Looking forward...

Hey everyone! Thanks so much for all the comments and emails and messages I have been getting. They are a great encouragement to me and I am so blessed to have all of you reading and praying for me on this trip. It puts a smile on my face and joy in my heart to hear from you all, so thanks so much! I am keeping you all in my prayers as well while I'm here.

So... the trip back from Benin was interesting, but not as interesting as the trip there. We only made it to Abuja yesterday, which is about 3 hours away from Jos. The entire trip from Okada to Jos was supposed to be 10 hours, but it took us 13 or 14 to get to Abuja from Okada... so it was a long day of driving. We finished the journey to Jos this morning without any further complications. One word to describe Sunday here was rain... it rained and rained and rained some more. The main highway that we were taking home was poorly designed.... and therefore was completely flooded. We had to drive through about a foot or more of water at one point... water started leaking into the car just as we got out of it. So there was alot more praying and trusting in God involved to say the least =) God got us back safely though as we all faithfully trusted he would. The work we did in Okada was a HUGE success. Thanks so much for all the prayers involving the work we did there. We got a huge amount of invaluable material from the students and professors there so I am excited to see it put to work soon.

I tried to keep everyone from getting stressed out as we sat in dead stand still traffic for up to 2 hours at a time. I started us on playing the "wave game". The way it works, is one a time, you pick someone around you in the dead stand still traffic and start waving at them. If they wave back, you get 1 point, if they look away or just stare right through you, you lose a point. If they wave and yell something at you, you get 2 points and vice versa if they yell something angrily at you. It was very entertaining =D We also played a classic in the car game... "I spy with my little eye" The further south we went, the more and more people would see the three whites in the car and yell Oyibo! which is pronounced O-ee-bow. It's Nigerian slang for white man and since we aren't a common sight here some people tend to yell it when they see us. We found it hilarious and started calling ourselves that everywhere we went. Derek tried to converse with some locals several times in traffic while we had been sitting still for over an hour... to say the least they were angry about the traffic and just glared at him and said nothing. Everyone else died laughing in the car after every attempt he would make to socialize with the angry drivers. In fact, we found it so funny that when we got back to Jos today, I wrote a song titled the "Oyibo Tribute" and Derek recorded me singing/playing the song on the same device we used for the interviews in Okada. If we get more bandwith at some later point I might post it on the blog. We did whatever it took to keep us going on that 12 hour-plus drive.

As this entry is titled... right now I am looking forward. We just finished our trip and Derek and Chuck will be headed out of Nigeria soon. Brittany and I are working out our housing arrangements and getting ready for whatever the future is about to bring. I am excited and anxious to see where God takes me over the next 6 weeks. I know I have the potential to do some great things while I am here and the potential for spiritual growth is even more. God taught me a very important lesson on this 4 day trip to Okada we just took. I was thinking and praying one night and realized how VITAL that being uncomfortable is to my spiritual growth. The entire time I was gone the past few days, I was completely uncomfortable. I had never experienced anything like what I was going through or doing and the result was that I was constantly drawing near to God and seeking Him for guidance and wisdom. I was really "praying continuously" as the Bible tells us to do and I didn't attempt anything on my own, I petitioned God to join me in absolutely everything we did. It was an amazing weekend of growth and learning for me. I looked back on the past and realized that whenever I have been really comfortable, and was following a set schedule every day... it was really easy for me to forget God's will. Each day was so similar that I wouldn't pray and ask God for guidance and help because I thought I felt secure in what I was doing. My comfort led to self dependency which is the opposite of humility and surrender to Christ. I hope this lesson I am learning can help someone else who is reading as well =)

You all have my continued thanks for prayers lifted up on my behalf. No prayer goes unheard by our God, so please keep praying for me and the others in my team. Pray that God leads us and directs our paths over the next weeks while we are here. Pray that God continues to grow and teach me and that his Spirit grows in me daily. Pray that I don't get comfortable while I'm here and that I would be outgoing and able to form many new relationships. Thanks for all the thoughts and prayers everyone, I couldn't be doing what I'm doing without your support. I hope to be posting again soon.

Grace and Peace ^_^