Farewell from Nigeria

Greetings everyone. I hope all is well with you! My time here is Nigeria is wrapping up… only a few more days to go before I’m on a plane out of here. The trip has been amazing, and I hope to wrap everything up nicely in this last blog post.

Now that Chuck is back in Jos, my week has been very different than the other weeks I’ve been here. I’ve been on the JETS campus most of the time going to various meetings and helping with things however I can. I’ve learned an amazing amount just in these few days about the inner workings of mission operations and ministry. I’ve seen some of the required planning processes that make or break a project and the way to go about those processes. I’ve gotten to meet many different people, most of whom are very high up in their respected organizations, which has been great just to be able to make those friends and future contacts. I’ve gotten to see the beginning of many outreaches and projects that are sure to make a major impact in Nigeria and even surrounding countries in Africa in the future. It has been a blessing to be on the front lines of this mission work and to be able to see what it really consists of. God has been teaching me so much this week about leadership, ministry, and faithfully following His will. I plan on taking all this newfound knowledge back to UK this semester and implementing it to the best of my ability. So… the rest of this week will mainly be more meetings and administrative work. I will continue to learn all I can and allow God to teach me through this opportunity. Our plan is to drive to Abuja on Friday morning and our flight proceeds to leave on Saturday. Please keep our safe travel in your prayers as this week wraps up and pray for guidance and wisdom through these last few days of our stay in Nigeria.

Now… looking back on this trip I can only think of one word. Wow!… It is hard to summarize something like this. I don’t think it would be possible really for me to say anything that would encompass everything that’s happened. The countless lessons I’ve learned… the things that I’ve seen... the people I’ve met… and the places I’ve gone, they are all something that can only be explained through experience. One of my friends here in Nigeria was telling me that when I get home, all my friends and family are going to be asking me the question: “So… what‘s Africa like?”. As a man who grew up in Africa and has gone back and forth to the US, he has encountered this question time and time again. What he told me is that you can’t truly answer that question; anything and everything you say won’t do it justice. The only way to see what Africa is like and truly understand it is to go there. I hope many of you reading this blog, by God’s grace will have the opportunity in your lifetime to come to Africa or at least leave the US. To say that it is an eye-opening experience is quite an understatement. God has broadened my world view through this trip and opened my eyes to the reality of the world I live in. It is easy to get trapped in a box if you never leave the states. I was so accustomed to how things were there… and it seems like human nature to just assume things are the same everywhere else, despite what we see on TV or read in the newspaper. Things just aren’t as real until you see them face to face. I challenge everyone reading to step back from your vantage point and allow God to broaden your view of the world. Even in your prayer life, start praying for the entire world, every one of the 6 billion people inhabiting this planet… and as big as that sounds, it isn’t too big for the God we serve. He created every one of those people by hand and loves them just as much as He loves you or me. Broadening my perspective has really helped me to increase my love for my neighbor, whether they are in the US or not, and it has been strange to look back and see where I was 7 weeks ago.

I can without a doubt say that I’m not the same person I was when I got on a plane headed for Africa almost 7 weeks ago. God has spent this entire trip molding me into more and more of a servant who will be useful for His Kingdom. I am absolutely on fire with a passion for Christ right now. I can’t tell you how excited I am to return home and start ministry on my campus. God has been filling me with his passion for revival in the church and evangelism to the lost. God has been providing me with ideas and opening doors for ministry when I get back home. If I had to guess… and it’s a guess at the most,(because who can truly understand the will of our Father) what God’s purpose was in sending me to Africa this summer, I would say that this trip was to solidify my faith in Jesus Christ. Becoming a Christian at the young age I did, I was very immature in my walk. I didn’t understand so many things that are vital to the Christian faith which I professed and claimed to live. God has taught me so much and in faith and by God’s grace alone, I can now truly claim to be a follower of Jesus Christ. I understand what that means and what my life must look like upon that claim. I have never stood on a more solid Rock than I stand on now. God has changed me, broken me down, and inspired me with a heart of service for this semester to come. By God’s grace, I hope to let the light of Christ shine from my life on the campus of UK like no one has seen before. I’ve seen just a glimpse of how big God really is through this trip, and I am going to step back from myself and not limit the work he wants to do through me. I know God wants to do big things, things that I could never fathom, and I’m going to submit myself to His will in hopes of seeing His great love come to fruition like it never has before in Lexington. I now understand that I’m in a battle for Christ, I can’t sit by idly any longer just enjoying the benefits of my faith. By God’s grace I will spend every moment I have fighting for his kingdom and for the lost souls in this world.

