Making A Difference

Being here for almost 4 weeks I have often wondered if we are making a difference here.  Will we ever fully know the answer to that question?  Before coming here our desire was to come to help out where needed and to serve the people here - whatever that looks like.  Now that we are here it seems that what we do is so little because the need here is so great.  

A few Fridays ago we handed out a bag of corn and rice along with oil to each family in the Kisayhip Village.  We split up into teams and along with a translator we went into everyone's homes and gave them the elements and we also prayed with them.  We told them we are here because we want them to know that God loves them.  We also wanted to let them know that Back2Back is building a compound close to their village and we are here to help them.  (We will use this future Back2Back compound to host our missionaries and groups that come for a mission trip.)  We felt it was important to make an impact on the village so they know we are here to serve them.  

We know that we made an impact, but will we really understand how much?  Walking away from that village and going back to our house where we have electricity (sometimes), running water and food, I don't think we will.  Unless we were completely in their shoes.  

I struggled with these feelings of making a difference here, but God has shown me that this is not about me.  I may never know how much we are making a difference.  I am to be obedient to the calling on my life.  I may never get the warm fuzzies.  I may never see the benefits of our so called labor here.  But, that is ok.  God has given me peace and God is right, of course, this isn't about me.

In Isaiah 58 God talks about true fasting.  From that scripture I am learning that God sees our hearts and true intentions.  He doesn't just want 1 day of fasting.  A fasting that is like "ok, I fasted for 1 day, I did my duty, and now I'm done."  Our lives are to be lived day in and day out by feeding the hungry, setting free the oppressed, providing shelter for the homeless and clothing the naked.  I love the part of the scripture where it talks about what God will do when we fast in such a way.  I love it that He goes before me and His glory will be my rear guard.  He will answer me when I call and when I do cry out to Him He will say "Here I am".   

We are not supposed to live our life for for ourselves.  We are supposed to be fasting our own desires.  Yes, God has a plan for my life here and He will grow us personally and as a family. We may never know how much we're helping, but what I do know is that God is our protector, our healer and he answers us when we call.  That is so much better than a warm fuzzy.

   

Lizards and Rats and Mice - Oh My!

And not to mention, big flat brown spiders that move very quickly.  The Bible tells us not to fear because He is with us always.  I am not sure if that was God's presence that I felt when the mouse ran between my feet, or when the rat ran up the wall right beside me or when the lizard came running right at me....or if it was just complete and total terror!  I have to laugh at all of my experiences with nature since I've been here.  I feel like the Cinderella of Nigeria.

What makes me even more anxious is that my boys love to catch the lizards, mice and rats.  Caleb actually picked up a dead rat and has made many lizards his pet/friend.  My boys also caught a toad, but we think Caleb handled it for too long and so the toad passed on to toad heaven.   So they decided to dissect it.   Needless to say they are having a great time.

Chris and I are getting settled into life in Nigeria.  There are things that we are starting to miss about home.   Things like water pressure and clean shower water.  Knowing we are showering in contaminated water kind of takes away from that just clean feeling.  We also miss having constant electricity.  We have been without electricity for over 14 hours.  We have a generator that we run every few hours.  Our generator will not allow us to run the washing machine/dryer along with everything else used in the house, so doing laundry is a long task.  It has taken me 5 days to do laundry and because we are without power again, I need to wait.  I hung my clothes on a line outside yesterday, which that was kind of fun.  One thing you have to be careful of is making sure the clothes are completely dry before you put them on if you hang them out to dry.  The Toomba fly will lay their eggs in the wet parts of the clothes.  They turn into mango worms.  These mango worms are flesh eating parasites and they will dig into your body.  Strangely, I kept thinking about that while my clothes were drying.   Luckily our power came on for a few hours yesterday for me to put our laundry in the dryer to kill off any worms, etc.

We have also been doing some outreaches, but I will post about those later.  We have to turn off the generator so I am going to loose my internet connection.  We will write more on the spiritual side of things soon.  

