Screeching pigs!

I just wanted to share my rather interesting morning - I went with a couple of friends to a meat market. Hearing the screeches of pigs would be enough to turn anyone a vegetarian! This is as fresh as it gets!

Its like a trip to the butchers except you see a lot more than your bacon, pork chops and beef sirloins behind the counter. You get your meat cut fresh from the animal. I saw the heads of pigs, goats and cows, the inside parts...maybe I should spare you the specific details, but I’m thankful that I didn’t have to see the actual slaughtering! That takes place in the large building at the centre of the market. Hearing screeching pigs was traumatic enough!

I couldn’t resist taking this photo! I’ve seen many things being carried on motorbikes here but this has to be the best I’ve seen yet!
Oh and just to add – No I didn’t purchase a thing!

Na koyi Hausa a makaranta

Firsty, I have some bad news to report about Lafiya Gidan Bege centre....A few weeks ago they were having a series of unexplained fires. The centre has now been completely burnt down. This is the work of the enemy but praise God that nobody was injured! Please pray for Uncle Bulus, his wife (Auntie Esther), their 3 children and the 14 boys from the centre. Uncle Bulus and family are safe, they are living in a rented house in Lafiya and all of the boys have been taken to either Makurdi Gidan Bege, or the Gyero Care centre in Jos.

I'm always inspired by Uncle Bulus's faith. Churches in Lafiya and some people from the community have given quite a lot of money already towards rebuilding the centre. Uncle Bulus says that they will rebuild the centre in the same place and that they have nothing to be afraid of because God is on their side. Amen to that!

I visited Kagoro Gidan Bege yesterday. It was great to see all the boys and Uncle Sunday and family. Unfortunately Auntie Jummai and some of the boys are not so well. Please pray that God will strenghten them. This coming Monday, the 6 boys who had been getting taught at the centre will be starting Primary school. Please pray that they will settle well. This will be a big change for them.

Rosie, our latest volunteer arrived a couple of weeks ago. We just have the 1 short-termer here at the minute. Rosie is from London and she is here to work with the kids at the Gidan Bege centre in Jos and to possibly get involved with some of the womens ministries that are run by City Ministries. She has been staying with a Nigerian family this week, as part of her in country orientation, to learn about the culture and to get to know a family in the community. This is my friend Afa's family, it's also the family that gave me a little pet kitten yesterday :-) Rosie gets back today and starts at Gidan Bege tomorrow.

The title of this post translates to "I learnt Hausa at school". I just started Hausa language classes last Monday. I'm really enjoying learning this beautiful language and it will help me to communicate more effectively in various areas of ministry. This a a good time for me to learn, while things are a bit quieter. The classes are mon-fri, from 8.30am to 12.30pm. The course will run for 6 weeks, with a few days break in the middle. It does feel like I am back at school and we have a test tomorrow to revise everything from out first week! Our teachers are great and very patient, though they do seem to like picking on me and giving me long sentences to translate!

I briefly mentioned in one of my last posts, about Emma, from the Gidan Bege in Lafiya. Emma was rescued from the bush last year, after spending 13 years of his life, most likely being raised by animals, possibly monkeys. Emma is about the size of a 5 year old, but is around 16 or 17. He hasn't developed and he can't speak, he only utters a variety of sounds that sound a bit like bird crys. I'm working with Emma on a Tuesday and Thursday afternoon, to help him develop his receptive language. He is tongue tied, so unless there is a miracle or someone comes to operate on him, he may not ever speak, but he can certainly learn receptive language and ways of communicating. He is already making some progress. He is now living in Jos with an american family, the Blyths. Please pray for them and thank God for their willingness to take Emma into their home and for all that they are doing for him. You can read Emmas full story here - http://www.sim.org/index.php/content/emmanuel-boy-saved-after-13-years-in-bush

On a Wednesday afternoon, I am now taking a kids choir at Foundation Academy, which is the school under the Mashiah Foundation (an HIV/Aids ministry). Some of the kids come from the surrounding community, but most of them are there through the ministry. Rosie and my friend Beth who is also Rosies housemate are helping me. So far, it is going really well and the kids are really trying.

I will post some photos soon!

There are lots of things that are happening and lots that you could pray about. Thank you for your continued prayers and support :-)

Memories from Kaduna, Kagoro, Makurdi and Lafiya

KADUNA GIDAN BEGE

• Crazy but cool kids who really know their bible! – Uncle John, the leader in charge of this centre got them to recite Psalm 1-6 and they did it so well!
• We met a really cool guy called Uncle Friday who has such a heart for the ministry and he is now at Bible College, training to be an EMS missionary.
• One day in Kaduna, I saw a man walking a monkey down the road, past the centre!
• My team went to a nearby field to do some sports coaching/outreach. Quite a few people turned up, so it was all a bit crazy and hard to control. Word had spread that strange white people were in town!
• If I close my eyes and take myself back to Kaduna, I can still smell the drop pit!
• Our matching team traditional outfits that we were given as a gift to thank us!

