1st anniversary and new beginnings....

As i write this blog I am celebrating my first year here in Nigeria as a Missionary !! how the time has flown, It seems not that long ago since I arrived in Jos and yet so many things have also happened in that time . I am thankful to God that he has provided all that I have needed for this year, financially, emotionally, physically and spiritually. He has protected me throughout and has kept me well :) no small thing here I can assure you.

I am amazed at all the things that i just accept as normal now and don't even notice. We had some new girls arrive this week and as I was orientating them i was reminded of some of the unusual things I don't even notice anymore...the way that Ladies carry large quantities of things on their heads and babies on their backs , the amount of people fitting into a taxi, the goat being carried on a motorbike, the constant tooting of horns,the fact we wash every food in bleach before we eat it, the fact that nothing is priced and everything is battered for, and you have to go many places to find what you need, no one shop sells everything, the way the people arrange their pyramids of tomatoes for sale by the side of the road, that we drink bottled water, that we have security guards 24 hours, that we are constantly wearing skirts, that we have to make all food from scratch nothing is ready made and so cooking takes a lot longer, that we all have househelp to cook and clean and shop for us...

There are definitely some things that i will never get used to....the driving, the roads full of potholes, the crazy motorbikes which weave in and out of traffic and come on both sides, it is so hard to not hit them....constantly being stared at for being white, the noise and lack of open spaces to relax in, the corruption, the way things always break down in and around your home and the way nobody ever finishes a job completely !!!

But I am praising God that I have enjoyed my year, have done many things and have gone in many new directions I would not have dreamed possible a year ago as he has lead me in to many new areas of ministry. In many ways i know i am a changed person and it is difficult to imagine my life back in England this all seems so normal to me now.

The last few days I have been involved in co leading a leadership orientation for our new leader in Gyero. Rev Ayuba is joining us and it is so important that we all as a team put all the difficulties behind us and strive to look to the year ahead, learning the lessons and moving on.

on the left is Rev Ayuba being officially welcomed by our Manager Rev Haruna this weekend. Please pray for him as he leads this new phase at Gyero.

Tomorrow we begin another new thing a week of camp for our girls...we are all very excited as the preparatons are complete and we can begin. Jamie and Corrine (below) and Anna and myself will be leading, please pray we have a great time loving on our girls...

I look forward to the next year ahead and am excited to see all that God will do through the ministry to impact the lives of the children he puts into our care.

Reconcilliation of our boys

The last two days have been wonderful, we packed five boys yesterday and three today to take them and all their stuff to go back and live with their families. We all piled into a minibus and having said goodbye to their friends and home ( some for the last five years ! ) we set off along the very wet and soggy and extremely muddy Gyero road.

slip sliding along we travelled yesterday in and around Jos and today to some more remote villages. It is such a priviledge to take these boys home , they were so excited, parents were dancing with joy as their child came home. One of the boys mum's said she was the happiest woman alive as her Son is a new boy and she is so thankful to God that he is back reunited with her :)

Look at the huge smiles on Emma's parents face...all of these families welcomed us really well and served us with minerals and it was a joy to be the Lord's servant and recieve the thanks on his behalf.

Today we were able to take Fidelis home to his village and nine brothers and sisters. He has been with the ministry for five years on account of his life being at risk due to occultic involvement. His family live in the middle of nowhere, so far that most are uneducated and rely on farming for their income. There are children everywhere and local materials are used for house, despite the obvious poverty these are very happy and welcoming people. Due to the remote locality it would take him 2 hours to walk to secondary school and so we bought him a bike , he was so delighted to own such a thing.

As we left each child we prayed for them and promised to return three times a year to check on their progress. Pray along with us as they adjust to living back in their communities and for all their friends left behind , and thank God for the ministry which really is making a difference in so many children's lives. Thank you too for your continued support without which we could not do this work.

Check out the size of the maize in the village !!!!

Camp reflections.......

As I write we have just finished camp for this year within our ministry. We had two seperate camps one for junior boys and one for senior, which meant a total of 175 boys attended.....For the first time I was helping to lead Senior camp for 70 boys here in Jos and we had a team come from Moody church in Chicago to help with the teaching and discipling of our boys.

The theme above was unpacked each day, and the boys were encouraged to walk daily with courage, endurance, self sacrifice, vision , compasion and discipline in their lives. Please pray that the lessons learnt will stick with them as they live out their faith.