The prayer and financial support you all have given me for this trip is something I can’t thank you for enough. It is something that no one on earth will ever reward you for, but something our God in heaven will lavishly reward you for. By your gracious gifts and support, God has transformed me this summer and hopefully through my life countless others will be impacted by Christ. You will have a part in every life I can impact or touch in the future, because you made it possible for me to take part in everything I have this summer. Your prayers have been so vital to everything that has happened. The prayer of a righteous man/woman is both powerful and effective, so please keep praying! I hope through some of the things on this trip that you helped pray for, you have seen the potency and potential prayer has to change lives. I hope that through this trip and my blog, your lives have been blessed and Christ has inspired you in your walk with Him. You all have been in my prayers and will continue to be in my prayers when I’m back in the US.

I humbly request several things that you continue to pray for even when I’m no longer posting on this blog or asking you to pray. If you have a long-term prayer list, please consider adding any of these things you feel called to add to that list.

-Pray for the children at the EMS school and their futures in Christ.
-Pray for the ECWA Seminary church and ECWA in general. Pray for the strengthening of all their ministries and the continual outreach they are making to West Africa in the name of Christ.
-Pray for Africa as a whole. Pray that peace and healing would come to these lands through God’s people.
-Pray specifically for the Kambari tribes and the village of Masira that I was able to attend outreaches for. Both of those places have such a great potential for the flourishing of the gospel, and our prayers will be vital to their success.
-Pray for the University of Kentucky and the souls of the students there, and pray for revival in the city of Lexington. Pray that God will pour out his love and power like the city has never seen before.

It has been a blessing to be able to share with you all on this trip. I pray for God’s best in your lives. I hope I have been able to encourage and challenge you with my posts, as God has been doing both of those for me here. May the love of Christ fill us all and may God lead us on until the day of our redemption and final adoption into his family. You all have my eternal gratitude and love! Farewell from Nigeria! ^_^

Grace and Peace from the Alpha and the Omega, our Almighty God
Your Brother in Christ,

Colin Willis

Kambari success and winding down...

Greetings everyone! I'm back safely in Jos... as you can tell since I'm here posting in the internet cafe. Thanks so much for all the prayers regarding the Kambari... the outreach was a huge success!

To give you a summary of everything that happened... we left on Friday morning and spent the entire day traveling. We arrived at the guest house we were staying in around 8:30 that night which is much later than we hoped to arrive. We found out once we got there, that apparently we took a very roundabout way of getting where we were going... and we could have made it in about 2 hours less time. But the good thing is that we made it there safely! We left the guest house in Yaouri on Saturday morning and headed towards the Kambari tribes.

We stopped first at the ECWA establishment that is closest to the Kambari. We got a brief tour of their facilities there, which include several classrooms and a church building. They offer a 3 month theology course in both Hausa and English there at the ECWA site. Their hope it that some of the kambari will attend that 3 month school in the future. This is also the home base for all of the ECWA outreaches to the Kambari. We actually brought along a large amount of clothing that the ECWA employees and students will distribute to the Kambari people in the near future. We picked up one of the employees who was going with us and got back on the road.

Now just to clear up any confusion that I might have created in my previous post, I am going to post all the information I now know on the Kambari people. Apparently there are 500,000 kambari people all over Nigeria. They span a huge region of the country and speak several different dialects of the same language. The kambari that we visited in the Arabo-Lafia region are just a small portion of the entire Kambari tribe. So... the chief we visited is just the chief over his village there and there are hundreds if not thousands of other chiefs throughout the Kambari. These people have been heavily oppressed by the Hausa district heads that control their area. Most of these men are not bushmen, they are more of politicians that happen to have jurisdiction over a particular area that contains some of the kambari. These men have oppressed all of the villagers over the past few years with fear and used their authority in many negative ways. It has prevented development in the villages and brought ruin and destruction to many of these people's lives. As I mentioned before, the majority of the Kambari people don't wear clothes. Some of them do so for cultural reasons to preserve their way of life, but many of them are honestly just at such a low level of poverty that they don't have any clothes to wear. They have been oppressed and help as this low level of poverty for such a long time now. So... we headed to one of the kambari villages on Saturday morning to meet with several different people and commence our outreach.

The first man we met was the pastor in that village. A few years back in this particular area, a Nigerian missionary came to the Arabo-Lafia region of the Kambari and planted a church in their village. He has been living there and sharing the gospel for the past few years. We met with this man and he gathered all the recent converts to Christianity in the village into one small area for our meeting. There was a total of probably 6 or 7 men and 20 children that were all gathered together for this meeting, along with the 5 of us who ended up going for the outreach. Emmanuel and Nuhu who were both with ECWA were the people doing the outreach and in charge of the work with the Kambari. Chuck and T4Global is there to support these men and their ministry with their communication strategies and small media technology as I'm sure you've all heard Chuck discuss. Speaking with the pastor, the elders in the village, and many of the converts there... it was devastating to see the poverty these people are in.

