Win and Camp!

Thursday, the 27th and Saturday the 29th proved to be more than I could handle, but I know God was not daunted by the 150 rambunctious athletes, gangs wandering by and through the field, the late start, people arguing about who was to play next, and the sun beating down in the dry heat. 

From the beginning of this tournament in late November until now, we've seen the hand of God in many ways.  Coaches showed up to train and disciple kids. God provided financially through a company in the US for 60 kids to go to camp with their winning team.  He provided the speaker system from the church.  He also provided Adams, who was willing to invest his time and resources in organizing, and Sports Friends International who will run the camp for the winners. God has done it, shown himself strong in our weakness, and we praise him for it!

The athletes said their memory verses before they were allowed to compete.

Ready to go!

Listening to the encouragement to follow Christ so they can win in life before the competition began.

Please Pray! We still do not have transportation for the 100 athletes going to camp tomorrow, Wednesday, the 2nd of January.
Please Pray!  That the children from different backgrounds will find Christ at camp, and be agents of change in their communities.
Please Pray!  That the coaches who attend with the athletes will be vigilant and wise, and that God will protect the participants spiritually, physically, and emotionally as they are at the camp from January 2nd-January 5th.  I am looking for a female footballer to accompany the girls.
Please Pray! For Sports Friends International as they disciple these young people to follow Christ. 

Balls, Camps, Refreshments!

With the vision of reaching,
Disicpling and teaching,
Using sport and fun,
Prizes for those who won,
Balls for the practices,
Water after good passeses,
I'm seeing there's a need,
At winners camp to feed,
Oh, my, you want to give,
To youngins who in Nigeria live?

Let me know if you want to give a financial gift toward this sports outreach at the end of December!  You can reply to this message if it comes on your email, send me a private message, or post a comment if you are looking at this post on the blog interface.
This would be a great thing for kids in your church to give toward or your own children to get involved in blessing other children and youth. 

Please pray and see if this is something God would have you be part of!


 I'll post pictures of our teams this Saturday. 
 

New Year, New Life Competition Pt. 2

 Adams is a great athlete, but far more impressive is his desire to use his abilities and training to disciple others.
As he prepares to train the coaches for the New Year, New Life Competition at the end of December, pray that God will show him his message for the youth and children of Hwolshe.  May God bring the right people together to coach and lead the athletes to Jesus.

New Year, New Life Competition

This morning six of the needed twenty-four coaches came to the first meeting for the New Year, New Life Competition in our community.  This two day event will hopefully include 24 teams of children and youth competing in football/soccer, and 10 teams competing in a relay of youth ages 17-21. 

God has connected me with a young man named Adams from Athletes in Action, who is training the coaches before we start our practices with the young athletes on December 1. 

The final events will take place during the week between Christmas and New Years.  Please pray with us for the coaches to come that we need, for the young athletes to encounter Christ through them, and for decisions to walk a new life with Christ in the new year to be made! 

Peter and the Savior's Knees

He'd been fishing all night...a master fisherman, and caught nothing.
Jesus, the master, said one word, and the fish came.
We strategize, working up to the last day of our departure, working throughout the night to plan, organize last minute details, hand off to the right people, train, pack...
We have tried to be obedient to cast our nets where Jesus has told us to, and yet, we must cling to his knees, cling to the Savior, for only he can bring the "fish", the fruit, the impact of our obedience.

Here we are in the United States of America. What did our last days look like as we clung to the Savior?

Saturday, July 1st: 
6-7am Zach and I could be seen finishing up final details on the map we painted with the children in the children's classrooms at our church.

7-9 am Found me doing teacher training for the Thursday Bible Study teachers who God has sent, equipped, called to carry on this ministry for these children.

