My house

Lots of folks ask me about my house in Jos, Nigeria.

- The first pic is of one of my dogs, Chloe, on the pathway in my backyard.

- Second pic is of my house. I am blessed to have a house, as a single, as most singles with our mission have to stay in apartments. I live on a compound with other Nigerians, some missionaries and there are also church offices and a pharmacy. It is pretty busy and noisy. I wish I could take my yard and my house to a quieter place. Sigh. Count your blessings :)

- Water tanks. These babies are a huge necessity. The 'city water', regulated by the govt, is not always on. So when it does come, it goes into the black tank. Once that is full, I hit a switch and the water is pumped up into my 'reserve' tank, the orange one. We can go days without any water from the city.

- Mama Mango Tree. This is one of two huge mango trees in my yard. Unfortunately, the mangoes are so far off the ground that when they fall, they get busted. So I really don't get the benefit of the trees. Also, every item of clothing has to be ironed after drying on the line, to kill the eggs of mango flies. These babies, if not killed, can hatch under your skin. Yuck.

Food! While I was in the States I shared how we needed funds to provide healthier food to our children. God provided and here are a couple happy, thankful children! Here they are eating groundut and spinach soup - it actually tastes pretty good, despite the looks of it.

I had a good reunion with the Nigerian Missionary Children, whose parents live in the deepest parts of the bush to share the Gospel. About 100 kids live in a boarding school in Jos and I peek in on them from time to time. God provided a Nigerian nurse to care for them, too. Here we are at our party, with lots of coke and bread and butter - like I mentioned before, these are real treats for them.

A day

It was a good day, but very full:

- Went to SIM office to download emails, get money, greet people

- Off to Gidan Bege to meet Mrs. Gona, who has been caring for the Nigerian Missionary Kid's since I have been gone (praise God). What a joy-filled woman. We talked about the need for better food for the kids (working on it), medicine, how her own kids cannot go to school because no money to pay for the school fees, and then we prayed together. Look forward to getting to know her more.

- Our weekly management meeting of folks in charge of various parts of the entire ministry (medical, outreach, sports, etc). It is a colorful array of Americans, a Canadian, a Danish, and Nigerians. We are all trying to understand one another's cultures and today was a trying one. It had to do with the issue of money. Hmm. I hate money sometimes. It ended Ok, but will take some time and lots of prayer to really get to the heart of the matter. Do we as Westerner's cripple the ministry because we have access to funds and have to make decisions on how to spend them? Do the Nigerians depend on us too much? Not questions to be answered quickly. Sigh.

- Greeting the kids at Gidan Bege (these guys are waiting to be transferred to their permanent home in our Care Center in Gyero). Greeting folks here is super important and if you neglect this - wow - you have really offended them. So, gotta be sure to do it.

- Rushed back home for lunch (yummy Nigerian rice - food discussion is for another blog). Met the electrician bc my lights keep flickering and find out I need another stabilizer because the current keeps fluctuating, which can either blow my lights and electronics or not get enough power into my fridge. Also may need a new car battery to run my little lights when our electricity goes off. Man, am glad for Mark the Electrician.

- Try to keep my dogs from attacking said Mark the Electrician's friends who came to greet him (they do not like men).

- Off to Transition House to see some sick kiddos. Thanks to some handy kits I got donated, I was able to test three of them for Malaria - all of them have it. Treat them and explain meds to the uncle (staff in the house). Care for some wounds, decide a kids tooth needs to be extracted and will call dentist, arrange for an uncle to take three different kids to different appointments tomorrow (yeah for delegation!), meet with the head cook about the list of food to get this week for the kids.....

- Back home for dinner, a chat with Harvey, a missionary who has been here for 41 years (!) and here I am.

Well, not sure all this will interest many of you. But, hey, it is my blog :)

Girls!!! I finally got to meet our precious girls, who are new to our ministry. They are precious, trusting and oh so fun. They are all dressed up for my welcome back party in Gyero - our rural Care Center.

Presents!!! Thanks to donations, I was able to give each child a new bag, which is very helpful as they have to share cupboards.

Gyero!!! Our rural Care Center, about 40 min from where I live, is set in the beautiful countryside and the kids are so sweet. We had a wonderful welcome back party with gifts (for them), bread and butter and cokes (super special treats).

Prayer - please check out the monthly prayer calendars at http://www.webmissions.net/erinrigsby/support.htm