Kindnesses displayed...

As I near my last day and as the morning of my last day passes, I am amazed how many friends and students stop by, phone or text to wish me well and to pray God's blessings as I leave.

These little kindnesses deposit such a rich blessing into my life. I am continually amazed by the simple kindnesses my friends from Africa show me time and time again. I must admit there is a beauty and a warmth to their highly relational culture… thank you my friends, thank you for all your many kindnesses. Until we meet again… by for now.

The Body of Christ is a blessed thing…

For the past week and a half, I have been sharing the Seminary Guest House with Africans from all across the continent. They are leaders in the IFES (International Fellowship of Evangelical Students). IFES is indigenous college campus ministries akin to Campus Crusade or InterVarsity or Navigators. They are at the seminary for 2 months doing biblical and theological studies together.

It has been such a joy getting to know sister and brothers from Gambia, Botswana, Tanzania, Sudan, Kenya, Uganda and the list goes on. We have laughed and prayed and chatted and share stories and watched the World Cup together and generally encouraged one another as we are all separated from homes and families.

Last night on the eve of my leaving they surprised me. Each night they gather for 30 or so minutes of prayer and encouragement, they have welcomed me into their gatherings as my schedule permitted. And last night as they concluded they asked to pray for me and send me home with their blessings. I was touched by the words they offered by way of encouragement and thanks and blown away by their prayer for me, my ministry and calling, my family and my church. I was so incredibly blessed by their love, passion and prayers.

It has been a special gift getting to know these new friends spread across the landscape of Africa. I conclude this entry with a prayer I prayed for them after I floated back to my room on the wings of their prayers for me:

May the Lord God bless and keep you, may His face and smile be upon you…and be with you protecting, upholding and blessing you as you do His kingdom work. And now to paraphrase Paul in Colossians 1:

I pray for you and ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding. I pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and joyfully giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light. Hallelujah may it be so.

The body of Christ is a blessed thing… Thank you Lord for all these new friends!

Only in Nigeria… Gombe travels part 2

Sunday morning I was ready when Jay arrived, I grabbed my gear, checked out and walked to his truck. As Jay turned the key… nothing! Not a whimper, not a click, nada! He got out and fiddled with the battery cables, still nothing.

We seized on the slight incline of the driveway and attempted to push start the truck… nope. We even had another hotel guest try to jump us with Jay's jumper cables… even that failed.

So now on plan C or D we walked out to the street in front of the hotel and hoped for a 'taxi' (a chabba) which in Nigeria is a guy on a motorcycle who takes passengers. I have seen a family of 4 plus the driver on one bike! The funniest thing I have seen is a tie… it is between the driver and passenger balancing and holding a queen-size mattress on their heads as they drive down the road or the driver and passenger balancing and holding a 3-person couch on their heads! No lie!!!

I digress, in moments a chabba arrived and Jay explained where I needed to go we shook hands and off we sped (this bike at least had power) chabba driver in front with me dressed in a suit and tie with Bible in hand seated behind. Fortunately, Jay held on to my suitcase for me.

I even arrived at church on time, a little dirtier than I expected but safe and sound… thank you Lord!

Not your average biker!

Over the 4^th of July weekend while my family was celebrating with fireworks and parties, I was on an preaching adventure to Gombe State. In my last post I shared how wonderful the big big man was to me when I traveled to his home region. Now I want to share of my other adventures.

After settling into my hotel and eating lunch my former student returned to pick me up and take me on a tour of his town. He arrived on his small motorcycle and off we putted. The bike didn't have much power and my friend seemed particularly timid in driving it. Maybe he was being extra cautious with me as a passenger???

Following our 30-minute driving tour we stopped by this house and church so I could get the lay of the land for tomorrow's preaching and meet his family. They are lovely. His wife was quite busy, she owns and runs the only grinding machine in the area so all the women come to her to have their beans ground into meal/porridge. This little cottage industry helps the family since they are paid with a small portion of the grinding.

While we were visiting the machine stopped working and my friend and his wife tinkered with this and that and got it started again. After another few minutes it stopped again. The diagnosed problem was the sparkplug. My friend disappeared and then reappeared with a new one and it was up and running in no time!

Time came for me to leave for my hotel, and as we climbed on the motorcycle my friend said we will stop to get a new spark plug in town? I was confused. It took numerous cranks to get the bike started, when I realized that he had swapped out his bike's sparkplug and put it in the grinding machine… putting the faulty one in the bike!

Well we had quite a ride, the bike even had less power than before. The slightest "hill" or any slowing for any turn caused the bike to severely sputter. As we entered the main round-about of town -a traffic circle which in the US might be two lanes wide but had 3-4 lanes zipping around it in Gombe, the bike died! Right there in the middle of the circle! YIKES. After 3-4 cranks and cars whizzing past so close that my pant legs waved in their breeze it was clear that it was not starting. Being the only white person I had scene I took full advantage of my uniqueness -people staring at me as they passed- and I stepped out into the traffic and acted as a "stop sign" so we could get out of the circle!

My friend proceeded to shake his bike discovering that not only did he have a bum sparkplug but he was out of gas!!! Pushing the pike a couple hundred feet he bought a liter of gas and maybe 15 cranks later we were riding again… but not far. Around the next bend in the very busy road we stalled out again. Being in a blind spot in the road due to the curve we popped the bike onto the sidewalk where a kind Samaritan stopped to help. He removed the sparkplug and tried to clean it. I don't think it worked because after 15 or so minutes and a few Naira as a thank you we were pushing it again… to where I have no idea?

Refusing to give up my friend stopped after 10 minutes of pushing and on the 3^rd crank it roared to life (only kidding it sputtered to life). Eventually we needed to make a left and sure as shooting as he pulled back on the accelerator with two lanes of cars driving right at us it stalled once again… by God grace we coasted through to the other side of the intersection. However a car, following us in the turn came within millimeters of hitting us as he swerved to get past us and out of the oncoming lanes. I know my pant legs brushed the car as it avoided us.

Un daunted, my friend cranked the bike again and after less than a handful of cranks we putted off to the home of a missionary friend he wanted me to meet. (Not bad it only took 80 minutes for a 10-minute drive!)

Jay the missionary drove me to my hotel (thank you Lord) and took my friend home. The bike will be fixed another day. And the best news, Jay offered to pick me up in the morning and drive me to the church…