KADARKO/KAGORO GIDAN BEGE

• The houseparents’ - Uncle Sunday and Aunty Jummai and their children - Ozi, Ruth, Achai and baby Chris – a beautiful little family that I have got to know quite well over the last few months .

Kids that do absolutely anything for you – carry your chair to devotions, wash your plates and offer to wash your clothes, fetch water for you and even accompany you to where we had to sleep when we were to afraid to walk on our own in the dark. They wouldn't let us do anything on our own! They are the most well behaved kids I know!
• Friday – The 18 year old with the most beautiful, soulful voice! If he was in the UK, I would make him enter X-factor! He is so talented. He doesn’t just sing, as he sings, he beats 2 sticks off a bench, as a drum and it sounds class!
• Meeting the Chief of Kadarko
• Speaking and singing in Hausa to the whole congregation on the Sunday morning and getting quite a few laughs! It wasn't meant to be comedy.

MAKURDI GIDAN BEGE

• “How many people wanna let me in..say how many people wanna let me in...are you ready? Are you ready?...Now! Now! Now! Now! Now! Now not tomorrow! ....Are you ready to let Jesus in, are you ready to let Jesus in?” – possibly the best song ever! Cheesetastic it may be but lots a of fun! When I hear this song I just think of 3 precious girls that stay at this centre and love to dance to this – Grace, Mary and Priscilla. They really need your prayers.
• Continuous scratching noises – yep we saw lots of rats, mice and cockroaches!
• Sweating buckets! – Makurdi is in a very warm part of Nigeria.
• A proper football pitch, 5 mins walk from the centre.
• Our team being special guests at a football match.
• Diddy boy – Uncle David’s 3 year old son, who gave most of us bruises.

LAFIYA GIDAN BEGE

• Uncle Bulus: Lynsey I’ve invlted all the children from the community to your programme
Me: Goes slightly pale – Erm Uncle Bulus we only have enough resources for the 17 kids at your centre
Uncle Bulus: Lynsey, trust in God, just watch what he will do. God will provide.
Me: To be totally honest, I was still panicking.
• Instead of 17 kids, we had around 70! And...somehow, the money for the food was enough to feed all 70 kids each day of the programme!..The feeding of the 5000 comes to mind! God is amazing!
• This was definitely the best programme , not just in terms of the organisation, but in terms of the outcome - about 16 kids accepted Christ, many of whom do not come from Christian families. Praise God for Uncle Bulus. If it had not been for his vision to invite the kids from outside the centre, these kids would still not know Christ.
. Shadrach, Meshach and Abendigo! – Uncle Bulus’s 3 little boys! How well did that work out!

. Emma (Emmanuel) You can read his story on my Facebook page.

God blessed us so much and he continued to surprise and amaze us, teach us and challenge us. With God, ALL things are possible!

One last memory overall...

Michael :“One Egusi soup and one Groundnut soooup!”
Mark: “We have no Groundnut soooup!”
Michael: “What! Why did you not tell meeee?” (Slap!)

You would have to be part of our team to understand this really :) ... (Its our team drama)

A busy but fantastic summer

I’ve had a busy, but fantastic summer with the teams. A team arrived on the 4th July and spent 2 weeks working at Kagoro Gidan Bege Centre, which is just 1 hours drive from Jos, so I was able to drive back and forward to visit them. Christine Craig was leading that team. They did a lot while they were here. They made a great impact in the lives of the kids at Kagoro, where they did tutoring, bible teaching, puppet ministry and generally came alongside the boys, encouraging them and getting to know them. They spend the 2nd half of their time in Jos, doing a mixture of things, including leading devotions at a Widows ministry quite a few mornings, hanging out with the girls at Gyero Care Centre in Jos and completely revamping the devotions room at Open Doors school, by joining Uncle Jim (the art teacher) and a few of our short-term staff to paint cool pictures on the walls. It looks amazing!! Just to add: I joined in too :)

This team flew home on the 29th July and my team arrived on the 30th July, which was a little crazy but also quite handy at the same time. It meant I could just go to Abuja with them, spend a nice little day in Abuja and collect my team the next morning....so what did my team do?

We went from Abuja to Kaduna, Kaduna to Kagoro, Kagoro to Makurdi, Makurdi to Lafiya, Lafiya to Jos! ....a lot of travelling in the space of 4 weeks!

