God is SO good!

Last Monday, I sat down and looked over finances – I needed $1300 by Friday!
I had already sold off some of my clothes, some paintings that I had done, and pulled all the tips that I had made from work. I also looked at all the support checks that had come in. Well, by Wednesday, I was down to needing $972. This was so encouraging! The next morning (Thursday), my fiancé called to let me know that one of his friends wanted to donate $100 to the trip! It was so cool to see God moving.

Of course, I still knew that I needed a lot of money to come in one day’s time. I had received a larger tax refund this year than I was expecting, so I was beginning to think that perhaps God was providing for my trip through that. If I used my entire tax refund, and a large chunk of my savings (which I had already been planning on using towards my wedding), I figured I could still go on the trip, but would be flat broke by the time I left for the trip, and especially when I got back to the States.

I figure that when God calls you somewhere, you have to drop everything and go. Sometimes it means making sacrifices. If this was the sacrifice He was calling me to make, it would be worth it, and I would trust Him to provide for the wedding in another way.

So here I am, resigned to the notion that I am going to Africa and that God is calling me to sacrifice literally everything to be there. I had already taken many of my clothes to a consignment store to sell, set up a yard sale to sell my furniture, and done some more paintings to raise money.

Then…. I get an email from the director of the mission trip. He says that one of my team members has raised excess funds and wants to use them to help fund my trip. I was in complete disbelief! It was a huge rush of emotions. Disbelief. Excitement. Relief. Joy. I was in shock.

This suddenly meant that not only was the cost of my trip covered, but I could use the cash that I had received from selling off my clothes and from selling my paintings, tips, my birthday money, any Christmas money, etc to fund my immunizations, visa fees, etc. Not only that, but I could once again use my savings towards my wedding. It was an enormous blessing!!

The way God provided is amazing. It was provided in a way so huge, that only God could orchestrate it. Based on the things God has already been doing, I would say that we should expect to see Him move in some AMAZING ways this summer! :)

Thank you to everyone who contributed. I cannot wait to share in this adventure with you.

There's just over a month to go!!

Woohoo!

God is so good!

The money came in just in time to book the flight. Thank you to everyone who has contributed their prayers and financial support thus far!

At this point, I still need to raise about $900. Please continue to pray that this need is met :)

In other news, I'm engaged!!! Wedding planning from Nigeria should be quite an exciting challenge, wouldn't you say? hehehe

Alright, thanks again! I just wanted to post a quick update on things.

Just a Quick Update

Well, 3 months and 2 weeks to go!

We book our plane tickets in the next two weeks, then start the Visa application process. So exciting! haha :)

I wanted to post a quick update on fund raising. Right now, I have raised $595 towards the cost of the trip. Thank you SO much to everyone who has provided financial support! It is truly appreciated, and I am excited to be going on this adventure with you.

But, that also means, in the next week and a half, I will need to raise the remaining $1300 for airfare alone (then an additional $1275 for living expenses, outreach, etc). At this point, I would like to say three things.

1. I am not worried about the money. God has all the money in the world, and He will take care of me - that's all I need to know.

2. It's not too early to offer prayer support. Please be praying for me and the team as we wrap up our fund raising time. Additionally, please be praying for the people we will meet and the lives we have the opportunity to impact during our time in Nigeria - ask God that he prepares the hearts of all involved. :)

3. I am exciting to see how God moves! And don't worry, I will let you know all about it! :)

Also, as a semi-unrelated side note, please be praying for the team we have traveling to Nuevo Laredo, Mexico in 2 weeks. There will be 9 of us on the team. Our hope is to use dance to cross the language barrier and show God's love through that art. In addition, we will be serving in the colonials by providing prayer and support. Finally, we will be teaching dance to some amazing kids at a local orphanage as well as the attendees of a few local churches. :)

It's Official!

It's been a year and a half since I returned from Nigeria. In that time, I have moved to VA, bought my first car, found a job, and completed all but 1 semester of grad school (I graduate in May!!). Well, I just recently found out that I have the opportunity to return to Nigeria as an intern this summer! I am so excited! :)

The internship will run from June 11-July 31, 2011, in Jos, Nigeria. I will have the opportunity to work with the missionaries already living in Jos to help serve the people of the Kisayhip village and the children and workers of a local orphanage. I can't wait to go back and see what's changed, and what's stayed the same. :)

So, the next 6 months will be filled with fund-raising, getting some booster shots, packing, and obtaining my visa. Please pray that all of this goes smoothly and that God prepares the hearts of me and my team members, the missionaries already serving, and the people we will reach while we are there.

I will keep this updated with all my adventures leading up to and during the trip.

Happy Holidays! :)

Amanda

Some Final Thoughts

I was trying to figure out what to write to summarize how I'm feeling. Today is my last full day in Nigeria, and I catch a flight home tomorrow night.

