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!