Consider How precious children are to God....

This is Nkiru, an 11 year old girl who was brought to our centre this week. She was clearly very under nourished and very traumatised and withdrawn, she was sooooo skinny, it was very sad to see.
Her story is as follows :-
She was born out of wedlock and her father disappeared and she has never seen him. She has lived with her mother who has blamed her from the day she was born for causing her trouble by being born.... The mother married and has two other children whom she treats very differently.
Her mother is a heavy drinker and after working she goes to the local bars and comes back and beats Nkiru daily. She had been eating most days one meal a day sometimes no food at all, and told of being beaten, locked up and starved...Until she was so hungry when a woman offered her a biscuit in the street she ate it and then found herself initiated into the secret society (ocult movement)...and then all hell literally broke loose and she was abandoned by her mother, and an aunt brought her to us. Ironically getting involved in the cult was her salvation to getting out from a horendous life, where she has grown up with the messages that she is unwanted and unloved. It is so hard to imagine doing such horrible things to an innocent child. As she was recounting her story we were all moved to tears, to see how thin she is and how withdrawn was so cruel and heart breaking to see.
It made me think of how our creator God feels to see one of his precious creations treated in such a horrible way, his heart is surely breaking for so many like Nkiru who are not rescued and brought out to a ministry like ours. I recieved a book this week from one of our supporters in US entitled " Too Small To Ignore" reminding us all that the least of these matters....
It reminds me that Satans most important task is to break the heart of God and he knows how much little children are important to Him and so he attacks small and innocent children. I quote

" At the moment of birth all heaven waits in anticipation and breaks into songs of joy , each child born into the world is in the image of its creator with the potential of bringing glory to God, meanwhile Satan and his hosts are waiting ready to pounce and destroy that life as quickly as possible , knowing it will break the heart of God. Given this frightening warfare between Heaven and Hell it is all the more ironic that children are seemingly so unimportant to adults."

We see so many innocent children being abused by adults here for their own gratification in this withcraft it is horrible. Praise God he has armed us for the battle and He has defeated Satan and these children can be delivered by the power of prayer. Please continue to pray for the children all over the world who are abused and used by adults for their own gain, innocent lives each one precous to their creator, it is not something that can keep on being ignored.

He holds my every moment.....

Yesterday was a very sad day in our ministry . One of our boys who had been reconcilled back to his family died, aged 18 years of kidney failure. Something which probably could have been helped in a country with better medical care, but he suddenly became ill and within a few weeks was admitted to hospital and died.A young life so full of potential. Lukman was a gifted boy, he sang very well in a band, he was a gifed artist and a born leader. He was a converted Muslim and was sure of his salvation.

Death is such a common thing here, it is treated with respect and the whole family and community all come out to send the person home. The family are involved in digging the grave, preparing the body etc..there is no funeral directors to do it, a distressing thought to us but one in which the family has the chance to do something for the person one last time.

Lukman came from a village in the bush and so his body had to be taken home to rest in the family compound. As money is so short we as a ministry provided a truck and a convoy of us drove on the rough unmade roads, across rivers with no bridges, over rocks and grass, slip slidding in the mud for 4 hours to reach the village. The whole community was waiting to bury their dead, and our boys who were his classmates carried his coffin and laid him to rest. It was all hands on deck to fill in the grave with earth and to pray over the body...there was much wailing and agony at such a young life full of potential being taken......but leaving behind such a legacy to his community.

It always strikes me in church and whenever a Nigerian believer prays they always thank God that they are alive, among the living ones. Believing that they are no better than those who have died but that God must have a reason for leaving them alive to live another day.

They know that one day they will die and that could be today, life seems so short here and so they live with one foot in eternity, and are grateful for every day...it is such a sobering thought and it helps me to appreciate every day i am alive to think about what is the reason that God has left me alive today what is it that he is wanting me to do for Him?

What about you ?

I love the words of this song....

You hold my every moment,

You calm my raging seas,

You walk with me through fire,

You heal all my disease.

