Imagine... and pray

Imagine if in your town, ...the roads washed out, the schools closed, and the water was shut off.

The power only came on for an hour or two every day or two. As a result, you lose your job or go out of business.

Food prices rose 25% per year.

Gas stations frequently ran out of gas. When they opened, an hour's wait on queue was common.

The police refused to respond when you called when someone was breaking in to your home. Most of them did not know how to drive, and they had no ammunition for their AK-47s.

The hospital closed. The best medical care was a facility like what we called in America, a "Doc-in-the-Box".

Road officials sometimes pulled you over and tried to extort a bribe or even arrest you for no reason.

As many as 50% of high school students were infected with HIV.

Imagine, and then pray for Nigeria, where this is reality.

For us, these things are a hardship. But if things get too bad, we have someplace to go. Nigerians don't. They have to try to live under these conditions and create a hopeful future for their children.

Pray for Nigeria!!

Sunday's Story

Let me tell you about our neighbors. To make a long story short, there are 5 or 6 children and a rotating group of adults- a grandmother and daughter-in-law, mostly- living in a 8' by 10' concrete block shack next door (the adults go off looking for day work and sometimes don't come back). Well, the grandma came over the other day with a boy who had cut his head on glass, asking how we should treat it. I got some hot water and antibiotic cream and started cleaning it up- he had a thumbprint sized piece of paper stuck on the cut-- and when i had soaked that off, there was a one inch gaping gash on his temple, deep. So one of our staff (who speaks Hausa) and I took him to a clinic in Maiadiko and he had four stitches. This kid is not related to the others living in the shack, his father went to his village to visit ("going to the village" is a common thing, they come to Jos to find work but often visit their rural village), his mother is dead, and his stepmother locked up the house and went off supposedly to sell meat in the next town (about a fifteen minute walk) and never came back, so for 4 days this kid was left on his own and the already overcrowded family took him in. The kid has no clothes except what he was wearing (which is now covered with blood) and his school uniform, and he IS going to school which is good. But he hadn't eaten since the day before, none of them had. So we ended up sending over food. (The grandfather was off drinking his salary.)

Unfortunately this boy and his story are totally common, orphanages are chock-full of kids like him that no one cares about. You have to live here daily with the knowledge that you can't meet all the needs you see even for one day. The boy needed a lot more than medical attention and a hot meal. There is a shame and fear that comes with poverty and neglect, and the kid would not really meet anyone's eyes. But at the clinic, after the doctor had jabbed the wound about ten times with a novocaine needle and the swelling had burst in bright red blood all down the kid's face and clothes, right to the floor, I grabbed some cotton to clean his face up because it was a mess of tears and blood and sweat and mucus. While I was wiping his face, for a second his eyes met mine. That was my reward, and I can't explain it, but I feel like I got more from the transaction than he did.

Thankfulness

My sister Susan married Mark Breckenridge on April 5 of this year and I was privileged to be able to attend the wedding. Having lived in a third world country for almost two years gave me a fresh perspective on American living. How great to go to Wal-Mart and find so much in one place! To have electricity 24/7!! And good roads with traffic lights!! To know that the police are my friends!! And that church will start on time and not go over three hours!!!

Of course, the homes and cars and lawns and lakes and stuff were beautiful. Someone asked me, "Do you find yourself wishing we didn't have so much?"

I thought about that and my answer is truthfully, no, I don't wish that at all; but I do wish that people would be more thankful and fully appreciate how blessed they are and how much God has given them.

I know about myself that in times of suffering I draw very close to God and depend on Him for every moment's grace; but when things are good I tend to go on auto-pilot spiritually. This tendency has really bothered me in the last year and with prayer, I found out how not to let that happen: by being thankful.

Africans are thankful. They have so much less than Americans. Yet you will never hear them complain about their job, instead the proper response to "How is work" is "Thank God." Thank God I have work, thank God I have the strength to work. A Sunday rarely goes by that Reverend Iwuji fails to thank God that "He has brought us alive to see this day, because many who began this year are no longer with us." You will not hear them complain about their house or clothes or car, instead if they have a car they are very grateful (and would be ashamed to complain, considering how many are walking or depending on motorcycle taxis), if they have clothes and a home they are thankful.

I wish Americans realized how much they have and gave thanks for it. "Oh, that men would give thanks to the LORD for His goodness, And for His wonderful works to the children of men! For He satisfies the longing soul, And fills the hungry soul with goodness. " Ps 107:8,9

LONG overdue update!

Life here is way too busy, and unfortunately I have really neglected to update this blog. So much has happened! Here is the content from our October, 2007 newsletter, which recapped our first year in Nigeria:

“The Gift Granted to us Through Many”

“...we do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, of our trouble which came to us in [Africa]: that we were burdened beyond measure, above strength… that we should not trust in ourselves but in God who raises the dead, who delivered us... in whom we trust that He will still deliver us, you also helping together in prayer for us, that thanks may be given by many persons on our behalf for the gift granted to us through many.” 2 Corinthians 1:8-11

Both Bob and Meredith were individually struck by how appropriately this verse sums up our first year of serving the Lord in Nigeria. We know that we could not have made it through the many trials we have faced, without knowing absolutely that God would deliver us, and that YOU are praying for us.

In one year we have had two serious car accidents, an armed home invasion, malaria, dysentery, and other tropical illnesses; all while adjusting to life in a very different culture in a third world country.

In that same year we also saw thousands of persons respond to the Gospel of salvation in Jesus Christ. Bible Clubs are exploding, especially in the Islamic state of Kaduna. God opened the door for Meredith to teach at Hillcrest, an international school for missionary and Nigerian children. Ryan and Sarah have had an active ministry of their own with young children, as an adjunct to Peter and Bette Verkaik’s Couples Fellowship ministry.

You were “helping together in prayer for us, that thanks may be given by many persons on our behalf for the gift granted to us through many.” The “gift” is not only the glorious things God has been doing, but the deliverance we experienced from all the times we were “burdened beyond strength.”

We are so thankful for that deliverance, and for all the wonderful things that God is doing.

Thankfully, things have been somewhat more routine in the last few weeks. But we are no less dependent on your prayers. Bob is traveling thousands of miles in the next few months, bringing the Bible Clubs ministry to every state in Nigeria. Ryan and Sarah are meeting the challenges of school and making new friends. Meredith needs wisdom, love and stamina to teach Kindergarten.

We trust that God will “still deliver us”, and that you will continue to be “helping together in prayer for us, that thanks may be given.”

We ARE giving thanks!