Nigeria Family and Social Life
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
EVERY SQUARE INCH—A MISSIONARY MEMOIR THE LIFE AND MISSION OF JAN & FRANCES BOER Volumes 1-5 by Jan H. Boer & Frances A. Boer-Prins -----------------VOLUME 3--------------- FAMILY AND SOCIAL LIFE IN NIGERIA 1966-1996 2 SOME OTHER BOOKS WRITTEN, EDITED OR TRANSLATED BY DR. JAN H. BOER Studies in Christian-Muslim Relations (8 Volumes—2003-2009) Pentecostal Challenge (editor-1996) The Prophet Moses for Today (1995) Wholistic Health Care (1995) (Co-editor: Prof. Dr. Dennis Ityavyar) Vol. 1: Medical and Religious Dimensions Vol. 2: Social and Political Dimensions Caught in the Middle: Christians in Transnational Corporations (1992) The Church and the External Debt (edited—1992) Abraham Kuyper: You Can Do Greater Things than Christ (trans / ed.—1991, 1993) Science Without Faith Is Dead (1991, 1993) (Under same cover with above) Wholistic Health Care Of, For and By the People (1989) Christianity and Islam under Colonialism in Northern Nigeria (1988) Missions: Heralds of Capitalism or Christ? (1984) Missionary Messengers of Liberation in a Colonial Context (1979) For more details, see www. SocialTheology. com 3 Every Square Inch—A Missionary Memoir The Life and Mission of Jan and Frances Boer 1938-2014 Volumes 1-5 Copyright @ 2014, Jan & Frances Boer All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, except for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the authors or their successor(s) FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT AUTHORS AT: E-mail: Boerjf @ hotmail.com Website: www. SocialTheology.com Tel. (604) 646-8016 or Archivist Calvin College www. calvin.edu ^^^^^^^^^^^^ ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Self-Published: Vancouver, BC, Canada and www.lulu.com 2014 4 5 “There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry, ‘Mine!’” Quote from Kuyper's inaugural address at the dedication of the Free University, October 20, 1880. 6 DEDICATION We dedicate this volume to our children Kevin Richard Samu’ila Cynthia Jenelle Kristiana Wiebe Karl Yohanna They gained the most from a wonderful climate a carefree childhood a multicultural environment an international life a world-wide group of friends an infinitely wise and patient mother a wide-orbed Christian upbringing They sacrificed the most by Giving up their beds for our trillion guests without ever grumbling, but through which they learned the virtue of hospitality and for Having a father who was all too often absent in mind, body or both They learned the most from family dinner discussions about taking it to the Board of Governors Go for it, guys! 7 TABLE OF CONTENTS Table of Contents Picture Index Map of Nigeria Introduction Part 6 Family and Social Life in CRCN Years Chapters Parallel Chapter 27 - CRCN I - Family and Social Life (1966-1968) 15 28 - CRCN II - Family and Social Life (1968-1972) 16 29 - Amsterdam Study Interlude (1972-1974) 17 30 - CRCN III - Family and Social Life (1974-1976) 18 Part 7 Family and Social Life in Jos 31 - Jos I - (1976-1979) 19 32 - Jos II - (1979-1981) 20 33 - Jos III - (June 1981 – January 1984) 21 34 - Jos IV - (January 1984 - June 1987) 22 35 - Jos V - (June 1987 – June 1989) 23 36 - Jos VI - (June 1989 – August 1991 24 37 - Jos VII - (August 1991 – June 1994) 25 38 - Jos VIII - (June 1994 - May 1996) 26 8 Picture Index for Volume 3 Chapter Page Title 27 17 Lydia – 1967 28 26 Our Family in 1971 30 Kevin – March 1970 29 47 Kevin Participating in a National Holiday 30 80 Lydia’s visit – Baissa 1974 83 Kevin Crossing a Vine Bridge 86 Kevin in Baissa School - 1975 31 109 Prins Family - 1976 110 Family Dinner in the 1058 Kalamazoo House 120 Zaria Road Children 130 Playing Tennis at Mountain View 137 Rock Climbing in Jos 150 Pastor David Serving Food to Grandma & Jane 151 Cynthia’s Birthday - 1978 153 Opa & Oma at CRCN Wukari – 1978, Opa & Oma with Iliya & Naomi 32 158 Opa & Oma with Their Ten Children - 1979 177 Lydia at RVOG - 1980 180 Cynthia at Lydia’s Wedding 181 Chris & Lydia’s Wedding 184 Kevin at Piano - 1980 33 202 In the Ruts in The Cameroons 223 Ruda & Nathaniel Yisa 34 246 Our 25th Anniversary 35 271 Kevin Visiting the Birthplaces of His Parents 294 Two Rabbits for John Orkar’s Birthday 36 297 Our Crowd with Opa & Oma – 1989 301 Two Cynthias 302 Boer Family - 1991 316 Ere Zij God 317 Abaga Family – 1990 318 Kevin in 1990 323 Cynthia acting in her senior play 329 Wiebe with Richard, Renee & Joleen Bosma 331 The Hillcrest Scoreboard 37 346 Our Three Children Visiting Grandma 348 Jason, Jesse & Jude at our Mountain View House 355 Wiebe & John 356 Wiebe, the Runner 375 David Among the Ruins 38 384 Dienie & Berend at Lunch 392 James & Family, Asabe & Family – 1996 400 Wiebe Running to Hospital 403 Dick & Dianne at Cynthia’s Wedding 404 Cynthia & Andy’s Wedding, Boer & Tanis Parents 9 Map of Nigeria - 2014 Please note that Wukari, Baissa and Jos, three major centres of our life, are encircled for your easy identification. 