Kids’ Doc in Jos

We left at 6:30 this morning from the mission HQ in Charlotte. Stuart Baliles, Jim Knowlton, and Calvin Chen helped us so much over the past two days with travel plans and packing. I know one of the trends in missions these days is towards churches sending out their own missionaries, rather than going through an organization. Maybe that approach has advantages, but having the expertise and experience of people like these can make a big difference to us.

Stuart, who knows the airline agents and skycaps by name, called United for us yesterday to get approval for our boxes. He’s done this hundreds of times, and with his contacts and experience he realized that our existing itinerary would not work—the plane was too small and with bad weather expected on the East Coast, we might miss connection as well. So he got us put on standby for an earlier flight, and arranged with the airline to have our boxes shipped on that earlier flight even if we didn’t get on it.

Meanwhile, Jim Knowlton was helping with the baggage itself. Jim, the shipping and excess baggage coordinator, is a whiz at these matters with knowledge of baggage regulations, airline policies, and with contacts in those areas. He’s also had special hazmat (hazardous materials) training so he knows the ins and outs of things like how to send blood samples, batteries, air-horns, and hand sanitizer. You knew hand sanitizer is flammable, right? Do you know the regulations for taking it in your bags? Ask Jim.

Jim discovered that one of our boxes (containing four laptops) was a couple of inches beyond the airline limit of 62 inches (height+length+width) but had empty space on top, so he cut it down to the right size, noting that the airlines can be strict about the limits sometimes. He also warned us that the overweight penalty for a box heavier than 70 pounds would be $450 (plus the $180 base charge!), and he reweighed everything on the accurate shipping scales to make sure it all fit.

These guys are also looking after the interests of other missionaries on the field. When our plans changed so that we were leaving from Charlotte, Brian Maret had gone through the “To Nigeria” shelf and packed all the items that were standing by for nine missionaries and the ECWA seminary in Jos. We’re carrying that box, too.

Calvin helps in shipping but his specialty is in purchasing software. He helped us get a a copy of Microsoft Office for a fraction of the normal price, by taking advantage of special Microsoft discounts for charities.
Sometime during the night, along with spending hours getting residence rooms ready for the SIM candidate program starting this weekend, Stuart got our boxes from shipping and loaded up in the van. He didn’t get to bed until the early morning, but picked us up at 6:30 to take us to the airport, where he expedited our check-in, introducing us to one of the agents who is particularly helpful and understands missionaries showing up with 700 pounds of baggage on a commuter flight!

All these guys are also experienced missionaries, having served overseas for years, so they understand the limitations and needs of workers abroad, in different countries. Without their help, everything might have worked out, but not as smoothly.

So, this is one example of why we love our “home office” staff. When you’re tempted to think of mission administration as “wasted overhead,” remember these small examples of how a mission home office supports and sustains their workers around the world. When you get the chance, help support people like these. And your church may want to think twice about the hidden costs of “just sending our own missionary directly.”

We’re starting our return trip to Nigeria in just a few hours. We’ve had a great time with our kids and grandkids–I ought to chronicle some of the events but right now I’m too tired. For much of the past three weeks we’ve been shopping online and in stores, tracking orders, changing reservations, packing, repacking, trying to get approval for excess baggage, researching baggage regulations, all this not only for what we need (want) to take with us, but for what others have asked us to bring for them, everything from 5/16″ light duty staples to computers. We’ve finally packed the last items, fished our car title out of the trash barrel outside, made sure our carry-ons are only a few pounds over the limit and contain no dangerous items like shampoo, and are ready for bed.

We’re having to leave one box behind because Lufthansa wouldn’t approve quite enough pieces, and we’re having to try to get an earlier flight (9:30 am instead of 2:00 pm) from Charlotte to DC because the later flight is using a smaller plane and won’t have room for our boxes (only 6 excess pieces, but apparently that’s a significant number on the 40-some passenger plane). It could have been worse, though, because last night I understood we only had clearance to bring 4 extra boxes.

