Reaching Out

Due to the continuing civil unrest in Nigeria, the Church of the Nativity announced last Thursday that they will not be able to send a Nativity Nigeria missionary team there this summer. The church will continue to reach out and support the Anawim Home and the Faith Alive Hospital, as it awaits stabilization in the area before sending more teams. In the meantime they are planning some joint projects with us.

The Anawim Home and Faith Alive Hospital need our support now more than ever. The senseless violence adds to their already hard daily burdens of poverty and illness. The last bombing took place on Sunday March 11 at a Catholic church in Jos.

People who are ill are often not traveling to seek treatment and receive food at the hospital because they are afraid of becoming victims of the violence. The Hope for West Africa foundation is looking into providing the Faith Alive Hospital with two mobile clinics to help alleviate this situation. Dr.Chris, the medical director, and the staff at Faith Alive are determined to reach out to all those in need. If those in need can not get to the hospital, the staff will bring the hospital to them.

A new project that the Hope for West Africa Foundation is developing with the Anawim Home is building a new school academy for the children. Right now the children are taught in a small classroom that is part of the Anawim home. The school will allow the sisters to serve more children. Sister Oresoa and the sisters at the Anawim Home continue to be determined to save the children from the violence and poverty of the streets. They also will do everything they can to reach out to those in need.

Let's open our hearts and reach out to those who are suffering. Please pray for our friends at the Anawim Home and Faith Alive Hospital and all of Nigeria. Pray that the intolerance of the religious beliefs of others stops so that the resulting horrific violence, fear and loss of life will come to an end.

Food for the Soul

The following is a story by Gin Gin Dionko, who was a missionary with the Church of the Nativity in August 2011:

As my church is gearing up for another preparation for the summer mission trips, I can’t help but reminisce about last year’s experiences. Little things, events and even smells easily remind me of the people we met and the places we visited in Nigeria last summer. Just today I had a peanut butter sandwich for breakfast and that took me right back at the warm kitchen table we sat on during the 2 weeks we spent with the Sisters at Anawim.

These past few weeks as our bible study group has been discussing the book of Hebrews, the Anawim home keeps popping in my mind. At one point we were talking about how some people just live out their faith in everything they do and they shine a light on people they spend time with. “People want to be around them. They make other people happy.”

That truly is the case with Sister Oresoa and the whole community at the Anawim home. I was a witness to the joy they bring to the people they serve not just in the home but in all the ministries that reach out beyond that compound. One day, Sister let me stay behind so I can be involved with the health clinic that serves the commercial sex workers who live nearby. This is a separate one-story building the size of a small ranch house located in the front part of the compound right across the administrative offices. They have named it after the son of a family who has been great friends and benefactors of this community. I don’t personally know him but somehow when I was in there, I felt his presence. I knew the people in there was doing something more than just diagnosing, treating and counseling women who have or are at risk for having AIDS.

At the start of the morning, a woman would sweep the front of the clinic and lay the cloth mat on the doorstep. As in any health facility, there are paperwork and charts that need to be ready for those who have appointments that day. Sister’s daughter-in-law is very diligent in overseeing the operations and I saw her functioning as our equivalent of an office manager/administrator. She even joins in as the session starts with somebody leading in prayer and worship songs and everybody who are already sitting in the waiting lounge are encouraged to join in. (This is something I personally think that Americans can learn from in terms of having worship be openly welcome in a place of work, but that’s another blog post. Long waits in doctor’s offices can be used more wisely.) As the women file in and wait for their turn, the hustle and bustle fill up the place just like any other medical office. I was delegated to the triage corner to get their vital signs like their weight, height, pulse rate and temperature. That was the easy part. Calling the names and pronouncing them correctly was the challenge, By the second half of the session, we were just all giggling how I have butchered some of their names as the women would just get up from their seats and come to my corner for their turn. Some would go to the lab desk or the pharmacy room if they needed to. There were 2 doctor’s offices which were more like cubicles with doors to provide more privacy for the patients. There was also the counseling room were some of the sisters themselves were performing these tasks. These were not only for the ones who were diagnosed with HIV but anybody who had been tested. Even the ones who received good news of having negative tests had to undergo counseling to help them stay negative especially in the type of work that they do.

