God's timing is always spot on.....

Well I am now back in very hot and sunny Jos having come from thick snow and -10C in Chicago.....quite a contrast. Many of you will know that while i was away riots broke out in Jos as a result of a closely contested election for control of our state. A lot of damage to buildings, people's property and to people was done in just two days before the army took control of the city. We are now in a relative state of uneasy peace under curfew and we pray that nothing starts again.

Being away from here at such a time was very hard as Erin and I sought to find out information about our friends and children. It brought up many questions..Why was I not there? Should I feel guilty that I am not there ? What would the city look like when i got back ? Why had God chosen that particular time to send me to America ? these and many more questions were rattling around in my head....

But...there had been so many confirmations that this was the right time for me to be away , that I knew that he had chosen the timing and so I had to trust that God's plans were best for me , and so he had a reason for me not to be in Jos.

But then came the question ok am i going to go back as planned or am I going to delay ??? A difficult decision to make going into the unknown and a lot of stress deciding....after Erin and I prayed I felt that God was telling me I should come back....Once the decision was made several things happened to confirm this was a good decision, the most miraculous was the return of my hand luggage which had got left behind in an unknown cab all intact, and the fact

that i came all the way back with free bags and they all arrived with me....very miraculous i can tell you.

Once again I have to trust that my Heavenly Father knows the times and dates and he wants me back here. Maybe I will find out one day why I was not here when these awful things happened, but maybe i wont , all I can do is trust him with the future....

Lots to be Thankful for............

This year I am actually in America for Thanksgiving to experience it firsthand ......After the heat of Nigeria it has been great to experience Autumn again and to see all the beautiful colours in the trees here...and to see all the Pumpkins everywhere, and the fallen leaves.
I love it and am so thankful for the chance to be here.




This celebration is a real family time here and it
has been really great to be able to spend time with Erin and her family, and to be so welcomed into their home.







It is a time marked by eating traditional foods like Turkey and sweet potatoes and cornbraed and of course pumpkins......... all together on one plate...very unlike England but interesting....


It is a time to be thankful to count our blessings for all the people in our lives and to look for things to be Thankful for...this started me thinking ....

What am I thankful for....
* My family who love me unconditionally and who are always supportive of me even if they don't understand my decisions, and have to sacrifice not seeing me very often.
*My friends who walk my journey with me and encourage and support me from all across the world.
*The missionaries who I live and work amongst in Jos who daily encourage me
*The "job" I have been chosen to do by God and for the many people who support me financially and prayerfully so that I can do this work.
*A completely different life now to the one I used to live, despite its many challenges and uncertainties.
* I am soooo thankful for all of the children that God has brought into my life , that I have the priviledge to love and care for.
*Ultimately I am most thankful for the Love of my Heavenly Father who has known me from the beginning and Knows everything that happens to me and can be completely trusted with my life.

I am in Texas...............

Well I have arrived in Texas.....my first visit to this part of the world...its a long way from Nigeria...but worth it to be reunited with my good friend and fellow missionary Erin again...:)

I have arrived in Autumn and even though this pool looks tempting ....it was freezing.

We enjoyed the first few days staying with the leaders of the Crazy Texas team which come each year to visit us in Nigeria...it was wonderful ...they were so hospitable and we felt easily at home. Their church sponsored my flight to come and so in return myself and Erin spent the weekend speaking to various groups raising awareness of our ministry...

This is a church of 15,000 members and is of the Southern Baptist variety...and i have never seen a church so big it was a huge cultural adjustment to make...but everyone was so friendly and welcoming and for some reason liked listening to my accent :) we hope we have raised awareness of some of urgent needs and inspired more people to visit us in Nigeria...

Erin and Uncle Jerry Me sharing about the ministry at church

Everything is soooooo big here....the cars are huge the lorries massive, the portions of food huge....and the glasses big and then they keep getting re filled .... the houses and yards are massive compared to what I am used to.... all to say its all bigggggggggggggggg....very interesting, now I understand why American people think England is so cute !!!

We are enjoying travelling around , meeting people and sharing about the ministry with all we meet. Yesterday for instance with the people we went to have our feet sorted out with , (our feet get very dry and cracked in the Nigerian climate)so a pedicure was in order...we were telling why our feet were so bad and this led to a great conversation about why are we in Nigeria...and ended up with a fellow customer paying for our pedicure....see how God is blessing us :)

So far soooo good, I will keep recording my reactions to share with you later...watch this space.

