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!