Still in the Capital City N'Djamena

Thanks for praying for me.  Unfortunately, even though my blood test came out negative, they are treating me for malaria because I have symptoms, like a headache, nausea, and general weakness.  I am taking a different medicine now, because there are so many different strains of malaria.  Please pray that God will heal me completely, and kick all the malaria out of my blood.  Thank you!

I am still with the Downing family in the capital city.  The gov't has some new regulations and so it has become a long process for them to get all the necessary paperwork processed so we can leave the capital and drive out to the Swamp, where the Downing family lives and works. 

Being with the Downings has been a great blessing.  They have 5 kids, and their only son has decided he wants me to be his big brother forever.  It's great.

Thanks for praying for me!

Good News and Bad News

Hi all,

Thanks for praying for me.

The good news is that I had an awesome time on the MAF flight to the capital city.  Wow, what an experience!  When I got here, I met the Downings (the family I'm going to live with for the next 6 weeks.)  Great family.  And we went to an English-speaking church, which was awesome.  I met all the MAF pilots, plus it was great to go to church in English again.

The bad news is that I've had a relapse of malaria.  I took 3 days worth of pills, so we'll see how my blood test goes tomorrow.  Otherwise I could be back on quinine for another week.  Please pray that God will heal me -- soon!  I don't like the thought of dealing with those side effects again.

Thanks again for praying!

--Josh

Lessons from the Top

 I learned a new meaning of trust. You really have to trust your ropes. You have no choice...you can hold on with your hands, but then you can't work. So you just have to lean back away from the tower until your harness is taut, and then let go. It brings a whole new meaning of trust. And I decided that its the same with God in life. You don't always want to trust Him, but you sometimes just need to ease yourself back into his arms and trust him. You can't 'hope' that it will hold...you have to believe it will hold. And then put aside your fear and start working. Great experience.

Radio Tower Update

Well, the radio tower is basically finished! Praise God for safety throughout the whole process!

We left early this morning, Kurt, Christoph and I. Fabian was sick, so it was Kurt and I on the tower.
I had never been up on a tower before, and I can't remember ever being 90ft in the air. It was quite an experience.

First we had to pull up the antenna cable. It was a large cable, about an inch and a half in diameter. Then we pulled up the antenna. We attached the antenna to the side of the tower, and then attached the cable. Everything is a little bit more complicated when you are working that high up. It was a bit windy, and the tower swayed with our movements, since we were above the last guide wires. Once we had it attached, we finished up a few things on the tower itself.

I climbed slowly down, stopping every few feet to tie the grounding wire to the tower. I also put a second nut on all the bolts that held the tower elements together.

We also put attached the lightening rods. The one at the top attaches to the grounding wire, which runs all the way to the bottom. We drove a few copper rods into the ground, and attached the other end of the grounding wire.

Then we put in another lightening rod at each of guide wires.

we worked hard and fast, and were done by 11:30! We were only on the tower for 2 or 2.5 hours.

Pictures will be coming!

Its hard to believe, but my time here in Moundou is drawing to a close. I've been here 7 weeks, and at the end of this week I am going to head back up to N'djamena to meet the Downings.
They say time flies when you are having fun, and its the truth. I am really in shock that its already been 7 weeks. So much has happened...so many amazing experiences...so much to be thankful to God for.

On Friday I will take an MAF flight back to N'djamena. Normally I would take the bus, since its cheaper, but God has a way of working things out! I really really wanted to fly back with MAF, and it turns out that the pilot was going to be landing here Friday morning and heading back to N'djamena empty! So its only going to cost a little bit...just the airport fees. Praise God for that!

So a few prayer requests:
-That God would use this radio tower to spread his Gospel to the unreached villages in Chad
-That I'd have a good last few days here with Diguna
-That I'd have a safe trip back to N'djamena

Thank you all for praying for me and my brush with Malaria! I have indeed survived the treatments, thanks to your prayers, and am almost completely back in full health!

--Josh

I'm on the mend!

Thank you all for praying!

Yesterday we did a blood test after 5 days of the treatment, and it was negative! So I won't have to continue the last two days!

