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

The Old and the New...

During these last couple of weeks we have been re- evaluating the function of our ministry here in Kings Kids, weve been writing policies and looking at a holistic approach from the day children come in to how we should best exit them and all the training we aim to do along the way..
Its great to be able to have an overview and to see all the amazing ways that God is helping to shape and mould us to meet the needs in this society.

At present we have 6 new boys from the street at Gidan Bege and in the last two weeks we have had two new girls brought to us. We are currently visiting some of our older boys families to see who can be reconcilled back this summer after living with us for a number of years , and at the same time weve visited those who left us a year ago and we have heard lots of stories about how well they are doing and what changed people they are :)



These are our two new girls... Blessing on left aged 14 years and Emmanuela aged 8 on right.
Both came to us running for their life as a result of occult involvement. Already in such a short time they have lapped up the love and attention shown to them. Praise The Lord we got a new aunty to live with them the day Blessing arrived...great timing.



This picture shows another cycle to the ministry...the Uncle here Waisu was one of our original boys who came from a M background and lived on the streets until aged 10 he came to us. Now he has finished schol and has recently been to a discipleship training course in Ywam and is now serving as a junior uncle in Gyero. He is doing great at teaching the little ones and an excellent role model with such a lot of experience to share.

The old and the new...God is in control of this ministry and as we continue to welcome new ones in and send old ones out He is glorified.

A night in the village....

For all those of you that have been wondering just what exactly is it like to spend the night in the village with our girls....read on and enjoy the pictures.
Last night was a typical night...The children are all in classes till 4pm and when they come out have lots of energy...so I decided we would get some exercise and so we went to play football...They are gradually learning how to play together as a team...but it generally is very noisy but they get to run around a lot. So after all that exercise they need to bathe....Now bathing is a fascinating process here as the is no running water in the village . All afternoon buckets of water from the well have been sitting in the sun to get warm, the girls stand in the middle of the compound and are lathered from head to toe with soap and then water is carefully tipped over them. I started this last night but was quickly demoted as i was using too much water !! I sometimes forget that water is in short supply here . They then have to rub their entire body in vaseline....It is amazing to watch as the bigger ones scrub their little sisters and grease their bodies....



After bathing we had electricity and so started to watch a film...breaking in the middle to eat food, last night was touwe (made from ground maize) and okra soup , everyone ate with great enthusiasm.

after the film, all were worn out from the day including Aunty Nicky and it was only 8.30pm !! so as is custom we had evening prayers and off to bed.:)

Some were out like a light, others took the opportunity to be doing their homework, all sisters big ones helping little ones it is so lovely to see how they look out for each other in that way without being prompted...

AS you can see it is custom here to put clean clothes on after bathing and then to sleep in them. Getting up in the morning and putting you then put on your uniform for school.

We slept .......until around 4.30 when the cockrels start going and the the church next to us starts ringing its gong at 5am calling people to prayer and so we hear singing etc... and then at 6am its time for our girls to get up and start their own singing and praying for morning devotions :) so an early start...as school starts by 7.45 .... All of the older girls have their jobs to do, looking after little ones, washing plates, sweeping the rooms and compound etc...while I drink my tea :)

Then off to school and a chance for the biggest three to have discipleship with their Aunty....They are so keen and enthusiastic to read the Bible and discuss their faith it is great to help them grow. In the picture below are Elizabeth (left to right) Alherei and Ruth. We pray and then its time for getting in their uniforms and off to school. It is by now 10.30 am but it feels like we have done so much already....the girls have an hour walk to school....no small task in the heat and dust.

So there is a typical night/morning in the village. It is great to spend such quality time with our girls , watching them grow and mature and have such a zest for life in a safe and loving environment.

It really makes me appreciate my shower and toilet everytime i come back to my home and yet i see them with so little so happy that it is very challenging to me ... and to us all

Praise God that He is helping us to make a difference in these children's lives.

Back to school........

These last couple of weeks have been a bit hectic as we have been getting all our children back to school and indeed starting some that have transfered to different centres into school. This is obviously costly and we Praise the Lord that despite the financial crisis He has provided enough for us to put all our children into school this term again.
For those of you who read previously about our new little girl 'Favour' check out these new pictures of her.....we started her in nursery school last week....




























It was an emotional moment as i took her to register her in school, she clung to me and I could imagine what it feels for all mothers to send your child to school !!!
What an awesome priviledge we have in this job...to care for these little ones whom God has given to us...

Girls visit Aunty Nicky

On Friday the girls came to visit me at my house...all 20 of them..It was a great time --a first for them and me as i cooked traditional Nigerian food by myself and they liked it !!! Of course they were fascinated by my toilet and the fact that hot water can come out of a tap , so there was a constant stream in and out of the bathroom and no hot water left by the time they went home...It is fascinating what little everyday objects to us are a source of fascination to so many...we have so much to be thankful for. It was really nice to give them an occassion to dress up for and to treat them with nice things...to make them feel special as they were created to be..

Christmas and New Year Celebrations

As I write this we are beginning a new year... where has this last year gone ? It doesnt seem very long ago that it was last Christmas but then on the other hand sooooo much has happened , so many changes have occurred and we can only Praise God that he sustained us throughout the year and look forward to all that will come this one.

Because of the curfew beginning at 7pm New Year celebrations were curtailed in Jos...so I spent the night in the village with our kids...and it was one of the best New Years i can remember in a while. It was so much fun playing games with our boys and girls and laughing and joking with them, and as we settled down to watch a film I couldn't help thinking how great it was to be able to love on these girls and what an awesome privilege to be in a position of looking after 19 girls. They are all awesome and so enthusiastic, as soon as i arrive in my car i am mobbed by everyone trying to hug me all at once, carrying my bags for me, sitting on my lap (usually 3 at once) and so thankful for everything :)

Life here is very unstable and unpredictable and chalenging, but these precious children are what makes it all worthwhile, and i couldnt think of a better way of welcoming in the new year , than to be in this place at this time, knowing this is where God wants me to be , and doing what he wants me to be doing.

Below are some of the glimpses of this christmas.....