July 17, 2003
FSM 338 CM/FM
5/99
Copyright © 1999 by The Family
From Eva, Kenya:
When we told people we were going to Nairobi by road from Cape Town, most of their reactions were, "You are very brave." But I think a few must have thought I was crazy, especially because I am a single mom.
I have had a burden to move deeper into Africa for some time now. As I was desperately praying for direction and where the Lord wanted me to be, He reminded me of a want ad for personnel in a home in Nairobi. The Lord opened the door there, and after hearing from the Lord we decided to get a four-wheel-drive vehicle and go by road to Kenya. To the surprise of some, it was my burden to get a good vehicle and see some of Africa, instead of raising funds to just fly there the usual way.
We started raising funds for a four by four and the Lord supplied one very quickly. My son Ben noticed an ad posted in town by some Swiss brothers who were going back to Europe. They were selling a good `91 camping van. They had wanted to print their ad, but the newspaper somehow forgot it. We knew that the Lord wanted us to have it, as it was going at a very good price and it was exactly what we needed!
Although an import model, those who sold it to us said most parts were available. It needed a new windscreen, which our contact said wasn't available in South Africa. They then phoned back in a few days and said they had just the one; it had been ordered by mistake two years before and it was sitting in the warehouse for us. Praise the Lord! We had the car serviced, the body touched up and re-sprayed for free by our precious contacts, and we were ready to go!
We (Eva and two girls, Jasmine, age 13 and Maria, 15) started from Cape Town with the van fully equipped with witnessing tools, extra diesel tanks, water filter, roof tent, camping stove, etc., plus all our personal things. We were a bit sad to say good-bye to our dear family, friends, and contacts and to leave our two dogs behind to go to our new mission field. But after prayer and claiming the Lord's promises, we were ready to depart with 150 Rand (about $25) and a full tank of donated diesel! The Lord gave us Ps. 32:8: "I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way that thou shalt go."
Our first night we stayed in a farming town and went to see a few friends and contacts we had from previous visits there. We left the next morning and got as far as a small town on the main route north called &&&Richmond, where the Lord supplied a comfortable room and a nice hot meal. The next day we stayed in Bethlehem in the Orange Free State, and reached Durban the following day.
We stayed with the Home in Durban. There Cassandra (18, from Australia) joined our team and we left for the province of Eastern Transvaal where we spent ten days doing outreach. We spent some time visiting hospitals, as well as street witnessing and we also visited some of the local farms. We were able to distribute 12,000 tracts, personally witness to 350 people, of whom 40 received the Lord into their lives.
Many times after we distributed literature, someone would come and ask questions about the Lord, wanting to know more. We met so many precious Christians and others who supported us by taking the tools (videos and CDs). Some were also very willing to send support towards our work in Kenya.
A young South African asked if he could watch the van while it was parked and I gave him a coin and a small tract to read. When we returned, he asked how he could know the truth and go to Heaven. After I explained and he asked Jesus into his heart, he said with a broad smile, "I am truly satisfied!" People here are so hungry and appreciative of our little tracts. As we passed them out freely we had many similar reactions and questions.
Not only were our accommodations, diesel, and most of our food donated, we were able raise some funds for our long trip through Zimbabwe, Zambia, etc. The Lord also kept our van from thieves and breakdowns except for two flat tires. Both times we prayed and He faithfully sent someone along to help us change the tire. He truly answered all our prayers for protection. "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble" (Psa.46:1).
Crossing into Zimbabwe we intended to stay only a few days with our sweet Family there in Harare, pick up Eddie (Zimbabwean disciple) and drive on to Kenya. However on our second day there, some thieves followed us. One of them slashed a back tire and created a disturbance, pretended to help, then stole a bag from the van with our passports and car papers and jumped into a getaway car.
We prayed about why it happened and we saw that we needed to have a more secure place for such papers and to be more prayerful, on guard and more united now that we were leaving for more dangerous parts of Africa. By a miracle, a man who we met gave us his empty flat to stay in and two others sponsored some food and new passports until we got our papers in order. We were able to leave after a three-week delay.
Before we left, we met someone in the American Embassy who was telling us that a gang of car thieves had been caught which he described as the same ones who attacked us. We went down to the Police station and sure enough, we identified the same getaway car. Although we haven't been able to recover anything yet, the Lord confirmed, "Ye shall see the reward of the wicked." We felt encouraged that the Lord was with us.
Now we were a five-man team (that is, one man and four women). At the Zambian border, we were greeted in the road by a huge two-story-high elephant that remained still for a photo. We camped out at the police station and listened all night to the horns and alarms of worried truck drivers who were trying to keep their shipments of grains safe from the elephants.
For two days we drove through the potholed roads and villages of Zambia, having camped one night at an old hotel where a Christian policeman and his brothers offered some beds and some water for us to wash up with in the morning. God bless him!
Before and while crossing borders we claimed God's promises. Somehow the Lord saved us from having to pay US$50 for visas for Americans in Tanzania, when we told the officer we were Christian missionaries en route to Kenya. Praise the Lord!
