Prayer notes for October 31

1. We ask your prayers for our doctoral students, Dennis, Cosmos, and Chikas, who are working with Adrian; and Dauda, Kate, and Rebecca, with Wendy. They face many challenges in terms of the availability of internet, water and electricity—all things we take for granted in North America. Pray that they will persevere and make significant progress on their theses by January, when we hope to meet with them.

2. Thank God with us for the new course in New Testament Greek for Bible translators that started in Jos in September. The Nigeria Bible Translators Trust which sponsors the course faced some critical internal problems in August, which threatened to derail the course. Pray that whatever obstacles they face, these may be resolved. We are thankful that the first section of the course is nearly finished. The second section (for which Wendy wrote the text) will be taught early in 2009. Please pray for strength for the instructors, Rob Lillo and Rudy Wiebe, and for the students, that they may persevere and finish the course. Pray with us that their newly acquired language tools may be a real blessing to them in their translation efforts.

3. One of the top priorities for us to teach in Nigeria was to promote higher standards, so that students can stay in the country to finish degrees. Pray with us that initiatives we made while at Unijos to raise standards in our Religious Studies department may bear fruit. Unless standards are maintained students will still need to go abroad to finish their studies. 

4. Pray also for the initiatives in fostering dialogue in our department between Christian and Muslim colleagues. Pray in that regard especially for the colleagues with whom we have worked closely.
 5. We would ask your prayers for us as we prepare to make the transition to Tanzania. Pray for safety in all the traveling that lies ahead. Pray that we may be able to adjust quickly, and that we may be given wisdom in assessing the needs, in providing help and advice. Pray also for our family as we will be separated again for some time, and for a safe delivery for our daughter Pauline, who is expecting their third child in November. And pray for our son David, who has just started a program in community development at Sheridan College in Brampton, and our eldest, Sharon, who just started teaching in an after-school tutoring program in downtown Toronto, in addition to her other jobs.

Prayer notes for October 19

"Hear my prayer, O Lord God Almighty; listen to me, O God of Jacob" (Psalm 84.8). 

1. Please pray with us for our IICS/CSI colleagues in Nigeria. Infrastructure remains a real problem for many as they teach in the universities and teachers' colleges. We have heard much about lack of adequate internet provision lately, but provision of water, electricity, and petrol/gasoline is not at all dependable. 

2. We ask your prayers also for our doctoral students, Dennis, Cosmos, and Chikas, working with Adrian; and Dauda, Kate, and Rebecca, with Wendy. They face many challenges for their research in terms of the availability of internet, water and electricity—all things we take for granted in North America. Pray that they will persevere and make significant progress on their theses by January, when we hope to reconnect with them on a more personal basis. 

3. The next few weeks promise to busy for us, as we visit a number of church communities in southern Ontario. Please pray for wisdom for us as we seek to communicate the challenges and opportunities of God's work in Africa tody. Pray also for safety in travel. We are grateful for safe travel this past summer as we flew to Florida for dental care in July, and then attended the CSI/IICS Vision Conference in Kansas City. It was great to celebrate the 20th anniversary of IICS, to be inspired by our speakers, and meet with colleagues working in many varied locations around the world. Thank God with us for the expansion of the ministry of IICS in recent years. 

4. Thank God with us for the new course in New Testament Greek for Bible translators that started in Jos in September. Over the last months colleagues Rob Lillo and Rudy Wiebe have been busy revising the introductory New Testament Greek text used in Nigeria, adapting it for this course; and Wendy has been working on final revisions of her own Advanced New Testament textbook. We are grateful that the course is going ahead. Just a week before it was to start we heard from the director that some unpleasant developments at the school necessitated postponement. We encouraged him in prayer, and he decided to go ahead after all. Please pray for strength Robert Lilllo of the Federal College of Education in Gindiri, who taught the first section of the course, and also for Rudy Wiebe, who joined Rob at the end of September. Pray also for the students, for good health and stamina to absorb such large doses of Greek grammar in a very short time. Pray that they may persevere and finish the course. Pray with us that their newly acquired language tools may be a real blessing to them in their translation efforts. Please pray with us that whatever obstacles there were can be removed, and that the devices of the evil one may be undone; we believe this course will be a very helpful tool for Bible translators.  