We really are glad to be here and we are so thankful for the Lord to allow this awesome opportunity.  

Our First Week In Nigeria

We are finally here!  Our plane ride was long, but mostly uneventful.  The kids did not like the airplane food so needless to say they were very happy to eat the Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwiches when we got to Abuja Sunday night. 

Our night in Abuja was a little weird, for lack of a better word.  Chris and I both felt a little under the weather.  We were both exhausted and my stomach was still weak from being sick on Friday.  Chris had a huge headache.  I was anxious too......the unknown as to what all lies ahead for us when we get to Jos.  I did wake up in the middle of the night and it was SO hot in our room.  The power was out and there was a man outside our window so it freaked me out.  We arrived during the night, so I did not know that the place where we were staying was fenced in.  It was one of those moments that I thought to myself "What in the world am I doing here?"  Anyway, it was one of the guards and he was turning on the generator.  It was still unsettling, but I was able to go back to sleep.  The next morning we all woke up, had breakfast, and started on our 3 hour drive to Jos.  

We have spent this week getting settled into the Nigerian ways.  It is so different here.  We have been without power everyday during pockets of the day.  It really hasn't caused too much of a problem yet, but it can get hot in our house when the ceiling fans aren't running.  In our bathrooms we have a hot water tank in each of our showers.  We have to turn on the switch 20 minutes before our showers so we can have hot water.  I've had to take several cold showers because the boys shower first, so they get the warm water.  It actually doesn't feel that bad, except when it is 9:00 at night and I don't feel as hot and sticky.  We are not able to drink the water right out of the faucet so we have to make our own water.  It's this really cool and amazing process using PUR powder.  We have to pour water in these buckets and then drop the tablets into the water.  The PUR tablets kill all of the bacteria in the water.  The bacteria forms this big nasty orange clump.  The water is poured from the buckets through filters into containers.  After 20 minutes of sitting, the water can be poured into these big buckets with a lid and spout. That is how we get our water.  After seeing the big orange clump, called Flock, it is easy to become mental while drinking the water, but what makes us feel better is knowing it is produced by P&G and it is COMPLETELY safe and clean.  It really is awesome and we are thankful for PUR!

The boys were able to go to CLAPAI and give the kids the treasure chest, muffin mixes and Kool-Aid.  They loved it!  The teachers there said they were so thankful and appreciative of our gifts to them.  It was great to see the boys interact with the kids.  We are planning on going there once a week so the boys can read to the children there.  What a great way for the boys to be involved and to serve.

Next week we have a group coming so we are preparing the campus for their arrival.  We plan on going to CLAPAI and the village next week.  We are going to build and fix some benches for the school classroom at the village.  We are also going to do an outreach at the village by handing out bags of corn, rice and bottles of oil.  We plan on going to their homes to give them the food and to also pray with them.  This will also be a great way for the boys to see how the people live here.  Being in the SSE house we still have electricity, running water, bathrooms, beds with mattresses, etc.  The village does not have these things.  

The boys also have been playing a lot of soccer (football).  One of our guards, Paul, loves to play football so they are playing all the time out there with him.  We have also had major down pours so the kids are playing in the rain.  They think it's awesome.  

We are finishing out the week with Noah getting sick.  Please pray for him.  He started out with a rash last night, then woke up this morning with diarrhea.  He also threw up mucus, but hasn't gotten sick since.  He does have a fever so he feels bad, but is eating pretzels and drinking gatorade.  We all have to stay hydrated here anyway, but with him having a fever we are really trying to push the liquids.  

We really are thankful to be here.  We are learning to trust in the Lord to be our shelter.  Psalm 91 is what our theme is for this summer.  He is our protector and our shelter and we hide and trust in Him.  Everyday seems to be different and we really need to rely on his strength and wisdom for each day.  Next week we will really start ministering to the people here.  Please continue to pray for us.  It can be so easy, especially for me, to become anxious, especially since everyday is different.  New trials and situations seem to happen everyday.  But, 

our God is mighty and powerful!  We are so glad we can run to him and be safe.