EDITOR’S NOTE: Rachel Osborn, a LaPorte native and a 2014 graduate of Michigan State University, left LaPorte in October 2014 to serve as a missionary in Chad, north central Africa, for six months. Rachel, a 2011 LaPorte High School graduate, majored in Global and Area Studies–International Development at MSU. She is the daughter of Drummond and Sue Osborn of LaPorte. Rachel will be sending occasional columns to WNLP; here is her latest. You can also follow Rachel’s adventures at http://rachelinchad.wordpress.com.
This past week was my missionary organization’s annual conference, in which all TEAM (The Evangelical Alliance Mission) missionaries currently in Chad met at a conference center in N’Djamena for six days of worship, spiritually reflective messages, business meetings, personal updates, a little bit of silliness, and a lot of excellent food. People traveled from France, Benin, Canada 
and the United States to pray with us, teach us, take care of the missionary kids during meetings, feed us, and bring us presents. And what a blessing they were! (The people AND the presents were a blessing. Who knew I would ever get so excited over a few brand new Ziploc bags?)
There’s something to be said for being able to fully express yourself without regard for language or cultural barriers. For the first time in a month and a half I was utterly free to communicate with everyone around me. And, equally importantly, I was able to release all of the pent-up silliness that hadn’t had an outlet in Goz Beida. One of my conference roommates and I volunteered to run the Fun Night, and the result was an evening of makeshift costumes (much funnier than store-bought), silly songs and dance-alongs, in addition to some actual talented members who performed beautifully. My roommates and I (not in the “actual talent” category) arrived as superheroes and performed a ridiculous dance to ABBA’s “Supertroopers.” It was fun to dress up and pretend to be a superhero, which I did for the sake of some giggles.
But the real superheroes were the missionaries who surrounded me, who do what they do for the sake of Christ. Many would cringe at the title of “superhero” — they might say they try to be obedient servants of the Lord, nothing more. But to hear their stories is to listen to accounts of God using these people to accomplish superhuman tasks.
I was incredibly humbled and inspired to hear their personal updates. Several couples and individuals have been serving in Chad for over 25 years, and several younger families and individuals are faithfully serving with the intention to stay as long as God asks them to. These people are building schools, running libraries and literacy centers in local languages, serving as nurses and doctors, training pastors, teaching teachers, drilling wells, offering hygiene and nutrition classes, tutoring children when school isn’t in session, broadcasting a radio station, translating the Bible into local languages, managing a printing press, taking care of administrative and business-related necessities, counseling and caring for women in the prostitution industry, and more. And above all, loving the people of Chad. They do this while raising kids in a third-world country, staying connected with friends and family in their “home” country, and taking care of each other.
These are God’s superheroes — the ones who have devoted their lives to transforming Chad and other countries, who are proving that the answer to our world’s crises isn’t more money and more politics, but rather more time, more love, and more Jesus.
How amazing it is to count as friends the ones who God will count as saints.