Blessed to Be Here

By Esaie Toingar and Brigitte Toingar

The story of a Chadian child soldier, Esaie Toingar, who was refugee in Nigeria and benefited from a resettlement of the United Nations to come to the USA. His wife joined him a year later. The couple went through cultural shock, language barrier, and many other struggles. Today, they become a model for many refugees and immigrants through their education and humanitarian works in the USA and many other countries in Africa

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Nov 29, 2017
• ISBN: 9781543918618

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Index

Preface And Dedication

(Ms. Brigitte and Mr. Esaie Toingar at the main entrance of the Central

Baptist Church of Sioux City, photo 11/12/2000)

We dedicate this book to some of our parents who are no longer in this life to measure our progress. For our remaining parents who are still alive, we deeply thank them for all they have done for us and so much appreciate their early guidance which drew us close to God and friends from different countries and continents.

We dedicate this book to our first church in the USA, the Central Baptist Church of Sioux City, Iowa, and its members, without forgetting our African community in Sioux City. Through your love and compassion, you have made our wedding a special wedding where the local television and other communities in the town not only so much appreciated but also discovered our African community and a portion of its cultures.

First Evangelical Free Church of Cedar Falls, words are not enough to express our thanks to you and all your members. You were a small church with unlimited love and care. You were always with us in bad as well as in good circumstances. Through you, we learned more the kinds of love that brothers and sisters in Christ should have for others.

Allan Stamberg and Tim Glass, we deeply thank you for accepting to be on the board of Journey to Forgiveness and Peace, which helped serve our African community in Iowa and impact the lives of children in Chad. Through you, we learned many things. You are no longer on the board, but we assure you that we will continue to nourish the crop you helped us seed.

To our friends of United Methodist Church of Walford, Iowa, we thank you so much for the way God has been using you to support our water projects in Chad. We so much appreciate your services for Christ in Chad. Our dear brother Marcus Bee, we thank you for your support to our family in Cedar Rapids and our country in Chad.

Dear friends of New Covenant Bible Church and our fellow Adult Bible Fellowship (ABF), what a blessing it is to have you in our life. We thank you so much not only for helping us grow spiritually but also for supporting us in many ways. May God continue blessing you.

Pastor Kim Pagel, we deeply thank you for your great support and advice during the diverse turbulent moments in our family. David and Connie Ostroot, we thank you so much not only for being great leaders of our ABF Sunday School but also for mobilizing our class to help us and other communities in many ways.

To the families of Mark Griffioen, John Hays, and Brian Perry, we do not know how to express our appreciation to you and your families. You have referred to Mark 16:15 and traveled with us to Chad for many days to serve Christ in the very hard conditions of the poorest villages of Chad. You have supported Chad with living water through Christ, chlorine generators through Hays’ systems to make water safe to drink, and physically clean water through Robin’s Song. May God continue using you for His glory in the world.

Dr. Bé-ramadji Miaro II, you are the first Chadian intellectual to fully support my activities in the country that welcomed me and in our motherland in Africa. I thank you from the bottom of my heart for traveling with me from village to village to give hope of a better life. Even though the darkness in Chad seems to overwhelm compassion, we share the hope that one day our eyes will see poor villagers enjoying the light of freedom. I deeply appreciate your undertaking the French version of this book.

To our dear comrades of Wake Up For Your Rights, we thank you so much for the wonderful work you have been doing for the voiceless people in the world. Dear board members of Wake Up For Your Rights, we so much appreciate learning from your leadership and other tremendous talents that you have and do not hesitate to share with us.

My dear friend and comrade of first rank of Wake Up For Your Rights, Fabrice Chacha, though you are no longer beside us to lead the fight for justice and peace, our hearts are always with your family and this book is dedicated to you.

To all our other friends and relatives whose names we have not mentioned, we love you dearly and thank you for all your support and contributions to our lives.

Karen Agee, we hope anyone who reads this book will appreciate you and know that we have some people in this world who are very special and can switch darkness to light. It is our honor to know you and get help from you at any time under diverse circumstances.

To our cousin Dinguemta D. G. Rabbi, we thank you so much for being our great support. Without you, some of our struggles would have not been solved. Many thanks for all you have done and continue doing for us.

Our lovely Jeany, Joyce, Josianna, Joseph, and Judith Toingar, you are our precious gifts and source of our joy. We love you so much for being special children in our life. We thank God, who has blessed us with you. We love each of you for supporting us in circumstances in which we should be your support. May God continue shining in your lives and filling you with compassion for others. This book is dedicated to you and all people we care for.

From Hopelessness To Blessings

Growing up in the country of Chad in the midst of war, I had no hope I would survive. After four years in Nigeria as a refugee from Chad, the door of blessings started opening for me. The days of the process were long, but other refugees and I were fortunate to be considered for resettlement in the United States of America.

Roger Wamba from Cameroon was a student leader who had escaped from jail and slipped across the border to come under the UN’s protection in Nigeria. Aimé Tatou from Ivory Coast was a journalist who supported Alassane Ouatara as the real president of his country, though Ouatara was accused by President Henry Kona Bédié of being from Burkina Faso and therefore ineligible to be elected. Abakar Oumar was a political leader from Chad who opposed Idriss Déby, the ruler of our country. The four of us met at least once a week at the UN High Commissioner for Refugees office in Lagos (the former political capital of Nigeria, now the economic capital) and discussed general and political issues. Luckily we were among the candidates for resettlement in the USA. Wamba, Tatou and his family, and I were all sent to Iowa, to a town called Sioux City; Oumar and his family were sent to New Haven, CT. Wamba was lucky to travel more than a few weeks before the rest of us. It was a long trip for us and very exciting, suddenly traveling from Africa through Europe to America.

Our trip was well organized by International Organization for Migration (OIM) until we arrived in New York, and then we were split up. Unfortunately, Tatou and his family and I missed our flight from St. Louis to Sioux City. Exhausted from the long trip, we did not know what to do. We could not speak English and did not have any money to pay for a hotel room.

Jeremiah 29:11-13

Itinerary to the USA

To qualify for the final process to come to the US, we the group of 23 refugees from war and persecution had to pass physical exams and background checks by the United Nations International Organization for Migration (OIM). The process took more than a year, and most of us were in a constant state of worry. Some thought they would be disqualified by any sickness they might have or crimes they had committed. Others thought something bad might happen to them before emigration day.

Fortunately, we were all still alive and none of us was disqualified when we heard that OIM had sent one of its officers to help us leave Nigeria. We greatly welcomed this news, and everyone was nervous and very happy at the same time. We were asked by the officer of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (HCR) to show up at their headquarters at 8:00 a.m. on June 7, 1999. Most of us showed up around that time and were waiting to leave for the United States. We were surrounded by our refugee friends and relatives. It was a sad and joyful moment for us—sad because after sharing many good and bad moments together, we refugees might never see each other again, and joyful because we would be traveling to one of the most developed countries in the world and surely would have a better life.

As we waited to leave, we grew hungry. To arrive at HCR offices on time, most of us had had to leave our apartments by 6:00 a.m. and some before 5:00, because transportation in Lagos, Nigeria’s crowded capital city, was not easy to access. Having missed breakfast at home or on the road, we started

Reviews for Blessed to Be Here

[Armel Mushekuru · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Amazing story. Thank you for sharing. God bless you and your family