On Sunday, Aaron was honored to be able to preach the Thanksgiving service at the boarding school on the other side of our compound. The chapel is so old and beautiful. You may have seen pictures of it in our web album. There is a new web album titled 26Nov2007 with pictures inside the chapel and pictures of us in our traditional Nigerian clothing. Look out! Aaron did a great job and everyone said they understood his Texan drawl! We were invited to eat with the children after church and that was special. Our new friends, Philip and Ann were there, and we got some pictures of them. They will be hard to say goodbye to in a month. There are also a couple of pictures of Lydia sucking her thumb. Although I dread breaking the habit if it continues, right now it is so cute and convenient!

Until we move to our new location in January, we are trying to fill our days with productive things. We are painfully learning some Hausa in the afternoons from our house help friend, Ruth. We have finally gotten serious about a daily schedule and home school. I have come to realize (I remember and forget this quite regularly!) that in order to keep a peaceful and productive home, I have to stay home 95% of the time! We have done just that this week, and even though we have had company and visitors, it has been much more organized and we have had successful home school.

We are trying to have all our new friends over and spend this month just learning the people, their hearts, and the culture here. This area is predominately Christian and I am glad for this opportunity to see what the missionaries who have come before us have accomplished by God’s grace. It is encouraging and faith building, giving us hope for the possibilities, through God’s power and your prayers, for the millions of unreached still left in the world. It is specifically building our faith and excitement for the unreached in the area where we are moving to soon. We are especially excited about the newly classified people group that has zero Christian presence. They are located about thirty minutes from Auntie’s place (probably not very far if the roads were more than a path through the bush). Please pray for the Lord to open the door and prepare the hearts of the leadership in that village for us, or whomever the Lord sends to them, with His Good News!

Our current “plan” for our time in **** is to help disciple the new believers at Auntie’s mission station, for Aaron to do some discipleship in a ***** village (the enormous unreached people group we came here to investigate) and to spend a significant amount of time, if God wills, forming relationships in this new unreached people group in hopes of being able to present the gospel to them in a relevant way. Although the children and I will be at our new home the majority of the time, we hope to accompany Aaron to the bush one or two mornings per week. Our presence is such a blessing to the people. They are so interested to see white skin and especially in their own village!

In addition to spending time learning about Nigeria until we move to *****, we have been able to volunteer some with the school next door and join a few of their devotional group meetings. These children are really being taught God’s Word and it is exciting. May they grow up to win this country for the Lord! Most significantly we are using these next few weeks to pave our way to **** in prayer, and we thank you for your partnership in that. The only way we can do anything is by God’s grace and the only way anyone will listen to our message is if the Lord opens their ears and hearts. Satan has control and will not easily give that up. Please also keep praying for the Hep A vaccine to be located because we cannot proceed with our move until we receive it. We thank and praise God for our safety and health thus far. Please keep covering those areas in prayer. Specifically pray for Lydia and Caleb’s chest congestion to be healed in Jesus Name. Also, please pray for patience and purpose for Aaron during this waiting period. My life is very busy and very similar to my life in Texas, but Aaron’s life is TOTALLY different. He is used to being super busy with his coaching job. Being here as a missionary and not working a clearly defined job with things to check off and accomplish each day is a HUGE adjustment.

We can’t thank you enough for your continual prayers and encouraging notes. I need to warn you that we are not receive every email that is sent to us so if you email and we don’t respond, try try again! One last thing, please pray for my mom as she and Daddy are going to a conference/vacation for a week leaving Sunday and her knee is causing her serious pain. Please pray she will feel good on their trip. Thank you!

I can’t believe it is Christmas season. Enjoy! 

 
I just had to put a post with this basketball picture. Aaron asked a new friend if anyone around our compound played basketball. Soccer (football they call it) is the popular sport and not many people really play basketball. Well, a group of guys got together this afternoon to play with Aaron and they were a sight to see. One guy was barefoot and one guy had one flip flop and one bare foot! Aaron said their way of playing ball was interesting to say the least. He had a great time, however, and they are playing again tomorrow! These are just local guys from the town we live in.

I got the praise and prayer report for our area and we were mentioned: "AARON & SHELLY TEFERTILLER (Nigeria) and their 4 kids will be moving to a remote location in January. This will be a huge adjustment. They are excited about the move, but they do need our diligent prayers." Once we get our necessary vaccines, we will be pushing hard to move by the first part of January. There is a huge SIM conference here at our compound the first week in January so we plan to leave as soon as that ends. The details in preparing the house in ***** to make it habitable for our family and transporting all our things to this location are just as overwhelming as moving to Africa in the first place. Please pray for everything to fall into place and for us to know how to get it all organized. We are excited and ready to go but we need you to cover us in prayer all along the way.