I Trust in You, Lord I Trust in You....

Nothing is impossible for you,

Nothing is impossible for you,

You hold my world in your hands....

I am glad that i don't know what will happen tomorrow but i am sooooooooo glad that my Heavenly father knows already and He holds my every moment....and He holds my world in His hands so i dont need to worry but just Trust and walk with Him one day at a time through whatever He has instore for me.

Camp 2009

I have just returned from a week of camp...a wet and muddy week but one in which God really challenged all of us in so many ways.

This was the first year that we combined the boys and girls for camp ( as we have so many girls now 34) and we had around 150 at junior camp and 100 at our senior camp.....plenty children many of whom have never had this experience before of going to camp...thankfully not under canvas !!We had as our theme "Lead Others to Christ" and lead the children through a series of studies and discussions on Judging, making choices, making a difference in the word they live in, sharing their faith and encouraging others...all to help them as they start to think about transitioning out of the ministry and back into their communities to make a difference.The lessons were all practical and at whatever stage the children were they could all relate.Each morning the Nigerian Uncles led Praise and Worship and gave a devotion, this is always a highlight for me to see our kids worshiping so enthusiastically.

We had a team from Moody Church in Chicago come to help us and they did an awesome job of relating to our kids.

Each afternoon we did activities either hiking, sport or making sandals...(something we hope to be able to start to produce for sale in the future) I stayed with the 8 oldest girls in our ministry and that was great....they gave me such a hard time with my clumsiness !!! There was so much mud it was a challenge for me to stay clean but they seemed to manage it no problem ....in the end they made sure there was always a bucket of water outside the room for me to wash my feet in before i entered....

I introduced them to pillow fights and showed them how to have fun !!! they have had so little opportunity to relax in their lives....and have fun :) So even though I am tired it was an amazing week for all concerned, for me i was stretched in many different ways....and was amazed with how God used me a weak vessel to make a difference in the lives of these children.

Check out the pictures .....

girls fighting back !!!

worship

two of the team
early morning devotions...6am
making the sandals

the food...

A new lodger moves in...

Jana..... a crazy Texan has arrived....along with her peanut butter, crackers, diet coke and power bars....and crates and crates of stuff in my spare room !!! she did bring chocolate though so i let her in :)

She has been here before...about 10 times but always with a team and now trying to see what missionary life is like on her own... However housing is in short supply so she was staying in a place which had been empty for a while, that had no generator and as our electricity is practically non existent was in the dark a lot.....along with furry rodents and slugs and so had a melt down and took pity on her and allowed her to come and stay !!!!
Its funny living with an American ( Texan i should say .... everyone tells me they are a breed all of their own ) the cultures are very different even though our skin colour is the same :) Good job Erin broke me in.....

She moved in and i left for camp....and she survived....on her peanut butter and crackers and bottled water ...good job i am back to cook some decent food...:)

Seriously it is really nice to have someone staying, to talk to and share with, there is so many things to learn as we minister here...one of the main ones is we all need each other, we all need encouragement and God doesnt want us to struggle on through alone....
Praise God for the good community life we have here and for the many different people he brings along our paths for us to learn from.
Pray for us as we live together for this next month, that we will learn all that God is wanting to teach us both from this experience.....

here Jana with Erin in Texas...

Swimming

I am a bit behind with my blog i am sorry.....we have had so little electricity that it is difficult to keep the internet connection...but i will try and show you a few glimpses of what we have been doing this last very hectic month..!!
We had a donation of swimming costumes when my Dad came and so we had many excited little girls all wanting to wear them and try out the swimming pool....so we aunties braved the rainy weather and went ....

The girls so rarely get the chance to be totally in water as they usually bucket bath with warm water so to get into a cold pool is quite the experience... see below...

Good fun was had by all even though it was freezing.... good job i am used to the cold water in England....such a little thing an outing to a swimming pool but one that brought so much pleasure to theses girls many of whom had never been swimming before.