Their two biggest needs are clean drinking water and education. They have one "bore-hole" which is the close equivalent to a well where they can pump water... but that is the only bore hole for miles and miles so all the people from that village and neighboring villages come and scramble over the small amount of clean water they do have access to. Many of the people don't bother fighting for that water and are content drinking the Niger River water... which is very dirty and full of disease. This is the main cause for all the diseases contracted by the villagers, most of which lead to death because they have very little access to health facilities or hospitals. They don't have cars, and they have to travel miles and miles to reach the nearest hospital. These people are suffering from Malaria, Cholera, Dysentery, Measles and many other diseases like these. The worst part is that the majority of these people have no idea about these diseases, their causes, their symptoms, ways to prevent them, or how to cure them. They are completely uneducated about all of the things that are destroying their lives and the lives of their children. Many people there don't even realize that the mosquito is their enemy and that they should avoid it at all costs. People don't have any idea that there are such things as immunizations for measles and other things that are easily cured. The lack of health facilities as well as the lack of information and education is causing so much destruction for these people....

As discouraging all this is, it is very encouraging to see how much we can help and all the changes that are soon to take place. T4Global is based entirely around oral communication and spreading information through groups of people who specifically are illiterate. In all seriousness, I don't think there is a better group of people on the planet for this ministry and method of teaching. Thanks so much for all the prayers, the village chief and elders were MORE than willing to accept help and were filled with joy knowing that we could help to educate their people. The missionary and church planter has taught 2 or 3 of the converts to Christianity to read and write over the past year... but even with those newly taught readers... there are absolutely no books around for them to read. Schooling and literacy is something that will come in the future for the Kambari, but it will take many many years before the majority of the people are educated. The encouraging part is that we don't have to wait until then to share the gospel with them and liberate them from the diseases that are plaguing their lives. ECWA and T4Global, now with the blessing of the village chiefs and elders, will begin preparing content to educate the villagers. This will include information on diseases, to basic hygiene teaching, to the importance of drinking clean water, to prevention and treating of sickness. All of these neccesary teachings will be followed up with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. As soon as this content is put together in the language and dialect of the local people, ECWA and T4Global will distribute mobile schools to the people and begin training them to use the devices and pass them along. This program in the near future, with God's blessing, will liberate these people from the evil that is crushing them. They will be enlightened and set free from the physical and spirtual evils pressing down on them. Christ will set these people free and give them life to the fullest. Please keep this group of people in your prayers. Pray for swiftness in completion of the content for these people, and pray God's blessing upon the entire process. Pray that very soon, these people may recieve the knowledge and englightenment that will truly set them free. The great news is how fast all of this will begin to spread once it is put into play. Once the people in the village have listened to the content and begun to apply it to their lives, they will pass it on to a neighboring village, and these mobile schools filled with life changing information will hopefully plunge their way deep into the heart of the bush and the Kambari people. I can't stress enough how perfect this group of people is for the type of ministry and project that is about to be completed. It is obvious God has brought Chuck and his organization here for a reason to partner with ECWA and thier outreach to the Kambari. Please pray for these people and pray for T4Global and ECWA and the success of this program. It could lead to many other programs just like it reaching out to all of the Kambari people, with the realistic future of seeing all of the kambari people touched by the grace of God and knowledge of Christ (that is 500,000 people keep in mind!). It was very hard to leave the people and the villagers, but it was a blessing to meet them and to be a part of a program that is about to change their lives forever. Most of the adults in the village we visited were wearing clothes... but most of the children were running around naked. It was interesting to see them, because they weren't embarrased at all about being naked, it is perfectly normal to them. If we kept going deeper and deeper into the bush, I suppose we would have found less and less clothing even among the adults. Many of the children there (as most of the children living in the bush) were scared of us at first. I don't blame them since they have never seen a white person... when we would get out our cameras or even look their direction and wave, they would all scatter to a hiding place. They warmed up to us pretty quickly though and it was fun to get to give them high fives and bring a smile to their face. We left the village with our eyes opened to how real the poverty is there, but with our hearts encouraged at the bright outlook of the future. Below is a picture of one of the girls who couldn't stop smiling. Any time I would look at her, she would get a big smirk on her face like the one she has here... she was adorable =D


We left the village and went to meet another man who is working with the Kambari Language Project, which is entirely devoted to translating the bible and other resources into the various languages and dialects of the Kambari. This man was ecstatic to meet us and more than willing to help in whatever way we needed for this project. This organzation will be partnering with ECWA and T4Global in this project as well as others to come it is certain. Please pray for their success and that they may be granted swiftness in their translation process.

We headed back the next day and our travels were very uneventful... which is a great blessing. God kept us safe during every part of the journey and his hand was very apparent throughout the whole process. Thanks so much for the prayers.