Some were there for other run-of-the-mill medical problems. I had the chance to sit in with a doctor a few times and she had a patient who had a recurrent sexually transmitted infection. As much as she was taking the medications one course after another, it was impossible for her to abstain form her work as this was her only source of income and she had to feed several children. I also sat with one of the sister-counselors and talked to a younger lady who works in this trade. She was happy when she received good news. Later that week, when we visited one of the hotels where these women live and work, I recognized her and she offered me a smile. Along with her co-workers and friends, she welcomed us and joined Sister in prayer and songs of praise.

I can go on and on as to how the Missionary Sisters for the Poorest of the Poor impact lives in their community. This clinic may be addressing their physical and medical needs but I know in my heart that it is also feeding their souls. I was blessed to be a part of that in my short stay in Anawim. My only regret is that I missed the day where they had the services for the children. Being in the medical field working with children, that was a missed opportunity for me. Hopefully, God will give me another chance someday. In the meantime, I could look back on our pictures and reminisce some more....


Top photo: Anawim Medical Center social workers, Sr. Oresoa and the Nativity Nigeria team
Bottom photo: Anawim Medical Center

A New Year

I received so many inspiring and positive New Year messages from our Nigerian friends, that I wanted to share a few here with you.

Daniel M. Mwajim:
Don't End 2011 In Bitterness Against God or Man!! It Is Not Time To Pray Only !! It Is Time To Praise!!!!!! HAPPY 2012.

Sunday Simon Bakut:
2012 promises to be our year of unprecedented Divine favor. Let us all cross over with a positive start and all will be well with us. What the enemy stole in 2011, will be restored back.

Pastor Ben Ochenjele and family:
May we not be so high-minded that we miss Him at this time, for His throne though on high, He dwells low with men. The joy of Christmas is in finding Him and emptying ourselves of all for Him, that He will be made rich in us. May you find that joy today in Jesus' name. MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR.

Emanuel Abu:
As we end this challenging but insightful year...I want to advise that we should all have a clear vision for 2012. Beginning the year 2012 without a redefinition of purpose, could amount to someone becoming a subject of "abuse" by his fellow humans.

Uzoh Val Ginika:
Take control of my 2012, Lord... friends, here's to 2012.


Keep living your lives full of love, prayer and praise, my friends!
Happy 2012 to all of you and our readers.

Nigerian Bombings

Please pray for peace for our friends in Nigeria. A string of bombings hit 5 Nigerian cities on Christmas day. We are glad to report that all are safe at our partners, the Anawim Home and Faith Alive Hospital. This is the second consecutive year in which Christian houses of worship in Nigeria were bombed. (click here)

Come This Christmas

Here we are, as Christians, anticipating within days the coming of the birth of our Lord, Jesus Christ. On Sunday, December 25th, we will be celebrating Christmas, which is supposed to be all about Jesus.

A lot of people say the giving that we do this season represents the joy we have in our faith. As we strive to give to others this season, let us contemplate on what true giving really is. Can we try to take the focus off of our own gratification and materialism and share with those who really have less. Jesus was full of compassion. He entered into the human condition. He experienced it. Over and over again in scripture we see how Jesus was able to "see" people. The more we can become like Jesus, the more we can see the world through our Savior's eyes. Other people's problems become our concerns. Jesus gives us new eyes. Jesus gives us new hearts. Jesus makes us new.

Come Jesus! Come this Christmas! Make us new! Break our hearts for what breaks Yours. Compel us to truly give to those in need, not only at Christmas but all year round.

Here are pictures of the Sisters and the children enjoying a wonderful Christmas celebration at the Anawim Home. Sr. Oresoa sent these pictures to the HFWA Board with a thank you for the food, supplies and Christmas clothing that we sent. The children are so grateful and happy. We want to thank our most generous benefactors who make such a joyful celebration possible.

Merry Christmas to our partners at the Anawim Home and the Faith Alive Hospital. We pray for God to bless them in the New Year.

Planting Seeds

My memories are still so strong of that hot sunny August day two years ago. There we were, the six of us standing at a temporary school at a farm at Hwol Yarje, Nigeria. We were a missionary team sent by the Church of the Nativity to visit the Faith Alive Hospital. On that day we were visiting the school named the Faith Alive Community School. The school was built on land donated to Faith Alive Hospital by a former grateful patient. The funds for the school were donated by a church that cared. All these children now had a school. It was a nice school even though it was a temporary one. It did have desks, books and bright pictures. The children all came out to greet us.