9-11 am We finished painting the children's hands on the tree and I went home with the girls
11-2:30pm We made lunch and then prepared for the Beautiful Me program
1:30pm God provided a translator, which I desperately needed to communicate with the mothers of Beautiful Me.
2:00pm It started raining heavily
3:30pm-7:00pm The mothers and daughters arrived (over an hour after scheduled time) in sprinkling rain for our last Beautiful Me before we go on furlough.
7-10pm we clean up, put the girls to bed, and pack some more

Sunday, July 2nd
5am I go to the office to print quiz questions before electricity goes out
6am The electricity goes out right before I hit print
6:15am I'm walking out the door of the office and the electricity comes back! (Thank you God!)
8am We arrive at the church to get the children ready for the big quiz!
9am Church starts
10am The quiz begins with me reciting 2 Timothy chapter 1, the children singing a Scripture Song from 2 Timothy 3:16 "All Scripture is God breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness,"  and the youngest group doing a fabulous job remembering all their quiz answers.
10:30am I witnessed a child I didn't even know was paying attention tell Saul's story of redemption on the Damascus road. His oversized winter coat hung below his knees and over his hands, but his words were clear, and the message moving that God can do and change any situation. The other two groups went, surprising me with their clear answers the demonstrated a lot of practice and understanding of God's word.
11am I recited all of 2 Timothy (except the final greetings), which God had most certainly helped me do, and I encouraged the congregation to know God's Word, learn it, love it!
11:30am We ate lunch with the Pastor's family, an unexpected blessing for this pregnant mama.

12pm Went to have a final meal with our dear friends who are currently caring for Daso in our home
2:00pm-7pm I took a quick nap, visitors came to the house to say goodbye.  One of them is a woman who has inspired me again and again with her continual support and work in the ongoing Bible translation in her own language, Kuce. She's 75 years old.

Monday, July 3rd - Two days before we leave
9am We finish a Scripture Listening and Reading Group (SLRG) training for another ministry.  I was not sure if I should go because of our impending departure, but I was so thankful that I did.  The testimonies were so touching. They said things like, "This is the best seminar I've ever attended!" and "My children were listening and answering questions.  They were so attentive!" and "I will really use this in my ministry because I can see how this is better than what I'm doing when I'm disciplining."  These leaders work with male and female prisoners, patients, female prostitutes, and male drivers at transportation parks.
11am While the training is going on, I run to town to buy the radios they will need to go and apply what we have been teaching them.  I tie in some last minute gift shopping as well. 

2:00pm we wrap up the training and I go home.
2-6pm I pack while Zach is working hard at the office meeting with people.
6pm Our dear friends Rachel and Uche bring us dinner.
8pm We get the girls ready for bed, and then continue packing.


Tuesday, July 4th - The day before we leave
10am We have a meeting with Rachel (who is also on the Scripture Engagement team) about continuing ministry.
11am I go to meet a mother in a remote part of Jos.  Her child has been a part of our ministry over the last year and I couldn't leave without meeting her. 
12:00pm I get a hair cut from a visiting beautician from, of all places, Holland, MI. 
1:30pm I pick up Daso from school.
1:35pm Go to Mashiah foundation and the House of Hope Sewing Shop to see if the sewing is done for gifts to take home.
2:00pm We go to visit a ministry that offers refuge and support to abused girls and women. Give hugs.
3:00pm We go home to continue packing to find some sweet children have come for homework help.  Zach has been working with them, but I tell them they need to go home now.
3:00pm We pack.
5:00pm We go to a July 4th celebration where people talk about all the things they love about America.  It made me rejoice that we're going to this special part of the world, and weep as I held Daso in my arms and they prayed for us.
7pm (July 4)-2am (July 5th) We pack.

Wednesday July 5th
7:30am The car arrives to take us to Abuja.
3pm We check into a beautiful apartment for the night (provided for us free of charge by Peniel Apartments).
4pm We watch Despicable Me 3 in a theatre with Daso and her friend, Reese, Zach, and Mariama.
6pm We get Dominoes pizza and enjoy Coldstone creamery.
8pm We have devotions...a meaningful time in the Word of God, praying with Daso about the days to come.
9pm We present her with a Nigerian girl doll that is dressed from her own culture as a going away gift.
10pm We repack and get ready for the next day.


Thursday, July 6th
5:30am We load in the car
6:30am We say goodbye to Daso with tears and "You are my Sunshine"
7:00am We check in and board BA for London and then on to Indianapolis (a day earlier than our flights were first booked, do to the flight being cancelled on Friday).

Friday, July 7th
8pm We arrive in Indianapolis where my sister-in-law, Susannah picked us up.

