LR: When Haley saw the miracles, Jordan laughed at how hard Haley cried and said, “Mom, you’ve got to see Haley. She’s so cute.”
And I’m like, “What’s Haley doing?”
And she said, “You ought to see the pictures.” And they sent me pictures back. And Haley is not crying. Haley is convulsing. She’s crying so hard when people got healed.
And I said, “Oh, no, the bug got her!” The I’ve-got-to-stay-in-Africa bug bit you. And now Jordan called back and said, “Mom, we can’t get Haley home.” So we have a funny feeling you guys are going to get her pretty soon.
When you went over there, that was your first crusade in an environment like that. You’ve been to Africa before, been on many crusades with your daddy, not only in this country but around the world. But this was different. And you saw an opportunity to impact not just the area where you were in, but to impact an entire nation, as well as impact the people in that nation that were so desperate that even one meal changed people’s lives.
And, you know, that makes you feel like the job you’re doing has great value. When it’s like, “Did they hear it? Did they get the message? Do they need it?” No. They needed it. They needed the food. They needed the medicine. They needed the message, and were, like you said, so grateful and precious for every meal that they had.
And now you have a second goal, and that is-
JR: We would like to be able to build a school where we’re sending out these meals. I think that it’s something that seems to be really doable. Even at the time, my friend Amber was the one who had originally talked about with me. And when she was talking, she’s just like, “You know, I think it would be great if we could go and build a school.” But it was just kind of throwing the idea out.
But as soon as she said it, it was like, “Sure, why not? Sounds great.” It’s not like, “Well, that’s nice. Maybe one day.” It was like, “We can do this. We could really make this happen.”
We were talking about we went to Africa together the first time, so both of us just love it. And so we were like, “Hey, this is a great idea. We should go out. We would love to go out there and help kind of get the ball rolling and then see it once it’s done.”
It could really impact a lot of people. For us, it’s a school, but for them, you know, they get an education, they get food, they get to live for years longer because they get nutrition that could drastically change them.
LR: The poverty level, by government, is the poorest country in the world, hottest country in the world. And you chose to live there. Go figure!
NC: Well, the harvest is great, and we’ve got to go where the harvest is.
LR: You know, Christians on the mission field don’t think like other people. They think in terms of the opportunity as the coolest thing in the world, that God gives you the privilege of doing this.
DC: It’s an honor for us to have been a part of something like that. And what Haley was saying, she’s not alone. When people come to Niger, the bug gets them, whatever you want to call it. I don’t know of any visitor that we’ve had—and we’ve had quite a few over the years—and the people say, “I would pay double for this experience.”
And those people by and large are all part of supporting us, part of our partner base, because it’s in them. They’ve been there, and part of their heart is for that nation. And I believe that now is the time for Niger. The windows of heaven are open over Niger.
When we first started raising our support back in 1997, we would talk to pastors and churches. And we’d say, “We’re going to Niger.”
“Oh, Nigeria?”
“No, no, Niger, because at that time people didn’t even know Niger existed.
NC: The news media calls it “the forgotten tragedy,” because it’s just there.
DC: But in recent years I believe that famine that we had in 2005, a news person, the media got hold of it and finally started to air, and that’s when it started becoming a forgotten crisis. But God has not forgotten Niger.
LR: God was raising up a bunch of kids.
DC: We believe there’s more people out there that God has called to Niger that need to answer that call.
LR: The number-one need, Neal, practically and logically speaking, the kind of people you need, the kind of—and I know you’re starting school. I mean, you are right in the process—
NC: Well, we need people that have a vision to reach the unreached, that’s the first thing. But we have opportunities in the area of education. We’re believing for some medical outreach. But we need people that are really just ready to come and be available, faithfulness and ability is probably the biggest thing.
You don’t have to have a lot of qualifications. If you’re ready to say, “Yes, Lord,” He’s ready to use you. The harvest is great, the laborers are few. And that’s because the laborers aren’t willing to go.
And that’s where we’re just telling people, “Come. It’s time. You’ve got to answer the call to the mission field. You’ve got to go out and reach the harvest.”
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