Ango!

June 14, 2011

Ango! (that means Hello in the village language of Rukuba)

            I’m here and might never be coming home :)  Today was the second day in Jos and it finally dawned on me that I am in Nigeria… in Africa! I have had a crazy couple of days getting here and to be honest, I am not even sure which day of the week is (but that isn’t to uncommon for me!)

I’m sorry that this entry is going to be very long and I promise they will not all be this long (I know a majority of you are just going to skim it anyways).  I would catch you all up, but today was just a jammed packed day and I want to share it with all of you.  Today we had a morning full of orientation.  I am so excited because I will be teaching at the Education Center Monday and Wednesday with Esther, the Nigerian teacher.  I am so thankful that I get to have this experience and I met Esther the other day and I cannot wait to get to work with her!  I am excited to learn from her and be able to share with her all that I have learned.  Thursdays all of us interns will be in the Education Center.  We will be working one on one with the children and will be reading with them and help them with whatever else they might need help with. This will be the time for us to really love on the kids and give them the one on one attention that they are never able to get.  I am so excited for this time and the chance to really develop a relationship with a child and show her/him the love their Father has for them.  I am also excited to see Christ in the children and better understand what he means when he says that we must become like children to enter the kingdom.

On Tuesdays I will be doing community development in the village and will be part of a woman’s bible study in the village as well.  I was so joyful to talk with Will about Back2Back’s vision for community development.  Much of what I have written about in the previous blog post holds true to the way they are going about things. I am excited to experience this type of development and see it in action.

In the afternoon we went on a walk through the village and that is when it really hit me that I was actually in Nigeria. I know I have said this about 5 times already, but I am really excited to work with the people in the village.  At one point kids from the village all ran up to us. They would just come up, hug us, grab onto our legs, and then take our hands as we continued on our journey through the village.  I don’t think even the person with the coldest heart would not have melted a little bit after receiving a hug from one of these precious little ones.  There was one little kid who was just completely naked walking around!  I cannot wait to learn about the character of God from these children of his.

After the village walk through we went to the Rukuba Children’s Home (RCH).  Israel and Katerina are the couple that are starting this and have the most incredible faith of anyone that I have met!  They have so many incredible stories of God’s faithfulness and provision.  Their story is just so incredible and so intricate for me to share it all on this blog. The short version is that Katerina (who is German) came to Nigeria on a whim and met Israel (who is Nigerian) because he was leading her trip.  They told us that very quickly Israel knew that he was going to marry Katerina, but Katerina really had no idea until after she had returned o Germany. After only really having talked with Israel for a few hours, Katerina decided to move back to Nigeria and nine months later they were married! CRAZY if you ask me, but God is often times crazy!

They have the same shared vision for a children’s home in which the children living there would be a part of their family (not like an orphanage).  They have relied on God’s provision throughout the entire process and they have never asked for money (well Katerina said that she grew impatient a few times and asked for money, but nothing ever came of it).  They have stories of friends out of the blue saying they wanted to buy the land for them and then big organizations making huge contributions.  They also have stories that are just as important about depression, quietness from the Lord, and having to wait.  I have been truly inspired by their faith and it has been so encouraging for me to hear of God’s faithfulness.  Often times I think the vision that God has given me is crazy and I don’t even know how to go about starting something.  Katerina has really inspired me that if it is the will of God and for the advancement of the kingdom our God will always provide but we may have to wait.  We are not crazy though!

That is enough for today.  If you actually read all of this I am extremely impressed.  If you skimmed it, I don’t blame you because to be honest I probably would have done the same thing.  If you did skim it here is the short version, so just read these two sentences: God is always faithful.  I may never come home :) (the last one is a joke… kind of)

Grace, Peace, and Love.

P.S. This was written yesterday.  Big news from today: I ate a live bug!