We camped one night in a village in Tanzania, which is a tropical country with lots of villages, banana trees, and colorfully-clothed people. It has a population of 29 million, 50% Muslim and 50% Christian, and up to now there has been no Family Home there. (We are doing road teams there from Nairobi so if you have a burden for &&&Tanzania, please write to us!) For the most part, the roads were good and the fuel was all provisioned! Thank the Lord!
We saw lots more elephants and other animals and drove on good roads to Dar-es-Salaam, where we were very thankful to have our first shower in three days! We stayed for the weekend in hotel rooms donated by a precious Greek-Tanzanian lady. After filling up all our diesel tanks with donated gas, we were on our way, reaching Nairobi 14 hours later. What a trip! We are so thankful to the Lord for His miraculous protection, supply and vigilant care of our team and for all those who helped us on our way. "The eternal God is thy refuge and underneath are the everlasting arms" (Deut. 33:27).
We know that it was only the loving arms of Jesus and His special protection forces that kept us and supplied for our little team. We arrived safely and crossed so many borders without any problems, with only a police report of the stolen papers for the van in place of the registration document. "I will send an angel before thee and keep thee in the way" (Exo.23:20). Thank You Jesus!
(Editor's note: GB these dear ones for their faith and for seeking the Lord each step of the way. Anyone attempting to go overland in Africa, particularly in lands which are more dangerous, should be sure to confirm their plans with the Lord, have a well-rounded team, and pray about each aspect of their trip, so they're able to cope with any of the difficulties or dangers that are more prevalent in this continent. See also "Lifesavers for Missionaries to Africa!" GNs 833 and 834.)
From Ben and Meekness, Botswana:
We are serving the Lord in Africa and just wanted to share how the Lord is miraculously helping and blessing us.
We are a small family: Meekness (Polish), Ben (South African), and our two sweet children, aged two months and 20 months. We are based in Botswana. Prior to this we collectively have been serving Jesus in India, Poland, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Russia, Swaziland, Hungary and so on. After spending several happy years in India, the Lord called us to South &&&Africa where we helped pioneer the Pietermaritzburg Home. We came to Botswana in August `97 with only US$600 in our pockets.
We launched out totally by faith. It was a big trial for us to leave South Africa, as we had really grown attached to the sheep and the work there. But God had a different plan for us. As we launched out, miracles started happening every step of the way. Somebody loaned us a four-wheel drive Nissan, fully equipped with air con, CD player, power steering, and a V-6 engine—a real answer to prayer and ideal for African roads. The air con was a super blessing as temperatures go up to 50 degrees centigrade here in Botswana.
We had gotten the vision to come to Botswana a few years back, when Ben had come on a road trip from South Africa by bus. That first day on outreach was a real test. Can you imagine beating those scorching pavements in the 50-degree sun? With only one video out, dog-tired, inspiration-less, discouraged, and feeling really out of it, we were wondering what on earth our team was doing here in the bush. Come afternoon, after a long nap while at the hotel reception desk picking up the local newspaper bingo! The Lord had a surprise for us.
The receptionist handed over an envelope, sweetly saying somebody had left it earlier on. In it was $1,000 with a short note saying "This is for your projects. Keep up the good work. Love, Aron." To this day we still don't know who the donor was. God never fails in one of His precious promises.
Two years later we came to open a Home here. With the help of the 4X4 vehicle we stayed mobile for two months, distributing tons of tools wherever we went. The money we saved in two months got us a new Toyota, which coincidentally came one day before we moved to our new location. Praise the Lord!
The local hotel put us up till we could set up ourselves, which was another miracle. God bless the manager—a very precious Christian man. Twelve months down the line we now have a nice apartment in a nice locality, with a pool, good security, a state of the art fridge and freezer, brand new furniture, new car, free petrol (donated), and lots of toys for the kiddos (donated). Our food bill—believe it or not—is about US$2 a month. God has never failed to prosper us here and we don't lack in any way. We are able to give away food every week to poor people.
Since coming to Botswana about a year ago, this is what God has done for us (God is good and life is fair): 1048 videos, 40 audio tapes, and 116,760 posters distributed, with over 500 souls won. We've done 35 road trips, provisioned 3,500 liters of petrol, and received food worth $10,000. We have a contact for fresh fruit and veggies for life (the owner of a supermarket, a very sweet Indian from Kenya, has authorized us to take only the finest fresh fruit and veggies.) We've been given 200 liters of pure fruit juices, 2,000 disposable diapers, a bed, curtains, bedding, kitchenware, 50 liters of car oil (super high grade), 200 liters of ice cream, free car wash and vehicle services, regular needs (personal) money, clothing, plants for the house, and much much more.
People tend to have a very bleak picture of Africa. Granted, there is poverty here, just as there is everywhere else in the world. But there is so much wealth out here, it's absolutely amazing. This is where it's happening!