One more thing, our dog Nash, that Aaron and I got right after we were married, died yesterday. My parents have been taking care of him and it was a huge loss for them and for us. Elisha has cried many tears. Please pray for my parents in this loss and for us. I know it doesn't seem like a big thing, but something like this is hard when you are already missing your family.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Wow! We have so much to be thankful for, don't we? We had a wonderful Texas-Style Thanksgiving feast with the other missionary families here on our compound. Someone told me that this compound was a very soft place to land in Nigeria. She was right. We feel so at home and so loved here and we were totally spoiled tonight with chicken and dressing and even pumpkin pie! It was delightful and I am stuffed. The boys had a blast. I have posted new pictures from our evening and they include the other missionaries here as well as a team of three electricians who have come from the US for three weeks to work on the generators. We missed our family very much today, but what a blessing to be surrounded by new loved ones. May we all take time to be truly thankful today and every day.

 
Last week was really hard. We found out we needed certain vaccines that we should have taken care of stateside. Without these shots, we cannot move forward with our work or our plans to relocate to the station with “Auntie.” We finally heard from the Lord about our mission here and the enemy put up a road block. I guess we should expect that and even be grateful, for it means we are on the right track! We wrongly assumed we could get three vaccines here and one specifically is not available in Africa. We dropped the ball on this one and in our frantic preparations for leaving in October this slipped through the cracks. On top of that, due to some miscommunication, SIM was under the impression that we had intentionally disobeyed orders. It was all very hard and painful, but God is in control and works everything together for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose. We are still praying that the Hepatitis A vaccine can be located for Aaron and me. Like I said, we are at a standstill until we get it. So, that was our bad week.

Now, I have to share how the Lord has strengthened and encouraged us! Sunday night a missionary family brought us a surprise. The wife of the dentist here had been in the states for two weeks surrounding her mother’s funeral. Despite all she had on her mind, she arranged for my mom to send a care package to her so she could carry it back to us. When she brought by this box on Sunday night and I opened it to find coffee and goodies and a new DVD for the boys,. . . wow, it was so special!!! We were greatly surprised and blessed.

Then, yesterday we went into the city to have a meeting with the SIM people about the vaccine mess. The meeting went very well and afterwards, we went out to lunch at an American Style café. We REALLY enjoyed our food and as we were finishing up, a lady (obviously a missionary) stopped at our table to praise our children’s behavior. That in itself was a huge blessing, especially since we were stressed the whole time about how they were acting! Then when that lady and her husband left, the waiter came over to tell us that they had paid for our meal! We were shocked. It was so precious to see how God used them to strengthen and bless us. On top of that, we went to a nearby guesthouse to meet with someone and when we pulled up that couple was there! They live at a mission station several hours away and were in town for a vacation. We never expected to see them again. We messed up their desire to give in secret, but the cool part is that they are working with an unreached people group in Northern Nigeria and want to share about their ministry with us. It could be a very important connection.

We are just in awe of the Lord and how he has blessed us and moved in our lives this week. Our last exciting news is that on Thursday, the missionary families here will gather for an American Style Thanksgiving Feast and we are so excited. The Lord has provided so beautifully for all our needs and our wants. May He be praised!

As I stated above, the spiritual battle to keep us from moving out to ***** is real and strong. We desperately need your prayer coverage. The lady over us at the SIM office said that all the people who work with this specific people group come under much attack. She said it is imperative that we have serious prayer coverage. We assured her that we have an amazing team at home! Please keep praying. Have a wonderful THANKSGIVING!

Texas Pride

Hey People! It is cooling off in your world but still warm here. There have been a few mornings when a chill is in the air and most people on the street have on winter coats! It is a scream. The weather is changing though, and it is windy and DRY with dust from the Sahara Desert blowing in. It causes everyone to get sick and that is part of the reason people bundle up. It is mostly to keep the wind and dust off. Like a long term missionary told us, the Harmaton (dust blowing in) doesn’t hold a candle to a west Texas sand storm!

I must say that so far, Texas weather has totally prepared us for Africa. When people ask us where we are from and we say Texas they all grin and have an understanding of where that is. Texas is famous you know! We met a 23 year old missionary serving with YWAM (youth with a mission) two days ago when we visited a YWAM school. He said, are you from Texas? He is from Pennsylvania or something. I said, is it that obvious and he said YES! Recently, I was leaving a building and there was a Yankee and a Nigerian I had been talking to. I said “Bye Y’All” before I realized how I sounded! They were amused. We have been in contact with people from all over the world and it is so cool to hear everyone’s accent. I wonder what they think of us?!