I should have much of this Quinine out of my system in a few days, and be relatively back to normal.
Thank you so much to everyone who prayed and sent me encouragement. It was a rough experience, but thanks to the prayers of God's People I'm on the mend.

They continued work on the radio tower yesterday. They did finish the tower, but we are going to go back on Tuesday or Thursday and attach the antenna and run wiring, etc.

So please pray for my body to continue to heal, and that the last steps of the radio tower would go smoothly.

Thank you all so much again for praying! We serve an amazing God!

--Josh

Malaria and Radio Tower Update

Thanks to everyone who is praying for Josh (this is his mom again.)  

Josh is taking quinine for the malaria.  It is a strong drug with serious side effects (headaches, ringing ears, some delusions...)  .  But as long as Josh can continue to eat and drink, he should survive taking the medicine as it kills the malaria.  He will be taking it through Thursday, May 16th,and then it stays at a high level in his body another 3-4 days after that.  So please pray that God would heal Josh's body and that he will continue to be able to eat and drink.  Also, this is a mental battle for Josh, as he doesn't have enough energy to do much and the time passes slowly.  

The team decided to put up just the base of the radio tower without Josh, but the Unimog had mechanical troubles so they had to return. It has been a real spiritual battle trying to put up the radio tower in this particular village, as it is a spiritually dark place.  The enemy doesn't want the Good News of Jesus to be spread there, and he is disrupting the team to stop it (with Josh's malaria and the unimog breaking down.)  

So please keep praying!  To quote Josh, "When we in America stop praying, he can feel it!"  

Thanks so much.

Malaria!

Josh asked me (his mom) to update his blog today.

He just tested positive for malaria.  So he is starting the medication.

Please pray that he will get well soon.  They can't put up the radio tower next week unless everyone is well, since Josh and Fabian both have to be able to climb up 90 feet.

So now we are praying to the Great Physician to heal Josh's body.

Thanks to everyone for praying.

A bit more on the Jesus Film

I thought I'd attempt to give you all a bit fuller picture of what we do when we show the Jesus film.

For the most part, before we even leave the missionary station, someone from the national church goes ahead of us and asks the village chief for permission to show the film.

Getting on the side of the chief is very important. The chief is all powerful...he is the one who solves quarrels and makes all the big decisions in the village. What he says, goes. So if he gives us permission to show the film, he is also putting his protection over us. If we stay in that village, we park the truck next to his hut, because then we are under his protection. It sounds kind of surreal and old fashioned...but out here in the bush, it is very much real, just as it has been for hundreds of years.

Once we get there, we pick a location to show the film...somewhere that people can gather on both sides of the screen.

We set up as much as possible, and then wait for the sun to go down. Once its twilight, we start up the generator and the projector, and after a prayer, we start the movie in whatever language is spoken in the area.

Who attends the film? Anyone and everyone. And more people come as the film continues. The audience depends on the village.

There are thousands and thousands of villages out here in Chad...little clusters of huts. It can be quite overwhelming. For the most part, this area is a Christian pagan mix. But when we went out towards Sahr, it was a much more Muslim area. In general, the film is aimed at those who have never heard the gospel.

The villages that are primarily Muslim we have to be a bit more careful. We show an extended version of the film, which documents creation and the prophecies leading up to  Jesus. Also we don't take any pictures or video in those villages.

After the film, one of the national Christians gets up and preaches a bit. For the villages we've been to so far, we haven't really needed a translator. That is because the guy we had with us was fluent in four languages. French, Chadian Arabic, Sara, and Ngambay. I was impressed, until I found out that four is the norm for Africa. My teammate met a guy that knew twelve languages. And that is necessary for Africa. I learned from a local pastor that Chad has roughly 120 languages, and many more dialects. There are estimates of up to 140...it just depends on where you draw the line between languages and dialects.

After the preaching, (which is fiery and involves shouting and jumping up and down) there is a kind of altar call. And the response varies village to village. Some villages we'd have over 45 adults and children come forward. Some villages there was no response whatsoever.
What does that mean? It means that in some villages God gave us the privilege of harvesting, and some all we did was plant seeds. We give God the Glory for it all.