Praise God for the donors who made this possible.

At last.....she is able to update you on happenings here...

My Dad and Sister's visit.....

At the beginning of June as a real answer to many prayers my Dad and Sister came to stay for two weeks..It was awesome.............. to have my family visit me and try to understand quite what life was like here and what exactly i was doing !!!

My Dad was a little worried to begin with but he survived well, no sickness and no incidents... and generally he liked the food :)

It is really quite strange to have someone looking into your life and it was quite an eye opener to me to see just what I have got used to and think is normal now !!! like the fact we don't have much electricity so when we do no matter what time of the day or night we plug everything in for charging and the washing in the machine etc.. The state of the roads is rough i know but my Dad said he felt like all his insides were shaken up by the time he arrived in Gyero !! and its not my driving :) He knew about the pot holes but now he has felt them:) and the heavy African rain is something to be experienced several times we got caught out its hot one minute and drenching rain the next... which makes for great driving along a dirt road, slip slidding all the way...Praise The Lord for my Jeep :)

The congestion and seeming chaos in the town has to be experienced and the pollution smelt...suprisingly I now weave my way through and am sure my driving has deteriorated considerably by British standards !!

I think my living conditions are fine but my Dad found many things which needed fixing...and experienced how long things take to do and what you have to go through to achieve a simple task here :)

He had sooooooo many questions about missionary life and just what is it we do here...hopefully by the end of his time he has a much better understanding of just what i am doing and why there is sooooo much more to do that I have to stay for longer....

I did get them both working of course....to good an opportunity to miss two electricians in a country which has few trained electricians..and we always have things that need doing..

Enjoy the pics below...Still can't believe they were actually here....

Dad trying to pound Yam...Painting the new parlour in the new girls compound...

My Sister up close and personal with some of the new girls.. The older girls joining in ...all hands on deck.

Fixing the electrics...

An Amazing night to remember.....

Last week I travelled to another part of Nigeria 9 hours away south, to Egbe...It was very different climate and terrain than in the Plateau , much more tropical and ohhhhh so hot ! !

This place used to be a big SIM base years ago but at the moment there are no SIM missionaries there, but lots of work going on with the Fulani people.

The Fulani are a large nomadic tribal people whose lives revolve around cows, they are practicaly all Muslim and they move around depending upon the grazing availability for the cows. Well I got to visit a Fulani camp and was shown around and saw the cows coming in and the wives and children and then we were invited to stay the night !!!

Well I was a bit daunted by the prospect as I was with three guys and I was the only woman, and men and women in that culture are very seperate....so I would be on my own with the women who didnt speak English and who were surrounded by children , and from a very different religious and cultural background than my own....BUT well I did it and it was an amazing experiene...

See the pictures of where we stayed....

This is the lady I stayed with, in this hut , with her and three children...It was amazingly comfortable and dry and remarkable to see how resourceful you can be when you live off the land. This entire home was made from branches and palms and grasses, including the bamboo bed I slept on. It was suprisingly spacious and waterproof.

This is the inside, you can see the bamboo beds and here one of the children drinking out of a calabash (a seed pod )

Here the lady is using yesterday's milk to churn into butter. Once again a calabash is used and manually shaken until thick. Above see the decoration they put onto their bowls all grow from the ground.

This is the daughter, helping the mother from an early age, the boys look after the cows and the women look after the home and children, very clear divisions of labour.

What you can see here is breakfast being made, a kind of steamed porridge served with fresh milk from the cows :) all cooked inside the hut as it was raining outside....

The hospitality shown by this family was amazing, How many of you would let a stranger sleep in with your family and be so hospitable ? I was able to communicate using Hausa and sign language a bit and was totally blown away to catch a glimpse of how people can live with no electricity and running water, totally off the land and cows and sharing with their families everything they have.

I hope that I was a little ray of light into this home, one very different from my own but one in which I was made to feel very welcome.

The simple things in life are the best.....