All of these places are cities, but they are also where City Ministries have Gidan Bege Centres. Gidan Bege, which means “House of Hope”, is a Care Centre. This is where street children are brought to when they are ready to come off the streets and some orphans are brought to these centres by neighbours or relations. Quite a lot of the children will have been brought to these centres after being rescued from dangerous situations. They are a place of safety, a place where they will be fed, have a roof over their head, and ultimately experience God’s love.

Our team spent around 6 days at each centre. Within those 6 days, we ran a full 3 day kids/youth programme. Day 1 - we taught them about Esther, day 2 – David, and day 3 – Jesus, so always ending with the perfect example. Our programme was full of worship and teaching new songs, prayer, memory verses, bible talks, puppets, small groups (to recap on the story and give the kids a chance to ask questions), craft, games, sports coaching and each evening of the programme we either showed the film Madagascar or Africa united, had a talent night (I think we may have found some star talent out here! It also gave our team the chance to make everyone laugh!) Ok, our team attempted River dance and performed a classy drama . On the last night, we always did a film outreach for the whole community, using either “The Jesus film” or “The passion of Christ”.

We met really cool kids along the way, and some really great Uncles (leaders of the centres). God taught us so much throughout the 4 weeks and we were greatly challenged! I’m going to share my memories from each centre in another post as this is getting a little bit long.

Lots of coffee, Bridesmaid duties and sunshine!

On the 17th May I flew home for my sister’s wedding. My sister Joanne lives in Australia, so she came back to Northern Ireland so they could share their special day with family and friends back home. Of course, Australia would have been lovely, but if we had all gone there, I wouldn’t have got to see everyone, and I wouldn’t have got to meet Molly, my Mum and Dad’s Westie pup! AKA – my replacement... I’m only joking. They got Molly the Friday before I arrived home. She is adorable!

While I was home, I tried to meet up with as many people as I could. In my first week, I literally had coffee dates, one after another, but I didn’t mind. I enjoyed catching up with everyone.

My sister got married on the 31st May. The week before the wedding, there was a lot of rain. We were worried that it would rain the day of the wedding, but actually, the sun was shining and it was even warm enough for people to sit outside. She had a lovely service and evening reception at Clandeboye Lodge Hotel. I was Bridesmaid and the soloist for the day. I sang “The Rose” and “Feels like home” during the ceremony, and their song for the first dance. They had a lovely day. Joanne and Stevie are now Mr and Mrs Davey and are now back in Australia living the life down under. I’m not sure when I will get out to visit them, but we will see.

After all the excitement of the wedding, I went to Castlerock with my mum, dad and of course, Molly. We stayed at the caravan and just relaxed. It was so warm while we were in Castlerock! I tried to fit in as much body boarding as I could. It will be quite a while before I see the sea again!

Mission Africa made good use of me when I was home. I had a couple of meetings, met my team which I will be leading in August, and I helped lead worship at the Mission Africa Conference.

I was home for 3 weeks in total. I left Belfast on the 7th June to fly to Heathrow, and then on to Abuja, arriving at 4.35am on the 8th June. The travelling went well, apart from getting a little lost in Heathrow for the first, I just wasn’t paying attention. I passed through immigration in Abuja, with no problems. The immigration officer barely even looked at me, and all my luggage arrived, and in one piece too, so praise God for all the answered prayers for my journey.

I’m now back into the swing of things, organising the summer teams. Our first team arrives on the 4th June and then as I said, I will be leading our August team, which will be running 3 day kids programmes at the outer Gidan Bege Centres. Gidan Bege, which means house of hope, cares for orphans and brings children off the streets to provide them with a roof over their head, education, and above all, showing them God’s love. There will be 4 teams altogether this summer – 2 will go to Ogugu and 2 will come to Jos and the surrounding areas.

Prayer points:
• I thank God for my time back home
• Pray that all the planning for each team will come together
• Pray for each member of each team, that God would prepare their hearts and minds for mission. For some, this will be their first time in Africa, and for some, it will be their very first experience of mission.
• Pray that God would remain at the centre of everything we do, and that we will not lose sight of him.

Our time in Ogugu

Sorry it’s taken me so long to update my blog.

I thought I would write about my recent time in Ogugu,which is where we went after our time in Kagoro, and to give you a better idea of what Ogugu is like:

At first I wasn’t sure if I would be able to go to Ogugu this time, because I was due to go there shortly after being ill, but I went ahead, with Neil, Abi, Ally and Bethan (the short-termers based in Jos)

I’m thinking of a way to describe Ogugu..... LUSH! We left a very dry Jos, with no grass. It was the end of dry season when we left. Ogugu however, is so green. As you drive closer and closer to the area, you are greeted by a vast amount of tall palm trees and banana trees.