I’m dreading the long trip a little, mainly knowing we’re going to be so tired, but at least we’re used to it. It will be 48 hours from when we leave here to when we get home Sunday morning, if all goes well. Barb has some audio books set up on her book reader, including Funny in Farsi by Firoozeh Dumas. I’m planning to read the rest of Paul in Fresh Perspective by N. T. Wright, and for something different, I’m bringing Foucault’s Pendulum by Umberto Eco.

See you in Jos!

Since I needed a new computer, I left my old laptop in Nigeria and had a new one waiting for me when I got to the US in early December. I intended to use Windows XP on it, but as it would cost more to order that way (i.e., more than getting it with Vista installed), I was going to use my personally-licensed XP Professional on the new one. Some complications prevented me from making that switch so I have been using the pre-installed Vista. I’d like to share what I see as the top ten reasons I can see why you, too, should upgrade to this new operating system.

1. You’re having a quiet vacation and need something to do.
2. You’re getting bored of the stability of Windows XP or your Mac, and want to try something more challenging. You like an interesting OS that keeps you guessing what will happen next, or you miss the fun of lockups and reboots you used to have with older versions of Windows.
3. Your current computer is running too fast, not giving you enough time to make and drink your coffee.
4. When you try to run a program, you’d like your system to ask you if you really want to run the program.
5. You’d like to have Google desktop, but don’t want the bother of installing that free program. Plus, the Vista version has a picture puzzle you can play with.
6. You need an excuse to pay to upgrade to the latest version of your programs (otherwise, some won’t run on Vista).
7. All your friends are will laugh at you if you stick with XP (actually, they’re jealous).
8. You’ve got to have transparent menus and windows (though for this, I think, you’ll need more than Vista Home Basic … so be ready to pay a little more).
9. You need a way to use all those dozens of gigabytes of memory you have installed on your new machine.
10. You want to show Microsoft your support and appreciation.

Seriously, I’m quite convinced that Vista is a superior operating system, at least for businesses. Hopefully in a year or two the bugs will be worked out and it will be ready for me to try again. Meanwhile, when I get back to Nigeria, I’ll be dusting off my XP Professional CD-ROM and starting another re-install.

(BTW, don’t tell me to try Linux. I’ve got that installed also, in the Ubuntu flavor, but I still have too much invested in software and experience to abandon Windows.)

We’re getting a slight taste of some of the bureaucratic problems that plague people without a permanent home in the US. We had already bought a car (while we still thought we would be here for six months) through a service that works with missionaries. That went fine. Now that we’re getting near the end of the temporary registration period, though, we need to get it registered. That’s harder than it sounds.

It is supposed to be registered in North Carolina, because that’s how the paperwork is already made out. That’s what we did in 2003 and it was no problem. Now, though, North Carolina has a law that says you have to have a NC drivers license to register your car. I wouldn’t mind getting a drivers license here, because my Illinois one is expiring soon, but I can’t get a license without proof of residence.

Well, what about registering it in Virginia, where we were staying with Steve and Lisa? No, Virginia has the same kind of restriction. Illinois, since I have a drivers license there? We’ll only be driving through the state and don’t have any claim to residence there, either. I can’t even renew my license there, since I don’t have a mailing address (hmm, maybe I could renew without proof of residence, and just use a friend’s address?). Besides, we won’t get to Illinois soon enough.

Don’t we have an official address somewhere? Well, yes and no. The two main “permanent” addresses we use are those of my dad and of the SIM USA headquarters. That works for most things, since they’re pretty permanent and we get mail forwarded. But they don’t work for things like getting a drivers license, library card, resident status for college tuition, car registration, and so on.

We’re blessed in having to live like this for only two months … essentially we’re just tourists to America. We also have our mission and family helping us. We’ll working out something where SIM registers the car and probably owns it on paper. But many people have to struggle with this all the time because they’re homeless or always traveling. And, when it comes to tuition, many missionaries find that their kids aren’t eligible for resident status in any state.

Maybe this problem is uniquely American to an extent, because of our federal system. So many government functions are handled at the state level that being “a man without a state” can spell headaches or, I suppose, serious problems in some cases.