Today being Monday... I have less than a week until I'll be on a plane leaving Nigeria. The time has gone by very quickly, that is certain. Pray that I might take advantage of every last moment I have here and I will be able to complete anything and everything I need to before I leave. I will probably post one more time with my reflections as well as long term prayer requests. Please keep the Kambari people in your prayers in the near future... as well as the people putting together the program for them. It has a been a blessing to have all of your support.... so until next time =P

Grace and Peace

Kambari Outreach... we need your prayers!!!

Greetings everyone! I hope all is well with you. It seems like a while since I posted last... but nothing major came up... until now =P

As you know, a few weeks ago Brittany and I went with The Gilead Initiative for the Less Privileged to the Masira village for a medical outreach. I don't have the exact statistics in front of me, but I will do my best to quote what I read earlier. The results are very encouraging, so I wanted to share them with all of you to show you how much your prayers helped in the outreach. The project hoped to have 30 volunteers show up, and we made it to Masira with 39 people. They were hoping to be able to administer medical help to 150 villagers, they ended up treating 139. Of the 139 who medical help were given to, 100 or more of them were given clothing. All of the 139 who were given medical help talked with counselors and received the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Between the people who accepted Christ when the counselors shared with them and those who heard through door to door evangelism that was done in the village, 91 people gave their lives to Christ! Along with that, the village leader starting attending a Christian church the very next day which will lead the way for many more in the village to find Christ. Praise the Lord for this work He has done in Masira village. We should join with heaven in celebrating the 91 souls that came to Christ through the outreach. Your prayers were vital to this success, so thank you so much!!...

And now I come before you again asking for prayers. I hope you have seen the importance and potency that your prayers have on our success here... so please keep praying. Tomorrow morning a team of 6 people, myself, Chuck, Brittany, and 3 other Nigerians will be traveling 10 hours North to Kebi State to visit the Kambari people. This is the anti-western tribe that we talked so much about before leaving the states. This entire project will be with and under ECWA, and will be the first outreach made by ECWA to the Kambari people. There are several thousand people in this group and the success or failure of our outreach could determine their spiritual futures. Please please please pray for this mission to the Kambari. We will be leaving Friday morning, spending the day in the village on Saturday, and returning on Sunday. We will be making contacts in the village and expressing interest to help them in whatever areas they need... in hopes of being able to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with them. Thousands of people there haven't heard the gospel which I know I have taken for granted so often. Please pray for the success of our trip, so the lives and souls of the Kambari people will come to be blessed in the future. I know this is a large thing to pray for, so I hope to help by including some very specific prayer requests:

-Pray for the safety of our team, in both travel to Kebi and while we are there. Pray that God protects us in both the physical and spiritual realm. (We have a real enemy in this world, and I guarantee that our enemy doesn't want the Kambari people to hear what we are going to tell them... because what we want to tell them will liberate them from their sin and death and will fill their lives with abundant love from Christ.)

-Pray for the hearts of the Kambari people to be opened to Christ and to us. Pray specifically that the heart of the village leader is opened and that he receives us well. (In most cases, if the village leaders accepts us, the entire village will accept us, and vice versa... so we need his approval!)

-Pray for God's grace to cover all 6 of the individuals going, so we might display Christ and His love to our fullest ability. Pray for our increased strength and wisdom all throughout the journey.

-Pray for God's blessing on all things, and that his will might be done through this outreach to a group that has yet to hear about His great love for them.

Thank you so much for your prayers... they are absolutely vital to our success. I will try to post updates on the blog as soon as we get back. Until then...

Grace and Peace from our Lord Jesus Christ

Only 2 more weeks...

Greetings everyone! Looking at a calendar, it seems I only have 2 weeks left here in Nigeria... how time has really flown by for me. I'm sure it has gone by quickly for everyone else as well though... thats the nature of time it seems.

Anyways, Chuck arrived safely in Jos yesterday, so thanks for the prayers. It was great to be reunited with him as well as get some gifts from home. All the "sweets" here aren't really sweets. People here have very different tastes, and sweet foods and candy aren't something they are very big on. I have a huge sweet tooth, so I've missed that alot. But yesterday... when the gifts arrived, I don't think I've ever been so happy as when I saw those peanut butter cookies =D

All silliness aside.. today is a preparation day. Chuck is here to teach a class at JETS along with the many other things he will be doing. Brittany and I will have to help him with various tasks, but we also have to find things for ourselves to keep doing these next two weeks. Whether that be continued volunteer work at the hospital, or somewhere else we aren't sure yet. Please pray that God directs both of us and guides our paths to exactly where He would want us for the next two weeks. Right now, it is looking like the trip up to the Kambari village is something that might not happen on this trip. We used up alot of our money that we didn't plan on using when we took the trip to Benin City with Bola for the NIFS project. I know God's will shall be done, so I'm not worried about wheter or not the Kambari trip will still happen... but I'm hoping it does =D

Please continue to pray for my spiritual growth. Pray that God would use me to bless other people's lives here, and pray that I would strengthen the relationships I've already made here. Pray that God would cover everything I do in His grace. Please keep praying for Chuck and Brittany as well. Thank you so much for all the time you've put into keeping up with the blogs and praying, it is a blessing that our team here does not overlook.. and moreso something that God doesn't overlook. Have a blessed day... until next time.