Another First for me.....

On Saturday just gone one of our Uncles from Geyro got married and he asked me to be the Chairlady...

Well I didnt have a clue what that meant !!! and everytime I asked one of my Nigerian friends they just kept laughing at the thought....so it didn't bode well...

Uncle Musa just told me i was expected to say some encouraging words !!! and give a substantial gift !!! sounds easy enough....

So we get ready...all the ladies from Geyro had outfits made in the chosen cloth ( everyone in an organisation likes to be identified here by wearing the same cloth !!) and off we went.

Well we were late arriving and when we get there we were some of the first to come....and certainly no family or a bride...

Then I get asked to substitute for the Chairman ( who had been called away to a funeral) and he was supposed to pick up the bride...so we drive to the pastors house to see not only the bride still getting ready but 10 bridesmaids as well...well no way were they all going to fit so we had to call for a back up !!! meanwhile suddenly my car is being covered in ribbons....despite not being very clean courtesy of the village the day before...

I had never met the bride before....and eventually we arrived at the church one and a half hours later than supposed to start...and then ....

A two hour service in which our boys sang and the Uncle joined in and The bride joined in the choir....and it was all in Hausa....I was in and out of the service being called out to rescue one thing or another....and finally they were married...

We managed to eat small and then proceeded to the reception ground next door....and embarassment as i had to sit at the high table and had to get up and dance in front of a crowd... thankfully by this point Gaylyn and Jamie had joined me and so we danced together whilst people kept coming up and showering us with money !!!

It was tiring but thankfully the chairman turned up so i didnt have to speak ...yeah...

Finally we got home around six in the evening...a truly long day full of cultural learning experiences....hopefully not to be repeated in a while.

Me and my assistant.....

The Old and the Young.....

This last couple of weeks you can really see that the rains have stopped and the dry season is upon us...everything turns brown and the dust starts to blow and covers everything in your house....it reached 93C this week and for me that is too hot...

Well as a result it is harvest season with many people mainly women gathering crops in from the fields. I arrived one day this week to see our very own KaKa (well in her 70's) threshing what to me looked like grass...on closer inspection it was found to be Accha something which is used like porridge...you beat the grass and it lets go of its seeds which you then spread out in the sun to dry...it is just like it talks about in the Old Testament its amazing to see it enacted...

The Old .....and the New.....

We have another new arrival amongst our girls...making 19 in total...this one however is unusual in that she is tiny...she is somewhere between three and four years and arrived with her brother who is about 9 to live with us this week.

Her name is Favor and she is so small Mama Sati can carry her on her back...God has rescued her big time....Her mother was a single parent and a prostitute and lived on her own with no contact to any family.. she used to go to work at night and tie Favor to the bed post with string so she would not wander and ill treated both of the children. Needless to say they are very attatched to each other having survived together... Then at Christmas time their mother suddenly died and never left any provision for them....

A lady from the local church who tried to befriend the mother took them in but as she has already six children of her own, her husband gave her the ultimatum either them or me....so...amongst much sadness she brought them to us.

She clung to me for the first two hours after the lady left, I carried her around everywhere i went...she is adorable, so small and yet a little character....it is so sad to see how small someone can be and how much they can have suffered already...truly humbling and reminds me of how thankful I am that i had a good safe and loving childhood...the right of every child.

New Girls "skipping along" nicely.....

Our four new girls have been with us for three weeks now and are definitely blossoming...They all have their jobs to do...sweeping, washing clothes etc.. and have quickly settled into a routine. They are so keen to learn English to speak and to read it...and they can all copy what we are saying...Sandra (aged5) still tries to talk to me in her own tribal language and of course i can't understand a word but that doesn't stop her...she chatters away.

They have all learnt to skip since joining us only Happy had previously seen a skipping rope and the others didn't know what to do with one...but now they are all excited to show you how many skips they can do...

They are so needy of physical affection and as soon as they hear your voice they come running and throw themselves at you !!! this week they nearly knocked down our visitor of 75 years ...she had all four hanging off her...so excited were they to think a Grandma from America had come to visit :)

So although they are exhausting...it is so lovely to see how they are thriving and how just a few weeks of love and care can make such a big difference in their lives. God really saved them from their past and has given them a chance of a new start.