We’re finally in the US for the first time in nearly 3 years. As you no doubt know if you travel by air, security is definitely improving, at least protecting us from the dangers of shampoo, diaper pins, and nail clippers. To be fair, who knows what some clever hackers might be able to concoct out of those, so we shouldn’t dismiss them. If you think a diaper pin is not dangerous, it just shows that you’re not applying the rule of “think like your enemy,” as the experts do when they make the rules.

I mean, a lone diaper pin might not be hazardous, but what if you have several fellow travelers also carrying them? You could use nail clippers to cut off the sharp, straight shafts of, say, a dozen diaper pins, bond them together with shampoo, or maybe superglue disguised as shampoo, and that would be the start of a dangerous arrow head, still a little too light, maybe, or a blow gun dart. Even that would not be a weapon you’d want to rely on, which just goes to prove that the security program is making it tough for terrorists. But, if you then dipped the safety pin heads into drinking water from Africa, the threat might become more credible. So it’s no wonder that all these things are contraband.

Anyway, we went through security approximately a zillion times (a zillion and one if you count the dog sniffing us at the gate in Frankfurt), considering we were just going from Africa to the US, a single trip, and each time the inspectors caught something suspicious, which shows how alert they are. That each time something different was found proves that they’re not just acting routinely, either.

In Abuja, they spotted the portable hard drive with wires. They also caught the diaper pin on Barb’s purse–she is never without a diaper pin. Kindly, they allowed her to put it into the checked bags since they were still accessible.

In Frankfurt, we got past the sniffing canine and drank our remaining water, but were caught with the shampoo (Barb actually had less than the 3-ounce maximum allowed shampoo, but the nearly-empty 8-ounce bottle was above the limit).

In Munich, it was an LED flashlight that caught the attention, maybe because it has some electronics in the head to keep the intensity steady even as the battery voltage drops. The inspector called the supervisor, and they both tried this and that, but couldn’t get the head off (I don’t think it’s removable). I thought I was going to lose that nice light, but in the end, the team decided it was safe.

Ah, finally in the US, I thought as we walked into the Charlotte airport. Finally a place where I’m a homelander, a citizen, and don’t have to feel guilty about what I might accidentally be carrying or doing. “What animals have you touched?” asked the passport control official. This caught me off guard. I had checked a box something to that effect on one of the forms, but I thought it would be the ag inspectors later who asked about it.

“What animals have you touched?” the inspector repeated.

“Oh, goats, chickens … you know, we were in Africa.” (By the way, that last part violated the first principle of surviving interrogations: don’t answer questions that haven’t been asked). The passport control officer was friendly and did say “God bless you for your work,” (or maybe he didn’t actually use the G word, because his conversations are probably monitored, but that was how we interpreted it).

Now, what do they do if you’ve touched the wrong kind of animal, sometime in the past 3 years? Maybe you have to go into quarantine? I don’t know, but I guess goats and chickens were ok because we got through that part. However, when they found out that we had walked on dirt in Nigeria, they had to disinfect all our shoes. Not wanting to cause any trouble, I didn’t ask about the dirt that might be on our clothes or under our fingernails.

The last hurdle was customs. We were carrying, for another missionary, hand-made quilts by the HIV widows of the Mashiah Foundation, to be sold in the US to help support them. Ah, yes, have to check the “Carrying commercial merchandise” box on the customs form. That led to a long conversation with a friendly customs agent, along the lines of

“So, what’s in the boxes, quilts you say?”

“Yes, quilts and stuff like that.”

“And you’re going to be selling them?”

“No, we’re bringing them for a friend, see, they’re made by HIV+ widows and sold in the US to help support them.”

“It’s another organization that is doing this?”

“Yes, Mashiah Foundation.”

I wrote it down for him and he googled it or something and found their web page.

“And you’re with a different group, or part of that group, or what?”

“We’re in a different group, SIM, and just doing it to help.”

“SIM, what is SIM?”