Aaron has been asked to preach at the boarding school next door for their “Thanksgiving” Service. I am wondering if the kids will even be able to understand the tall white Texan. He is going to wear his new African outfit so it should all be a sight to see!

Well, I just wanted to write so the blog would have some activity. We are still working toward getting to *****. We are missing two vaccines that we have to receive before we can go to the bush again, so please pray the SIM nurse here can locate two Hep A shots and Meningitis for our whole family. This is urgent because everything is on hold until we get them. Thank you so much for your prayers and notes. We love you all!

Two Nights and Three Days on the Field

We got home today from two nights in ***** with “Auntie’s” ministry to unreached peoples. Her mission station there is amazing and God is really at work. We are so excited to have the opportunity to be part of what is going on. She has no water or power to her home, but is set up with a water tank system and solar panels so she has some electricity and “running” water. I gave the boys a “bath” with tubs of water. They LOVE it there. Elisha just thrives in the culture here where kids hang in groups and play all day. Judah is more reserved, of course, but is enjoying the action too. Caleb has been sick and we are just praying for his chronic congestion issues to go away.

Auntie drove us up through the bush to a remote village that has just recently been targeted as an unreached people group. She is unsure of the population, but there is not one known believer among them. We got out and greeted the people (they are not the specific people group we have come to investigate) and they were so excited to have us. They all wanted their picture taken and were very impressed with Lydia. There is a wide open door for us to go spend time with them and work on our language learning. All people in this country speak Hausa in addition to their tribal language. Hopefully we will begin serious language studies very soon. Even if we only spend our eight months and then go to a totally different area, we need to learn this language to connect with the people now. We have studied and found that language learning is a huge part of bonding with the people and culture.

***** is very rustic and hard compared to the plush living conditions were are enjoying at the moment, but from our short stay this weekend, it is clear that ***** is where we need to be to really experience the language, people, and culture. In our present location it is rare to even meet a non-Christian. However, at Auntie’s station they are in and out every day. She is a safe haven for the group we have come to minister to. They are not interested in her religion, but know they can stop at her place and wash up or get water or say their prayers on their treks to market or as they work. She has a relationship with many of them. By God’s grace these relationships often lead to an open door to share the gospel. This people group has a thick veil concerning spiritual matters and much of the time Auntie says they don’t even understand what she shares. They are in deep bondage, but the Holy Sprit can take away that veil and give them a hunger for truth.

There are endless opportunities for service in this location and there is a “house” that has been offered to us. After so many years on the field, Auntie has much knowledge and supplies to get us comfortably set up and we would have house help for fetching water and hand washing clothes, etc. Tonight our washer is broken here again, and so I hand washed about forty cloth diapers out of necessity since Ruth won’t come to work until Monday. I have a much greater appreciation for her now! Aaron’s “job” in ***** is endless and there are so many young men who are hungry for the Word and to just visit with him.

Every morning the fifty something people who live there have prayer time and at night they have devotionals as a group. Afterward, there is much visiting and Aaron has been a part of that the last two nights. It is not culturally relevant for him to be helping me as much as we are both used to, but God’s grace has been amazing. I do hope we will find a godly young lady to help me with the children if we spend more time there. But please don’t worry about us neglecting each other or our family time. It is our priority to make time for us to be together so our ministry doesn’t destroy our family or our children. ***** is a great place for our boys and although there is the possibility of outside dangers, the people who live at Auntie’s place are precious and it is such a safe place for our children. There are many children living there whose non-Christian parents have left for them to be educated so they just live communally as young as nine years old. Such a different world!

There is so much more to share, but I’ll save you from reading more! Please pray for us to hear clearly what we need to do and where we need to spend these eight months. We have felt so out of sorts and un-needed here in this compound because this is not what we came to do. These three days in ***** are what we were called to do and experience! However, we need courage and confirmation if we are to plunge in and leave this bubble we are in for real missions. I think we already know the answer! And God will give us all we need to do this thing He has called us to. The main negative aspect to spending our time in ***** is that we will not have internet access, and the precious contact we enjoy with all of you will be limited to every two or three weeks. Please continue to pray for our vision and direction. We feel your prayers thus far and I believe our experience these last three days and the things God has shown us are fruit from the prayers of the saints; that’s you!