So the furlough journey begins.   
Oh, Jesus, we cling to you!
May you show yourself faithful and true, 
Complete what you started in us there
May each we left behind sense your care. 
May the children learn and grow, 
May Daso your love know, 
May mommy's and daughters connect, 
May those trained remember, reflect, 
May your Word go forth with power, 
May you be their strong tower. 
Father, we cast on you our desire to see results
For only you can show yourself strong through our weaknesses and faults. 
Increase our faith that you will indeed do, 
What you have have planned as we surrender to you.

Painting the World!

Isn't that what we want to do?  Paint the world?  To leave splashes of life and beauty everywhere we go? That is what we pray we have done in the last five years since we joined our ministries in Nigeria. We pray that God has been in full color in our lives, clearly seen and experienced by all who spend time with us.
We are returning to the US as a family (minus Daso who will return to her biological family) after     2 1/2 years in Nigeria.  Oh, Lord, we pray your color spreads, that what you have done through us brings light and life to many!

This morning, though, Zach actually got to begin painting the world on the wall of our children's Sunday School classroom.  What fun to think of leaving behind this physical representation of what we hope our lives are about!

Quizzing!

About 45 children came for Thursday Bible study yesterday, and here's what they did!

Keep praying for these young people as they quiz, and that the quiz coaches will regularly meet with them in the next week to prepare for July 2nd!

Pray that the truth of the Scriptures they've learned and the Bible stories will sink deeply into their hearts.
Praise God for the faithful teachers that come and devote themselves to these little ones!

There are three age levels.  This is the middle group.

This is Mariama's group.  Ms. Maria did a great job of singing, telling stories, and loving them.

The teenage group has the most questions on 2 Timothy, all our Bible stories learned, and the Bible verses.

Happy is a good name for this girl on the left, and she's a good quizzer too!

Lessons from Luke

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Karen Jackson in 2005

The teachers laughed, giggled, and shouted as they competed on teams to answer the review questions of the Bible story I had told them during the training.  Children stood at the doorway and windows smiling widely, wondering at these childlike teachers!  My prayer is that they will have that same delight and more as these teachers teach them the “Lessons from Luke” Curriculum. 

It gives me such joy to be training in this curriculum.  What, you might ask, makes this curriculum so special?  8 years ago, I remember a dear friend of mine, Karen, at her desk in Bamenda writing lessons she and her husband, Chris, prayed would be transformative in the lives of children, leading them into a deep relationship with Christ.   She worked in Cameroon for 19 years, knowing the risk it was to her body in spite of a rare illness that gave her continual pain and half the energy that a healthy person would have.  I never knew a more joyful woman. Today, that friend is with her beloved Jesus, but her husband has continued to work in Cameroon, training teachers to impact the lives of children through the power of God’s word.  The Cameroon Baptist Convention has adopted this curriculum for all of her 1,000 churches, impacting thousands and thousands of young hearts.  I’m glad to be part of Karen’s legacy, and Chris’ continued heart work.    

I have two more mornings with these teachers before we leave.  Please pray that the Thursday Bible study teachers of ECWA Gigiring Hwolshe will be excited about teaching children effectively and will put into practice the methods that are being taught.   Pray that all of Hwolshe (our neighborhood) will know Christ better as a result of these committed Christians walking with these children as they learn to walk with Jesus.

Painting

Purple, green, and blue are the colors we’ve bought to decorate the children’s classrooms at the church before we leave.  This is so exciting and fun!  Our main artists will be the teenage class.  I pray that we are able to finish it well and that it will be a joyful place for the children to learn! 

Can't wait to post pictures! 

Bible Quiz

July 2^nd is the big day for the Thursday Bible study kids who have been studying for a Bible quiz (mostly in English) in ECWA Gigiring Hwolshe.  We have been learning stories and Scripture songs over the last year which will form the questions they will answer with the prize of a Bible for the first three quizzers in three different age brackets.  The teenage class has been challenged with a variety of questions that come out of 2 Timothy, which they have been studying (and hopefully memorizing). This is something I have wanted to do for a long time, so please do pray with us for this special time.  The Pastor has given us the whole sermon time for this activity, a unique privilege on our last Sunday in Nigeria this year.

I praise God for such a supportive church family, the teachers who have sacrificed their time to be there, and every child who has learned God’s stories.