Naturally, I have mixed emotions. On one hand, I'm really excited to see everyone again, eat food that is familiar, have consistent electricity, and warm water. On the other side of that, I hate that I'm leaving a place where I feel there is a lot of need for love. The people here are beautiful, and I wish I had more time to spend with them.

To recap the past week a bit, we spent a majority of our time at the Oasis house in the village by the new property (sorry, that was a lot of prepositions). We cut re-bar, made forms, mixed concrete, and poured covers for the septic tank. It was absolutely exhausting, but I am really proud of our team. We also had a few medical pitfalls this week - it seemed at least one person from our group was always sick in some way. I suppose that's expected in a third world country though. We also found a caterpillar in our salad one night - ick!

Let me explain that a little more ... when we buy produce, we have to make sure it is fully cleaned and safe to eat. So we will bring it home, cut the lettuce, wash it leaf by leaf in bleach water, and then leaf by leaf in purified water before drying it and spinning it. So the fact that this little caterpillar made it all the way through that process and into our dinner time is beyond me. Needless to say, we all checked each and every leaf of lettuce before eating it for the rest of the week.

Finally, and perhaps the most eventful part of the week was Thursday night. In the afternoon, we went to say good-bye to the CLAPAI kids. It was harder than I expected. There are a few kids there that it just crushes me to leave. All they seek is love and affection. I pray they will find nothing but those things in the future...

After returning home, however, we were on a mission. What was that, you ask? Well, we decided it was time we learned to kill, pluck, clean, cut, and cook our own chickens. Thus enters 2 feathered friends. It was quite the experience.... for those more interested in this feat, there are pictures and video. For the rest of you, or those with weak stomachs, I do not see it fit to expound now.

Today wrapped up with the remainder of souvenir shopping. Corrie is perhaps the best negotiator I have seen thus far, and I am super excited about the painting that I bought today.

Some final thoughts: life here is significantly slower than it is at home. Water is crucial: the church's biggest request for the week was that we pray for rain. At the oasis house, the well went dry and it was almost impossible to complete all of our tasks - I couldn't imagine having to rely on that for my source of life. I know it's something so simple to us, but it is so very profound to the people here. I'm slightly afraid of hitting culture shock upon returning to the fast-paced life. I'm excited not to have to check all of my sheets and pillows for spiders or lizards after tonight. I'm slightly afraid of my first trip back to a grocery store. I feel like that may be slightly terrifying. I hope God allows me to use what I have learned here to bless people back home.

Anyway, that's perhaps all I have for now. I hope you are all doing well and I wish you a happy 4th of July! (Happy Birthday to Mom - if you see her, give her a hug for me)

Please pray for safe travels. My phone will be back on as soon as I'm in Chicago on Monday.

Another Overdue Post

I've apparently been a tad bit lazy in my blogging over the past week, so I'll try to keep this brief while updating what's been going on as much as possible.

Our big task this week was teaching school at the CLAPAI house. I was in charge of Math class and taught Pre-K through 3rd graders. The first day was insanely frustrating. We seemed a bit out of place and the kids were simultaneously further ahead and further behind than we imagined. Joe (one of the other interns) and I created a math assessment sheet to figure out where they were at in their education. Well, the amazing thing was that the first graders were learning division, the sad thing was that they had nothing memorized and relied on tally-mark counting for every single problem.

After that day, we took some time to revamp our lesson plans and decided they would be much better served if we focused on memorizing certain math. By the end of the week, I think we were able to accomplish a lot. The third graders had memorized their 2 times table, 2nd grade knew about fractions of a whole, and the first graders knew how to count using the number line instead of tally marks. I was really proud of them and all they learned throughout our time there.

On Tuesday, we took the CLAPAI kids on a field trip to the library - which they loved!

Afterwards, we took off for Kissayip A, a much larger section of the Village than what we distributed food to the other week. We met up with the Chairman of Village B, who went with us to explore the “new” territory. Very few B2B people have been their before. On our way to meet up with Ibro to drop off our passports for renewal, we happened to see the Chief of the village, who then decided he wanted to meet with us. Chris debriefed us in the car about proper etiquette when around the chief, including don’t make eye contact, don’t speak unless spoken to, and bow if you are acknowledged.

I must admit, I was a bit frightened. Well, everything turned out just fine. He invited us into his home, shook all our hands and had a great, lighthearted conversation with us, letting us know how glad he is that we are here. It was fun and encouraging.

When we left his house, it was out to the village. We were met by plenty of eager kids. Among our activities included an American vs. Nigerian soccer (football) game, bubbles (total hit!), nail painting with the girls, and handing out lollipops. It was a ton of fun. They are amazing at soccer! I did my best …

Wednesday, we were able to go back to OLA (the orphanage that is also at a hospital). It was fun to see the kids again, but also very sad. It's really hard to see kids struggling with the basics such as clothing - some of them don't even have clothes that fit, let alone clothes that are the proper gender.