Grace and Peace

Blessed are the poor in spirit...

Greetings everyone! It has been such a long time since I've been able to post, so I apologize for that. I am so thankful for all the continued prayers, they mean so much to me. Alot has happened since my last post, so I'll try my best to break it all down...

On Tuesday, I headed to Evangel Hospital and once again joined the medical team. We did many of the same things we did on Monday, which involved going through the Male and Female Wards to check on the progress of patients and give any needed treatments. I'm very glad we did this, because it gave me a broader perspective than if I would have just seen the patients for one day. Many of them were doing better, and it was encouraging to see their faces a little bit brighter than the day before. Tuesday is also the day for Clinicals at the hospital, so a few hours into the day all the doctors met up and prepared themselves for that. There were probably 200 people waiting outside to get in for clinicals and they had to divide out the patients among the four doctors and proceed with that for almost the rest of the day. I got to sit in with one of the doctors and he went through his various patients. It was good to get to see alot of different faces, and it was very interesting to compare the difference between things here in Nigeria and back in the States. I headed home that night, completely unaware of the adventure that was to come.

Now just to give some background details... Brittany had come down with some sickness on Monday night which had stopped her from going out on both Tuesday and Wednesday. I thought I had lucked out and missed whatever bug she had caught... so thankfully I headed again to the hospital on Wednesday. I had to be there extra early so the leader of the medical team I had been working with could introduce me to the head of the surgical department. I got to meet him and he was glad to have me join in with the surgical team for the day. He told me not much would be going on that day, because many people had backed out of their scheduled surgeries hadn't shown up. That was fine with me... so I headed into the lounge area for all the surgeons and nurses. I got scrubbed in and headed to the "Main Theatre", which is what they call the operating room. Nothing was going on when I arrived, the surgeons were just re-cleaning things and getting ready for patients to arrive that day. I met a few nursing students from California who were visiting in Jos and joining the surgical team with me as well that week. Probably five minutes into my conversation with them... it hit me. Something in my stomach was not happy. I rushed to the bathroom to relieve myself and felt seemingly fine afterwards. Back in the theatre, patients were being brought in for re-dressing of wounds. Everything from horrible burn victims to patients who had infected bones were coming in to have their wounds cleaned and re-dressed. These were by far the most extreme wounds I have ever seen, especially in person. One of the patients had absolutely no skin left from his knees down due to gangrene... others had bones visible from wounds that were so deep... it was painful to see. I was scurrying around helping with gauze and pouring hydrogen peroxide, when once again it hit me. Not the stomach bug this time, but instead I was slowly blacking out. Blood and things like that normally don't bother me, but I had never really seen things like this. I walked toward one of of the surgeons to ask if there was somewhere I could sit down and basically fell on them as I did. A couple of them grabbed me and helped me to another room where they laid me down and got some water for me. Luckily I didn't faint completely, but I completely lost my vision for quite some time.. which is never too fun. Once I recovered from the blackout, the stomach bug hit again. I didn't want to give up and go home, so I went back into the theater to take on the rest of the day. I felt completely fine for everything else we did, which was a relief and I really enjoyed getting to view the different surgeries. There was a cool breeze blowing through the Theatre that day though, and the scrubs I had on weren't the warmest attire. I started to feel chilled with a few hours left that day and tried to stay warm as best I could...

I got home that night and the sickness finally hit me. Full blown fever.... full blown stomach bug... it was not too fun. I had brought plenty of meds with me, so I started popping everything that I was told would help. I know the drugs were working, but I couldn't feel any difference that night.
I obviously stayed home to rest on Thursday and spent really the entire day either in the bathroom or in the bed. My goal is not to incite sympathy in any of this, I have a later point to make, but it really was miserable. Both Wednesday and Thursday night were comparatively the worst nights of my life. I have never had more intense stomach cramps and bowel pains. It felt like my insides were exploding over and over. Pressure just kept building up inside of me, and even with the diarrhea, that pressure wouldn't release. It just kept building and building leading to more and more pain. The fever only struck twice, but when it did, I couldn't find warmth even under 2 layers of clothes, 2 blankets and all the pillows in my room. My body just shook with cold and even in absolute restlessness and weakness I couldn't fall asleep. I slept maybe 3 hours on and off both nights made up of 10 minute intervals of sleep here and there... with visits to the bathroom every 5 or 10 minutes. I was writhing in pain on my bed just trying to find a position to lay in that wouldn't further hurt my stomach, just so I could enjoy 5 minutes of sleepless rest before I knew I would have to get up for the bathroom again. Hopelessness tried to overtake me several times. I had never been this sick and at the same time been away from family and friends who so lovingly would have cared for me. I was in my room, alone, in Jos Nigeria with only the bottles of medicine beside my bed to offer any immediate comfort. Praise the Lord thats not the condition I was left in...

