A Vapor in the Wind

The Bible refers to our lives as a "vapor." (James 4:14)  My fragility, the limited time to make impact for the eternal, my wisping weakness whispers to me from this verse every time.  Nate and Kirstin were but a vapor, their two weeks with us rushing by, like the steam escaping from a kettle, yet their impact was immense. They were more like the fragrant vapor that rises from an essential oil ring; healing, pure, refreshing, remembered with joy.  They ministered the Nigerian missionaries in our group by staying in their homes, seeing their ministries on the field, and participating in every day events, affirming their calling and reminding them of the unity in God's family, of the global church.

This fact takes my mind off of the littleness of man and places it on the biggness of God to take but a vapor and allow it to have the impact of a strong wind.  What a God! This is the first time that this verse has not made me want to crumble into the arms of God, but to glorify him for making our vaporous lives so full of blessing, meaning, and impact. 

Today, Nate and Kirstin left for Abuja with Zach. 
Here are some highlights of their time with us.

I have had a dream of recording some of the many Scripture songs.  Our Vernacular Media Services team allowed 7 children to come in and record.  Kirstin got to witness the patience and perseverance this kind of work takes!

The Orange Hat, a library and resource center for children and families opened on the 31st with a prayer and singing! God renewed our vision for this ministry as we prayed together that this would be a place where children can find themselves and take their community down a new road!

Nigeria has a lot of internally displaced people.  Here some children who have recently be relocated from the IDP camp are writing a Scripture song.

Nate and Kirstin, along with Zach and other colleagues made it to the top of Gog and Maigog, not an easy thing to do.

We had a "love feast" where our Nigerian missionaries came with their families for a time of fellowship with Kirstin and Nate. What a joy it was.

Lydia enjoyed the fellowship too with Aunty who is practicing funny faces for her own little one coming soon!

Nate and Kirstin participated in a 5k run in our neighborhood.  The top 3 boy and the top 3 girls will be going with me to market to buy new shoes!

Zach celebrated 35 years with a pinata made by Daso, me, and Mariama. (It was supposed to be for Daso's party in May)

It was decorated with painted paper from pendulum painting which we created at Mariama's birthday in July!

The first day of The Orange Hat brought over 40 children who had registered.

Bye auntie!  We'll miss you.  Tonight when they called to say "bye" from the airport in Abuja, Mariama said, "I want to talk to Uncle Nate." and she told him all about the night we'd had. Such a sweet connection. They will be missed. 

Please pray for Kirstin and Nate as they travel through the night to return to the US by Saturday. Pray that they will be able to process all they've learned and have joy in it all.
Please pray that their first sharing time, on Wednesday evening at World Gospel Church, will be a blessing for all who come and also bear fruit for the Kingdom as they share the stories of our Nigerian missionaries!

A Visit

We have visitors.  They have now spent 7 days in Jos, and have had a big impact on us and others.  Today Kirsti and I sat across from a Nigerian missionary and SIL colleague named Pelumi.  She is due with her first baby at the end of this week.  A recent graduate of TCNN (Theological College of Northern Nigeria) with her masters in Bible Translation, she shared her powerful testimony with us. She wanted to be a lawyer, but, like so many students, the university she applied to, chose her program for her…linguistics.  She kept the admission while still trying for law.  By the time she got the entrance to the law school, she had come to love linguistics.  After graduating with her first degree, she served her country in the Youth Serice Corp as all graduates are expected to do.  She served with the Christian “Corpers” for one year, learning about how there were many people in Nigeria who didn’t yet have the Bible in their language like she did. (She is Yoruba, her people had the first Bible translation in Nigeria done in the 1800’s by Samuel Crowther, a former slave).  She found out about SIL Nigeria from another Corper, who had roomed with Zach prior to his 1 year service and is also now a colleague with SIL as well. When she told her parents, it took them 6 months to accept that she was going to go and study Bible translation.  She kept telling them, “I’m going to Jos to study Bible translation.” The turning point?   One day before she needed to leave to study at TCNN, friends gave her the amount she needed to go, and she bought a bus ticket for Jos.  Through this provision, her parents’ realized that this was God’s will for her, and they have been supportive ever since.  

My eyes were filled with tears as she finished her story.  She told it with such passion, and it blessed my heart, drawing me to love this dear sister even more.  I thought of when I first met Pelumi, that year of her service (2013), as a new graduate, leading thousands of Christian young women.  I did not know then that some day we would be colleagues, that she would walk through many struggles on her way to becoming a Bible translator, marry, and be awaiting her first child in the next five years.