The main purpose for going to Ogugu, was not only to be somewhere safer during elections, but also to help with a holiday bible club. We ran this during Easter week, in a village called Ofante, which was a 30 minute drive away. I’m so thankful for the car I have been driving here. It’s a Rav 4, which is definitely needed for the areas I have been going to. It was a bumpy drive to Ofante every day, up a long dirt road. To give you even more of an idea of what this part of the country is like, I loved the drive to this village, because the scenery was so beautiful! It felt like driving through a rainforest. I’m not sure how much rain they get in a year but it certainly looks like a rainforest!

So, back to what we were actually doing in Ofante – We ran a week long Easter kids club at a local church, but also using the neighbouring school building. We began every day with a prayer and worship, which gave us the opportunity to teach lots of new songs to the children (105 kids in total) and a memory verse each day, then we split the children up into their four groups (Mangos, bananas, paw-paw and oranges) Two groups went to craft, while the other groups went to games. After this session we had break, followed by Charlie, Joy and Sam (the puppets) telling us our bible story, then the kids went to either craft or games, and came together at the end for a talk, quiz and some more worship. The program ran from 9.30 to 1pm every day. It was a great week and we thank God that it went so smoothly.

The following Monday and Tuesday, we had a short-termers retreat, which I led. It was a great time to spend with each other and with God. On the Monday we looked at the importance of prayer, and how Jesus valued prayer. On the Tuesday we looked at spiritual warfare. Over both days, we had lots of worship, some teaching, an hour of prayer, which is when everyone had an opportunity to go off by themselves to 4 different prayer stations (Guidance, thanksgiving, praying for others and praying for our ministries) a time to share, and not forgetting some banter in the afternoons.

On the Thursday, I led a widows program, which was held at the Donegore centre. I really enjoyed spending time with these women, it was definitely one of my highlights. There were 8 women, a mix of ages, from maybe 40 to 70 years.
I began the program with a game, as a bit of an icebreaker. I had these women playing ‘Copy the leader’. I’m not sure if that is the actual name, but the game where you sit in a circle, and someone from the group goes out of the room, while someone starts doing lots of actions which everyone else follows. When the person outside the room comes in, they get 3 guesses to decide who everyone is copying. You know the game, right? Well these women had so much fun, even the translator joined in and had a go at leading! After the game, I sang worship songs with them, like ‘Lord I lift Your name on high’. In Ogugu, generally people don’t speak great English, and the tribal language is not Hausa, but Igala, so I had someone translating for me quite a lot, but the women did know some English worship songs. They sing these in church. After worship, I spoke to the women about God’s amazing love and how God has a purpose and plan for every one of us! To finish, I sang ‘How great is you love’ by Nicky Fletcher.

I really feel for these women. They do get a bit neglected, and they are in so much need of love and attention. Widows ministry or womens ministry in general is something I think I would quite like to get a bit more involved in at some point.

On the Friday, we all went to a village wedding. This was my first experience of a wedding here, out of all the times I have been in Nigeria. Well, it was certainly an experience! We were all in matching outfits, as we were special guests. We were also treated like royalty and given the best seats. I would have been quite happy sitting on a plastic chair, but they were so hospitable to the Enufu (‘white people’ in Igala). The bride and groom get money thrown at them instead of confetti! It was such an interesting day and a real cultural experience.

All in all, we all had a great time in Ogugu. It was great to see Lyndsay, Mel and Will again, so all the short-termers were together for a while and it was a good chance for me to get to know them all better. It was just a struggle with the heat sometimes, but we managed. Cold bucket showers were our life savers! Just to let you know, there was no electricity (apart from 4 hours of Gen at night) and our water came from a stream.

God was so good to us and we had a safe journey back to Jos on the Saturday (30th April). We praise God for his protection over Jos while we were gone. There was trouble in other areas, but Jos remained relatively peaceful, and is still peaceful today. Oh yes, I nearly forgot to add – Jos is now GREEN!! =) The rain season is now here, and we are now getting used to having crazy thunder storms nearly every day!

Gidan Bege, Kagoro

Our short-termers spent 3 weeks helping at a Gidan Bege Care Centre in Kagoro, Kaduna State. I joined them on the 1st and 3rd week, as I had to do some work in Jos during the 2nd week.

We stayed in very basic accommodation: I entertained the girls every night by my struggles to get up on the top bunk of a very unsteady bunk-bed, with no ladders! We carried our water from the bore hole each day (when the boys allowed us) for our bucket showers. Even though we were in the middle of nowhere, somehow, I managed to get 1 bar of signal for my internet! The boys wanted to do everything for us. If I carried water on my head, which actually is so much easier than carrying it by the handle of the bucket, the boys would come and take it from us to carry it.