Because despite all of this, I was filled with such trust in God. Everything I've been through so far in Africa, if nothing else, has taught me absolute trust in my Father. Even through all the restless pains of the night, I was praying to God with thankfulness in my heart. I was singing songs to Him and I didn't have a care in the world. He helped me to realize how blessed I was even in my suffering. For blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. When I was laying on that bed entirely void of energy in absolute weakness, the Lord was at His strongest. In my admission of helplessness, He could fulfill His role of Divine Provider and comforter. When I could do nothing of my own power to help, and even the medicine I was taking didn't seem to help, all I could do was turn to God. I realized turning to God is what I should do in any and every situation, not just the one where my helplessness is so apparent to me. For the truth is that even when I am in good health and right mind, I am absolutely helpless in this world. Without Christ, I can do nothing, and with Christ I can do all things.

He has made it so clear to me here, more clear than ever before, that He is in absolute control. I can ask with all my heart for immediate healing and comfort... knowing that the Father can provide both at his desire. I can ask Him with absolute faith in His power, and with only His glory in mind for healing and comfort... but if they don't come, I have to trust that He is still in control. I have to trust that my suffering is for a reason. That my suffering is for His glory, and that maybe my suffering will help me to understand just a fraction of what true suffering is. Maybe through it I can begin to understand the suffering of the countless people I have seen here in Africa... People broken and dieing on the streets, people in the hospital, on their death beds, with no hope in their eyes, people who might have the same virus I had caught but without any medication in sight. People struggling with HIV, people that don't have the luxuries of doctors and medicines and people who don't have family and friends to help them in their sickness. How much greater is their pain. For even in my sickness and weakness, I am blessed beyond my own understanding. Even in my sickness and pain, God has provided for me and given me more than so many others have. I could not stop singing the lines from the song by Matt Redman "Blessed be the Name of the Lord" through those two nights.

"And every blessing you pour out
I'll turn back to praise
and when the darkness closes in Lord,
still I will say,
Blessed be the name of the Lord
Blessed be your Name,
Blessed be the name of the Lord,
Blessed be your glorious name
You give and take away,
You give and take away,
My heart will choose to say,
Lord blessed be your Name."

I am honestly glad I went through the the sickness I did. God has taught me so much through it and the entire experience I've had at the hospital. Life on this earth is so fragile. Car accidents or diseases or anything else you can name can end our lives in the blink of an eye. Regardless of how old we are, we have no protection from death. Being still young at the age of 19, I've realized that I've almost felt immune to death in the past. It sounds stupid, but its truly how I was. I always thought to myself.. "I'm so young, there is no way I'm going to die any time soon... I have many years to live". But that is something I shouldn't take for granted. God has taught me truly that each day I wake up is a blessing. It is life that I cannot take for granted. That at any moment, death could come for me in this world. The most absolutely beautiful thing about all this is that I have nothing to be afraid of. For my God has conquered death. Even when my body on this earth ceases to move and my my heart stops beating, whether that day be near or far... I have nothing to fear. For I have absolute faith that as my God tells me through scripture that He will create a new body for me. A heavenly body that will never die... and in that body, I will live an eternal life with my creator in Heaven... a place where there will be NO sickness, NO pain, and NO death... for Jesus Christ has conquered them all, and to His name be the praise and glory for ever and ever. Can I get an Amen?

So with that hope and that joy... I continue my life here in Jos. As of this morning, I am completely healed (and praise God Brittany was healed as of Thursday). With God's healing and comfort I turned the corner Friday night and recovered into this morning. By God's grace... and coupled with the foolishness of youth =D ... I even went and played ultimate frisbee this morning. I probably should have continued resting today but I really do love that game, and I've had to miss out every other weekend, haha. A group of 25 or so missionaries gets together on Saturdays and plays at one of the local parks, and I hadn't been able to make it to a game yet. I was worn out to say the least after playing, but I am still in good health and rebuilding energy. Praise the Lord first and foremost, and secondly I want to thank everyone for your prayers. Sorry I couldn't post in the midst of my sickness, but your prayers were heard and helped me even not knowing exactly what I was going through. My poor mother is the only one back home I told what was going on and kept updated. It broke my heart to hear the helplessness in her voice, knowing that she couldn't do anything to help her child. I know God has grown her through this experience as well and it brings a smile to my face. I love mother =)

I will be staying with a local friend tonight and into tomorrow. We will be going with him and his family to a different church than we normally attend tomorrow so I will not be playing with the worship band. Chuck Madinger should arrive in Abuja tonight and is planning on driving to Jos tomorrow, so please pray for his safety and guidance. Continue to pray that God teaches me new things daily and every experience I have here will draw me closer to Him. I really have no idea what I will be doing next week at this point... but I will update you all when I figure it out. Please keep praying, and if you will, join me in praising God for all He has done in my life here in Jos. Your prayers and support has been so vital to everything that has gone on here, so thank you. I hope this post has blessed your lives as God has been blessing my life over the past few days. Until next time..