10 Part 6< The CRCN Decade (1966-1976) Introduction Welcome to this Volume 3 of the Boer memoirs. For the benefit of those who have not read the earlier volumes, let me repeat the goal and subject of this one. While Volume 2 tells the story of our ministry in Nigeria from 1966-1996, this one tells the story of our family and social life over the same years. Though we have separated these stories into two volumes, in real life, of course, they intersect time and again and are not really separate stories. But at what stage does the size of a volume scare you off? Most people are discouraged when they see a large tome of, say, 700 pages. To avoid discouragement on your part, we have turned this one story into two volumes. This volume may have wider appeal than does Volume 2. Most readers are more interested in people than they are in missions and missionary theories. This probably holds true for you especially if you are a descendant of immigrant families of Charles and Jennie Prins, who immigrated to Michigan, USA, in 1948, or of Wiebe and Elly Boer, who immigrated to British Columbia, Canada, in 1951. Those people were the parents of Fran and John respectively; we immigrated with them as part of their families. This is the fascinating story of our family that has grown up in the midst of a culture that was originally foreign and exotic to us but to which we gradually became accustomed and learned to appreciate and enjoy. This is a story of children learning to speak local languages in a context where it is normal for people to speak four or more languages, from which they switch in and out through much of their day. It is a story of how our family would frequently run into cultural surprises that sometimes would annoy us, stump us, but just as often stretch our understanding and appreciation for other ways of thinking and doing. It is also the story of extremes in hospitality that continues to be part of our lives even seventeen years after our return to inhospitable North America. This is not about missionary theory or practice, but about the people involved in all of this. Of course, the theory and practice are never far away, for even personal and family life is affected by the missionary context. Well, relax and join us on this journey. We have every reason to think you will enjoy the trip, for we’ll take you into a world of fascinating thought patterns and assumptions that, in turn, lead to equally fascinating action, but all of which, given those assumptions, are as rational as their equivalents in the West, only not as rationalistic—and that’s a gain. 11 Chapter 27< CRCN I - Family and Social Life (1966-1968) (NOTE: Parallel ministry chapter is Chapter 15, Volume 2) A Few Beginning Odds and Ends We lived in Wukari from 1966-1974. Wukari is located in Nigeria’s Taraba State that borders with Cameroon, but we never lived in Taraba State! To make it even stranger, we lived in the Northern Region of Nigeria, in Benue-Plateau State, and in Gongola State, but all the while lived in Wukari. Perhaps you’ve guessed the reason for this anomaly. You’ve read about Nigerian restlessness in Volume 2. That restlessness translated into the proliferation and redrawing of states. Wukari did not move, but the configuration of states changed several times with the result that Wukari found itself within the different states mentioned above over the space of just a few decades. Before it finally became known as Taraba State, we had moved on to Plateau State. So, we never lived in Wukari, Taraba State, though we did live in Wukari. The same compound; different states. There’s no country like Nigeria. A related oddity: Though we lived in three different communities, Wukari, Baissa and Jos, with Jos several hundred kilometers from the other two, our postal address remained the same throughout—P. O. Box 261, Jos. The reason was poor postal services in Wukari and Baissa. Hence, the Mission had a post box in Jos through which all the mail for all the missionaries was routed. From there, the Mission’s pilots would carry the mail to the various stations and drop off the mail. They did not have special mail flights, but as they landed at the various missionary stations for other reasons, they would also drop off the mail.