Dear Friends, You may remember a story a couple years back about how I (Doug) was able to solve a computer problem for the Lobiri translation team by remotely controlling their computer across the Internet. At that time they were spared from having to take a three-day trip to the capital and back to get it fixed. But the project has still been plagued with other difficulties that keep them from making good progress, most importantly, the lack of good power to keep their four computers functioning in their village translation office. But last year, a Sunday school class in Midland Park, NJ, raised some money which we earmarked for the project of providing backup power for their office. Last Friday, Henry and I finally had an opportunity to take our Land Rover for a 6-hour trip down to the Gaoua village to install the backup power system. The installation went smoothly and quickly, up until the part where we tried to turn the unit on. No lights, nothing worked! My heart was pounding as I tried to imagine what could be wrong. The system was functioning just nine months ago and it has been sitting unused in our storage room ever since. Henry asked, “What do you want me to do, Dad?” “Pray!” was my direct answer, as I took the unit off the wall and over to a bench to check it out. I’m no wizard with electronics and this complex thing was way out of my league. But, the Lord brought to my mind the fact that the last time I had used the system, I had to push the on/off button hard to get a response. Sure enough, with a borrowed electrical meter we determined that the switch was corroded inside. Henry helped as we began the tedious job of taking the tiny switch apart and soldering it back together. We were both grinning ear to ear and praising the Lord when the unit was back in place and all lights glowing. As a test, Henry started up all the computers, lights and fans, then flipped the main breaker switch, cutting all power to the building. Sure enough, the backup system kicked in with split-second timing and all the computers kept right on going. No human hands are needed to perform this test from now on, since power cuts are a way of life in the village of Gaoua. We praise the Lord for the stable power now available to the Lobiri team, and pray that the Word of the Lord will speed on and triumph through the continued work on the Lobiri Bible! Thank you all for praying for the situation in Niger. We have nothing but good news and praise to report for the many steps that have been taken to assure everyone gets to the workshop and that it is a success (I’ll list them at the bottom if you are interested). I leave Thursday, March 11, and will be busy doing training along with Jeff Heath for the next two weeks. Pray for Priscilla and the boys during my absence. At the end, they will drive to Niger to join me, since it will be spring break and we’ve been invited to a spiritual retreat with our colleagues in the Christian Reformed World Mission there. Henry also leaves for Model United Nations (MUN) – yet again, but this time in Istanbul, Turkey! He and the ten-member team will tour some ancient Christian sites in addition to the MUN event. He'll be gone from March 23 - April 10. We are excited for him to have this great opportunity. Partners in the Gospel, (Phil 1:5) Doug & Priscilla Higby
Prayer & Praise- Praise God for the following breakthroughs in the Niger workshop:
- The situation after the coup remains stable and it has been deemed safe to continue.
- All of the participants' Niger entry visas have been issued
- The participants from Central African Republic and Congo were almost cancelled due to a huge jump in air ticket price. But Doug was able to get a much better deal and itinerary by purchasing the tickets outside the country.
- The internet quality was very poor there, but has recently become stable again.
- We have more people working behind the scenes to make this workshop a success than in any of the previous years. Thanks: Kevin Warfel, David Rowe, Jeff Heath, & the Paratext development team.
- Several key computer programs are available in French for the first time.
- Praise God for the uninterruptable power for the Lobiri team and pray that the Lord would help them to make good progress on the Bible in Lobiri.
- Pray for safety for Henry travelling to Turkey, Doug to Niger, and Priscilla to Niger by road the end of this month.
- Pray for the language technology training workshop as it goes into session on March 15, that the knowledge and skills would be effectively transferred to the 20 consultants participating.
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