We are so thankful for Kirstin and Nate who have come to meet our Nigerian missionaries, encourage them, bless them, and hear their stories to take back with them.  Please pray for them as they each are staying now with their second host families.  May God bear beautiful fruit through their time here, leaving our Nigerian colleagues with a sense of surrounding love coming to them from their brothers and sisters across the seas.

A War Song Revisited

The leader for the translation project walked up to me beaming, “This activity has accomplished everything I wanted to say.  I can put my computer in my bag and go home now.” We were only an hour into the four hour program.  Praise God for meeting the felt needs of this tireless worker who is striving to see his people reached through understanding the Gospel.

Presenting their finds on language use in the church and what needs to change. 

Zach led an audio Bible studies for the pastors who weren't from the area. The feedback was very encouraging as they saw the need and importance of audio Bible studies. 

Thankfully, the meeting arranged to help the local Pastors know how they could use the translated Scripture had even more in store.  Four men worked together before the meeting began that morning. Even the busy chairman of the District Church Counsel was involved.  I had asked them to sing me a traditional mourning song.  I hoped they could sing the beautiful words from 1 Peter 5:10 about suffering to the tune of a traditional mourning song.  One of the men, Mr. Peter, who is known as a great musician said, “I don’t think I know one.”  I wasn’t sure if it was because mourning songs were considered something Christian’s shouldn’t sing, he wasn’t old enough to know them or some other cultural reason, but I did know that if Mr. Peter didn’t know it, there was little hope I was going to get a mourning song in time for the meeting.  He said, “Let me go and talk with the chairman,” and as he went to discuss with the chairman, someone else told me, “Only women sing mourning songs, and the men just come and comfort, men can’t cry.” He helped me understand the women sing and cry at the same time, singing of heroes that have died, as they grieve this new loss.  OK.  New plan.

 I walked in the room where they were having a lively discussion in their language about singing the mourning songs and questioned, “Do men sing war songs?”

 “Yes!” they answered.

“Ok, let’s make it a war song, then.” In two minutes the chairman was singing a war song, everyone repeating the resounding “Oooohhhh, Ooooohhh” in between every line.  Their bodies swaying slightly. 

“Is there a dance to this?”

“No, because the men sing it when they are returning from war or from hunting. They just walk.”

Then Mr. Peter inserted the new verse from 1 Peter 5:8, just two verses before the one about suffering which we had originally planned to set to a mourning song tune,

 “Your enemy prowls like a roaring lion” 

“Ohhhh, Ohhhh”, the men chanted deeply in harmony,

“Seeking who he can devour,” Mr. Peter sang

“Ohhhhh, Ohhhhh”  came the answer. As they sang, they got louder, their smiles broader, their faces more radiant.

Two hours later I introduced the song to the group, and then Mr. Peter and the others stood up to sing.  They began, and a beautiful thing happened.  All the 70 men present responded with “Ohhhhh, Ohhhhh”, phones came out to record, the room came alive, and when I said, “Stand up!” They all stood enthusiastically, in unison, swaying, left arms raised…”Ohhhh, Ohhhh.”  The song ended with,

“Remember our brothers around the world are suffering”

“Ohhhh, Ohhhhh,”

“Just as we are suffering”

“Ohhhhh, Ohhhhhh”

“So stand firm.”

Everyone applauded.  They had acknowledged the grief through a war song, that they are suffering but they should stand strong.

Mr. Peter said, “We should do this with all our traditional songs that our people sing!”

Ah, yes, the vision was cast and caught, felt and experienced.

Please pray for the Rigwe people, especially these pastors, as they consider how they can use the translated Scripture to impact their language community with the wonderful Gospel that speaks to people in any circumstance, through the ages!

A Fighter

"Daso, you have to make your mind tell your body what you want it to do!" I shout at Daso as we are out running at 5:45am around our compound.  I am running ahead of her to motivate her while she is getting slower and slower.
The irony in the whole scenario strikes at my heart.  I just finished listening to a sermon by John Piper entitled "Teach us to Fight: The Double Battle at Gethsemene."  I pridefully tell Zach, "I was never where Daso is...I have always pushed my body...I'm not a whiner!" This week, however, the Lord has been convicting me that I have allowed my focus on Christ to slip, my zeal to wane, the enemy to encroach on the territory God has given me to fight for.  "The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak."  John Piper said this is not just in the area of sexuality, this is when we are weary and tired.  Peter, James, and John were with Jesus in the garden, but they were tired.  They were sleeping. I stayed home from church today because I'm tired. Jesus had warned Peter that he was going to fall into temptation, loving his life more than he loved Christ. I feel this week has been my warning, and I don't want to fall into temptation.