I pray that the Bible quiz will not just be questions and answers jammed in their heads, but life truths that they live for the rest of their lives. 

I pray that as I recite 2 Timothy, the children present Scripture songs and learned Bible stories, that the word of God touches many people's hearts and challenges them to engage in new ways! 

Some of the teachers of Thursday Bible study

 

Healing

Working through the process with Nnena to choreograph a dance drama rekindled the vision of why Beautiful Me started.  It’s about healing and wholeness. As we created the soundtrack, finding the right traditional African rhythm to match each character and their role in the life of the main dancer (Nnena), I saw and felt the violence, the pain, the healing.  Tears many times blurred my screen as I visualized the abusive “uncle” next door, the angry, accusing mother (danced by me), the lies girls tell themselves about their bodies.  Then I got to enter, as the guy who our torn and tattered girl comes to love and loves her. We broke out from traditional African dance to Salsa, romantic and joyful…until she shows me her “heart” (represented by a white flower whose petals had been removed by abusers in her life).  I refused it…I walked away… only to return, bring her to her knees before God, help hold her up, and participate in her healing.

It is my longing for every woman who has been battered to have people in their lives who will help them come to restoration in Christ.  It’s my deepest desire that the mothers who came on Saturday and witnessed this dance and a number of other skits and activities, would start a journey to healing and guarding their girls.  We discussed how we guard each other’s hearts, how the heart and body are connected, and brought into the light issues of sexual and physical abuse.

Please pray for these mother’s and daughters as they continue to reflect on these things.  Based on the activity of declaring before each other “what I will do to guard my daughter’s heart” it was clear that some messages were not understood.  I am pleading before the Lord to open eyes, and make soft what has been hardened by years of pain and lies.

First appointments today and tomorrow... and a special program on Saturday

May 25-26:  Today and tomorrow each of the four coaches (including Zach) will go for our first appointments with potential ministry partners along with our small groups of new missionaries. Please pray that the sixteen appointments (four each) will hold and that God teaches us what he wants to through these appointments. Thank God for each of the people who agreed to meet with us.  Please pray that our visit is a blessing to them.

May 27: On Saturday, Christy and four other women will host the "Beautiful Me" program for mothers and daughters. Thank God for the faithfulness of some of the mothers to come and fully participate. Please pray that all the mothers prioritize coming with their daughters. Please pray for good understanding as they talk about purity--mind, body, and spirit.

Unexpected in "Bethlehem"

On sunday, the 11th, the congregants were more unruly than the 4-year-old sheep as they wanted to wander from the market road in “Bethlehem” and traipse through the market, but the sellers urged, shouted, “sold” on, and even got some contributions!

The star fell from the sky onto the manger which had been relocated for safety purposes when the ram wanted to live up to it’s name and sent me squealing down the hill.  I wonder if there were any charging rams among the shepherds that night and if the angels had to do some dodging.  


Oh, and the angels!  Daso signaled them to come running from all sides of the church yard after Gabriel’s initial announcement, and they came!  With victorious, celebratory cries of delight for the new born king before they broke into a Hausa chorus complete with lively dance.    The “Gloooo---oooo-oooo-ria filled the yard and they declared “Peace!” before returning to heaven once again with jubilant cries. 

As Bethlehem that night was too busy for their king, wrapped up in the social demands of the census rush, the congregants on Sunday dutifully carried out their social demands of greeting each other cheerfully, shaking hands with a heartily spoken series of questions through the majority of the short re-enactment.

The culmination of Mary and Joseph coming to the center of the church yard amidst a mob of children and “visitors to Bethlehem” singing in Hausa and English “Oh come let us adore him” was surprisingly worshipful.   For the first time that morning, everyone was focused and together, around the baby, symbolizing what the church is meant to be! Abrubtly, an upbeat “Emmanuel, Emmanuel, Wonderful Counselor” took us dancing and singing “Emmanuel” in call and response into the sanctuary where the 9 lessons and carols service commenced.

So God’s marvelously exciting story unfolded in our small neighborhood.  The unexpected happened, as did that original night in Bethlehem, for the author of this story is full of the unexpected!

Oh Bethlehem!