5. Please pray for our Nigeria colleague Layne Turner, who recently had surgery in the USA. Pray for complete recovery, and for the granting of his visa to return to Nigeria, so that he may be able to take part in the Nigeria Bible Translators course in NT Greek. Pray also for the Gibsons, IICS colleagues who recently transferred from the Ukraine (they were already our colleagues there when we were working in Moscow) to work at a central university in Uganda. They had hoped to teach at the University in Juba, in the southern Sudan, but there have been some obstacles. Katrina Korb, our University of Jos and IICS colleague, also hoped to transfer to Juba, so we ask your prayers that the obstacles at the Sudanese university may also be removed. 

6. At this time we  ask your prayers for our Africa team leader, Danny McCain and his family as they mourn the recent passing of his elderly father; he and Mary were able to attend the funeral. Pray especially for grace and comfort for his mother at this time. It is a difficult time, also because of the hurricanes which have hit Louisiana where she lives. 

7. We are grateful for your prayers for  wisdom and clarity for us with respect to plans for teaching in the St. Augustine University of Tanzania to help them as they start a Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies. We hope to travel to Tanzania early next year to join them for the second semester. Please pray with us as we prepare for this new academic ministry. 

8. We would also like to ask your prayers for our family, especially our children; all three of them face some challenges at the moment. We would ask for special prayer for our youngest, Pauline, who lives near Boston, and has experienced some difficulties in this, her third pregnancy. Please pray with us for a safe delivery as close as possible to the due date (in a little over a month). Pray also for our son David, who has just started a program in community development at Sheridan College in Brampton. And pray for our eldest, Sharon, who is transitioning to new work with needy students in an after-school tutoring program connected with St. Silouan’s Orthodox Church in downtown Toronto. 

P.S. Please check out Adrian's new blog called 'ask a theologian' at http://helleman.blogspot.com.

Family celebrations

It is not often that we can get together as a family. We managed it last summer when we went to a cottage for a week. And we were able to this again early in August, when our youngest daughter Pauline drove up from Massachusetts with her two children, Gracie and Chris. Unfortunately, her husband Greg was unable to come this time. Pauline is expecting another baby in November, but she was brave enough to drive all the way from their place  just outside Boston to our Toronto home, and made it in less than ten hours. The children really behaved well, with a little help, of course, from the DVD player in the van.

The occasion was the celebration of number of birthdays: Sharon's (July 22), Adrian's (August 5), and Pauline's (August 6). It was wonderful to have Pauline join us for these birthdays and great to be together for the week of her visit. We had a great time showing Gracie and Chris around the parks and other recreational spots of Toronto. Gracie was duly impressed by the  visit to a real castle (Casa Loma) and the children really loved the day we spent on Toronto Island, which is accessible only by ferry. They were able to visit a farm, go swimming, and even take a ride on a carrousal. And we took time to explore the pool only a few blocks from our place at Christie Pits.  Even though Pauline and the children were with us for a whole week the visit went much too quickly.

We managed to get a photo taken of us all, in front of our house. Our son David, is standing behind us; Sharon behind Wendy, and Pauline on the right, with Gracie and Chris in front. David is still in Toronto after several years working overseas, in Saudi Arabia and Turkey. This fall he hopes to take courses in community development. Sharon, our oldest, lives at our house and manages the place while we are out of the country. It is too bad that Greg was unable to be present, but he had to keep working in Boston.

You may have noticed bars in front of the basement window. We installed them shortly after our return from the IICS vision conference mid-July. While we were gone, our basement apartment was broken into. A number of items were stolen, especially older jewelry, coins we had collected on our travels, tools, and other small things; from time to time we still discover that items we thought were in a certain location are simply gone. None of these stolen items were expensive, but some did have sentimental value. We are thankful that our thief overlooked European passports, British and European currency, and that we had our laptops with us. During the six years of our stay in Nigeria we never experienced a successful break-in, although some money and other items were stolen by some who worked for us.

