Tip of the Week--October 29, 2015

Well, the time of year for putting on costumes and asking people for candy is upon us...if you are into that kind of thing.  I brought my own candy back from the States this time around, so I'm not planning on walking around in a costume anywhere.  I got a chance to see the leaves change colors this year, and that just about makes my fall complete.

However, some of you may be very eager to dress up.  Perhaps you are in West Africa and a bunch crazy Westerners want to have a party.  What are you going to wear?  My philosophy is, don't go for something cutesy, go for scary.  You might be wondering what that looks like here in West Africa.  You are probably thinking things like traditional masks and the like, or perhaps you have been thinking along the lines of rebels and terrorists.  You'd be wrong on all counts.  There are things that are MUCH scarier than those here.  So, without further ado, the Tip of the Week: 10 Scariest West African Halloween Costumes, in order of progressive fright!!!

1. Snake-- Doesn't matter what type; they all make us squirm. 

2. Electric work done on the cheap--  Picture it: fuse box with wires crisscrossing every which way, open wire splices, and a billion things plugged into one outlet.  It's all great until you've got to fix something, then it is just horrifying.  No Western contractor, electrician, or fire inspector can avoid weak knees before such a scene.   

3. Bridge-- Could be a metal bridge with slats that are falling through or could be a rural log bridge; either way, you are thinking, can we actually get across this without falling to our watery deaths?  I mean, what exactly is the safety inspection process for bridges in this part of the world?  Yeah, right, NONE!  At least chainsaw man is only fictional.

4. Lightning bolt-- Don't get me wrong, the light show and the loud, booming thunder are fun enough.  It is the power outages and the burning up of priceless electronics that leaves you feeling punched in the pit of your stomach.  Or if you go metaphoric with lightning representing the local power company, you even add the frighteningly high monthly bills.

5. Semi-collapsing village outhouse-- If this didn't make you cringe, then I'm pretty sure you haven't properly envisioned your peril.  You've just straddled the whole and to your left you notice that the earth has collapsed into the abyss below.  You realize that all that is between you and a very dirty destiny is a couple pieces of rotting wood.  Once you've done one of these, haunted houses feel like a turn on the auto-flush, porcelain john.

6. Bowl of mystery meat-- Doesn't matter how Africa-hardened you are--no one stands defiant before the mystery meat. 

7. Wedding invitation-- At first, people will look at you like, "You ain't scary" and then you flip open and show them the date: April 30th!!! Dressed up, sitting in a stifling church for 3 hours on a day where temperatures are topping 110F--you tell me you wouldn't rather face down a zombie.

8. Child driving a donkey cart-- If the setting was rural farm land, it would be the subject of a painting.  On a congested city street or on a rural highway, it is more the subject of your nightmares--a terror of another sort.  As we say here, there are two bad drivers when a child takes off on a donkey.  Both are just itching to cause an accident.

9. Anopheles Mosquito-- It is more than just her blood-sucking bite that you need to tangle with.  She's liable to give you a deadly parasite that's been wreaking havoc the world over for the past few millennia.  Dracula-smacula.

And last, and certainly MOST FRIGHTENING:

10. Chinese plumbing-- No one, and I mean, NO ONE, doesn't wilt in fear before cheap Chinese plumbing.  It's like holding a ticking time-bomb in your hand--ready to cause disaster at the moment you least expect, usually while you've gone on vacation and aren't home to catch the problem. 

Prayer Requests

1. Next week, we have a number of important meetings that will be taking place at the hospital, covering everything from the budget to revising the way our team works with the hospital NGO.  Pray that we'd have real wisdom in these meetings.

2. Issa (young believer for whom we've prayed many times) is currently living with a church planting pastor in a nearby village.  He is enjoying his time as he learns more about the ministry and is feeling more and more confirmed in his call to ministry.  Please pray that this would be a time of growth and effective ministry for him.

3. Pray for a young man named Bakary.  He's a friend of Issa's and mine.  Issa says that he has really been open in the past couple months.  Pray that the Lord would give us good opportunities to connect.

4. Calvin is a young believer that is learning to become a truck driver.  This is his off-season, but soon he will be traveling again.  Pray that in these remaining days, he can grow even stronger in his faith.

5. As a team, we are in a rebuilding phase.  We've started making concentrated efforts to hone our vision and goals, and to ensure that we have a healthy team culture.  This is going well.  Would you join us in prayer that the Lord could really establish us?