In my first week in Kagoro, we were playing games with the kids, getting to know the kids and leading their devotions. In the 3rd week, I was teaching. Six of the boys do not yet go to school. They have only been at the centre for a year, so they are not quite ready for school. Instead, they are taught at the centre, though we never actually saw their teacher during our time there, so Neil and I took a few boys each to teach English and Maths. In the afternoons, I gave guitar lessons. Some of the older boys had learnt a few chords before, so they were flying! I ended up buying them a guitar, with money that some lovely people from church gave me to spend on wherever I see a need. This will help them a lot! This centre is quite deprived; they don’t have a lot of resources, in terms of educational materials, so I was also able to get some teaching resources for them. In devotions, Friday, one of the older boys plays the drums. When I say drums, he has two sticks that he bangs on the wooden bench that he sits on. Although this does actually work well and sound amazing, we are hoping to get them a Djembe at some point. The boys love singing worship songs and even though they have all been through so much pain in their lives, many of them are so on fire for God! It is after all, God who has given them hope and a future. It’s been quite nice, just sitting under the Mango tree (which is my place to escape to, to get out of the heat!) singing with the boys, in English and also in Hausa, one of the main languages spoken in the North of the country.

I learnt quite a lot of Hausa during these weeks. The boys, and the village kids were our teachers! I find that when I am in a rural situation, away from Jos, I learn far much more. Maybe it is because there are so many Baturi’s (westerners) in Jos, so we are not given much chance to practice. Most people speak to us in English.

Last Thursday night we were to do an outreach using the film, ‘Faith like potatoes’. Everything that could go wrong did go wrong. The program was to begin at 7.30pm. At 6.30pm, I became quite ill and began vomiting every hour from that moment. I was meant to speak at the end, summarizing the story and allowing people to respond. Thankfully, I had written notes in preparation for this. Neil had agreed to do my talk, as well as his own. My notes went missing!! A child from the village had run off with them! The film started a lot later than it should have. My notes turned up 10 mins before they began, but the sound was terrible. The background music could be heard, but not the words that were being spoken. Half way through the film, the projector stopped working, and not many villagers turned up anyway. Meanwhile, I was throwing up and trying not to pass out. Abi, Bethan and Ally were like a little group of nurses, looking after me. I’m sure they never thought they would be looking after their supervisor. I don’t know what I would have done without them all!
On Friday morning, I was taken back to Jos to recover. I was really quite ill and had become dehydrated, but I was taken care of in Jos and I am now totally fine. Mungodi Allah! (We thank God!)

We were all so disheartened by everything that happened. As I write this, I am sitting in beautiful Ogugu with all the short-termers. Last night, Mel shared a verse with us that has really helped me process last week:

Hebrews 4:12
“For the word of God is alive and powerful. It is sharper than the sharpest two-edged sword, cutting between soul and spirit, between joint and marrow. It exposes our innermost thoughts and desires.”

Even if one person was challenged by what they heard/saw in the part of the film that they were able to watch, then it was worth it to go through everything for that one person. God’s word is so powerful and its God that is in control. I really felt God directing me to take the film to Kagoro with me to do this outreach. We will have plenty of opportunities to go back there and re-do the outreach. This time we will make sure it is totally covered in prayer and that we have people on board to pray at least a week in advance so that everything goes smoothly! Satan may have had his way this time to do everything possible to put a stop to our program, but we serve a God who is much more powerful! The battle has already been won!

This is Chris, the child of Uncle Sunday and Auntie Jummai who live at the centre to care for the boys.

Miles from Jos, in a beautiful place called Ogugu...

I am currently in Ogugu, which is where Mission Africa have their own ministry - ADVANCE Action Against Aids. I arrived here on Tuesday the 8th. Before coming here, I was in the capital, Abuja for a few days so that I could collect the new arrivals at the airport. There are now 7 short-termers - 4 in Jos, and 3 in Ogugu. I came to Ogugu with Lyndsay who has just arrived. She is the only Gapper from Northern Ireland, the rest are from England, Scotland and Wales. Look Ogugu up on a map, it should be there but you might need a magnifying glass! It is a village in Kogi State, South Nigeria. It's a beautiful place, but very very warm! Maybe I will have lost a few pounds in sweat by the the time I go back to Jos! I do love it here though and there is so much happening here. As much as I love Jos, it is nice and peaceful here, so it's a nice break from Jos. I think I've fallen in love with this place. So this is what I have been up to in Ogugu so far: Tuesday - Arrived in Ogugu after a 6 hour car journey from Abuja, and was greeted by Elder Reuban, the man in charge here, Asabe who works for ADVANCE and who is also kind of in charge and looking out for our short-termers, and Will and Mel, who are both from England and have been serving here since October. Wednesday - In the morning, we went to the market which comes every 4 days. Mel, who is a Medical student and has just completed 2 years of her training, runs a free Health Clinic at the small village hospital - The Royal hospital, Ogugu. She runs this clinic alongside an ADVANCE team. This hospital is right beside the market.