There were 2 kids there that really stood out to me. First was Clay. He was in a crib when I met him; I thought he was about 2 years old. It was evident that he had a developmental disorder, but I wasn't sure what. Upon asking about him, I learned that he is seven years old! All I could think was about how his life could have been different if he had been born in the US. It was just so sad to see…

The second child was still an infant. She was about 4 months old. Her mother didn’t want her and threw her in a gutter after she was born. Luckily, she was found by a man and taken to the orphanage. Sadly though, she is covered in scars from the abuse, and it is simply heart wrenching.

Thursday after teaching, we took a trip out to the future B2B campus and hiked up one of the mountains. Upon reaching the top, Mark (another one of the interns) led us in some amazing worship time. It was absolutely beautiful! Afterwards, we spent some time in prayer – it was just so peaceful and refreshing, just what my spirit needed. It’s hard for me to think that moments like that aren’t going to happen weekly when I go home….

Friday was spent finishing out our week of teaching and spending a relaxing afternoon at the pool. Unlike what you may think, we are all very pale. Because of the culture, very little of our skin actually sees the sun on a daily basis.

That brings us up to today. Today was our day off, so 4 of the interns decided to tag along with the Gucks to go back to Sherry Hills to tackle the mountain we couldn’t quite reach the top of. It was one of the most amazing outdoors experiences of my life. We had to crawl through caves, jump from rock to rock, shimmy through narrow passages, hoist and pull each other up, and guide and support each other down. We were threatened by birds, saw a few mountain goats, avoided insane amounts of monkey poo, and found a dead warthog. It was quite the adventure. We did, in fact, get all 9 of us to the top and were very proud of our accomplishment.

So now, I’m left reflecting, apologizing for such a long post, but really glad I got to write everything down. It’s so hard to think that there’s only a week left for me here – it would have been incredible to stay for the whole summer.

I do miss you all, and once again, really appreciate the support and emails – they keep me feeling connected.

The Market, Safari, and Teaching Prep

06/22/09

Sorry for the lack of posts lately … I’ve spent the last week not feeling too great and we haven’t had the most consistent electricity.

Here are a few highlights; I’ll try to post a little more later:

6-15-09

Today was one of those days that I had to stand back and say, “Wow. I’m totally in Africa.” Our big adventure was going to the market to buy groceries. Now, yes, typically, grocery runs in the US requires you to traverse the aisles and can be relatively short. Well, Termino, is a whole other story.

We started off by circling the market several times merely looking for a parking space. Once we found it, we ventured into the market. Now, the market is outside, crowded, and it had just rained. Being in flip flops, not only were my feet all the way up to my ankles covered in mud (at least, I hope it was just mud), but the back of my skirt and shirt were covered as well.

After being yelled at in various languages for going the wrong way and blocking traffic flow, we found a spot to divide up into teams to go look for the items on our list. I ended up with Joe, Corrie, and Tina while Angela took Sara, Mark, and Stephanie to go look for vegetables. Amazingly enough, we found most of the stuff we needed at the first “store” we stopped at. Now, these stores are literal holes in the wall. The shops are made out of tin and wood and appear as though they will collapse at any second. After bargaining for the things we wanted, we settled on a price and told the man we would be back later to pick it up.

As we walked further down the “street” we realized we probably wouldn’t be able to find the rest of the stuff we needed there. Well, someone (no names will be mentioned) said that if we took a certain alley, it would take us one street over. Well, little did we know that the “alley” was really a dead end. As soon as the four of us walked in and realized this, we heard the door slam behind us, followed closely by uproarious laughter. Finally, someone took pity on us and opened the door. We walked out, of course, ignoring the fact that we had just been laughed at and were the only white people within eye shot. I think we played it off well …. Ha ha

At this point, we decided we were done, hired a boy with a wheelbarrow to haul our stuff to the car, and played chicken with traffic on the way back. It was quite the exhausting and adventurous African experience.

6-17-09

Today, we were up before the sun. At 5:30am, we set out to make sandwiches and pack our bags for the day. Then it was off for a 3 hour bus ride to Yankari for our much awaited SAFARI!!!!

We didn’t see anything too exciting – just some baboons, warthogs, lizards, antelope, deer-ish animals, etc. No elephants or lions or hippos , but it was still fun nonetheless.

After that, we threw on our swimsuits and headed to the hot springs on their property – oh that was so refreshing! We found this amazing tree to climb up and jump off of!! Sooo much fun. The water was absolutely gorgeous, clear as can be with palm trees all around – You’d think we were in paradise.

So zip back to the present, since then, we’ve spent most of our time preparing for “animal week” at CLAPAI. We’re giving the teachers a week off by teaching all the kids. I’m one of 2 interns in charge of math, so I will be teaching math to grades pre-K through 3^rd all week – who would have seen that coming!? Lol We’re also planning games and Bible stories for them: should be exciting!!

I also can’t believe I’m down to my last 2 weeks here. I can’t help but look back at all that we’ve done, and just wish I could stay longer to take part in more of it. It all just makes me feel so ALIVE.