One of the highlights of the day for me was the morning devotions, the worship was great as the uncles lead us in song the boys love to dance as they worship , totally uninhibited, unlike us Brits...

Then every afternoon we did various activities and i as one of the few people who could swim was assigned as lifeguard. This is fine until you consider we are in the height of the rainy season and that the pool was far from clean !!! as you can see from the following pics it was quite an experience...one of those moments when you just pray and dive in....

I loved spending time with the kitchen ladies they had a hard job to do but are such servants, always cheerful despite being exhausted. They are so resourceful and produced a lot of great meals. Take a look at their facilities....

See even i tried to help but it was so difficult these ladies are so strong and don't seem to get affected by the smoke...my eyes were streaming... Imagine cooking for a hundred people three times a day on an open fire .....

I liked being able to help organise but also constantly had to keep my attitude in check as i was generally enabling others to have a good time, and therefore was not personally doing a lot of hands on with our boys as others were. It is difficult being the behind the scenes person and i learnt a lot about myself and some of the lessons God is trying to teach me . I realise I need to check my motivation and don't think of myself more highly than i ought , which in this culture can be difficult as we as white people are generally put up on pedestals and i need to follow the example of my Saviour who was a perfect example of a servant . He got down on his knees and washed people's feet and didn't moan and so I need to humbly follow his example.

Following Jesus example....

Jesus knew that the Father had given him authority over everything and that he had come from God and would return to God. So he got up from the table, took off his robe, wrapped a towel around his waist, and poured water into a basin. Then he began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe them with the towel he had around him. . . . After washing their feet, he put on his robe again and asked, 'Do you understand what I was doing? You call me 'Teacher' and 'Lord,' and you are right, because it is true. And since I, the Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash each other's feet. I have given you an example to follow. Do as I have done to you. How true it is that a servant is not greater than the master. Nor are messengers more important than the one who sends them. You know these things-now down them! That is the path of blessing."
- John 13:3-5; 12-17

Today in Gyero this is what happened. A team from USA brought many pairs of trainers and socks and they washed all of our boys and girls feet and put on clean socks and gave each a new pair of trainers. Whilst washing they talked individually with each child and prayed with them and celerated this new gift together. It was awesome to see the delight on each of our children's faces, especially the new girls ( i dont think they have experienced anything quite like this before !) they were all smiling and dancing in their new shoes. See the following images to give you a glimse of our day....

The team washed each child's feet ( which were very dirty in the we season in the village it is difficult to have clean feet in flip flops !! ) and dryed them and fitted them with brand new shoes...

I was filled with conflicting emotions....it was really humbling to see this team young and old alike washing each child's feet so tenderly, our children glowed with the love showed to them, it was also very hard to have to turn children away from the village who would have liked to have a new pair of shoes as well. There is so much need here it is difficult when you can't help everyone and you are the one to be hard and turn them away...sometimes I don't like being a leader !!!

To stop myself getting too stressed supervising I joined in and washed some of our senior boys feet, it was an amazing experience...to begin with all sorts of things were going through my head, I haven't done this before, their feet will be really dirty and smelly etc....but I knew Jesus was challenging me to humble myself and get involved. So I did and it was very special as individual boys special to me found their way to my bowl. They loved it and so did I :)

This was an amazing way to be used by the Lord, and so practical to show His love to our children who He has brought to us. So sad too that a pair of shoes back home everyone takes for granted that they should have, whereas here it is a real treat to be given a new pair of shoes.

New arrivals in Gyero !!!

This week has been full of new things, we have had two visiting teams here, one from Ireland doing construction work on our buildings as we try to re organise the structure of the place. It is exciting to see a brand new building nearly completed to house an Uncle and his family and 12 boys. We are working towards having all our boys living in small family units alongside an uncle and his family, for more accountability and less institutional living. The team from Mission Africa are demolishing walls of old buildings and converting them as well as putting the finishing touches to the new one.

The other team has been from Conneticut and they have been great at encouraging us as staff and doing many exciting activities with our kids. We have learned how to play baseball, have painted tee shirts, have made photo frames and have painted a huge map of Africa on the outside of our classroom wall so all of the boys can grasp where they live in relation to other parts of Africa. see below.....

It is really good to have teams come alongside us in the ministry, they bring many things for our children as well as adding so much to all our lives while they are here..so even though it is tiring it is worth it. It really helps people to see what the ministry is really about as they visit, many of these people have been supporters for years but its not until they come does it really all become alive. Some come year after year and are such a blessing.

