MISSION TIDINGS

GIFTS RECEIVED FOR MISSIONS IN JANUARY 1977

CLASSIS EAST SOURCE AMOUNT

Friend in Clifton Gift $ 500.00

Clifton Ch. Col. Collection 678.10

Friend in Pompton Plaines Gift 100.00

Franklin Lakes Sunday School Gift 2238.00

Psalter Recordings Gift 100.00

CLASSIS MIDWEST

Friend in G.R. (mesc.) Gift 15.00

In G.R. Ch. Col. Gift 30.00

Friend in Michigan Gift 125.00

So. Holland (calendars) 24.00

Outreach Inc. Gift 1000.00

Friend in G.R. (mesc.) Gift 42.50

Hamilton (calendars) 40.00

G.R. Ch. Col. Collection 3251.76

In Kalamazoo Ch. Col. Gift 50.00

Kalamazoo (calendars) 100.00

Hamilton Ch. Col. Collection 452.31

Unionville (calendars) 62.50

A Unionville member Gift 1000.00

In G.R. Ch. Col. Gift 500.00

CLASSIS WEST

Friend in Luverne,

Minn. Gift 500.00

Sioux Falls (calendars) 40.00

Rock Valley Laides Aid (mesc.) “ Gift 295.75

Friends in the country of New Zealand Gift 100.00

Friends in Bellambi, Australia Gift 54.14

CLASSIS FARWEST

Sunnyside (calendars) 40.00

Port Alberni Ch. Col. Collection 205.25

TOTAL: $11544.31

Dear Friends,

Herewith we want to thank all of you for your generous support of the mission for the first month of 1977. May the Lord bless you and your gifts. We were planning to give you a financial report for 1976 but since the synod has decided that our book must be audited by a public accountant we will wait with giving the financial report until it has been audited, which we hope to have done in the month of February. At present everything is going quite well on all the mission fields. There is at this time not any particular thing to write about. The Lord willing, Rev. Suyker and myself hope to go as deputies of our mission committee to the Netherlands, to attend the mission day and also to meet with the mission board of Holland for many important considerations. We hope our friends will remember us on all the unsafe ways and that we may be given wisdom to strive for the honor of God and the spreading out of His kingdom. Sometimes the mountains can be very high but we may experience two years ago that the Lord has made all things well. The Lord is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Herewith we want to thank you again for the support of the mission and that you will pray for the spreading out of the kingdom of God. We also include a letter from Coby Van Rossum.

American General Mission Fund Netherland Reformed Churches of United States and Canada

John Spaans, Treasurer

Plankinton Box 17 RR3

South Dakota 57368

A LETTER FROM COBY VAN ROSSUM

Onu-Anyim December 1976

Dear friends,

As we are coming to the end of the year, I want to write you a few lines. I can’t find time to do this all personal, and we hope you will understand. This year was quite different from other years, but reasons enough to thank the Lord for. Some of you know, others not, that we went to Izi last year in November, to take over the station from Johan and Marijke Commelin, as they were going on furlough. We enjoyed it, but I became sick and had to go to Jos in February, and was there in the hospital for some weeks, but the doctor could not find the cause of the sickness, so I went to Igede early in March. After a few days it became serious, and after some days Dr. Sckoonhoven, who had just returned from furlough, brought me to Holland. I was there hospitalized for 5 weeks, and near my family. It was very nice to be at home. It was a good time, as the Lord didn’t leave me without comfort.

Maria and Ruth went with me and went to school again in Holland, they stayed with my brothers and their families.

When I left the hospital, I still had to rest and was with my sister and her family for some months. Then I was improving, but not allowed to return yet. In July there was a course in the Wycliff center in High Wycombe, so I went there for 6 weeks. Tom and Meta Moerdyk were there as well. They have come to Nigeria now. Also Peter and Ria Scheer, the doctor and his wife, who applied to come to Izi, but have no visa yet. We all enjoyed our stay in England, particularly the lessons and the fellowship together.

In the end of September we were able to return to Nigeria and stayed 2 weeks with our friends in Igede, then we went on to Izi again. Now we are not alone at the station. Johan and Marijke Commelin are here as well and we expect the Moerdyks this week. There will be plenty of work for all of us.

We have clinic twice a week, on Tuesdays and Fridays. The other days we see only emergencies and give daily injections, so we get some time to go to the villages. At the moment we have 3 motherless babies with their caretakers, a mother with a premature twin, and 2 expecting mothers in our clinichut. It is very crowded and they need lots of supervision.

We also have motherless children in the villages, who have been here for a short period to teach the caretakers. We visit them regularly, to see how they are doing and give a hygiene and Bible lesson in their compounds.