Look at this delightful picture .... Sandra was so happy when we recieved a donation of fish last week, she savoured every last drop and ate it bones and all....her smile says it all...Thank You

"Big" School Girls.....

Look at these three "Big" secondary school girls ... all ready in their new school uniforms to go to school. They are so excited to be in Secondary school and have no problem with the fact that they have to walk an hour to get there and an hour back again at the end of the day. Its great for Ruth the eldest on the right to have Elizabeth and Alheri join her this year as they all trek together up the road...

Each one of these girls has many stories to tell of how badly they were treated by their families before they came to live with us . They carry the physical and emotional scars on their bodies, as a result of ignorance and superstision, but inwardly they are being renewed each day by their Heavenly Father. They now feel safe and loved and cared for and are thriving...each keen to learn...each with their own struggles...each precious princessess of the King.

Praise God that through our ministry they have a chance to a new life....please keep praying for them they are really precious girls.

new girls....

Let me introduce you to our new girls......Four arrived on Friday making a total of 18 now living with us....

Two sisters called Happy and Sandra aged 9 and 6 years . They are from a split polygamous home left with their father who is unemployed their aunty took them in but having a lot of children of her own already could not provide for them any longer. They are delightful but soooo needy of affection and care. Happy tells me she is as her name says always happy !!! we will see

The other two are 10 years old on the left Patience and on the right Rose. They both have only one parent alive and have been neglected. Rose has also had a lot of occultic involvement and was at risk from her community















They were shown their room and were so excited to see that they could get to sleep on a bunk bed , the joy in their faces was well worth the effort we took last week with the painting. These girls will stay together for about three months as we train them and disciple them before integrating them with the old girls. It is exhausting keeping up with their enthusiasm and demanding behaviour as they adapt to living with us...please pray for Mama Praise as she lives with them and also has a new baby herself...



To be able to offer these precious girls a chance of a happy, loving , stable life is a real privilege...

At times like these I am reminded why our ministry exists...as we follow our Lord's example to love the little children he cares about so much.

Thank You for helping to make it possible to give a chance of a new life to such as these.

Camping...

This weekend was another first for me...Camping.....in Nigeria and actually in a tent....
A group of ten of us drove about an hour outside Jos to a place called Kurra falls, a truly beautiful little spot around three lakes. It was quite amusing to see how much stuff we loaded in the van for just one night....but we camped in style , courtesy of a couple who have been missionaries here for 26 years and had been to this spot many times...we even had a table cloth on our table.....

It was great to be able to relax in peace and quiet with no tooting horns and constant noise, all we could hear were the sounds of nature around us. We were able to hike up the hills and scramble over rocks , sit in our deck chairs and admire the scenery and cook on an open fire!

Jamie and I slpt in a small childs tent...so small we slept sideways which caused much hilarity as we touched both sides and we are only small!!! just as we were trying to go to sleep we were assaulted by creatures, it took us a while to work out what it was in the dark, a bit unnerving but we figured it was bats in the end as they were dropping from the trees and scurrying in the leaves etc around us !!! but all a bit scary in the dark...

But it was a true little oasis and was very refreshing to our souls....a place to be visited again before too long. A place where it was possible again to appreciate our Creator God and have a real sense of peace....Hallelujah.

Look at my crazy assistant !!! needless to say we had a great time playing in the trees ...I will surely miss her loads when she leaves in December...

Training the Leaders of Tomorrow

The last couple of days have been holidays here due to the Muslim sallah celebrations and so it was a great opportunity for our children to have some training in some of the practical things of life....

We are having 6 new girls join us this week, all orphaned and all needing to come now now....so I decided that the senior girls and i would paint the building where they will stay as it was in a desperate need...

These girls have never done anything like it in their lives but it was great training for them, something which will be useful to them in the their future homes !! and to help them to take responsibility for these new sisters

The next morning around six thirty i awoke and heard a lot of activity outside and i saw all of our boys and uncles outside cutting grasses and clearing the banks along the road near our compounds....it was great to see the uncles leading by example and showing the boys how to use the hoe and sythe and to take pride in the appearance of their surroundings. The girls too were included and all did their section....

I was reminded of the holistic nature of our ministry, to provide training practically and spiritually for our children so that they can have an impact on their society when they are older. In doing such tasks as these hopefully we are empowering them to be able to help themselves and others.

It was a priviledge to work alongside our girls, covered in paint and exhausted i might have been but a real sense of achievement was felt all round and a lot of fun into the bargain.