Some sweet girls sewing angel wings today at the house

Chant this to a good rhythm:
Bethlehem, Bethlehem,
Mary, Joseph enter in
to Bethlehem, Bethlehem.
A baby king coming
to Bethlehem, Bethlehem.
No place for them,
no place for them,
in Bethlehem, Bethlehem
They go to sleep
with the cows and sheep?
In Bethlehem, Bethlehem

Now add to those words 15 children walking through a rusted metal gate into a spacious courtyard scattered with 50 more children children (a little distracted, twirling around, but mostly in their places and ready) to recreate that busy Bethlehem.  There are sellers of clothing, bedding, and common Nigerian foods. There is a registrar, tax collector, angels waiting behind buildings appear, shepherds by a fire near some big rocks, innkeepers inviting people to warm, comfortable rooms.  Our hope is that the visitors on Sunday morning will be bombarded by the business of Bethlehem, emboldened by the stinky shepherds making their way to the manger, and humbled by the wise men who recognized the baby king.

Tomorrow morning we have our last rehearsal... one of three. There's still a lot to be done.  Please pray for the children, me, our 5 helpers, and all those who will be attending Sunday morning worship both regular attenders, and those invited by the children as they go on their way through the streets of the small neighborhood to "Bethlehem." My greatest desire is to bring wonder back into this quirky, fantastic, history changing, heart transforming story and help people experience it again for the first time.  

Beautiful Beginning to Beautiful Me

I get to be one of the mommy's too! I was surprised at how much Daso shone as we sat there in our special place...she's so shiny anyway, but she felt the tenderness of this moment.

Auntie Mary Jane is a "mommy" for her neighbor. 

Taking in the beautiful sight of the mothers and daughters in the Beautiful Me program spread over our compound on blankets and picnic tables on their first “date” gave me hope of new beginnings, of nourishing relationships that foster life, like a well in a dry place. Yes, that’s it, Jos is in dry season, and I feel the onset of dry season like a weight, as those of you in cold climates feel in the middle of a long winter, but this…this beginning makes me want to drink deeply with blessed anticipation.  That squeezing of the heart, as if it wants to jump about with excitement yet cautious, considering the ache of our broken world.

We had a three legged race, representing, them and God, “the strand of three that is not easily broken.”  Their arms around each other, counting, working to run the race, brought tears! The mother’s eyes were shining as they came in from being on their 20 minute “date” with their daughters.  The daughters excitedly retold the stories their mother’s had shared of their tweenhood with them. Something new had happened, and only God knows where he’s taking these special women and their girls.

What a blessing to have so many praying with us.  As we leaders stood together in the kitchen, eating the dinner we had just served to our special guests, we gave a sigh of relief. “That was the best one yet!  To the point and meaningful!” Mary Jane exclaimed. Praise God!

Our next meeting is November 26^th. Please do continue to pray with us as we plan for our next meeting.  We will also be visiting the homes of the Beautiful Me ladies this month.  May God give us all precious relationships, binding us together on our mission to become the women God wants us to be.

Chosen and Beautiful

Tonight we had our final meeting before the big start of “Beautiful Me” tomorrow, Saturday, October 29, with 12 new girls and their mothers, ranging from ages 10-12 (tweens, as a book I’m reading calls them).  These girls come from vary diverse backgrounds.  Some are “housegirls” brought from villages to work in the city, and their “mothers” are the ladies of the house where they’re working.  (This is a very common practice and, in some cases, even expected.) Some of them are granddaughters who are living with their grandmothers. A couple are orphans who will come with an Aunty, older sister, or grandmother.  We have girls who read far beyond their grade level and girls who can’t read or speak English at all.  We have mothers who speak Hausa and their mother tongue, but don’t read and mothers who are highly educated and speak multiple languages, including English.  As leaders we said we are “excited” and “hopeful.” 

Please pray that in this year (we have the program 1x a month), these girls will believe and be sure of these statements:

I am beautiful,

I am created and loved by God,

I am made to love God, myself, and my mother/daughter,  

God makes me pure in Jesus and I can live pure in Him.        

I have had many opportunities to know these girls through Bibles study and literacy classes.

Because of Daso, I get to be a "mommy" and be challenged to love my daughter well in her tween years!