While Mel was operating the clinic, and Lyndsay was helping her as her secretary/Pharmacist, I was helping Will and Elder Reuban hand out leaflets to people around the market, to advertise free HIV/Aids testing, which is available on market days at the Health clinic, and also at the ADVANCE Donegore centre during the week. The Donegore centre was built by a Mission Africa church team a few years ago. Funnily enough, they were from Donegore Presbyterian. This is the ministries base, it's where quite a lot of programs happen. Thursday - We did quite a lot of planning for a Kids club that all of our short-termers will be running during Easter. A group of us will be coming from Jos to Ogugu on the 9th April and staying for at least 3 weeks. In the afternoon Asabe was taking a bible study in the Donegore centre, with a group of teenage girls, so I was able to join that with Lyndsay. In the evening we had a time of prayer/devotions. This was quite a special time, and its definately important to get into the habit of doing together! Tonight there were some gunshots. Luckily I was warned of these. Don't be alarmed, it was simply to show respect to someone from nearby who had died. This is apparently what they do the night before a buriel. Friday - On Friday I continued some preparation for the kids club. A huge part of the ministry here, is orphan care. The other Lyndsay had the opportunity to visit the homes of some of the orphans who are on the ADVANCE sponsorship program, called 'Circle of Hope', and she had the chance to pray with some of them. Saturday - Every Saturday a childrens program is held at the Donegore centre, from 10am. This is for all those who are on the 'Circle of Hope' program, so we all got involved with this. They sang a cool song to welcome me and Lyndsay to Ogugu. It was a song about being from the UK and coming to help them. We sang quite a few childrens worship songs with them, learnt a memory verse, played outdoor games, football in a nearby field, and while football was on, some of the other children had the chance to play in the park, which was built by a team from First Carrickfergus Presbyterian. After the children's program, Will took me on the motorbike to Ofante village, which is about 20 mins away, to meet with the Pastor there. Don't worry, I was wearing a helmet and Will is a pretty good driver! It was quite nice on the motorbike, because I had a lovely breeze blowing against me, so it cooled me down for a while :0) Ofante is where we are going to run the kids club at Easter time. We had in our heads that there would probably be 40-50 children at this church. We were both quite shocked when we asked how many children attended the church. The response was 500!!! I didn't really know what to say. Unfortunately we are going to have to limit the program to a smaller number of children, by possibly saying it is for 7-11 year olds. We plan to have craft at this program. There is no way we would have enough materials for 500! Ogugu is an amazing place! The people are so friendly, the kids are quite well behaved, although Asabe may not agree with me on that, but compared to back home, kids in Nigeria definately listen a lot better! It will be strange when I go back to Jos on Tuesday because the other short-termers, Bethan and Alethea who also arrived this week will already be settled once I get there but I have really enjoyed my time here so far hanging out with the lovely people of Ogugu and Will, Mel, Lyndsay, Asabe, and not forgetting Mercy, who is thee greatest cook! :0) Adventures in Ogugu to be continued...

Sometimes God wants you to be late!

This is the first chance I've had to write this post and it's one I really think I should share!

Last Friday, I was mean't to have a meeting at 3pm. I decided to walk everywhere on this day to get some exercise. I started walking to where the meeting was being held at 2.15pm, which left plenty of time to get there as it should only take 10-15 mins.

On my way, a middle aged man stopped me and started asking me questions about my faith and about the significance of Jesus. I asked him if he had ever made a committment. He said that he goes to church every Sunday, but that he made a committment many years ago, but that he had done some horrible things over those years, so I encouraged him to go home and pray. All I kept thinking was, I should really spend some time with this man but I really need to get to this meeting, which was totally the wrong attitude, but he said he would go home and pray.

After this, a teenage girl started following me, I kept walking, not really knowing if I should stop or not. She stopped me and said she had overheard my conversation with the man I had been talking to, and she wanted me to explain Jesus to her. I couldn't quite believe this was happening to me. Back home, I told everyone that my most important prayer request was that God would give me plenty of opportunities to share my faith, and that I wouldn't miss those opportunities. I never expected 2 huge opportuniteis inside a 10-15 minute walk!

Before encountering anyone, I was rushing to get to the meeting, and I was walking quite fast. God was very clearly telling me to just take my time. I eventually got to the meeting around 3pm, but the meeting was with a fellow missionary, and she didn't care that I was late, she was just so glad that God had given me these opportunities :0)

We all joke about arriving to meetings in "African time" and it does get quite frustrating sometimes when people are ridiculously late, but sometimes we are late because God wants us to be. In our culture, we rush around, sometimes we just need to slow down.

