Medical Outreach

The VCC community really shined through today during our 7 hour medical outreach. By the end, we saw over 175 people who lived in many surrounding villages. Everyone went above and beyond in the areas that they were working. Some were working with the hundreds of kids who were waiting for their parents or themselves to be seen; there were volunteers assessing the condition of people and checking vitals; traffic controllers under the medical tents; people praying over the patients; and some who distributed medicine. It was like a well oiled chaotic machine! Without everyone cooperating and working together, we would not have been able to accomplish as much as we did! There were 3 Nigerian doctors and an American missionary pharmacist who joined us.

Even though we saw so much desperation and despair it was encouraging to be able to share the word of our Lord and let them know that these “weird” Americans cared enough to fly across the world to visit them. We distributed medicine to alleviate some pain and cure some minor ailments.

Some of our team was able to build wooden bins that the village doctor will use to store the medical supplies that Back2Back will supply for him. His simple “office” will be transformed by the storage units we have built and the examination table we plan to build tomorrow.

Please pray for the time we will spend in the Market, and then continuing our medical mission work at the Kisayip village!!

Drilling a Bore Hole

Today we went to the Jebbu Miango Village to visit with the people of Tabitha Evangel Ministries and the current recipients of the 50th bore hole! The drill team was on site actively drilling as we visited with the people. Binta, the founder of Tabitha, shared her amazing testimony of how God called her out of Islam and into Christianity and the persecution she went through because of it. This has led her to minister to people who are facing the same persecution and exile and describes this as a ministry to "Muslims who met Christ."

The day is described by many as the "best one yet" as we had the whole day to really spend with the people in this village. We played soccer, danced, painted nails, gave out hand massages, made beaded necklaces and laughed and laughed. The children were reluctant to even smile at the beginning of the day, but by the end, we had coaxed one out of each of the children. God truly blessed the outreach we did in the Jebbu Miango Village today.

We did stay as long as we could to watch the drill team and hope and pray to see clean water. Alas, we had to leave for the day without witnessing the clean water, but was a surreal experience to see the drill in action. We were able to see water, though it was thick with mud, as it sprayed us all in the process. It was thrilling to be covered in that mud, knowing that shortly the water would be clear and clean!

Friday we plan to do a medical outreach in the village. Please pray for our safety, health, energy and wisdom in treating as many patients as possible.

Wednesday's Update

Today we ventured to the Oasis House. This house is the future home for the CLAPAI children Back2Back serves. The scenery was magnificent—it seemed that God had just dropped boulders from the sky. We climbed to the top to survey the property and eat our lunch. Children from both the village and the Filani, a nomadic people group, joined us on the trek up the “mountain.” It was amazing to see them climb skillfully to the top, some in bare feet and some only in flip flops! Once everyone was atop the “mountain” we took pictures, ate lunch and distributed some cookies and sandwiches to the children.

After lunch we went back to the Oasis house and were divided into groups to complete various tasks. Some painted ceilings, some made benches, and others dug holes for posts to mark the property line for the campus yet to be built. We worked for several hours, even during the rain, and after had a chance to do more outreach with the children. Some of us visited with the Falani people and made some real breakthroughs in developing relationships and ministering directly to them. Others played soccer with the kids.

After a long, hard day of work we were able to dine at the restaurant King’s Bite. Some ate the local cuisine—pounded yam. Others opted for more familiar food—pizza. A nice time was had by all.

Thank you for continuing to keep the team in your prayers. Please pray for energy, patience and endurance to continue the work God has given us to do.

Oasis House and Zoo Visit

This morning we were able to see the house that the CLAPAI Children will move to in the fall. We cleaned, painted and repaired several areas in the much needed larger home. It was tough work, but so much fun! We were even able to play with some of the children from the village there during breaks.

After lunch we travelled to the current CLAPAI House to pick up the children and take them to the zoo. We each paired up with a buddy and saw lions, elephants, monkeys and many others. We heard the lions roar and saw monkeys that would dance for a peanut. Very entertaining and the children had a blast!