On the right, Miracle looks unsure, but in reality she is vibrant and delightful!

Nandir visits our home regularly and always brings with her extra doses of energy.

Asabe is one of our sweeties who attends school with Daso this year.  We have enjoyed watching her grow in wisdom and beauty over the last 4 years. I'm always touched when I see the little girls in my big girls.  This smile and her laugh on her first tire swing ride was priceless!

In the singing and dancing, games, demonstrations, the story of Esther, and the "date" outside in our compound, we pray that God will speak to both the girls and the mothers of their worth in Him and their need for each other. 

God has put together a dynamic team. On the left above is Aunty Mary Jane (Daso in the middle is a participant in the program with her mommy (me) this year), on the right above is Aunty MaryAnn, and to the right with her contagious smile is Aunty Margaret.  Pray that God will unite us and give us vision. 

Thank you for praying.  We know God can do anything, and we are believing him for some miracles tomorrow!

Finale

"You knit me together in my mother's womb, I am beautifully and wonderfully made!"  The mothers and daughters sang out together in our final meeting on Saturday.  Many of you have prayed with us as we've walked with these young women and their mothers over the past year.  It has been strengthening,  encouraging, challenging, and rewarding at the same time.  We realize we have a lot of work to do to make this "Beautiful Me" program everything it can be, but we also realize that God is doing things we cannot see in the lives of these young women.

They made certificates that stated:
I want to be a ____________________ woman.  So, I will...

Each girl and each mother were presented with their certificate and we exclaimed "You are a beautiful woman!"

It was exciting to hear them talking concretely about how they can be the woman God wants them to be.

Please pray for these girls as they continue this journey with their mother's.  We pray they will continue in relationship with us as well.

Please pray for the next group of eleven girls (ages 10-12) who will begin the "Beautiful Me" program with their mothers on Saturday, October 29th.   A number of the new girls don't have mothers in their lives, so please pray that we find women who will walk along side them faithfully as they, too, develop into the women God wants them to be.
  

Children's Outreach

The children boldly proclaimed the Gospel and called onlookers and passerby's to take a second look at the message of Christ through Scripture songs from Hebrews 11:1 (Faith), 2 Timothy 4:12 (being an example), Revelation 2 (Here I am), and Romans 8:38-39 (Nothing, in Hausa).  This was followed by a drama that touched many, as was reflected in discussions with onlookers after the children finished their presentations.

Praise God! These children WERE an example for all of us.  Now we must pray for those who made decisions for Christ and those who have the drama and songs running through their minds.  May it touch their hearts and may they run to Jesus.

Asabe is home!

After 6 nights in the hospital, Asabe was sent home yesterday looking happy and healthy.  Thank you for praying. A lightness swept over me as I left the hospital yesterday.  Praise God!  More about the daily visits and the experience later.

Purity Olympics

What do you get when you have:
4 mother daughter teams
Dance competition
Finger "Sword Fighting" competitions that illustrate our fight for purity
Powerfuly Scriptures that show us how to fight
A Scripture scavenger hunt to neighborhood shops
and
A prize so two mother/daughter teams can have a special mother/daughter date?

Purity Olympics! 

Our "Olympic teams" ran from house to house, gathering momentum as we picked up the teams.  Later in the evening, when the winners had been announced, we gathered to close the evening. 
In the middle of my living room, the group of mothers and daughters stomped rhythmically while we chanted: 

"Bunzubo, Enye ba, enye ba (Yoruba war chant)
My body's for the Lord
I'm a woman of the Word
I'm gonna fight, fight, fight for my purity
So I'm beautiful
Like God wants me to be!"


Please pray for these girls who God has laid on our hearts.  God has given me a beautiful team of 3 ladies who love, pray for, and plan with me for fun purity events.  This was our 7th monthly meeting, and we don't have a good way of knowing if change is happening, if concepts are being grasped.  We want so much for these girls to know they have a choice to follow God in his loving, freeing guide for life-giving relationships.  We want them to know how high, deep, wide, and long the love of Christ is for them, that they don't have to go looking for it anywhere else but they can trust HIM to provide love in his way and in HIS time!  Please pray for their mothers , that they will fight with their girls for purity, and that as a team, they can be victorious and free to love their world!