Back to me and Daso running. I feel I'm in a Gethsemene moment in my life.  Jesus has taken me along on a journey, and asked me to prepare for the fight.  I must let the Spirit of God in me tell my heart and body what to do.  When Jesus knew the time was coming, he didn't say, "You stay here, while I go and do this thing."  He said, "The time has come, let's go!" He took them with him.  Thankfully, he's a better trainer than I am.  I run ahead of Daso, which discourages her, while Jesus runs alongside me, letting me fight with him. I tell my husband I have never been where Daso is, but I am exactly where Daso is spiritually.  Daso told me she wanted to run to become a better athlete.  Yet when the time comes to make that happen, she lacks resolve and discipline. I have told the Lord that I want to become closer to him, living more powerfully in my life and ministry.  Yet when my Gethsemene comes, I become distracted and lack the discipline to make that happen.

Please pray for me!  I have always been competitive, at the cost of my own body and well-being.  May God use that competitiveness to make me a great warrior in the heavenly realms, thinking not of myself, but of His glory, fixing my eyes on him.  Might I have the discipline to release my battle to the Lord daily, as he gives me the strength I need to fight alongside my victorious Savior.  

These He May Not Devour

"Let the children come to me, for the kingdom of God belongs to them." 

I have spent two years with a group of teachers, some coming and going, but all called to speak this message over the ones God has given us to love.  The message of Christ's calling them to himself, of their place of honor in the kingdom. 

Over the last month, two of the girls that I know have been able to speak of the abuse that they have been experiencing in their homes. In my meeting with the teachers yesterday morning (we meet every Saturday at 7am), I reminded them of the lion that is crouching, waiting to devour the vulnerable among us (1 Peter 5:7).  I exhorted them to not grow weary as we prepare these little ones to stand strong and know Jesus likes and loves them and invites them to himself. In doing so, we declare, "These he may not devour." 

We have a two new additions to our teaching team.  God'spower is a young man who is studying music in Jos, and has written the song you see him singing above.  He has recently learned to play the guitar (in the last two weeks).  Dorcas works with children on Sunday mornings as well, but has decided to also be part of our team. 

We also are working on a new strategy.  We have fully activated our small groups.  We will teach the full lesson in our small groups twice a month, and on the other two weeks, continue our three class rotation with a shorter small group session at the end.  This gives our teachers times to connect with the children and know their names and disciple them.  This strategy is the result of a participatory discussion facilitated by a group that Zach had helped to train in the office.

Please pray for the children of Hwolshe, and for the teachers of the Thursday night Bible study. 

Three Friends Turning Three!

Three friends are turning three, plus one surprise turning our three to four was the party experience we had on Saturday. Mariama, Reto, and Avy were all born within two weeks of each other three years ago.  Vanya brought her cake along because her mommy decided this would be an opportunity to celebrate her birthday too!
The theme was "Create" as Mariama has become very creative in many ways. This is a story she has created (I wrote it up).  She also illustrated it (with my help) in Eric Carle style because one day while reading "Swimmy" by Leo Lionni, she said, "Mommy, I wish I could write a book like this."

We made playdough, did pendulum painting (pictured above), blew bubbles, read "Olivia", danced, made shakers, and ate yummy food outside!

There are about 60 people at the party!  (Most people were still in line for food at this point)

The daddy's crowned the girls to represent that their minds might continue to create, and put bracelets on their hands, that they hands might carry out that creativity.

Lydia is acutely aware of food in her vicinity.

Mariama and Reto

Mariama (left), Avy (in front of me), Reto (right), Vanya (to the right of Reto with her Micky Mouse cake)

We praise God for Mariama's life and the amazing creative little person God has made her to be! Please pray for her and her friends, that they would choose to follow him and love him all of their days.

A Great Woman

Greatness. A word defined by culture, subject to the whims of individual perception, in danger of becoming extinct as the standard drops.  Despite these limitations to this word, I still use it in reference to a woman who said as I left with Lydia on my back from her bedroom where she now spends most of her days, "I have children from many cultures."  Yes, Igye Ruth is a great woman.

She has lived in the United States, taught at a local technical school, invested in the lives of children, and been an advocate for the preservation of her language and culture.  She has weak knees but a strong heart.  She is raising many children that are not her own, and has helped me feel Nigeria is home.

She is the first person to offer me food in a real kwariya (gourd bowl) though everyone invites you to their "kwariya" no one has ever fed me from a real one.  That's her!  The real deal, sincere in all she says and does, offering you what she is, a great Nigerian woman full of love for God and others.

Please pray for Igye Ruth and her generation who long to see the Bible translated into their language.  She speaks Kuce, and they have yet to have a single book of the Bible published, though it has been over 20 years that they have longed for it. May God fight on their behalf and help the leaders of the language community move together in unity.