To end our time with the children, we played on the playground. The picture below is from the see-saw. It was precious.

We're Here!

After nearly 48 hours of travel we have finally arrived in Jos! The flights were very long and left us tired, but excited to have arrived. =) The picture here is from the McDonald's at the Frankfurt Airport on a long layover.

After lunch we were able to purchase handmade clothing and purses from the Gidan Bege Widow's School, which is a ministry that serves widows by providing them a way to earn a living and learn a trade.

This afternoon we were able to visit CLAPAI (Childrens' Love and Protection Advocacy Initiative) to throw a birthday party for the children who live in the home and birthdays fall in the months of May, June or July. It was fun to see how happy the children were to see us and receive their own birthday presents. Tomorrow we will take the children on a field trip.

Thanks for all the prayers as we continue to adjust.

Friday Safari at Yankari

Today we went on a safari at the Yankari Nature Preserve. It was a 3 hour drive from Jos to the nature preserve. When we got there, we were greeted by baboons and warthogs. We got into two land cruisers and drove around for about 2.5 hours looking for animals. We saw a couple of large birds, some more baboons and some monkeys. We saw a whole bunch of elephant dung, but no elephants or other mammals. It was still pretty cool to be on safari in Africa.

After the safari we went to the hot springs in the preserve to go swimming . The springs were beautiful and the water temperature was perfect.

The most exciting part of the whole trip to the safari was the baboon that jumped in to the bus onto Rhonda's shoulder. He then jumped into Dan's seat and stole Dan's pringles can. Dan let a loud "girly" scream and scared the baboon so much it jumped out of the bus. (Just kidding about the scream, Dan actually tried to chase the baboon off the bus and it just stared at him until it got the Pringles, then it ran.)

The bus ride home went fairly fast and we had dinner at a cafe in Jos and most of the team had their first "Chapmans," a Nigerian fruit drink that is very popular.

We are going shopping tomorrow morning and then heading to Abuja to the airport for our long trip home. This is the last post from Nigeria. We'll see you all soon.

Block Party at Kisayip

Today was a totally awesome day. We went back to the Kisayip village to have a block party. We started the day by picking up the CLAF kids and packing them onto the bus with us. We headed to Kisayip and climbed the path up to a rocky overlook of the land that SSE and Back2Back are planning to develop just outside of the village. It was a beautiful day and Jason shared with us the vision for that piece of land. We prayed for the land and the future of the people who will be ministered to through the work of B2B and SSE. The CLAF kids lead the prayers for the vision of B2B building a home for them on the land.

After lunch we went to the village for the party. We threw the best block party that village has ever seen, okay it was also probably the first. About 40 men showed up to play soccer at the field with new goal posts we installed yesterday. We had over a hundred women and children show up to hang out and play games. The kids had a bounce tent to play in that was the most popular event of the day. The kids must have each had ten turns each in the bounce tent. Dana, Rhonda, Matt, Kathy & Kenzi (from Mexico) painted the faces of almost every kid. Dan, Jim, Tim & Ernie conducted a punt, pass & kick competition using an American football. It was quite funny watching soccer players try to throw a football. Cathy, Dan, Matt and others tried to lead a water balloon toss game that quickly turned into a water balloon fight with all the kids and most of the adults. Matt (the intern) & Jason and some of the ladies cut hair for about 30 boys. Eddie (the guard) got a bunch of the women to play tug of war which was very much fun. We gave away 100 pounds of oranges and a bunch of little bags of clean drinking water.

Diane and Jeanette went back to the clinic to work with the doctor. They saw over 60 patients and took care of many different types of injuries and illnesses. They will have to tell you the rest when they get home because they went to sleep early.

On the way home we went four wheeling in the bus across the crop lands of Kisayip. Several children from the village ran alongside the bus the whole time we were four wheeling. They either ran fast or we were driving very slowly.

We brought the kids back to the house with us for a dinner party. We had traditional Nigerian foods and traditional dancers performed for us. We gave the kids who have birthdays in September, October & November birthday presents and we celebrated Matt’s birthday.