So much happens every day and I have to decide what is worth writing about and sharing. I want to give you all insight into our lives but not bore you with unnecessary details.

We took an overnight trip on Friday to a nearby town where many SIM missionaries live. They have a monthly pot luck dinner and we were excited about going and getting to know some people. We booked the night at the SIM guesthouse so we could stay after dark and not travel in the dark. Thankfully, Judah and Elisha were over their fever episodes, but Caleb had started one. I assured Aaron that he would be fine since the other boys just had fever for 24 hours and then it passed. Well, I was wrong. Caleb threw up all over Aaron right after we got to the pot luck dinner! We fixed a to-go plate and left. Oh well, TIA.

We got back to the guest house and the evening and night was full of vomit and diarrhea. Aaron was the one who stayed up with Caleb. He is a wonderful daddy, I must say. By Saturday night Caleb was a bit better, but still has thrown up more because his chronic congestion and cough gets out of control and then he vomits. He seems better today. So to wrap all that up, please just pray for Caleb’s congestion and breathing issues and for complete and final healing in that, as well as continued prayer for all of our bodies to adjust to all the new germs here.

Next event: We love our house helper, Ruth. She is not normal for this culture and actually wears pants most of the time and is very outgoing. She loves to tease and laugh and she and Aaron crack each other up. However, she is from a wonderful Christian home and her father has been all over the world and worked with many ministries. Very rare here. We are enjoying Ruth and she has been cooking Nigerian food for us. Our washing machine broke and Ruth has taken over hand washing our mountain of clothes and even cloth diapers. She is only 22 years old, but is such a wealth of knowledge and a very hard worker. We are grateful for her. She and I stay busy with the washing, cooking and cleaning. I am still trying to figure out how to effectively fit home school in!

Ruth brought us some fried sweet potatoes and I loved them. We asked if we could buy a batch from her. She just brought us some and said her mother wanted to give them to us. I said I would make them some cinnamon rolls. So last night we took a batch to their house. Her parents are in their seventies and have ten children. They are precious and speak wonderful English. We had a delightful time visiting with them. They have an eight year old grandson living there too so the boys had fun as well!

They have a very nice house for this area, but still no running water. They do have their own well. I found out from Ruth that they live on less than $50 per month which is a pension her mother gets from working for the government when she was younger. $20 of that goes to the electric bill, so they live on less than $30 per month and that takes care of Ruth, her sister and her sister’s son, as well as Ruth’s youngest brother. Ruth said they live on very little, but people always think they are rich because they eat well. She said they can live on very little because they pray and pay their tithes and live wisely for the Lord. Isn’t that awesome?

Ruth really wants to be a nurse, and they have decided that we should save her wages for her until we leave so it can go towards schooling. The rate per hour for house help here is less than 35 cents! We are in shock about that, but can’t pay her much more because that would mean she made more than a skilled laborer, and that isn’t fair to the economy. Hopefully we will be able to add to her wages when we leave and enable her to go to nursing school.

After we visited outside for a little while, they asked us to come inside the house right before we left so Baba (the name for older men in Nigeria) could pray over our family. Mama (the name for older women) came out of the bedroom with a toboggan on her head! I almost laughed out loud because they are always laughing and joking. Thankfully I remembered that in this culture, women always wear head coverings for church and prayer. Ruth took a doily off the couch for her head and so I grabbed one too. Aaron said we were a sight! Baba blessed us in prayer and we went home. They were so grateful for our visit and asked us to please come again when we could stay longer. And they were very excited about the sweet rolls (-:

The community here is predominantly Christian and the missionary influence over the years is evident. There is a growing Muslim population and that is an area for prayer. However, the people group we came to work with is totally Muslim and completely unreached. They are all over Nigeria and there are few believers. The Christians around us are of other tribes and people groups and they don’t really like this unreached group. Therefore, there is no outreach from the Africans. We pray we can be a light to them. We plan to visit Auntie in the town three hours away this Thursday. We will stay for a night or two and get to know some of this people group and investigate ways they can be reached with the gospel. We are hoping to spend some time in prayer and intercession for these people with Auntie. I feel that is the most powerful thing we can do. So please pray for our trip and for us to all be healthy and stay healthy throughout our time away from our comfortable little home here. Thank you for all the emails you send encouraging us and sharing your prayer requests. They are precious!

We are still adjusting to sporadic electricity and water, but thankfully we have gas for our stove so that is always available! Our internet is currently down and anytime we travel we won’t have access either. I am using a nearby office to post this. However, we will check emails when we can and we are grateful when you write!