I was getting the picture that this kind of thing didn’t come up every day at the customs inspection station. Or, maybe, they just needed something interesting and different to do.

“So, who is selling them?”

“Well, we don’t know exactly. They’re going to the person listed here on the box.”

“And what are they all worth? Are the prices marked in dollars or Nigerian money?”

“Well, we don’t know exactly what they’re worth. I think the prices must be marked in dollars since they’re sending them here.”

“OK, take the top box and put it on the counter and we’ll take a look.”

As he was opening the box he asked, “So, how are these going to be sold? On the Internet? Flea markets? A company?”

“Well, we don’t know exactly how they’ll be sold. In churches, I suppose, and maybe the Internet. Maybe to friends.”

He pulled out a couple of quilts. “Hmm, this one says ‘8000′ for the price. That’s not 8000 dollars is it?” He was actually being nice, not needling us; he already had us pegged, I think, as missionary do-gooders, innocent if a little fuzzy-headed.

“Now, I know you’re doing this for a good cause and all, but in the future, be more careful. See, especially in Nigeria, there are many, well, ‘notorious’ people who might try to take advantage. If someone put some contraband in the box and you didn’t know, well, you might end up in a lot of trouble.”

Now, that warning had a certain humorous resonance, the idea of these ladies or one of the workers slipping a little cocaine or a few diamonds in among the quilts and stuffed tree ornaments. On the other, hand, how did we know? < -- Begin totally serious section --> Nevertheless, it’s a very good point, and after watching ‘Lost,’ we should have remembered that even missionaries can be exploited. Not sure how we would have detected, say, cocaine inside a Christmas ornament, so it’s enough to give us the shivers. < -- End totally serious section -->

Finally, the agent decided not to drag out everything, and he tried to find whether these goods were dutiable. Surprisingly, he didn’t just type in something on the computer as he had to find “Mashiah Foundation.” Rather, there were real, live binders of tables and codes. Finding nothing in the first set, he dragged out another. Finally he concluded that handicrafts from developing world countries are duty-free! “If, for example, they were from Europe, that would be different, and you would have to pay duty,” he said, “but Nigeria counts as a developing country, so they’re duty-free.”

We thankfully took the yellow “pass jail and go directly to home” card and walked into “the old country.”

We leave for Abuja in 14 hours, beginning the 30 hour trip back to the US. We’ll arrive in Charlotte, North Carolina, Wednesday afternoon, spend two days debriefing at our mission headquarters, then head for western Virginia to start our long-awaited family time.

Since we’re completing a four-year term, we were originally scheduled to spend up to a year in the US. As it became clear that we wouldn’t be able to travel (yet) with Luke, we cut that down to six months. We have been looking, and praying a lot, for an answer of where Luke would stay while we were gone, but it hasn’t worked out. Even people who wanted to do it and seriously prayed about it felt that it wasn’t the right decision or right time. So it appears clear that God has other plans for us than a long stay in the States.

Saralynn and David have bravely volunteered to take Luke for December, though they have a newborn also, and another family has also graciously offered to take him for January. We plan to return home (to Nigeria) in early February.

We’re not completely packed yet, but, really, packing for a couple months in the US staying with family is pretty basic! There are still some last minute items to do, of course — will I manage to replace the fluorescent fixture over our front door? — and some work we’re leaving unfinished, but that’s how vacations are. It’s a lot easier this time then when we really have been leaving for a full year.

The lawyer dealing with Luke’s adoption has been silent for quite a while, but briefed us tonight about what’s going on. The news was cautiously encouraging but there is still an obstacle (hopefully not too serious). It may all work out even in the next few weeks. Please pray with us that the obstacles will be overcome and clear the way for this step for which we’ve waited so long.

Next post … from America

Luke with delicately carved jack-o-lantern. Nose and left eye have been carefully reimplanted.