A few days after Pauline left, we drove to Cambridge, to help celebrate the 65th birthday and retirement of Wendy's brother, Andy Elgersma (August 7). His children put together a lovely surprise party for him. He was certainly surprised when he entered the room where he was invited to have a low-key supper, and discovered instead a large group of family and friends, some of whom can be seen in the photo below. Andy is tall and white-haired, standing directly behind Wendy.

From left to right is Grace (Wendy's youngest sister, who lives in Cambridge), Andy, and Peter and Jane Elgersma. Peter is our cousin. Again it is not often that Wendy's family gets together. Unfortunately, Pat, the oldest sister lives in the Netherlands, and was unable to be present, although she wanted to come. That might have been an even greater surprise!

IICS vision conference, July 17-19

Once every other year, CSI/IICS professors are required to attend the annual IICS Vision Conference in Kansas City, MO. This year's conference was special, for it was a celebration of the 20th anniversary of IICS. The theme of this conference was 'worldviews'. Both of us attended this conference; it promised to be a time of renewing acquaintance with good friends,  both among IICS and CSI colleagues, and the plenary speakers: Elaine Storkey, whome we have known for many years, and Paul Marshall, whom we have known since the 1980s, when he taught at the Institute for Christian Studies in Toronto; in fact, when we returned from missionary service in the Philippines in 1987 we took over Paul's house in Toronto. Unfortunately, Elaine was unable to come to this year's conference, due to illness, but she is now scheduled for next year. Paul, who is now with the Hudson Institute, where he does research on religious freedom, gave two excellent speeches, which we thoroughly enjoyed, and we had lunch with Paul before we left Kansas City. The other main speaker this year was David Naugle, who has written  an excellent history of worldviews.  In addition, about sixty short papers were presented (about seven at a time); a few of these were given by CSI/IICS professors, but for the most part by academics who have heard of IICS and appreciate its vision of academic ministry. We certainly hope that some of them may take up the challenge of serving overseas with CSI/IICS.

We took the opportunity to have a photo taken of those of our "Africa team" present at the conference, from left to right: Rudy and Marlene Wiebe, who teach at the College of Education in Pangshin, near Jos; Henk and Vicky VanAndel, from Edmonton--Henk serves as executive director of CSI; Prof. Joseph Ilori, from Nigeria, who has directed the program of preparing manuals for teachers of Christian education there, and served as president of the Nigerian Baptist Theological Seminary for many years; Danny and Mary McCain, who founded IICS and have been our neighbors at the University of Jos for many years; and us, Wendy and Adrian Helleman. As you may have gathered from this photo, one of the best aspects of such a conference is the opportunity to network with colleagues from all over the world. This year we met old friends and made new ones from places as far away as Russia, South Africa, and Nigeria. CSI and IICS now have 43 professors teaching in 16 countries.

We began our travels early in the week, since we had  to go to Florida to have our IICS dentist, Dr. Leong do some work on our teeth; from there we flew to Kansas City, but we did have some nasty experiences which have taken away some of the joy of flying. We were stuck in Atlanta for the better part of a day due to storms, and our luggage arrived at a different airport the next day. It would not have been so bad, except that services at the Atlanta airport were stretched to the limit, and people were in line for hours simply trying to get to a help desk or phone. We were still quite fortunate, since many people at that airport were delayed for more than a day, with no alternatives of finding a hotel room anywhere. On the return trip, via Minneapolis, our Sunday flight was also delayed, this time because of mechanical problems; we finally got home in the early hours of Monday morning.

Prayer notes for July 12

"I call on you, O God, for you will answer me; give ear to me and hear my prayer" (Psalm 17.6).

1. We are grateful for safety in our travels, especially during the months of May and June. Thank God with us for the various visits we could make with family and friends. Pray also for safe travel in the coming week, as we flyto Florida for dental work with Dr. Richard Leong, and then attend theCSI/IICS Vision Conference in Kansas City. Please pray for all those who are traveling to this event, and pray for a special blessing for the speakers and organizers.