"Miracle" update

For those of you who have been following my blog, I am going to share some recent photo's of the little girl Miracle that our manager adopted after she was found abandoned covered in dirt by dogs chewing the umbilical cord....she is now 10 months old and has started to walk !!! she didn't bother crawling just got up and walked...she is such a beautiful little girl it is so hard to imagine why someone should want to abandon her, but God had other plans for her life....and she is a walking Miracle........

Parcels.....

I just want to share with you a glimpse of what my life is like here by telling you about my experience today at the Post Office...
Just think how difficult can it be to post a parcel ??? simple you would think huh ? NO today the process took me an hour......
I love recieving parcels :) and have recieved two this week ( am a happy girl ) and so I thought it was about time i caught up with a few people's birthdays i had missed.... so i packaged and labelled three parcels and stuck them well with tape so they would not come undone and went to the post office. I was directed to a window round the back of the building for parcels. I met a friendly man who tried to help.....a very unfriendly lady came and told me i had to undo my parcels for immigration purposes, despite me telling them exactly what was inside....so having asked if they were sure they had tape to do them up i reluctantly complied!!! trying very hard to be patient and tolerant....
She then went away and the man proceeded to try and squash them into a box, he folded one of them in half!!! right in front of me....I couldnt believe it and then when he worked out how much it would be .....It was a horendous price...so i asked whether there was a cheaper way of doing things and was directed inside now...
I went to one lady and she told me it was impossible to do !!! and then another one called me over and said they could do it!!! she then proceeded to weigh them and it was slightly cheaper and so proceeded to give me stamps. Well she gave me so many stamps they had to be stuck all over the parcel....( no big stamps it seems) and the gum on the back is not very sticky and so they would not stick very well to the parcel....we tried and tried....
She directed me out of the building and round the other side to post them, well when i found where to go the people freaked out at the way i had tried to stick the stamps and insisted i got some glue and stuck them. So when i asked for glue they all said sorry you will have to go to a shop and buy some !!! ( by this time my stress levels were rising....i was wondering how hard it was to try and post a parcel here !!!)
So i went out carrying my parcels covered in stamps and bought some glue, one nice lady could see i was a bit stressed and folowed me to help me stick !!! while sticking she asked me about myself and what i was doing and told me how much she liked the British !!! and laughed at my frustration with trying to post my parcels.
She then offered to take them back to the place where we had previously been and as i thanked her i gave her the pot of glue, she laughed as i said to her that her their need was greater than mine.... It wasn't until she walked away with my parcels that i thought i hope she was honest and did put them in the post and didn't keep them herself !!!
So if you recieve a parcel from me soon....it will be a miracle , and know it has come with a lot of feeling.....and stress......

Girl's Camp

We have just completed our first week long girl's camp :) we had nineteen girls including staff children and we took over an the SIM guest house for the week.

We decided to take the theme of "The King and I " thinking of ourselves as Daughter's of the king and therefore as Princesses.

We wanted all of these precious girls to really feel loved and special as so many of them have had such traumatic backgrounds and I think we succeded. We chose as our theme verse -

and everyday we looked at a diferent aspect of the verse building up to an invitation to a banquet on our last evening.

The girl's experienced many new things including :-

sitting at a table to eat their food , with knives and forks and table cloths...trying new foods like pancakes and pizza and french toast...

jumping on a trampolinemaking jewellrymaking cookieslearning how to tie and dye fabric going in a swimming pool jumping in off the side

standing on their hands and climbing trees as a part of a treasure hunt...

and we even had singing round a campfire and toasting marshmellows...
The highlight of the week came on the last day as the speaker issued them all with an invitation to accept Jesus's offer to be a Child of God personally and ten of them made commitments:)

That evening we had a Princess banquet and they all dressed up and we were able to find tiarras and shawls and even had a three tier Princess cake!! we decorated the room with candles and fairy lights and had live music playing....they were so amazed, we ate a nice meal and then they were taught Irish dancing much to their delight.... our Ka Ka so enjoyed herself she said she thought she had gone to Heaven ! see her all dolled up...
Truly it was a great Princess camp, all of our girls felt loved and special by their Heavenly father who loves them as they are and longs to heal their hurts and restore them to the people he created them to be. It was such a priviledge to share this week with them and see them blossom under the love and experiences they had, I pray they will remember it for a long time to come.