In Memory of Sheila – A Race well run The TEAM Chad family extends our deepest sympathy to the family and friends of Sheila Breckman. We retain the sweetest memories of her life and her service for Christ in Chad. She contributed significantly to the lives of the children who attended Palmview School at Koutou during the years of her ministry among them. She was up early and in her classroom every morning by 7:30, and taught until lunch time at 1 PM. Most every afternoon she would return to the hot and sultry classroom to work until evening preparing lessons for her students. She would emerge around 5 PM and frequently take a walk through Koutou village for exercise and to greet the many church friends. She knew the Chadian children by name and traced their steps into adulthood. Sheila was a gracious hostess and shared the responsibility of feeding and housing colleagues who came through Koutou's guest house. Koutou Station was a busy place with a steady stream of families, new arrivals to the field, and churchmen coming for various activities. Sheila was remarkably even tempered and sweet spirited. She lived through many troubled years of political instability, arriving at the time when the atmosphere for foreigners was precarious as Chad received independence from France. She hung on through the disastrous years of the Cultural Revolution in the 1970s when Chadian Christians suffered and died because of their faith, and missionaries endured pressure, grief, and loss. Still trying to recover from that shock, the country slid into civil war and insecurity through the 1980s. Sheila was courageous. She drove one of two vehicles on the night of September 3, 1982 when 8 women and 9 children evacuated Koutou and took refuge at Bebalem, 85 kms away, leaving three men behind to protect the station. The road was flooded at the climax of the rainy season. At every mud hole Sheila would pause, consider her options, and then gently plow through the water to the other side, again and again until they reached their destination. Through those years of trouble Sheila represented a measure of stability for the MKs and their families, continuing to celebrate birthdays, graduations, holidays, and mission events, participating cheerfully in an endless progression of coffee parties and potluck suppers. When it would have been very difficult to recruit and maintain teachers for Palmview School, the Lord gave us Sheila Breckman and Audrey Lawrence who carried on faithfully year after year. Sheila and Doreen Barrie shared a house at Koutou Station for many years. Their faithful house helper, Levi Nésso kept them clean and fed, and was much loved and appreciated by Sheila and Doreen. They are all together now in Glory. "Blessed are those whose strength is in you, who have set their hearts on pilgrimage ...For the Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord bestows favor and honor; no good thing does he withhold from those whose walk is blameless." Ps 84