2. Thank God with us that the strikes and threats of strike which plagued the University of Jos during the early months of 2008 have been resolved. Exams were held on schedule, and the new academic year is progressing. We have heard, however, that the provision of electricity is a real problem at present; our colleagues are receiving just a few hours or power per day. Pray that this situation may be improved.

3. We are grateful that in June two of our Master's students, Peter Atanda and Tom Phinehas, successfully defended their theses; Peter gave an analysis of the ethnic/religious riots which erupted in Kaduna after the aborted Miss World Beauty Contest of 2002. He will be able implement his research in ongoing efforts in Christian-Muslim dialogue. Tom focused on the ecological problems of Kaduna where he has already involved his congregation in cleaning up theenvironment in their part of the city. Pray for these young men, and all the other graduates as well, as they take on new tasks. Pray that they will receive the wisdom to meet the enormous challenges which inevitably face those who seek to serve God faithfully, whether in Nigeria or elsewhere.

4. Pray also for wisdom and clarity for our own situation. We have been invited to teach at North-West University of South Africa in the new academic year (2009). We are also in contact with the St. Augustine University of Tanzania which has an urgent need for lecturers in philosophyand religious studies. We would ask your prayers for God's guidance in the next few months as we prepare for future teaching assignments.

A farewell gift

The university was in the middle of a strike during the weeks shortly before our departure from Nigeria, yet our colleagues wanted to give us a parting gift. A few of them told us that money had been collected for this purpose, but no one knew when the presentation would be made. We were scheduled to leave Jos in only a few days when Prof. Umar Danfulani, the head of our department called us. He said that he wanted to give something to us. So we went to his office, where a few colleagues had assembled. Unfortunately, most of our colleagues were unable to be present. When we saw the package, we expected another Nigerian costume—a his and her set—of which we already have several, but that was not the case. It is a circular leather wall hanging, which will get a prominent place in our Toronto home. We appreciate the thoughtfulness of our colleagues. When we mentioned this to Umar, he responded, “No one deserves it more than the two of you! You have done so much for our department that we cannot thank you enough!”

Our graduate students

Even though we are leaving the University of Jos for a while, our work there is not yet finished. We continue to supervise our doctoral students by means of email. We each have three students that we are supervising, although all of them have co-supervisors who can be present when they have to make one of the three required presentations to the department. Since we helped them start their projects, they want us to continue supervising them, even if at a distance. Several of our doctoral students are colleagues in our department, while one of our students teaches at the Theological College of Northern Nigeria. Wendy is still working with two TCNN faculty members, Rebecca on the issue of women in violent conflict and Dauda on the stigmatization of the poor in the Nigerian churches. She has also begun supervisory work with Kate, one of our Unijos colleagues, on the issue of the ‘secular’ nature of the Nigerian constitution. Adrian is helping Unijos colleagues Cosmos with his dissertation on bishop Desmond Tutu's nonviolent approach as a model for African countries, and Chikas on the impact of sharia on the education of women in Northern Nigeria; he also supervises Dennis of TCNN on the issue of breaking the cycle of curses which affect families through many generations. We realize that it may take them several years to finish their theses, especially since many also work full-time teaching. We pray that through email communication and occasional visits we can help them all through to the defense. It is our intention to return to Nigeria early next year so that we can work with them face-to-face.

Wendy working with Rebeca in our home (which we often do)

When the executive director of Christian Studies International, Dr. Henk Van Andel, together with his wife, Vicky, visited Jos last December, we invited our doctoral students to our home, to socialize and meet our director. It was the first time we had them all at our home at any one time.

The meeting of the Van Andels with our graduate students in our home in Jos

Two of our master’s students in the Ethics and Philosophy division, Peter Atanda and Tom Phinehas, defended the theses on which they have been working with us some years already. Peter did an analysis of the ethnic/religious riots which erupted in Kaduna in 2002 in connection with the aborted Miss World Beauty contest. Peter, who is a pastor, hopes to implement his research for ongoing efforts in dialogue between Christians and Muslims. Tom’s thesis focused on ecological problems of Kaduna, where he too is a pastor. His work has already produced results: his congregation is involved in cleaning up the environment in their part of the city.

Peter Atanda (in the middle) with other students in Wendy's class