We’re supposed to be leaving for the US on December 4, and staying for six months’ “home assignment.” Luke, unfortunately, won’t be able to come with us because we still don’t have any official status for him. We might be hearing news on that soon. Meanwhile, we’ve had a very compressed two weeks of holidays, starting with pumpkin carving on Nov. 12 (we don’t celebrate Halloween but finally got around to carving a pumpkin anyway), Advent starting Nov. 18, Thanksgiving dinner this afternoon, and opening Christmas presents tonight. Not our usual schedule!

We didn’t specifically celebrate it, but besides today being Thanksgiving and Christmas, it also marked eight years of Luke being with our family. He came Thanksgiving Sunday, 1999.

I hate spam–who doesn’t?–and I hate the “prosperity gospel” preached in Nigeria. As I started thinking about the reasons why I hate spam, it is not really because of the clutter or bandwidth or wasted time. I get a fair amount of semi-junk mail from organizations, journals, non-profits, businesses, and so on, and that doesn’t bother nearly as much as real spam. Why is that?

I think the real reasons I hate spam are that it’s invasive and toxic, like the stench of garbage heaps and pit latrines seeping into my home. It’s clearly hostile and invasive, since people go to incredible lengths to bypass all the boundaries and barriers we establish against it.

Richard Foster wrote a very good book, Money, Sex, and Power (a much better title than its new one, The Challenge of the Disciplined Life: Christian Reflections on Money, Sex, and Power). In it, he reflects on the power of these three things for good and for evil. It seems that most spam is a constant, foul stream of these three in their raw, worldly form.

I realize as I write that, though, that spam is just the unvarnished, non-sugar coated version of the same messages that bombard us from every direction. In fact, the glossy ads and funny commercials (not even to mention much of popular culture) are probably even more dangerous in their seductiveness.

I really didn’t set out to complain about spam, and complaining wouldn’t do much good anyway. Rather, what is grieving me is that all around me in Nigeria Christians are turning their desires to becoming rich. I’m not talking about people who want to work hard, build a business, and get a fair or even abundant reward in return for their contribution. I’m talking about people who are lured into economic scavenging: get-rich-quick schemes, pyramid plans, foreign exchange speculation, and so on. Also, in the cases I’m thinking of, the drive is not to escape poverty but to reach the top, to be literally rich.

Many Nigerians, of course, are getting rich or are already rich. It’s hideous to hear about such cases as the recent governor of our state, Joshua Dariye, a “good, church-going Christian:”

In all, Mr Dariye faces charges of stealing some $128m from Plateau State during his tenure as governor from 1997-2007.

His official earnings were only $80,000 a year, yet police in London say he accumulated property and assets worth millions, much of it from state funds which were intended to provide drinking water to villages.
(UK targets Nigeria’s stolen loot, BBC 27 September 2007, emphasis added)

Stealing life-giving, clean water from poor villagers, so he could buy more houses in London? Of course, these are only accusations and I don’t think the man has been tried yet. Still, the British did return a quarter of a million dollars to Nigeria, just Dariye’s pocket change, “just the cash seized from Dariye on his arrest.” Perhaps it was really his own money after all.

At the same time so many have been become wealthy, whether honestly or not, we’re a country where most people really are dirt poor, many on the edge of existence and with virtually no social services to assist them. Some of the wealthy and middle class do contribute to the needs of the poor, but it is ironic that we have to seek for aid and expertise from overseas at the same time as our (Nigeria’s) economic and human wealth is being accumulated overseas.

Yes, all this is nothing new, just the age-old story of rich and poor, class divisions, and so on, but it’s hard to see happening around you, especially when there is so much “religion” but so little visible “true religion.” (Jesus’ brother the apostle James wrote, “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. [James 1:27, NIV]). It’s hard to swallow especially seeing all the shiny new cars boasting “I’m a winner” or “This is the year of my prosperity,” which are supposed to be proclamations of one’s godliness and faith.

What brought on this diatribe? Just that today I had two requests, from a friend’s son and from a doctor acquaintance, to purchase materials online for them. It’s really hard to buy online from Nigeria (not surprisingly) and I get asked to buy with my credit card or PayPal, while being re-paid in Naira. I agreed to both requests, but discovered that both of the “products” were get-rich-quick schemes: buy our material and learn how you can make a zillion dollars a week. Both people probably need the money (especially for school fees) and not necessarily seeking riches, but I just want to shout to all us Christ-followers, “can’t you see where this is leading?”

