On the Job

The pictures show Nancy back on the job here in Nigeria.  Doing what she likes the most: getting children to tell their stories and giving them encouragement.

Safely Back in Nigeria

Aug 03 2011

It’s been about a week since arriving in Jos.  A lot of airplane hours tell us we are far away from Milwaukee and New Berlin, Wisconsin.  But a couple visits with our kids on Skype help us to feel not so remote.  We are getting settled and it is good to get started back into life and ministry with our Nigerian friends.

Our ministry here calls us to a variety of places but in each case it calls us to relationship building.  We partner with a number of key Nigerians in our ministry (as well as westerners) and during these first days we are in a sort of reconnecting or catch-up process.  Really it’s a sort of fun thing as well as meaningful.  Some examples of reconnecting:

§ A gathering for prayer the day after landing in Jos.  This City Ministries prayer group meets particularly for praise and to seek God regarding ministry needs.  The meeting this week included a “greeting” directed to us and everyone had a small lunch.  We knew we were back to the field as we ate pounded rice and draw soup with a warm Coke.  The okra “draw soup” is a sort of iconic Nigerian choice with its gooey stringy composition.  But our friends were kind to us and provided us with spoons.  This indicated a mutual concession: we appreciate their traditions; they are not offended if we don’t eat with our fingers.

§ Sunday morning worship.  We attended our regular church here in Jos.  The group prayer time and other remarks reminded us of the ongoing religious tensions permeating the landscape here.  The session of special “thanksgiving” and 3 hours of meeting time reminded us that Nigerians continue to devote themselves to God and to the corporate setting.  It was encouraging and uplifting as always.

§ Compound prayer meeting.  We rejoined our small group prayer meeting on Sunday evening hovering under a car port roof while a light rain persisted.  It was a good time and refreshing to be in this mixture of Nigerians and Americans.  We shared thoughts, scripture and prayed.  Each one conveyed personal trust in God and a sense for the value of community as they turned out in spite of rain and in one case on crutches (we have a neighbor with polio.)

We need to stop here and get back to the more mundane routine of getting our house “up and running”.  Our generator is again operational as well as our car but we have a ways to go.  Before signing off we ask you to please pray with us.

1.  Thank the Lord for safe travel.  All of our bags and boxes made it including an extra piece requested by the SIM office.  Give thanks also for the courtesy of the United Airlines (Lufthansa) counter people in Milwaukee.  They allowed an extra piece for free because we are involved in humanitarian service.

2.  Give thanks for many prayer partners and financial supporters.  God blessed us so many times in the US through many special people.  Our daughters along with husband Orlondo and friend Scott gave us unbelievable help.  Give thanks for new commitments of financial help although we did not reach our goal.  Pray for God to enable some supporters who were unable to keep previous commitments.

3.  Pray for us as we start into our full schedule.  Much of our work with the kids and with our Nigerian partners will increase next week.  Pray for our needy kids, pray for our annual City Ministries camp that comes up in August.

Thanks for praying and for being a supporter.

John and Nancy