We've stopped beating pavements for hours on end. What we do now is raise money every month through sponsors—people who really like what we do, who cover the seed corn as well as giving some extra, and who then have outlets where posters are distributed by the thousands. We put them at check-out points, ATM machines, post offices, hotel rooms, supermarkets, at certain border ports, Christian book shops, etc.
Many of the hotel managers are very close long-time friends of ours, and are more than happy to put Family literature such as Living Waters, Treasures and posters in next to the little Gideon's Bibles that are in each room. This is such a powerful witness, and so many are receiving the Words of David via the hotel ministry. This is one way we can get to reach some of the top here, as most hotels are very upper class and frequently used by executives and directors. Time is short and this is Africa's hour to be saturated with the Words of David!
Although we are a pioneer Home on a far-flung field, we fight with all we have to keep the unity and for fellowship with other Homes. This means so much to us that we travel about one thousand kilometers (back and forth) by road every month just for fellowship with other Homes.
We've fallen in love with the field and are thoroughly enjoying ourselves. It pays to obey. We are out here in the desert, but know in our hearts that we are in the center of God's will. We would rather be in the heart of Africa, witnessing every day (which is pure joy) than in some rich, modern place.
Love, Ben and Meek Livingston.
From Elisabeth, Nigeria:
This story takes place two years ago. When our new neighbor, Hosanna, called over the dividing compound wall one morning to ask me a question, I asked my three young boys to just play quietly inside for a few minutes while Mommy went to talk with him. When I got outside to the fence, &&&Hosanna explained his question. Then we began to discuss the idea he had had since he moved into the vacant twin compound next to our house a month before.
He'd wanted to possibly electrify the barbed wire fence that sat forebodingly atop the block wall fence that surrounded our two homes. I hadn't liked the idea so much because of my small children, who could accidentally wander into it some evening or morning if we should forget to turn it off. But as we were Oebos (white people) living in this small city in Africa, it could prove to be that extra security and protection that we needed to keep our home safe.
I began to reflect back on the seven months we'd already spent in West Africa, and the many frightening stories I'd heard of terrorism and killings from the wave of robberies and break-ins. Most of the middle and upper class people lived in fear of gangs of robbers who daily pilfered up and down the country.
"Did you hear what happened last night?" Hosanna interrupted my thoughts.
"No, I didn't," I replied, almost dreading to hear but nevertheless unable to stop myself.
"Well," he went on, not sensing my nervousness, "just down the street last night a thief tried to break into a retired general's house! But since they had the barbed wire electrified, the general's servants found the thief hanging on top of the barbed wire in the morning. He was completely fried as black as charcoal! There have been a lot of break-ins in our area lately!" He looked at me inquisitively.
"Oh, dear God," I said, as my stomach turned. My eyes fixed upon our own barbed wire fence as I imagined myself coming out one morning with the kids and finding a dead man lying up there. I shuddered, and then the fear of what could happen began to grip me.
"Well, that's horrible," I said. "I don't know if I could have our fence electrified like that. I think I'd rather trust in God's protection!" Then as an afterthought, and in trying to understand the thieves' motives as well as comfort myself, I mentioned, "Besides, we're just poor missionaries. We don't have much. And if any thieves did break into our house they wouldn't find anything valuable to take. By the way, what kinds of things are they looking for?"
Hosanna went down the list. "Electronics, TVs, video players, stereos, and money." I felt relieved momentarily, as I knew we didn't have any of these things. "...And also food! Some robbers will break in just to steal a bag of rice or some food they can see in your kitchen. They're so desperate!"
I smiled outwardly at Hosanna, but all I could see were those two new 50-kg bags of flour and rice we had just saved up for and bought, now safely stored in our pantry.
"Well, gotta go now. I need to take my wife to work. I'll talk to you later." With that, Hosanna rushed off, leaving me standing there.
I went back into the house to begin school time with the kids. As the day progressed, my fears and apprehensions grew. I kept thinking about that lone robber lying dead on the fence. Could a break-in happen to us tonight?
As night approached I faced my rising fear. My husband Aaron was gone on a weeklong road trip with three of the YAs who lived with us in our pioneer situation. One other YA girl and myself were staying back to run the Home and care for the kids. Our small typical African compound Home left much to be desired in the way of security. It wouldn't take much for a thief to break through the thin wooden front door, or knock off the cheap lock on the back grill to get inside.
After dinner was finished, our little team gathered to pray for the night, with a special prayer for extra safety and protection this night. I headed off into my room with the kids. After washing them up and reading some stories, they finally settled down to sleep around 9:00 p.m.
I then began pacing the room, so filled with anxiety. I left my room, walking around the house, again checking all the doors, the security, the lights, and praying over each entrance. Finally I headed back to my room, only now the anxiety was almost unbearable. The conversation with Hosanna earlier in the day kept playing over in my mind. ... That robber lying on top of the fence, the two full sacks of flour and rice in our pantry, the desperation and anger of thieves here. The fear had gripped me tightly now!