We had a security incident Friday night that turned out ok but was rather upsetting to the family involved. Combined with the serious incident some weeks ago, it means I’ve been spending a lot of time on security issues, either with the mission security committee or with Evangel compound issues. One thing that has come out of it all is that we (the six missionary families here) have bought a real siren, the tornado warning kind I think, though I haven’t heard it tested yet. As it will be mounted on a tower in our yard (ex-ham-radio tower), I don’t think we’re going to have any problem hearing it!

I’ve really been enjoying listening to sermons by John Piper during my morning walks. I don’t remember who gave us the CD a couple years ago, but now I’m finally listening and getting a lot out of his teaching. I plan to look into his books while we’re on furlough.

We still haven’t found anyone to take care of Luke while we’re gone, though his tutor says he’s willing to stay with Luke in our house and be his caretaker. I think it would be too stressful for one person to be parent and teacher, so we are really hoping and praying to find someone else.

It’s great having around Saralynn, new baby Timothy and, when he has time, David. Some day we’ll look back and think how special and amazing it was that we had this special time so close together.

We’re booked to leave Nigeria on December 4, just 3 1/2 weeks away. We have a lot of cleaning up to do.

It’s frustrating working on the Internet these days, since we have extremely poor performance much of the day. The “good” time has shrunk to the 10pm to 8am slot. I probably need to practice walking away from the computer during those times rather than wasting a lot of time waiting, but then, the alternative is staying up later at night.

A useless story about a computer problem

A funny thing has happened twice now with the “server” computer we use our gateway to the Internet. This laptop computer is six years old and has had a broken screen since it fell out of an overhead airline compartment when it was new. About 20% of the screen is readable. Since it’s just running as a server, we don’t bother with a monitor. Anyway, that’s all irrelevant to this story.

The funny thing that happened twice is that it refuses to boot. OK, seems that should be fairly simple, either the motherboard or the hard drive is bad. (Sometimes batteries do this, too, but this computer long since lost its battery). Since the boot sequence was hanging up before even displaying the BIOS checks, it’s probably the motherboard, right?

Now, both times I have removed the hard drive, tested it or simply used it to boot another computer, and replaced it, and the computer runs normally. What’s going on–any ideas? Just a coincidence? Does removing the drive stretch the board a little and reconnect a broken trace? Anyway, I suppose I had better have an alternate computer ready to replace this one.

You have given him his heart’s desire …
For you meet him with rich blessings;
You set a crown of fine gold on his head
      Psalm 21

Last night we were all playing games. Saralynn kept complaining that she had worse contractions than usual, and wondered if it might be the beginning of labor. We didn’t hear anything from her this morning but at 12:00 David called and said that Saralynn was having regular contractions and was going to go down to the hospital.

After Luke left for his afternoon class at Hillcrest, Barb and I went down to visit Saralynn and David and see how they were doing. Barb brought some ice chips and a tennis ball (for rolling hard into Saralynn’s back … a trick that helped Barb when Saralynn was born). David said she was progressing well and the baby might be born by dinner time.

I returned home to be there when Luke arrived (and to take a nap!) but had hardly gotten Luke settled with an Odyssey audio story than David called and said Saralynn was now in the “second stage room.” I told Luke he could play outside with his friends, I grabbed the video and still cameras, and went back to the maternity ward.

Less than half an hour, the baby was born. This was really express service indeed. Not only did Saralynn shave 9 days off her due date, but she didn’t waste any time laboring in the hospital, either. Having had no complications, she and David (with the permission of attending doctor Bev Truxton) decided to go home. They came here for some dinner while we oohed and aahed over Baby Timothy, then went home (100 yards away). Luke is excited to have a new baby around (he asked him, “are you my brother or something?”).

For those interested in statistics, Timothy weighed in at 3.0 kg (6 lb 10 oz) and was born at 3:40 pm.