It is a very effective and efficient way of getting the gospel out to the unreached villages. We show the film at night, but usually there is a team that does door-to-door evangelism during the day, to answer questions and have good conversations.

Please comment below any questions you might have, and I will try to answer them!

And and some events to be in prayer for:

Sometime next week (Lord willing) we are planning on setting up a radio tower. That can take days or weeks, depending on how many obstacles we run into. Fabian and I are going to be the ones climbing the tower and bolting the sections together.

So pray for safety and that there wouldn't be an obstacles, and that we all stay healthy!

Thanks for your prayers...we really can feel them out here!

-Josh Hedstrom

Setting up the projector for the Jesus film

Setting up the screen for the Jesus film

Cattle in Chad, Africa

Some kind of monkey;  the first actual wildlife I could get a photo of!  

View of a village from the mountain

Fabian and me fixing the brakes for the Unimog

I'm back from the Outreach!

Well, I'm back, and it was an amazing trip! God really
showed his blessings! I was feeling a bit sick before the
trip, but as soon as I got on the truck I was completely
healthy! Praise God for that!

It was about a 14 hour trip there, but we had stops. Nothing in
Africa is ever in a hurry. Nothing. So when we stopped, we
stopped. We stretched our legs a bit. And
then we talked to the local church. And we had some tea.
And we talked. And talked. And talked. And just when we
thought we'd never leave, everyone moved at once, and we
were off. We knew better than to push, because it only
makes it slower.

The roads were pretty good, all the way to Sahr. Our final
destination was a town a bit northwest of Sahr. Sahr is
right in the heart of the Muslim area. We saw many MANY
Chadians that looked like they were a bit of Arab descent,
riding around on horses with long robes and turbans, with
swords at their side or bows and arrows. Very surreal and
menancing.

It wasn't bad driving once you got off the road...but the
actual road was horrific. The road was paved once, many
many years ago, and a bad job at that. So it was more
potholes than road. Literally. Smooth dirt with foot high
islands of pavement. But the dirt road was on the side, so
that was ok. But by the time we got there, it was dark. And
driving at night is VERY dangerous in Chad. VERY DANGEROUS.
Not all of the cars, trucks, motos, or ox drawn carts have
headlights...the goat and cattle herds like to sleep on the
road at night...it's very dangerous. But we had no choice.
Because of the darkness, Christoph had a hard time missing
the potholes.

When we got there, we had to sit around and talk. About
10pm they finally started to plan where we were going to
show the films. After that we had supper.

Supper was Boul with fish. Because we were along the river,
 we had fish at every meal, except one. I got real used to
fish, and I learned to eat the whole thing. WHOLE
thing...eyes to tail. Lets just say that some parts taste
better than others. It makes sense why in America we leave
certain parts out. And you wouldn't believe how much meat
there is on the head. I got good at eating heads, because
being the honored foreigners, they gave us the best parts.
I started to really appreciate eating in the dark. There is
something to be said for not being able to see what you are
eating.

The first night, we showed the Jesus film across the river. Now
they wanted us to take the truck across the river.
Thankfully we didn't. If we had tried to cross the river we
would have been swimming. But we couldn't even get to the
river anyway. We got about a hundred yards away until we
started to sink to the axles in sand.

We carried all the gear to the river, climbed in the dugout
canoes, and we were off. I didn't get any video, because I
was scared that my camera would get wet. We all got across
safely, and then showed the film that night.

We continued to just show the film every night and rest during
the day. There were beautiful rock mountains, so I'd climb
up there and do devotions in the mornings...so beautiful.

But after 4 days, I was starting to get tired of resting.
To an American, we wasted a lot of time during the day. But
in Chad, it was not a waste...we were resting! And that is
not a waste of time...it is something that needs to be
done.

The heat in Africa is much more dangerous than Asia. It's a
very dry heat, so you don't feel like you are sweating. And
the wind feels cool, but the cool feeling is your sweat
evaporating. So it is very easy to get dehydrated.

Overall, it was a very good trip! God really blessed
it...thanks to your prayers!

I put up some pictures
from the trip - enjoy!

Thanks again for praying!

--Josh