Finally I fell face down on my bed and wept. Dear Jesus, You know how afraid I am tonight! You know the Enemy would love to send a thief to attack us. Even now, the Enemy's attacking me! You know how desperate the situation is in this country with all the killings and robberies. ... Please Jesus, give me peace this night. Keep and protect these little ones here. Please send someone special to help, some of Your mighty guardian angels! And Lord, because I'm so frightened I need to hear something from You right now to help me have Your calm and peace. I'm not so good or fluent with getting prophecies yet, but please say something to me now!
I stopped to catch my breath and wipe my tears. That's when I felt a presence next to me on the bed, a beautiful warmth surrounding me. Then I heard his voice talking. It was Grandpa!
Honey, it's Grandpa! I'm here! I'm gonna stay with you tonight! Don't worry, you're gonna be okay! I know you're scared, so I'm gonna be with you all night long. I'm gonna walk all around the property through the night, along with four guardian angels who are posted at the corners of the yard. You and the kids are gonna be okay! We love you!
I thought, Wow, Grandpa's here! This is so incredible! Yet I remember thinking how busy Grandpa must be, and how it would take up so much of his valuable time to guard us this night. Sensing what I was thinking, though, he replied, You need me tonight, so I'm gonna stay!
I cried with joy and relief as peace flooded over the entire room and me. What a great and loving God we have! What a kind and gentle Grandpa, who would take time out of his busy Heavenly schedule to come to our little pioneer home in Africa to answer my prayer.
I woke a few times in the early part of that night, but always felt the peace of Grandpa's presence standing on duty. Then I slept soundly the entire night. The next morning when I awoke, I felt so happy and calm. I wanted to find out if Grandpa was still there, so I shot up a prayer to Heaven thanking the Lord for His miraculous protection. Then I called out, "Grandpa, are you still here?"
Right here, Honey, just like I promised! Everything's okay with the house and property. Now I gotta go. Just wanted to say good-bye to you. But the guardian angels will stay with you, so don't worry; they'll protect you! Bye now!
I smiled with my eyes closed. Wow! Good-bye Grandpa! Thank you so much for being there when I needed you! And he left. But the spirit of calm and peace that he and sweet Jesus brought that night has lingered through the many nights that have passed here in Africa since that desperate hour two years ago.
By Rose, Ghana:
Matthew (15) and I wanted to hitchhike home after a day of witnessing in town and were standing by a busy road, when all of a sudden wind and dark clouds came up. We prayed that we could get home dry and safely, but shortly after that torrential rains started pouring, and we were soaked within two minutes. A very nice businessman stopped in his car and said he was just going a couple blocks down the road, but he couldn't very well leave us standing there. He suggested we come with him to get dry and stay at his house until the worst was over, to which we thankfully agreed.
It turned out that he was a Muslim really searching for the truth; a one-year contact with the Jehovah's Witnesses had left him quite dissatisfied. He said that chance had wanted the rain so that we would come and talk to him, to which we replied that God had wanted us to talk to him. After some very deep witnessing, he finally prayed with us to receive Jesus, even right in front of the somewhat disapproving members of his all-Muslim family.
He had tears in his eyes and was so thankful. And we were very thankful that the Lord had known better than us and not answered our prayer against the rain, so this beautiful soul could get saved! PTL!
On the first afternoon of our 10-day road trip, as we were hitchhiking to Burkina Faso from Abidjan, Ivory Coast, we were picked up hitchhiking by a nice Catholic businessman. After very sweetly getting saved as we rode along in his car, he started pouring out his heart about some personal matters that were troubling him, and we tried to answer his questions with the Word. He was so thankful that he invited us for dinner and paid for two nice air-conned rooms with breakfast for us.
After dinner that evening, his whole family got saved. In the morning he told his driver to drive us to the next town, and he gave us a large donation which just about covered our expenses for the whole road trip. His driver, a sweet Muslim, also got saved! What a start! Praise the Lord! The whole road trip was very exciting and the people so very sheepy and sweet. We gave out 3,500 pieces of lit, and could have easily given several times that, if we'd only had more. We prayed with over 300 people, about half of them Muslims. It was very hot (44°C) and super dry, so we were each drinking 5-6 liters of water daily. It was strenuous, but a wonderful experience and we can hardly wait for the next road trip. Since the Lord just supplied 100,000 tracts for free we'll be going soon. Wanna come?
From Peace, Madagascar:
The amazing thing here is that the sheep come to you. I was praying for witnessing opportunities, although I am always busy at home with the children. I started tracting while on walks with the two toddlers and our three-year old. One lady followed after me, asking what the French lit meant as she spoke only Malagasy. After I'd exhausted my few words of Malagasy, I showed her the salvation prayer card I have written out in Malagasy and she prayed wholeheartedly and thanked me.
The next day I was in town with some of the children waiting to be picked up. I had no lit on me so I prayed someone would come up to me to practice their English. Then a young man came to talk, and his English was very good. After some minutes of trying to steer the conversation towards salvation, I tried the direct approach. I said, "Before you came, I prayed someone would come who I could talk to in English about God, so I must talk to you about God."
He got very respectful and said, "Why not?" He ended up getting saved and asked us to come meet his friend at the English club next week.
From Heidi (14) and Irene (20), South Africa:
We've been doing some really cool personal witnessing at the local University, which has mainly Black and Indian students. It's amazing what a great response we've been getting here. It's a real blessing that many of the locals here can speak English because it enables us to witness more in depth.
In this University many young people hang out in gangs, and recently we've been talking with two main ones in the area. It's neat how whenever we come on campus and are spotted by either of these two gangs, without fail they call us over to talk to some new friends of theirs about the Lord. The first time we met them, seven got saved, and the next time we went, ten more prayed with us. The ones already saved were ready with new questions to ask us.—It's been keeping us on our toes with our memory work!
We've been going through "Wise Witnessing Replies" in devotions. When they ask questions we can't readily answer, we bring the question home, discuss it in a group and come up with an answer. Since they are university students , that problem comes up quite often, but we've also realized how much we in the Family know. For instance, this one evolutionist we were talking to kept throwing out his theories, and we were surprised how easy it was to disprove everything he said. In the end, he had no more to say and he had to admit that Evolution was not true. Finally he got saved! Praise the Lord for the victories won!
From Katiuscia (YA), South Africa:
We'd been trying to see the owner of a surf shop for some time as we heard he has a Christian work with the youth and surfers in the area. When we got to meet him one afternoon, he was ecstatic about our work, lifestyle, and ministries. He invited us to his house that evening as they were having a get-together with the young people.
When we arrived that evening there were about 20-30 young people in all. The atmosphere was very relaxed, not a heavy meeting but a time of fellowship. Everyone was trying to get a question in about our missionary work, or get a rundown on our personal history. At times we felt like broken records, but it was worth it when they would exclaim that ours was such a wonderful life.
I've grown so accustomed to the Family and our way of life, that I couldn't see living any way other than this. I know a lot of young people in the Family tend to think that ours is a secluded, alienated, and boring life, but when we got down to talking with some of these young people, we realized just how blessed we are. And they let us know as well! I was impressed with them, as the majority are surfers, who in a lot of places are known for being concerned about nothing other than getting the right wave and knowing the best spots to surf. Sure they liked surfing, but it didn't deter them from doing something about their beliefs as well, or talking about the Lord. Many of them expressed a desire to do something more for the Lord and are just waiting for the opening.
For a lot of these guys to "become" a Christian they had to put their fun and enjoyment of life away and choose a more serious role—otherwise they live under the weight of a terrible guilty conscience. We are tempted tp think that our lives are full of regulations and stipulations but to them the freedoms we freely enjoy are completely unthinkable.—Many of them couldn't believe that people like us still exist. They didn't hold back from telling us how fortunate we are, not only in our travels, but in our whole upbringing.
So, it's not only the Letters and our parents that tell us the Family's great—the youth out there will tell you the same. And of course ... WE ALL KNOW IT!
From Steven, Maria, and Ruth, Ghana:
Robin and Nick took Angela (12) and Ben (10) on a faith trip to Cape Coast. The kids had a lot of fun and the Lord supplied all their needs on the trip. They visited the castle that served as a slave-trading outpost for hundreds of years. The OCs were soul shiners, winning 434 souls in two days.
From Steven, Maria, and Robin, in Accra, Ghana (West Africa):
We thought you might like to hear some of the bleats from the sheep in one of Africa's fruitful fields—Ghana! We've been distributing "To You!—With Love!" tracts with our address printed on them for about eight months now, and here are a few excerpts of letters we've received from all over the country:
"Last month I met two of your members at a hotel where they gave me one of your tracts entitled `To You!—With Love!' When I read it I discovered it was very good quality. ... Thank you for doing such a wonderful work in getting out these tracts for others to read and understand the Word of God. I'd like to get more of your tracts on different topics to help me better understand God's Word and implement it in my daily life. God bless you!"—Yeboah (18), Sunyani
"Thanks a lot for your small message! You have no idea how it is changing me. I would like to have more information. You're doing a great job! Thank you so much and may God bless every hair on your head!"—Brian, Accra
"It's my pleasure to write you! I hope you are as fine as I am! The reason for writing is that I am a Christian and I have accepted Christ as my personal Savior. I received a tract, read through it, and it's very good, so I'm writing to ask you to send me more so I can tell others about the Word of God."—Ebenezer, Accra
"I have read one of your tracts and it has really inspired me and my friends at school so we would like you to send us a lot of these tracts so that we can give them to others who have not even heard the Word. Thank you very much and may God bless you!"—Nana (12), Accra
And the list goes on and on! All from a simple "To You!—With Love!" tract! We've now started a simple mail ministry course to send to the people who write in and we're expecting to see more fruits of the Word as time goes on! Please keep the work here and this ministry in your prayers! We certainly need'm! If you feel led to support us and the work here then please go right ahead! You can send donations via the TRF to: GH1535 (Steven, Maria, Robin), Accra, Ghana, West Africa
From Joan Livingstone, Nigeria:
I have been in Nigeria for more than a year and not a day has passed when something special didn't happen—something that keeps you in the victory and going for Jesus all the time. It is such an exciting place to be serving the Lord. People commend me for being a missionary, especially as I am an Indian woman. The only picture they have about India is that of Indian movies and idol worship. They even blame the Indians for their witchcraft, and they think everybody there is Hindu and that there are no Christians. So when they meet me they just flip out. In general people regard missionaries very highly, and support them in whatever little way they can.
Recently I got to go to one of the medical camps along with three of our YAs, where we help as volunteers, along with another Nigerian organization. For me, it was a life changing experience, one which I will never forget. It's very exciting, as you go to remote villages and stay for seven to ten days with a group of doctors to help the thousands of villagers that come to get treated. Our schedule is from 6 in the morning to 12 at night. The verse that came to me while there was, "When Jesus saw the multitudes He was moved with compassion upon them and went and healed them all," and He did this even though He was tired.
Our job mainly was to help with packing and sorting the drugs, and with filling prescriptions. Then we took turns going bed to bed, praying with the patients, listening to their heartcries, trying to help with answers and mostly telling them about Jesus. We also got to help in the operating room, and in the administration side of cleanliness.
It was very tiring, as you know that you can't keep the people waiting (some people stayed overnight just to get their medicine the next day), but it was challenging and fulfilling. At this particular medical camp we treated 2,800 patients and 75 operations were conducted, in six days! When the people gave their blessings and thanks for us coming all the way to their country to help them, you feel like David Livingstone when he said, "I never made a sacrifice." Even the top dignitaries from the places where we have these medical camps come and thank us and give us little traditional gifts.
People here have seen a lot of hardship and suffering, but under their hard exterior there is a soft spot; God's love and encouragement can so easily melt their hard hearts, and make them new. Even the doctors who work for the organization we work with all come from different backgrounds and different churches but we all work together in tremendous unity. We also take turns leading the devotions in the morning which boosts our spirits for the day. It is just so wonderful to help and give the message of David to the people of Nigeria.
From Josh, Nigeria:
Our home has been involved with quite a few different CTP projects around the country—in the North, East and West of Nigeria. In the East there's one city called Enugu where we try to go every two months to bring food supplies for the orphanages and help set up various children's homes there.
Just recently Sharif, Chad, Elaine, and I went on a trip to Enugu to try to renovate some of the orphanages, doing things like repainting and building beds. There's an organization that donates funds for us to buy food for the orphanages every month, which is a real help.
We have a friend who owns one of the airlines that flies to that destination, so we contacted him and he agreed to fly the whole team there and back. (We even got to fly first class, which was special!) When we got there, the Lord also supplied a hotel for us to stay at during our entire one-week stay. Thank the Lord!
We didn't have money allocated for the trip, so we decided to trust the Lord to supply the money for our own expenses. We got all the food and other materials we needed for the children, and we got to spend a lot of time with all the kids.
One place that we helped to fix up was a handicapped center. It was dilapidated, with the floor totally destroyed, so we were thinking about whether we should help to rebuild the floor—re-cement it and tile it with linoleum tiles. But to do this would have used up all our money, and then we wouldn't have had any money left for breakfast the next morning, nothing for taxis to the airport, and all those little things that you need money for.
We prayed about it and asked the Lord what He wanted us to do. He showed us to put the funds towards the work and to trust Him for more. So we went ahead and used all the money we had left, investing it into fixing up the floor of the handicapped center and getting the whole place totally fixed up. And that's when the miracles really started happening.
The next day we were hitchhiking and somebody picked us up. We started explaining our work to this man, telling him everything we were doing. When he asked us why we were hitchhiking, we told him that we just finished using all the money we had towards fixing up these orphanages, so we had no more money for transport. So he gave us $100 for transport, to get around town.
Then he said, "I'll contact you tomorrow to see what I can do. What do you need help with?" We shared with him the vision of building beds for the other "Motherless Babies Homes," where the kids were just sleeping on the floor. We also explained to him that in Lagos (the commercial capital of the country) there were some companies donating mattresses, food items, and supplies, and we needed a truck to transport it to the East. He said he'd see what he could do.
The next morning this man pulled up at the hotel where we were, and paid for the building of ten beds for one of the orphanages. He also gave us the funds for transporting all the goods from Lagos to Enugu—which was about a $700 donation. He said that in the future he wants to help us more. He even took us to his house for dinner, and introduced us to some more very influential people.
So we were very inspired that the Lord worked everything out and supplied for us. He blessed it when we just went ahead and trusted Him to supply.
And one of the biggest miracles happened after that. We went to see the man who owns the airline, a very sweet man who has always been very helpful. We had mentioned to him before about our need for another vehicle in our work. Every time we'd go to see him he'd always give very generous donations, but about the car he'd always just say, "I'll see what I can do about it later." He seemed to be procrastinating a bit, but we were really praying that it would materialize soon.
We didn't really expect anything to happen this time, though, as one of his best friends had just recently died and he was in a bit more of a sober mood. We didn't feel it would be so great to ask him about the car at this moment; we just wanted to pray for him and encourage him about the whole situation. He was very thankful for that, and our meeting went quite well.
Then the subject came up about our transportation and we did end up telling him our situation. He said that he didn't have the cash with him at the moment to get that vehicle for us that he had promised, because he was involved in a lot of other projects and it just wasn't very convenient for him to buy it for us right now. But he said, "Let me see what I can do. Follow me."
So we went with him to his car lot, where he had about 20 cars parked—from Rolls Royces to Lexus, to Jaguars, to Ferraris—every kind of luxury car imaginable. And there was one very nice Pontiac Transporter minivan, really nice, all decked out with a TV and all. And he said, "Well, I'm not really using this vehicle right now. So why don't you drive this one home?" We were totally flipped out!
By the next day he had arranged to have all the papers changed over, there were new tires, and the brakes were fixed. The car was all nicely fixed up for us and we were able to drive it home to Lagos.
That's how the Lord's done miracles for us—just by us being faithful to witness to people and making sure we were pouring out, not being so concerned about our finances and our own needs, but just putting others first. Then the Lord has never failed to supply even above and beyond what we asked for. All in all, this trip was very fruitful, thank the Lord!
(From Elaine:) Hi! I had been in Nigeria for a month and a half when I made this trip to Enugu, my first road trip here. I got to spend a lot of time with the young mothers and little babies at a place that is both a home for motherless babies, and a shelter for unwed mothers who have been sent away from their homes. I was able to listen to them about their situations, counsel them, and some of these mothers got saved. It was fun playing with the kids and taking time to show them a bit of love.
The last time the team came, the most pressing need seemed to be beds as most of the babies were sleeping on very old rough mattresses on the floor. At that time we were able to help by building the beds they needed, but on this visit we saw that these were already full, some even having two or more babies in them. On one of the nights we were there, five new babies were born! So that was again an urgent need, which we are working on. It's so fulfilling to have the opportunity to be a blessing to these precious people!
From Aaron, Elizabeth, Oli, Marie, Josh, Kat, and Eve, Nigeria:
The Lord heard our prayers for our needs and answered incredibly. One day the Lord raised up a friend who got us a phone costing US$2,000! Later on in the same day another surprised us by driving a $34,000 Jeep into the driveway handing us the keys. "This is for your work," he said. Thank the Lord! We had been praying desperately for a Jeep to help our work be more effective. We had hoped it would be a newer vehicle, as anything else in Africa is always breaking down. We can really say that the Lord answered not only our need but also the desires of our hearts on this one. He did great and mighty things that we knew not of!
From Carol, Nigeria:
Hi! We had a little disaster in our Home when the water upstairs overflowed, flooding half of our carpets. This basically ruined the carpets, which were already very old and they began to stink, making it unbearable to live in those rooms. Oliver told us about a sign he had seen advertising a carpet cleaning company, on a road a short ways into town from our Home. So with this as our only lead Chad and I went by faith, hitchhiked out of here and towards that area.
The sign had been removed and we were in a real bind, as both of us had only just arrived here in Nigeria and really didn't know where to go or what to do. Someone told us about a large hotel near where we were, so we prayed, flagged down two okadas (scooters for hire, like taxis) and went there by faith to see what the Lord would do. We first tried to see the maintenance and cleaning overseer, thinking they might be able to help us with one of their carpet cleaning systems, but they were out. Someone suggested we go and speak to the secretary to the General Manager. I was a bit scared at first, but went ahead and spoke to her on the intercom. She was real sweet and understanding, even though I was really stumbling over my words trying to explain our predicament. She invited us up to see the manager.
We waited for over two hours; I was biting my fingernails and wondering the whole time if we had made the right decision. We were praying for the Lord to do a miracle in spite of our inability. Finally, just as it was getting dark, we got into the manager's office and there, to my surprise, was this very sweet and helpful Belgian man.
I explained about our missionary work and our problem with the carpets. He then asked me a few questions about the rooms—their size, color, etc.—and promised to send someone to take care of it. And guess what? They didn't just come to clean the carpets, but they completely re-carpeted all but one of the rooms!—They laid super nice, good quality carpets. We even got to look through the samples and pick the color and type! Victory from defeat! The Lord provided!
From Rima and Sharif, Nigeria:
(Rima:) While fundraising for the upcoming project in Rwanda we've been learning about the importance of prophecy before we go out to meet different people. For a few days it wasn't going so great; things were a little dry and our days seemed endless and pointless. So one morning we got together, prayed and heard from the Lord! The Lord gave us the name of a person we had previously met, and of a restaurant in town no one had gone to. So with these leadings from the Lord we went out. Through this person and this restaurant we met some key people who in that same day out provided us with two out of the five tickets for our trip to Rwanda—the equivalent of over $1,000! Thank You Jesus!
(From Sharif:) One thing I wanted to add about the fundraising for the Rwanda trip is that we had a lot of money to raise. It seemed at first to be quite a monumental task in the short amount of time that we had. I started going out asking people to help. Whenever I would do something in my own strength, I would get hurried, worried, and flurried about it, and it would just completely fall flat. One morning I prayed and heard from the Lord, Who showed me to follow up on some people I had met previously when out hitchhiking. In that one day the Lord supplied more than in my previous weeks of fundraising! It really showed me that whenever I try and do something in my own strength or feel I have to lean on the arm of the flesh, it just falls flat. But when I let the Lord take the reins, He just did wonderfully and I just rode on His magic carpet of the Spirit!
From Anthony, Talitha, Sam and Cristy, South Africa:
Because a lot of our follow-up and CTP is done in this area, we were looking for a new house in the same neighborhood where we were already living. But since last year, rents have gone up tremendously and were at least 30% more than we were paying for our previous house. By a miracle we found a house that's actually cheaper than our last one, praise the Lord! Here's what happened:
(From Talitha:) Just down the road from us was a house that was very old but kind of interesting. It was overgrown with vines and had a walled-in rose garden in the front of it. It also had a tennis court, a pool, and a huge garden. From what we could see, the house itself was also quite big. It didn't seem like anyone was living there, and we were kind of curious about it.
Then one day, I noticed a "For Sale" sign in the front garden, and Anthony and I walked around the house claiming it for the Lord's work! I then decided to approach the owners about possibly renting it to us. It turned out there were people living there—an older couple. (We didn't know that when we marched around it praying, ha!) Their son, who was the actual owner, wanted to sell the house in order to find them a smaller place. They told me that he definitely wanted to sell it and not rent it.
I felt so disappointed. Then we decided to try to talk to the son, but we couldn't find where to contact him and the older couple didn't want to help us either. I then phoned the number of the agent in charge of selling the house and he wasn't so helpful either. Oh my, what to do? I really felt the Lord wanted us to have that house; I just couldn't convince the owner or the agents of that fact!
To add to my frustration, we would pass the house every day on our house-hunting trips, and I felt it was like "staring" at me, ha! Thank the Lord, we knew that He was in control and would certainly lead us to the right place.
Well, over a month passed and the "For Sale" sign was still there, so we approached the older couple again, only to be told it had just been sold and someone was moving in at the beginning of the next month.
This is not right, I thought. That house was for us. It was finally beginning to dawn on me that we might have to put "our" house out of our minds and forget about it. I felt so discouraged.
About two weeks later, we passed the house again. It was dark, about 9:30 p.m. and we saw two people walking in the garden in front of the house.
It's now or never, I thought. If I don't approach them now and ask, I'll never forgive myself. I just had to try it one last time before I would have the faith to forget about it. So I walked into the garden, extended my hand, and introduced myself. I explained that we were missionaries living just around the corner, and that we had to move out of our present house, and felt the Lord wanted us to live in this house. I must admit I was a little nervous, because I couldn't make out whether they were amused, appalled, or indifferent.
After talking to them for a short while, they offered to show me the inside of the house and I was then even more convinced it was for us. Right before leaving, I offered these new owners a rent that was less than our previous one and they agreed to get back to us if they were interested. To make a long story short (That's a joke—I'm actually just making a long story longer, but this is almost the end!), they did get back to us. They accepted our terms, painted the whole house, re-carpeted two living rooms and a dining room, painted the outside as well as the roof, took down all the vines and the mess that was surrounding the house—and we moved in!
If we had seen the house the way it looks now, we never would have had the faith to approach the owners, much less offer such a low rent. What a miracle! Praise the Lord! His children shall have a place of refuge—and what a place! Thank You Jesus!
By Claire Joy (SGA)
All alone in this world,
Looking for a friend,
Someone who'll understand.
All alone in the dark,
Searching for the light
There's a cry coming from a faraway land
Where darkness still reigns .
Hands reaching out in despair,
Groping in the darkness, nobody cares.
Searching for love as they cry out in pain,
Wanting to have hope and peace again.
Chorus:
These, My children are calling to you.
They long for love, they long for truth.
Who is willing to take up My cross,
And give them My love, no matter the cost?
—To march in and conquer and give them My light,
Search for the blind and give them sight?
They need you. Who is willing to go?
Ravaged by sickness, their land's laid in waste,
And war's a way of life.
So many people telling'm they've got the truth,
Promising hope and freedom if they'll give their youth,
Who'll fight to the death for a better life.
Yet in return for their blood they get confusion and strife
Repeat Chorus:
Africa is calling; she longs to be touched
And held in tender arms.
She cries for her children who have lost their way.
She longs for you to lead them to a better day.
She says: "Who will come? We need your love!
Give us true freedom and love from above!"
Chorus:
These, My children are calling to you.
They long for love, they long for truth.
Who is willing to take up My cross,
And give them My love, no matter the cost?
—To march in and conquer and give them My light,
Search for the blind and give them sight?
They need you. Who is willing to go?