Earlier this week we recieved a gift from Aunty Jamie !!! we all miss her sooooo much and the girls were so excited to see photographs of her and them and most of all to recieve lollipops...

They had great fun looking at the colour of each of their tongues after sucking....it was very funny..

Never underestimate the small things in life, Count your blessings and smile :)

Just look at the colour of the water !!

A few weeks ago while staying over in the village the daily bathing ritual was taking place and we aunties suddenly noticed that our girls towels didnt look too clean !! I guess due to many factors, lack of water, a machine !, and the fact its hard to wash a towel with a bar of soap in a bucket...


So aunties to the rescue we decided we would take them and wash them all :)


Well we had no idea how dirty they were...probably not been washed maybe for a year... until we decided to pre wash them in my bathtub....see for yourself the colour of the water...






This was after two washes and plenty of Ariel....we were amazed at yellow towels once again looking yellow !! and wondered why we had not noticed earlier the dirt !!!
We gave them back to the girls and they were so excited, but now they are reluctant t use them because they keep insisting they are clean and they dont want to get them dirty !!!
Always be thankful for a washing machine.....

Ignorance or Evil ?

Meet Emmanuella aged 8 years...
Her Story :-
She was born in 2000 and has two older brothers. She was living with both parents up until the age of four years when her mother died. She was taken back to her Mother’s family and has not seen her father since. She was living with her grandmother but the grandmother’s family have never really accepted her. During the Jos crisis in 2008 the family home where she was staying was burnt and since then they have been staying with various relatives.
Last week on 5th February her life changed. Her Aunt’s son was accused of being in the secret cult and was taken to a prayer man for deliverance. As part of that he was asked to give names of other children involved in the cult, he gave Emmanuela’s name. So she was taken to the prayer man and was told to confess. She was innocent and had nothing to confess and so the man started to torture her by burning her with a heating coil all over her body. She was in so much pain that she confessed to involvement even though she was innocent. It was at that point then the wider family threatened to kill her and so Grandma brought her to us at Gidan Bege. It is difficult to understand what makes someone do something like this to a child, is it Ignorance or Evil ?
To me it seems a bit of both. The traditional religion here still believes it is necessary to cleanse the evil out of someone and even when people become Christians it is very easy in a crisis that they revert back to old habits like the Native doctor rather than God. This is a classic example of how Satan has twisted things that a “prayer man” can whilst praying inflict harm…imagine how she will feel when people pray over her in the future…
We see many things like this here and partly the discipleship and teaching in the church is at fault too so people do not trust that God is sovereign and is all powerful and has defeated Satan. It is only through his power we can minister here to children who have been treated like this , precious children to whom God has given a chance of a new life of love and care. Praise God that Emmanuella has the chance of healing and many more like her keep coming brought by God to us. Please keep praying for us and our ministry here.

Valentines Day for our girls.....

On Saturday we were priviledged to be invited by a local church to a special Valentines programme for our girls....The girls and I loved it...they all got dressed up in their finery and all looked great and were excitedly waiting since early morning to be picked up. I crammed about 15 of them in my Jeep and the rest in a minibus and off we went.

We had never met these people before but they were great and so hospitable to us all. There was just us and a few of them in their church and they sang and danced and the Pastors wife told stories to the girls..Our girls love to perform too and sang and told memory verses..

There were lots of highlights for me but a few to share...Two of our girls Simi and Rebecca who have been in the ministry two years both stood and gave their testimonies and brought tears to the eyes....But even more special was the fact that then our two new girls who have only been with us a few weeks and days stood and told of the horrific things they had been through and how thankful they were that the ministry had taken them in....it was awesome.

The lady who invited us Comfort sang special songs to us and then gave each girl a big bag of toiletries and sweets and biscuits.. the girls were so excited to recieve their very own sponge and bars of soap.....

A few pics below ....

What a great way to spend Valentines day...surrounded by little girls and Jesus love demonstrated by these new friends of our ministry....awesome