Last week we had some days of great tension. Ruth complained of backache and later of headache and fever. We treated her for malaria, but on Sunday I went to Oswanka to attend a service and returning home I found her very ill, with a temperature of 106 degrees. She soon had a convulsion. After an injection it stopped but she got two more. On Monday afternoon it became very serious. She was frightened and thought she was going to die. She asked “please pray with me” again and again, then she became unconscious. Many people came in very quietly and quite a few prayed. In the church they had a prayer-meeting until 10 o’clock at night. At 11 p.m. she opened her eyes and said “now the Lord has told me that my sins are forgiven, I am not afraid any more. Now I am going to sleep.”

I was pleased, but couldn’t believe that she was getting better. She was so cold and didn’t move at all, but from that time on she was getting better. Praise the Lord, he heard the prayers of many. We feel that we love those Izi people more than before Ruth was ill. They were so nice and kind. Together we thanked the Lord in the church. We wish each one of you a good Christmas, worshipping Jesus as the shepherds did long ago. We also wish all of you God’s blessings in the new year.

Best wishes, from Coby Van Rossum

A LETTER FROM IZI

16 December 1976

Dear Mission Friends,

It has been almost six months since we left you, but even six months later our thoughts are in the U.S. often. We have traveled many miles to reach here but finally on the 4th of September we reached the area, the place we plan to call home. It was quite different than what we expected but it seems it is always that way in things you cannot relate to by any previous experience.

The culture change is the greatest difference. Coming from a culture whose laws, customs and habits have been for the most part a fruit of the Reformation, to a culture which reflects very faintly the knowledge of the Creator and Provider of all things, the difference is very evident even in the smallest things. Sacrificing to jujus or gods that the people themselves make, or imagine, is a common sight in the village we live. The power of the medicine man or juju priest is very real to the people, and they are very much afraid of these men. They demand large sums of money for the intercession with the spirits, or recommend native cures for sicknesses which generally only make matters worse. We have much to learn about these men but by asking questions here and there we slowly put everything together.

The people were very happy to have us come to live with them. Little Eric was a great help in this, always smiling and becoming excited with all the goats, chickens and cows running around through the village much to the delight of the people. To get to the village we had to cross a large river in a dugout canoe which was controlled with a single paddie. The people who are already attending the church services met us at the river. They now number about 150. Mr. Commelin has been here about one and a half years prior to our arrival, and has started a Bible - agricultural school, and reading classes as virtually no one could read, especially in the Izi language.

The Wycliffe Bible Translators have just finished the New Testament in Izi and for the first time these people have the Scriptures in their own language. They are very proud of this fact, and recently as we were going to a village with an interpreter, I greeted some men in their language. The interpreter heard them asking each other how I could know their language when one answered, “Don’t you know it is written down now? He can read it!”

The Wycliffe people have done a remarkable work on the language here. Often living under very primitive conditions to be close to the people to learn the language. It is a very difficult tonal language with 5 tones, often the only difference on a sentence is the tone. i.e. some sentences can have different meanings depending on tone. We ask for your prayers for perseverance as we learn the language here. The devil likes us to do as little as possible, but the mother tongue of any people is said to be the language of their soul. No language speaks to us like our mother tongue. We could use an interpreter, but to get to know a people well you have to learn their language.

The weather when we arrived was warm and humid with daily thundershowers but now the dry season has started and it is warm and dry with much dust blowing from the Sahara desert many miles to the north. Visibility is sometimes 500 feet. Temperatures range from the 90’s during the day to the 70’s at night.

The Africans carry everything on their head. Anything heavy or awkward is carried on the head. Women fetch water from wells and streams with large earthen pots, (I often watch and think that is how the Israelites must have done in their day), and sometimes carry as much as 6 to 7 gallons in one pot on their heads. Firewood, tools used on the farms, goats and chickens going to market are all carried directly on the head, or carried in baskets, or bound together with ropes made from grass and placed on a grass cushion on top of the head. It is very nice to see the women heading for market, everyone with a load on their head.

Speaking of markets; these are the main days of rural African life. Instead of a 7 day week as we know it, they usually have a 5 day market week with each day being called after a nearby market. In our area it is: Ophoke, Aza, Iboko, Okpo, Nkwegu. This repeats itself every five days. I think you can already see the temptation it presents, in the fact that sometimes the local market falls on a Sunday. You think it is easy to stay home from market but it’s not like going to the store by us. Our nearest market is eight miles away and falls every ten days alternating with another market which makes these two markets occur every five days, one or the other. The market is where the latest news is heard, friends are met, and has been the central social activity of the people up to now.

These are a few of our first impressions and experiences. We ask your prayers for wisdom to help these people for whom the gospel is very new. Most of us have heard the Word of God from our early days. Does it make you wonder why we have had the opportunity and not these people?

Greetings from Izi,

Tom, Meta and Eric Moerdyk

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