for Niger and it’s an informative read.

We need to pray for Niger at this time. As a Christian I believe that the many children (and adults) who are dying each day in this part of the world are going to a Christless eternity which is heart wrentching. We need to pray for wisdom for the hundreds of missionaries who work there as well as the aid workers and the government. Somtimes there’s just so much to pray about isn’t there.

Nigerien children inside a school we visited. Hopefully these kids are still alive and healthy.

I have decided to have a look at the way that Jesus was as a ‘community’ worker during his ministry on earth. I suppose what sparked this was the thinking I’ve been doing about the situation in Niger lately. SIM (the mission we are with) has a wholistic view within their work. Their primary goal is evangelism and reaching the lost for Christ but cannot ignore the physical needs of those around them while they’re doing this. SIM has been in Niger since 1924 and has many ministries there. Some of these include hospitals, schools, leprosariums, MK schools, Agricultural centres etc but the end result of this work is the 100 churches and 6000 attendees. Other missions work there also. I believe that Jesus had a wholistic ministry (and still does) while on earth, he didn’t focus on just the spiritual side of a person or just the physical but both at the same time. It will be intersting to see what I discover through this little study.

It seems that some of the needed aid in Niger is finally getting through. Praise the Lord for that. This article on the bbc website tells how 16 tons of aid has arrived at Niamey airport but as one worker says, that’s just not enough. They need 23,000 tons to feed the 150,000 children who are starving to death and dying each day. The article also caught my attention when it reported that many families are feeding themselves with grass and leaves. Does the world really think that these people are so unimportant that they should eat like cows?

According the the quiz below I’m a fundy. I suppose it’s right to some extent but I don’t know about being 11% Roman Catholic. Interesting quiz to take.

This article on the bbc website points once again to the lack of food in Niger at this moment. Children are starving as are families. Does anyone care? Most seem to have heard of Ethiopia and Mali and their starving millions. Has anyone heard of Niger?
This is the quote that got me: Amina is so starved she cannot eat even if she wants to. “She vomits as soon as I give her food or water,” says her mother. “As far as I’m concerned, God did not make us all equal - I mean, look at us all here. None of us has enough food.” How heart wrentching. God did make us all equal and yet this lady has concluded that she is of less value than the western person who has food or even her Nigerien neighbour who is in front of her in the queue.
For those who don’t know where Niger is, here’s a map:

I have been following the Schapelle Corby case quite closely and found this article about life inside the prison. It seems that she has managed to give herself a routine of sorts and the article gives you the impression that she is a little bit settled there. I wonder how many people have still been following the case? Have you or have you forgotten about her? Her appeal is on Wednesday and another article I read said that her lawyers are going to try and get a 2 week extention as they only have 2 witnesses so far, both Indonesian. Pray for her and on Wednesday pray that the extention will be possible.

This post by Steve over at Voice in the Desert captured my attention. The line ‘Min nani kabaaru wuro ma,’ he said. ‘Alla hoynu.’ ‘We heard the news about your village - may God help you. fascinated me. These were the words of a Fulani man in response to the London bombings. When we were in Niger (the next country over from where Steve is) we used to say that WWW3 could break out and we wouldn’t even know about it. I suppose that’s not so true.
Us and a Fulani Man in Niger