A little different to Carnmoney...

I just thought I would share what church is like here:

Last time I was in Jos, I went to church with my Nigerian friends and absolutely loved the service, so that is where I went yesterday - COCIN Gwarindock (I'm pretty sure I haven't spelt that right but COCIN = Church Of Christ In Nigeria)

I took Neil, one of the Gappers with me, and my Nigerian friends were waiting outside for us. The service began at 8am! I barely make it to Carnmoney for 11am! We were the only "Baturi's" (Westerners) at the service. It usually starts at 9am but I was told this was a special service.

On the way into church, my bag was taken off me by a guy in a BB uniform. It was for security reasons. Thats what things have come to here! I think this was possibly the most interesting service I have been to in all my experiences of church here. Can you imagine this happening in Carnmoney? :

The typical way to begin a service here is to have "special numbers" from the choir, so this is how our service began - The choir sang, then the Womens Fellowship sang, then the Youth Fellowship sang (Breathe by Hillsongs, the first song in English!) The Pastor then burst into song and after this the praise band led us in worship (a mixture of English and Hausa worship songs) The worship was so uplifting and everyone was dancing and clapping! Yes, even me! During the worship, the first offering was taken.

This is the interesting bit - A lady from the congregation walked to the front. It turns out it was her 50th birthday. The service was a service of thanksgiving for her big birthday! Theres an idea John! ;0) This lady then got all her children to join her at the front and then they all started singing. It was like the Von Trap family singers, only they were slightly out of tune, and so was the guitar that the son was playing! When they finished singing, she got her elderly dad to join her and then all the extended family, which seemed like half the congregation!.....The second offering was taken while the family were still standing at the front. I wasn't too sure what this was for and then realised I had just given this lady a birthday present! My friends were part of the Youth Fellowship Choir so they were too far away to explain what was happening. Oh yes, how is the offering collected? Well, you go up to the front, row by row to put your money in the offering box.

Any visitors were asked to stand. Thankfully we didn't have to speak, that's the norm but there were so many visitors yesterday so we didn't have to. Eventually, after an hour and a half, we got to the sermon. The Pastor spoke on Matthew 28, the Great Commission. They are really blessed to have such a good Pastor at this church.

After the sermon, we had the 3rd offering! I was glad when the Pastor got up and said that it's usually only one offering but this was a special service.

We finished with some more worship, reading the Apostles creed and saying the Benediction together.

On the way out of church, my friends led us over to the Youth Fellowship who always have a time of prayer outside the church before leaving. They really look out for each other and are so open to speak out and say what is bothering them. It was such a special time, just standing in a circle, under the blazing sun, thanking God, praying for different issues and sharing what God is doing in our lives. I was invited to join the Youth Fellowship, so I probably will.

It's not quite Carnmoney but I really like this church. I knew the last time that if I ever came back to Nigeria I would definately go to COCIN Gwarindock :0)

So there you go, that's a little taste of what church is like here. You really just need to come and experience it for yourself ;0)

THE FIRST WEEK

So I have finally arrived in Nigeria and in some ways it feels like I never left. It feels really good to be back here, and so far I am enjoying my role as Short-term Facilitator.

From Abuja airport, I went straight to Jos and I arrived in Jos last sunday (6th Feb). This week, Jos has been peaceful but I would encourage you to never stop praying for the people of Jos. Things could flare up at any time. I don't feel in any danger. This is where God wants me to be. If the situation in Jos did become too much, be assured that Mission Africa will not put us at risk by making us stay. I wouldn't be here if they didn't think it was safe enough. Driving at night is the only time I am not keen to be out, so if we are out at night we will be travelling with others and we wouldn't be going very far, maybe just to friends compounds.

Speaking of compounds...I am sure you would like to be introduced to my housemate. Meet Ruth, the chick.....Ok, I am sharing accommodation with a girl called Niffer (Jennifer), who is also from Northern Ireland, though she reckons she is losing her accent and speaking more like a Nigerian, so she is glad to have me here. Guess what! She is working with the same organisation I did my Bible College placement with. They really are everywhere! Ruth is our pet chick! That was a surprise! Could we have a stranger pet? She even sits on your knee while watching a DVD! On the same compound, are Ricky, Angie and Noah Fitzsimmons. They are here with Mission Africa too, so it's nice to have them on the same compound and they have been a great help to me this week. While I have been trying to settle in, they have been helping Neil, our latest short-termer to settle in (He arrived last Thursday, the 3rd. Ideally, I should have been here before him).

So what have I been doing in my first week?

