Visit from team from Moody Church in Chicago

While I lived in Chicago I attended Moody Church. Last month eight people from Moody came to visit me and another Moody missionary, Claudia Long. Claudia has a camping ministry. So we combined both of our ministries by having my Senior Boys work alongside the team out at the camp, doing construction. The boys really loved this, many times stopping their work to talk and laugh with the team members. It is so good for my boys to have exposure to as many visitors as possible, to expand their knowledge of the Lord and of His world. I was blessed with the hard work of this team and their love for my boys. The boys earned money for their work, giving them such a feeling of satisfaction that they are begging me for another workday, even though the team is gone! Please pray for our Senior Boys to continue to mature spiritually and emotionally and that I will know how to encourage them as a sister in Christ.

Johnny

Johnny is a 16-year-old boy who lives in our Care Center. His father died when he was young. His mother, Mary, whom I have mentioned before, died of AIDS in June. The two weeks before she died, I spent a lot of time with her and Johnny in the hospital. When I received the call in the early morning that she had died, I wept for Johnny and I wept for the death of a young woman whose life was stolen by this awful disease. I immediately went to get Johnny at our Care Center and I held him as both of us cried. Then we went to his grandmother’s house to be with her and to make preparations for the funeral. Funerals are typically done the same day or soon after the death because embalming is so expensive. After a few hours, many of our boys came to the house to greet the family. The coffin came and in the small yard about 100 of us gathered to honor Mary’s life and to praise God that she had become a Christian just months before she died. The boys sang some beautiful songs and then we drove to the nearby graveyard for a final prayer.

Last month Johnny and John, whose story I have shared in the past, whose mom also has HIV, and I went together to the market so that they could make a cross for Mary’s gravesite. After they finished, we went and placed it at the site, along with two of our other boys. Johnny is close to his grandmother and he and I visit her often. Please pray that I will know how to love and support Johnny through his grieving process of his mom.

Update on Abner

After seven years of crawling on the ground as a result of polio, Abner is on his way to walking upright! (See blog on 8/23 for background on Abner.) He is in a hospital four hours away, but I was able to visit him recently. He is very happy, making friends with the other children on the ward. The ward is a big room with lots of beds lining the walls. There are cribs, too, with babies who have had various orthopedic surgeries. I enjoyed giving him small gifts, laughing with him, and praying with him. Both of his hips are contracted as a result of the polio. He has been on traction to gently pull the muscles of his legs straight.

On the 13th, he had a surgery to straighten one of his legs and a cast put on to maintain the position. In two weeks, the same operation will be repeated on the other leg. It is estimated that he will still need another seven weeks in the hospital. Please pray that he will not be lonely, for protection for his mother who travels back and forth from the village, and for complete healing so that he will one day walk again!

Exposure

Our oldest boys are called "Senior Boys."

They have been with us the longest and will soon be leaving us, transitioning into society. Our first boy "graduated" last month and is now attending YWAM Discipleship Training School in southern Nigeria! We want to expose our boys to life outside of our Care Centers, to give them understanding of all that God can do through them in the real world. To accomplish this, we took half of the Senior Boys to the YWAM base and the other half to Abuja, the capitol of Nigeria. Each trip was amazing and God really taught the boys a lot!

Highlights for the boys:1) First boat ride!

2) First elevator ride!

3) First visit to an airport!

4) Being served by people "higher" than the boys humbled them and encouraged them to serve the younger boys at our Care Centers.

5) Spending time with a wealthy, God-fearing man who testified that God honors integrity and that it is possible to be honest in a corrupt nation.

6) First time to see an automatic hand-dryer (pic on left).

Wish you could have seen this!

1) I see many different things being carried on the back of the motorcycles here, but this one took the cake - the passenger was carrying an entire car door! I just wish you could've seen it! I laughed out loud and was so bummed I was alone in my car with no one to share the moment with.

2) One night, on a recent trip to YWAM with our boys, I was eating dinner. I could not tell what meat was on my plate, due to the lack of light. So I asked one of the guys and he said, "Well, I was not going to tell you, but it is a chicken head and foot." What!?! I proceeded to pick up what I thought was the bone of the foot and soon discovered that it was the beak of the head! I screamed and busted into laughter. Apparently, honored guests are given these pieces. And I soon honored my boys with them.

3) Some of our boys recently experienced riding in an elevator for the first time. As we started moving up, one boy fell to his knees in sincere terror, exclaiming, "the end has come!"