Now here we were. We asked where the water supply for the farm came from. We were told from a nearby stream. Well the stream was not very nearby and it was very dirty. I remember how we all just looked at one another and we just knew we were all thinking the same thing. Our Church had been considering a clean water project for its Advent giving program. We did not know if this could be a site we could help or not. But we all felt the same way in our hearts. Our return to the site later in the week with Dr. Chris is a beautiful story. Read more here.

The site did become part of our Church's Advent fundraising project and the necessary funds were raised to fund clean water projects at the Anawim Home and Faith Alive. The Church of the Nativity then partnered with the HFWAF to get the funds safely to the partners in Nigeria and then to monitor the successful completion of the water projects.

Now two years later, while in Jos, the Nativity Nigeria team was privileged to attend the commencement ceremonies of the first graduating class of the Faith Alive Community School and the dedication of the water borehole and toilet system. Read more here.

Over 300 people attended the dedication and graduation ceremonies of 15 students. There were activities of dancing, presentations and theater. It is reported that 90,000 people are benefiting from the water supply!

So you see a tiny number of seeds are planted that produce a much larger harvest. It all starts with giving selflessly. In a recent message series at our church we focused on how one reaps what he sows-even if many times we don't get to see it immediately. But sometimes God let's us see it quickly and it can be very powerful. Dr. Chris and the staff go above and beyond to give their time and talents to the sick and suffering people. A grateful patient donates his land to the hospital when he dies. A visiting church that cared, wanted a school to be built on that land for the farm community's many children. The school is built and now educates 250 children. Another visiting church team, that had a feeling on their hearts, took a story back to their congregation. The church had a borehole for clean water and a latrine built, that enriches the lives of 90,000 people!

The negative voice in your head will tell you that you cannot make a difference in this world. That what you do does not matter. That is not God's voice. This story shows how God can work through us and one person at a time all for His good.

Thank you so much to our partner, the Church of the Nativity. To God be the glory, honor and adoration for all that He continues to do.

I Will Give You The Words

Hello friends. It has been awhile since I have posted. I hope all of you have had a good summer. My family and I enjoyed a great vacation at the beach. The other board members have enjoyed great vacation time with their families too. There have been two weddings in our board families this summer! The son of Diane Blattner, our president, got married in August. Also, Karen Kennedy's daughter got married in June. Even though we have been celebrating and enjoying family time this summer, we still have been hard at work for our partners in Nigeria. We have a lot that we will be reporting to you. One thing I want to mention now is that the Nativity Nigeria team from The Church of Nativity arrived home safely. They had a very successful mission trip. Read about the details here. I will be posting about one of the projects that we partnered with them in the next blog.

For now I want to share with you how grateful I am to be having this relationship with you, my readers. It is an honor to be able to help in any way I can for the Hope for West Africa Foundation and those of you I met while I was a missionary in Nigeria. I do feel called and yet I have struggled with this. I came across some notes today that I took after reading a really good article a couple of weeks ago. I wanted to share it with you. The article was on introverted leaders in church by a Pastor who by his own admission is an introvert. The question was posed can an introvert be a good leader? This Pastor had long doubted his abilities as a leader. It just seemed SO hard and SO much work for him to do the part of his job that was relational.

But he makes a great point. Just because part of his work was or did not come "naturally" to him did not mean that he was not a good fit for it. He is convinced that calling, not personality type, is the determinative factor in the formation and longevity of a leader. He had always felt the calling to be a Pastor. There was the stirring in his heart and a passion to do this for God. He says God may call some people into work for which THEY ARE NOT PERFECTLY SUITED, for HIS GREATER GLORY. WOW! This really made me pause today. How true is this? Because this is such powerful testimony to God. A person's life becomes a living testimony to God not by being righteous but by being changed because you have to lean into God. Just like when you know a Pastor is shy but he gets up in front of thousands of people every weekend and gives a powerful message and he does not seem shy for a second. This is when it is obvious that people are laboring in the power of God. Sometimes we question God even though we feel called just because it seems hard. I have questioned whether I should be blogging or not because the words do not always come easily. I have always enjoyed writing but I have no experience at professional writing.

The Pastor reminds us when he calls us he is not saying to do it alone. He refers to Moses and the burning bush. Moses did not want to say yes. Moses thought he was a clumsy speaker. The Lord did not disagree telling Moses he was a wonderful speaker who inspired him. He said, "I will be your mouth and teach you what you are to speak. I will be with you. I will give you the words."

It is God's power not self power that helps us minister to others.