When I first arrived on Sunday, I went straight to Pamela and Musa's house. They are also here with Mission Africa. They had me for breakfast and lunch, which was a lovely way to begin :) Pamela gives orientation to long-termers, so she has been helping me settle in and it's good to know that she is there to help me anytime and I can go and talk to her about stuff whenever I need to. I knew Pamela and Musa before I came here, in fact I have met most of the Mission Africa staff through Mission Africa events.

Throughout the week:

• I have given field orientation to Neil


• I have got back into driving here (Luka, our Mission Africa driver took me the first time). Driving in Nigeria is totally different to driving at home! For a start, we drive on the right here, and there aren't really any rules on the roads, apart from tooting your horn when you are over-taking. I don't mind driving here, but please continue to pray for my safety while driving, or being driven to other areas.


• I visited Open Doors on Tuesday. It was great to see the kids and staff there. I received a very warm welcome, but I did notice that it is a lot quieter than usual. Not only are some of the kids not going to school, because of their parents being afraid to come to Jos (many live outside Jos), but within the past year, one of the teachers, Uncle Sunday, and two of the children died. One of those children, was a little boy called Miracle, who was always the first person to greet me. Even though I know he is not with us anymore, I did find myself looking for him. You could always hear him before you saw him, he was always singing! So I found that difficult. Open Doors really need your prayers. They have been through so much throughout the past year, and the whole school has been affected. I still plan to help at Open Doors when I can. I love those kids so much and feel this is where I can use the gifts that God has given me, plus my degree comes in useful for Speech Therapy, and it's where I worked on my Gap placement.


• City Ministries is one of the main ministries I will be assisting here in Jos, to equip them with short-termers to help them in various areas within their ministry. They are based in Jos and they mainly work with orphans and streetkids. They have 3 Care centres in Jos, but they also have Care Centres in other areas. One of those areas is Kagoro, which is a town less than 2 hours from Jos. I went to visit the centre on Wednesday. There is so much happening in that area, ministry wise and the Care centre only ever get summer teams going there, so the Gappers are going to be spending 4 weeks at the centre and helping with the children there and hopefully assisting in various ministries in the surrounding area, including film outreach - showing the Jesus film to surrounding villages. I am really excited about this and I hope the Gappers are too. This is one place that really need help, and it will be a great opportunity. It will also get the Gappers out of Jos for a while, on the run up to elections. I will be back and forward to Jos during those 4 weeks.


• Meetings - I had a really good meeting this week with the head of City Ministries (Peter Freithiem), to arrange the outreach in Kagoro and to organise each Jos based Gappers placement. Anne Karen, who also works for City Ministries has offered to help me and give me advice. Part of her role here, is to place people in appropriate ministries.

After the 4 weeks in Kagoro, myself and all the Gappers will be going to Ogugu, where the rest of our short-termers are working in Mission Africa's own ministry, Advance (Advance action against aids). While we are there, we will also have our Gap retreat. This is the plan anyway, but plans always change in Africa.

It has been quite a busy week, so today I think I will just chillax! Please pray that I will not lose sight of God in the midst of all the busyness.

Thank you so much for all your prayers!

All systems go!

This week has been a little crazy. On Monday I went to the Nigerian Embassy in Dublin to submit documents for my Visa, came home again and then today we had to go the whole way back to Dublin...to collect my Visa! :0) Yes that's right, now I have my Visa, and flights booked, so I am ready to go! Well...almost. Thanks go to my mum for all the driving up and down to Dublin!

I have seen God's hand in all of the preparations so far and I don't doubt for one second that He will be with me as I travel this Saturday! (5th Feb)

Thank you to all those who have been supporting me in prayer up until this point. God is in control and he has been answering! :0)

A new chapter..

I thought I would start blogging once again, so that I can share about how God is working in Nigeria, and how he is using me. As you can see, in previous posts, I used this blog to update everyone on the goings on in Nigeria when I served there on my 6 month Gap placement. Feel free to have a look back and read about the work I was involved in before.

This time, I will be in more of a supervisory role. I am going back as the Mission Africa short-term Facilitator. This means that I will be facilitating short-term mission placements, supporting Gappers through discipleship & pastoral care, providing in-country orientation, assisting with teams, helping to maintain and establish ministry partnerships and seeking new opportunities for short-term mission.

When I came back from my Gap placement, I kept in regular contact with Open Doors Special Education Centre, where I worked. Special Education is something I am particularly passionate about, and I really enjoyed serving here, in a place that offers hope and support to children and young adults with disabilities. I plan to work at Open Doors part-time, but obviously my role as the short-term facilitator will be priority, and it is a position that is very much needed.

I will let you all know when I have got my Visa. Please pray that all the documentation for that will be sorted out soon, so I can leave by the end of January.

Thanks for your support,

Lynsey

You can watch a short video on Open Doors here: