…When there was a honk at the gate. The Uche Ogah Foundation bus came to visit us last week bringing some much needed food donations. The house was on the last cups of rice when this wonderfully timed donation arrived. The bus came with Ogah Foundation members who visited with the children and spent time playing with them. They left with us much needed items including, yams, bags of rice, boxes of milo, milk, indomie, ground nut oil, soap, and tinned tomatoes. Everyone was so excited to have visitors and to receive these gifts. Thank you!
The elections were officially postponed last week despite the advice against it from the international community. The threat of BkH has grown around it, alleged corruption regarding it, and threats of uprising if either candidate does not win. All of these lead to a continued poor situation that is not promoting safety, truth, or honesty. We pray that during this postponement time, the active threat of BkH will be stopped, with strong action taken against them. We pray safety and hope for all those have have been displaced by the BkH horrific actions. And we pray love, unity and peace for all Nigerians, to joing together and build a better Nigeria, to rise above wrong and survive victoriously.
We seem to be building up a boys army in our children’s home! We are so excited to welcome three new boys to our family. They are around the ages of 9, 6, and 4 yrs approx. They have come from a very sad and deplorible situation. They are suffering severe sympyoms of PTSD as well as being malnourished. These boys do not speak English although they understand bits of it. While they speak Igbo, they are not speaking much at all right now. The staff and other children are doing a good job of welcoming them and helping them feel comfortable and at home, it will just take some time. We are excited and hopefully for the healthy and much happier futures of these darling boys.
It seems it is not the time for us to get a bus. Although in our mind we really need one, God must have a bigger, better and safer plan that we dont know about yet. After trying for the third time to purchase a good condition used bus from within Nigeria, we have still not succeeded. I would say three times is a good amount of tries. We will no longer be trying to purchase a used vehicle over there. Our new tactic is to find the necessary finaces/support to purchase a brand new vehicle from one of the Lagos dealerships, or import our own vehicles from here. Please pray for the needed connections and finances to do either one of these…or that someone over there gives us a new bus.
Trafficking of children and persons has been a long standing issue in Nigeria. We ourselves have some children that have come to us through the NAPTIP Agency that fights against this.
With the more recent devastating attacks of the BkH in the North, North-East, the numbers of INP (Internally Displaced People) has risen drastically. Make shifts camps are being set up in multiple locations, many in Adamawa State. With information from various sources of ours in Nigeria, along with the following article’s claims, it is safe to say that morally corrupt individuals are taking advantage of the horrible situation going on in the North. Children who are coming into these camps, who have no parents, or extended family caring for them, are quickly identified and being sold out of the camps across Nigeria. Please pray for these children. And pray that if there is a way for us to help them or be involved that it would be made clear to us.
INVESTIGATION: Grim tales of rape, child trafficking in Nigeria’s displaced persons camps
We have been working tirelessly to find avenues of fundraising and support for our Borehole Project over the last two years. Water is an extremely necessary and valued commodity in Nigeria. Many communities, of tens of thousands of people, share the few boreholes put in during the 1960’s (that are no longer clean) or they walk miles and hours every day to collect water from contaminated sources. We ourselves need clean water on our site, as well as desire to offer it to those around us.
We had been working with The Rotary Club of Chilliwack – Friday Club on an application for a grant to pursue this project. After much time spent on it, they have pulled out. We will continue to pursue fundraising for this project on our own as well as look for other groups to partner with.
As you all are aware, or can be made aware of, Nigeria is a very difficult country to get exact information and numbers from. You need to be on the ground working in a very tangible way, having made relationships over time, in order to retrieve some of the basic information necessary. It will always be difficult to ‘partner’ with other groups who operate on an extremely rigid numbers system. We understand that is the way they run, but also understand that it is impossible for us to give exact numbers and information and guarantee it.
Please continue to join us in prayer and brainstorming as to other ways that we can finish our Borehole truck, ship it over to Nigeria, and get started on providing the life-changing, healing source of water to a people in need.
Hey Everyone,
We do have exciting news; after some great time and organization, we now are in the processes of getting our new bus. Thanks to Mount Cheam Thursday Rotary for their generous donation to helps us purchase a bus and fix up our current Terrano. We are excited to get it, which should be in about two weeks time. Our 17 children and 7 staff do not fit in our 8 seat Terrano. :) We thank God for growing.
Well we have a bit of sad news. After having our three little girls, Keren, Keziah and Jemimah for one week, we hear back from Women’s Affairs and the two littlest girls had to be released back to the custody of their mothers. Their situation is still very tenuous and they may yet return. The mothers are being monitored as to their ability to care for and not abuse or sell these babies. They will be watched and monitored however should they be permanently removed and placed with us. It was hard for the staff and children to say goodbye to Keziah and Jemimah as they all fell in love with them so fast and they flourished in the care that we were able to provide. We pray God’s safety over their lives and if it is His will, that they be returned to us.
The majority of our children are permanently placed with us. However we do have a working relationship with Womens Affairs and with NAPTIP,( National Agency to Prevent Trafficking In Persons). that sometimes we will provide a temporary placement for children while the situations are being investigated. Of course it is our hope that they can stay with us, but it is a fact that sometimes children in this category will not stay permanently with us.
We have started our own school! We are “unofficially” open as of yet, because we are still in the process of registration. But we have begun classes at the children’s home, Mon-Fri from 9am-4pm. We are so excited! It has taken much thought and prayer, as well as a year of trial runs with a few of our kids in a community private school, before it became abundantly clear that it is in the best interest of our children that they be schooled at home by us. Not only are their academics being supported, but also their behavioural challenges and their spiritual growth. Everyone has adjusted quickly and with excitement to the new system. After breakfast in the morning all together, everyone is quick to get their school bags and run off to their designated ‘class area’ in the house. We have hired another teacher to help us. So we now have three staff working in teaching positions :) We are currently looking to begin another home, as this one is quite full, and we are also scouting out a building to be used for the school itself.
We look forward to growing this section of our organization so that eventually we might be able to accommodate some of the less privileged children in the area who do not attend school.
We are all soooo excited to finally add some more girls to our highly male dominated children’s home! Although we love our boys dearly, seeing some lovely girly smiles and pretty dresses, and doing hair is certainly fun too!
We have just received three beautiful little girls who have been rescued from a baby factory. The State Women’s Affairs called asking if we could please make room in our home for some emergency cases and we couldn’t say no. So it is with great joy and rushing about to buy mattresses and shift everything about, that we have made room. Our other children are so happy and excited, to have their new sisters. These girls are 4yrs, 3yrs and 8months old. And we have given them the names of Jobs daughters when his life turned around and God blessed him; Keren, Keziah, and Jemimah!
We are thrilled to show the love and compassion of Jesus to these girls and to help them learn about what true family is like. That life can be filled with kind people, with family who love them, and with positive learning and growing. Please pray for them as we go through some medical testing with them and help sort out their individual medical challenges and poor health. xoxo