The Killing of the Fatted Calf

"Yes, we'd love to help out. Yes, we do have extra room in our freezer. No problem!"

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THAT is how it all began...
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The weekend before last was busy. The air was filled with a tangible excitement. It was Camp Meeting! All the Vie Abondante churches in Niger were gathering from the east and the west of the nation for a big weekend conference right here in Maradi. Dozens of villages and people groups would be represented. .The meetings would be interpreted into 6 different languages. .Over 700 people had registered for the event. Not only was this a time to be reunited with loved ones, it was a time to be nurtured with teaching from the Word of God, to rejoice together in praise and worship, and to receive prayer for healing, strengthening, and new impartation. At the end of the conference, all would be sent back to their villages, ready to continue shining for Jesus. The atmosphere was simply tingling with anticipation and excitement.

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We, too, had much to look forward to. This was our first Camp Meeting. We were hosting Pastor Ron and Jerry Childs, and we had not seen them since we lived with them in Niamey. We looked forward to seeing many friends from our time in Niamey, as well as meeting many new people from villages across Niger.

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The registered 700 people would camp, for the most part, in the church's compound. Meals were also prepared at the church to feed everyone. Since this is a special occasion, a cow was purchased to provide meat for the meals. We were asked if we would be willing to store the beef in our freezer and bring the allotted amount each day for the daily meals.

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We said, "No problem." We were willing to help out in any way we could.

The next morning, the fatted calf was killed.

4 hours later (after sitting in the hot African sun for a while), the cow (as it has become know as around here) was brought to our house. Oh, I know what you're thinking. You might be thinking of those nice little packages of meat you see in the grocery store - all nicely shrink-wrapped, cool, and collected. Nope! Not OUR COW!!! It came in a big burlap-type sack. Nope! It was NOT a waterproof burlap sack either. A second batch came in a big steel bowl.

The cow proceeded to make itself very at home in our freezer. Since it was already warm from its fun in the sun, it didn't really feel up to cooling down. Our freezer croaked and choked away, trying to do its job (FREEZE!), but to no avail. The fact that we lost electricity several times that night didn't help at all.

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Our whole family, and our dear guests, all woke up to the putrid smell of warm meat. What a way to start the day! Upon further investigation, we discovered the freezer was leaking - not water, but blood! All over the dining room floor! (Gag) It had done its best to try to freeze that 'ol cow, but it just couldn't do it. The cow was mildly cool, and the rest of the contents in the freezer were thawing.

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This all took place at about 6:30 in the morning. No COW was going to stop us from continuing our REAL mission - CAMP MEETING!!! We cleaned up what we could, plugged the drain hole to keep the leakage at bay, took out our first installment of the cow for meals, prayed that the decreased amount of meat would allow the remainder to freeze, then off to the 8:30 meeting went we, dressed in our African best! We were going to worship the Lord, hear the word, and spend time with other believers! Nothing would stop us!

Worshipping under the African stars with 700 other people - the first evening of Camp Meeting. What an awesome experience!

Me with my new friend, Rebecca.

Halfway through the meeting, one of the area pastors tapped Jonathan on the shoulder. Uh-oh. Can't be good. Nope! Indeed. It was not good. Seems as though old Bessie - uh, I mean, the COW - had not behaved itself yet again. When the cooks began preparing the meat that we brought that morning, they realized that it had started to go bad in the night (yes, IN our freezer!). It was imperative that Jonathan head home right away and bring the rest of the cow to the camp. It must be cooked immediately in order to salvage whatever could be saved.
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Off Jonathan went to save the cow! Upon opening our home, he and the African pastor who accompanied him were nearly blown away. There was blood all over the floor (oh! did I forget to mention that Isaiah had unplugged that drain hole that Jonathan had plugged?), and the smell had digressed from a very-warm-meat-smell to a very-rotten-meat-smell.

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No time for clean-up, however! Must get Bessie back to camp. The ride in our Land Cruiser must have been a little bumpy on the way back, because some of Bessie spilled on the carpet in the car on the way. Oh, yes. It spilled alright. And there were 500 flies ready to help us clean it up immediately! Add this to the dirty diaper Anna provided so graciously, and our car was the happenin' place to be! Or not to be - depends on who you are - fly or human.

Wish you could have been there. Misery loves company! :)

After the morning services, guess what the Bowdens had on their afternoon break-time agenda! While Isaiah and Anna napped blissfully, Mommy and Daddy gritted their teeth, rolled up their sleeves, and got to work. Jonathan dragged the freezer outside and took a hose to it! I got to mop up what seem like a gallon of blood! By the time we finished we were both exhausted, we had used more bleach than we cared to measure, and we didn't care if we EVER saw another speck of cow again!

My hero!

This was certainly, hmmmm, what shall we call it, a learning experience! It didn't dampen our Camp Meeting experience one bit, though. I suppose it actually enhanced it! This will be a Camp Meeting that we will NEVER forget! I told Jonathan after it was all over (several days over, and the trauma was slowly beginning to abate), "Well, no matter how bad it was, we all survived, didn't we!"

Everyone, that is, except the cow. .Sorry, Bessie.

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