Grace and Peace from an Almighty God

Medical Outreach and Evangel Hospital

Greetings everyone! Sorry about the last entry being so short. I want to thank everyone for the prayers in regard to the medical outreach I went on Saturday, it was an amazing experience.

The person who invited us to the outreach was Bola, the same man that took us to Benin City with NIFES. We weren't with NIFES this time around though, we were with an organization called The Gilead Initiative for the Less Privileged. Bola's wife is the executive director of this brand new organization which is mission oriented in helping the less privileged all around Nigeria. So to say the least, I was very blessed to have an opportunity like this. I was with the first ever outreach group of a brand new organization to a village that had never been reached out to by a large group... only individual missionaries. God's blessing was upon the entire process. Apparently, on the Friday before we were planning to leave, the prescription drugs for the medical side of the outreach still hadn't been obtained. Bola had called many different pharmacists and hadn't received any calls back or expressed interest in helping to provide the drugs. He spent the day on Friday praying for God to provide, and about midday he got a call from someone who had a very large amount of drugs available for cheap purchase. They also were worried that not enough volunteers would sign up since this is a brand new org. and this was their very first outreach. We had 49 people total which was entirely more than they expected. A majority of the volunteers were students at the university of Jos.

We headed to the Masira village, which is about an hour outside of Jos, around 10 am on Saturday morning. Due to various stops we arrived right at 12. All the volunteers piled into a small building on the outskirts of the village so we could get "briefed" on our mission. Bola and his wife introduced themselves, and then each one of the 49 volunteers including us introduced ourselves to everyone else. What happened next was one of the coolest experiences of my life. We began to pray over our day, and for success on the mission field, and for the Lord to ward off all attacks by the enemy. But this wasn't like prayer I'm used to in the states... where one person quietly leads the group and finishes with an amen. This started out with every person in the room praying out loud. All with one purpose but all separate prayers. And when I say out loud, I mean out LOUD. Then overtop of all these prayers, someone in the front was basically screaming scripture out loud and praying and it kept getting louder and louder and louder. It was the most intense prayer session I've ever been in, and it was absolutely amazing. You could feel the spirit of God in the room and it was whipping up such a great spiritual fervor. I guarantee every enemy of God was far far away from that room, because the presence of His Spirit was very strong. I only hope that my prayers can continue to be this energetic and bold when I return to the states.

We finished praying and divided into teams to take care of the different tasks at hand. There was a team of four dedicated to prayer that would stay in the building we started in and prayer throughout the entire day. Many of the students were medical students, so those that were doctors and nurses assumed their role with the medical team. Others were on the welfare team to pass out the supplies we brought to the villagers who were in the most need. Some were on a counseling team to counsel the patients and give them an opportunity to hear and accept the gospel before medical treatment was administered to them. And finally, the rest were on an evangelism team dedicated to going throughout the village and sharing the gospel. We all had such a sense of purpose and unity leaving that building, and you could feel God right behind us pushing us on to do His work.

For most of the day I was around the medical and counseling teams, but I wasn't in either of those teams. I was with the evangelism team, which was lead by Bola, but we couldn't get started until Bola had finished the program he was doing on basic health education. We got all the willing villagers together and Bola taught a "class" if you will on basic hygiene. Many of the people get sick because they don't wash their hands before meals or after using the bathroom and it is only because they don't know better. So education in this area is very helpful to them and will prevent many future sicknesses. When Bola finished up, we went into the village to begin our evangelism.

The evangelism group included Bola, his wife, myself, brittany, two pastors that came along, and the original missionary who was living in the village. All the villagers spoke Hausa, so brittany and myself couldn't communicate with them directly except the basic greetings we have learned. We had to use a translator any time we wanted to say something of much meaning. The only time we did that was right before Bola started his health education program. Many of the villagers there, especially the children had never ever seen a white person, and you could tell by the way they just stared and stared at you. I had a small message translated to all of the villagers who had gathered there just to say thanks for having us in their village and to offer God's blessing upon them all. Bola said they appreciated it very much, since many Africans in remote villages like that think seeing white people is a blessing in itself.