Also this week a new arrival in the form of a baby girl born to one of our Uncles....so tiny and all wrapped up in traditional style here. The pics below show her with her big brother and father.

We Thank God for her safe arrival . Pray with us as over the next few weeks we have many visitors coming, Pray we will appreciate all of them and that God will really do an amazing work in all of their lives as a result.

a day of contrast---the joys of reconcilliation.

We set out early morning for a journey to take two of our boys and one girl to visit family about an hour away from here. We squashed in my jeep and began the drive. The roads here are something else, driving is a challenge as for some unknown reason everyone is in a hurry ( totally in contrast to normal life here ) and there are potholes and armed police checkpoints and nailboys to contend with. We sailed through and arrived at our first port of call which was Joseph's aunties home. Joseph is 18 we discovered and has lived with us about four/five years and hasnt been back to see his aunt in all that time. His parents died when he was tiny and the aunt looked after him for a while but was unable to afford to continue as he and his big brother got older and so he came to us.


He is quite a shy boy and when we arrived everyone in the compound was so suprised and happy to see him he had tears in his eyes as they were exclaiming about how big he had grown etc... as we left him to visit for the weekend to get to know his family again he was chocked up but this is the start of the process for him....

Then we went a bit further along the road and found Nehemiah's grandparents. He was so happy to be home and they were delighted to see him. This is only the second time he has visited in the last four years to and is burdened to preach to his older brother who has an alcohol problem, and to check on his younger brother after they were all orphaned years ago. Nehemiah came to us due to involvement in the occult and his life was in danger, however now his family are accepting he has changed and hopefully in the next few years he should be able to return, when he finishes school.

All was going well so far...but this was about to change....
We had with us our newest girl Godiya as we were trying to discover more about her background. She was found begging on the streets and brought to us last week. To begin with she threw herself into activities with the other girls and seemed to settle well, then suddenly on Monday she packed her bag and said she had a dream that her grandma was sick in the village and needed her to look after her !! this was the first we knew about any family as she had told us she was an orphan and didnt know her wider family. Her behaviour dramatically altered and so we all had an uneasy feeling in our spirits and knew we had to check this out fast....so !!!
We arrived at the village and she jumped out and ran up to a crippled lady who she told us was her grandma...the lady looked a bit strange at us and didnt speak...a bit weird we thought and soon as were "white visitors" we attracted attention of two "angels" dressed as teachers from the village who started asking questions of our Pastor and then started shouting at the girl !! odd we thought as they marched her off in a different direction and told us to follow ! Where are we going we asked "to see her family" came back the reply !!! we thought she was an orphan so this was a surprise to us....we discovered she did indeed have two parents and was one of 10 children!!!!! and she had run away from home about a month ago and the lady she had taken us to wasnt even a relative !!! The parents were farming so Pastor jumped on the back of a motorbike and disappeared to find them on the farm...meanwhile the whole of the village had turned out to stand and stare at these white ladies , and the rain came and so our "angels" took us to see their pastor and then the leader of the womens fellowship, even though they had never met us before they took great delight in sharing the horror of the story house to house.... they arranged food for us all while we were waiting....
The mum arrived and told us a tale about her daughter and we realised God had indeed spared us from a whole lot of potential trouble !! she herself just carried on as though nothing had happened...really bizarre...and so we left her with her family and the village with something to talk about.
Just a crazy drive home, the Lord really protected us, despite being offered an aligator for sale waved at our car as we slowed at a roundabout !!

What a day of contrasts...over 140 miles covered ....a huge cultural experience....and real thankfulness that we had acted on our instincts ....and we arrived back home safely to tell the tale!!!

A new assistant ....

This is my new assistant.....her name is Jamie and she is from Seattle in USA.... she is here for six months and has come at such a great time to help me with the mountain of work which has come my way...as camp draws near and Erin is still at home sick so i am taking on some more tasks...( for an update on erin check out her blog at erinrigsby@blogspot.com)

She is great and is slowly getting used to all my strange British sayings....She was very puzzled this week when i asked her to put something in my boot, she didnt know what it was !!!

She is helping with the girls ministry as the girls really miss Aunty Erin and need someone to be with their family group...

Its great for me to have someone observe what i am doing and comment on situations, it renews enthusiasm and helps me to know that my life is as random as i think it is. No one day ever turns out quite as expected...

Praise the Lord for his provision.......