I have never met a supreme court justice.

Within 48 hours of arriving in Niger, our little group of travelers is sitting down with one of the seven justices of this country’s highest court.  And he is a brother of mine.  Issaka Mousa grew up in a little rural village of 500 people, one of 10 children in a Muslim family, and now not only is he on the high court, he is a devout Christian who is on the highest board of the EERN denomination, the head of Prison Fellowship of Niger, leads work with the Scripture Union, and more.  He also has three children, ages 12, 9 and 8 – did I mention that he is younger than I am.

Issaka is in the light blue

Issaka, my brother in Christ, was not alone while he gave us a presentation about Niger in English (English which was self-taught after a start by a Peace Corp Volunteer 29 years ago).  We were meeting with five members of the leadership of the EERN.  This is the oldest denomination in Niger, and they are proud to point out, the first religious organization registered with the government when independence came in 1960.  (they have incorporation #2)   As I mentioned in my last brief post, this was the end of a day which felt like drinking from a fire hose – refreshing but impossible to take it all in.

Our day started learning from Tom Johnson.  Tom came to Niger 15 years ago with a focus on development.  As a missionary with the Reformed Church in America, he came to support the work of the EERN.  He met his future wife while learning the local language (Hausa) – she filled in for her sister who was his primary teacher.  Now Tom and Aichatou have four daughters, ages 12 to infant, and in the past few years they have moved from Maradi which is the center of EERN’s work where Tom was heavily involved in their Bible school, to Niamey, the capitol city.

Tom is a bit of a history buff, so our time began highlighting our lack of knowledge of the colonial activity in West Africa.  How the French and British jockeying for power, influence and resources shaped the current realities.  It was fascinating, but the start of daylong deluge of information.  But don’t get me wrong, we wanted the deluge.  Every bit of the day was interesting, and in the end, highly inspiring.  I would not have wanted the time from 5pm to 10:30 pm with the church leaders, without this initial primer from Tom. 

Not only did we learn political history from Tom, but also the spiritual as well.  This country is somewhere between 0.3 and 0.6% Christian.  From the late 1800’s until roughly 100 years later, there were only three Christian organizations working here – the Catholics, one Baptist group, and SIM (Sudan Interior Mission).  This started to change in the 1980’s and the doors were more fully opened in the 90’s.  This is something truly amazing – in a nation which is essentially completely Muslim – there are no restrictions on Christianity.  Currently (there have been many coups and 7 different constitutions since 1960) there is a secular government, freedom of assembly, and no anti-conversion laws.  But I digress…

Tom shared what he is doing now, and it is inspiring (and inspired).  He has taken the basic digital architecture for a hymn book app, and recreated it with help from the original developer as a Hausa hymn book.  Not only is the existing Hausa hymn book now in the app, he has added over 300 new songs which has gathered from worship leaders.  It is a dynamic resource for the church – and yes, even here in the country with the lowest standard of living on the planet – smartphones and tablets are common.  With over 10,000 downloads, this is being used – we saw a woman singing from her tablet on Sunday!

CADR - Guesthouse of EERN

I realize this post is way too long – but our day felt like three.  On this amazing Monday, we also were given a tour of the property where we are staying by Jeremy Beebout who has helped oversee its development.  A plot which once had one small building, now has three – office, guest house, medical clinic – and another under construction to be a school for nurses.  Then we got to talk with his wife Susan who is a medical doctor and runs the clinic here.  Hopefully I will be able to share more about this later.

Then we got to where I started this post.  Our amazing time with the church leaders who shared an exciting vision of hope here in Niger.  This ended with our extended roof top dinner where we enjoyed each other’s company and heard some of the stories of how they became Christians.  Every man in the room was raised in a Muslim family, and each has a unique story of coming to Christ.  

There is so much more to share – but I will never be able to capture it all….