The first thing our evangelism team did was to console the villagers due to a premature death in the village. I don't know how old the girl who died was, but she was very young from what I understood. After praying with a large group, we went to one of the houses where the girl's father and his friend or brother was... I'm not sure which one it was. We consoled them and then one of the pastors with us shared the gospel of Christ with both men. It was such a blessing and encouragement, as both men decided to accept Christ as their Lord and Savior right there in that house. The pastors took them through their confession of faith and then prayed over them. After the second man made his confession, the pastor turned and asked me to pray. It was such a blessing to be able to pray over this man, and to encourage and love him. We proceeded on to speak with the chief of the village. Bola and the pastors introduced themselves and informed him of what their organization is all about and how they have a great desire to help his village. He was very willing to accept help and very receptive of all of us. The missionary who has been living in that village for many years now has had ample opportunity to speak with and influence the chief, and one or two years ago the chief gave his life to Christ.

There is so much hope and positive outlook for the Masira village. Especially with their chief now being a Christian, and this new organization partnering with them. The chief has future plans to build a secondary school and a hospital for his village with their help. Those are their two greatest needs right now, just after getting clean water. The missionary there was so encouraged and thrilled, and you could see it on his face. He has been alone in that village for some years now, and had been attempting to share the gospel to a very stubborn group. Many people there have their own religion and think they understand God, but they don't know anything of Christ. So when he would try to share Christ, many of the villagers would get angry and drive him away. It was truly God's plan coming together in front of our eyes. The way Bola and his wife very spontaneously felt called to form this organization and then to specifically go to the village of Masira. The way that the village chief had recently been converted and is now very willing and excited to being change in his village, both religiously and practically. It was an amazing view of the mission field and the successes and rewards that God can bring through that work. There was such a sense of fulfillment in everything that happened on our trip. After all of that, we headed back towards the building we started in to get the car and head back. The outreach was 2 days, but several of us had to be back that night. As we got closer to the building... I heard something that just gave me that much more encouragement then I already had from the days events. The four people who stayed back for prayer, 6 hours later were still praying... and those four people alone were almost as loud as the entire group was before. They were screaming out prayers to God and pleading before Him. Their dedication and devotion to prayer was amazing, and it was no wonder we had such success in everything that day. I want to thank everyone again for their prayers regarding this outreach. It was a true blessing to be a part of and was amazing to see God's plan unfolding before my eyes. Please continue to pray for the Masira village in the future. Please pray for the growth and spread of Christianity in their village. Pray for the strength of the village chief to lead all of them to Christ. Pray also for their material needs of a secondary school, a hospital, and clean water. I can't wait to talk to Bola in the future and to see what things are like there in Masira.

Sunday service was really good this week. The speaker spoke from 1 Timothy 6 on godliness and contentment. It was a very powerful message that involved being content with whatever God gives us, and not letting money become an obsession. I played with the band again, and that was a blast like before. It was been great to get to know the band members and be a part of leading praise and worship. Thanks for all the prayers in the area!

Today was my first day at the Evangel Hospital. Evangel is a hospital founded by ECWA, so it is Christian based and operated for the most part. I will be going there all this week, and the plan is that each day I will be with a different team. Today I tagged along with the medical team, and later in the week I'll be with the surgical team, the intensive care team, etc. The medical team was a group of doctors who went around to all the medical patients to analyze their condition and see how the treatment had been going as well as decide on future treatment. I got to see lots and lots of patients today, some who were in better shape than others. I felt called to pray for a few of them specifically, so I got to sit down by their bed and pray over them. It was a great blessing to me and an encouragement to them as well. Just after this one day, God has been teaching me alot about the frailty of human life. He is opening my eyes to the reality of time and helping me to see things from a different perspective. I am excited to see how he changes my perspective on things by the end of the week. I hope to be able to share what I have learned more deeply in the future.

Please pray for me this week as I continue to volunteer at Evangel Hospital. Pray that God would open my eyes to things I've never seen and that he would shape my mind in response to those things. Pray that I could be a blessing to the doctors and patients while I'm at the hospital and that God might work through me in some way. Pray for the continued guidance and wisdom of God in my life and pray for my continued discomfort. Thank you all so much for the prayers, its a blessing in my life to have all the support I do. I hope you all are as encouraged by this entry as I was by being in the outreach at the village. I did my best to share that experience with you all. I hope to hear from you all soon and I want you to know you are in my prayers. God Bless!

Grace and Peace

Medical Outreach... really short entry!

Greetings everyone! I apologize but I only have time for a very short entry right now. I write to you all to ask for prayer.

I will be traveling tomorrow morning with NIFS on a medical outreach to a village in the bush. I don't know exactly what we will be doing or who we will be helping, but I have a sense God wants us to be there.

Please pray that God's power is poured through us tomorrow in this village, pray that the love of Christ is shown to these people through medicine and healing. Pray for our safety and guidance, and most importantly for the glory of our Father in Heaven. Please pray for these things as soon as you read this, we will be traveling to the village in about 12 hours. Thanks so much everyone! God Bless!

Grace and Peace