Our Children are Letters for our ministry.....

“You are a letter from Christ showing the result of our ministry among you. This letter is not written with pen and ink but with the spirit of the living God , it is carved not on tablets of stone but on human hearts.” (2 Corinthians 3 v 3 )

Our children’s changed lives speak for themselves they are our letters that show in essence what Kings Kids ( an arm of City Ministries of EMS ) is all about. Currently we look after 250 children living with us in our care centres, Orphans and Vulnerable children from across Nigeria.

One such child is Emmanuella a 12 year old girl who

came to our ministry two and a half years ago. When she was brought to our centre at Gidan Bege she was in a bad state, our staff were moved to tears when they saw the extent of the maltreatment she had received at the hands of a local “prayer man “. She lost her mother and her father left her with her Grandmother, She was falsely accused by an aunt of being involved in the secret society as people living around were becoming sick and she was taken by her aunt to a local “prayer man “ for help. He proceeded to burn her with a heating iron in order to get a confession , on her arms, legs and back. She was branded like an animal with a hot tool ! !

She was in so much pain and so confessed and therefore her life was in danger from the community wanting to kill her, and so she was brought to our ministry.

When she first came she was traumatised and very afraid whenever prayer was mentioned , she was very difficult to draw close to physically and was angry and confused with her family for allowing this to happen to her. We found the family and counselled them as to the effect of the damage their actions had caused to Emmanuella, , they were repentant and came to see her and sought her forgiveness. She readily forgave them and they all cried together. Gradually over the last two years they have visited us and she has visited them, she has grown spiritually and is understanding the power of prayer to fight against the attacks of Satan in order to protect herself. She has learned to love again and has physically healed from her injuries and has become a happy, outgoing child. Now this summer she is going to be reconciled and go and live back with her family.

God has done this. He has brought healing physically, spiritually and emotionally. He has restored the relationships in this family amazingly and has turned a horrible situation into good.

She is a letter from Christ

going back into her

community showing the results of our ministry upon her life, a living testimony of why Kings Kids is needed and just one story among many.

Little lives growing..........

Its amazing to see how our girls are progressing and growing in the ministry. Those who have been following my blog for long will remember Favour who came to us in 08 after her mother died and Sandra earlier in the same year as a result of neglect...now look at them young ladies :)
It is amazing to see what a difference love and care makes in the lives of little ones.
Seeing them grow gives so much joy to us so how much more to our heavenly father who created them.

Who am I ?

I love the Casting Crowns song Who am I....?
The chorus of which goes..

Not because of who I am
But because of what you have done
Not because of what I have done
But because of who you are

I am a flower quickly fading
Here today and gone tomorrow
A wave tossed in the ocean
A vapour in the wind

Still you hear me when i am calling
You catch me when I am falling
You tell me who I am
I am Yours...I am Yours...

As I reflect on my life lately I am humbled by the way God guides and leads and brings new challenges along the way, not because of who I am but because of who HE is to bring Glory and Honour to HIM.
I am a vessel , a flower quickly fading...(sometime it feels like it !!) someone he is choosing to use here and now in Nigeria.

A few weeks ago I popped into a shop to buy some food and I saw a white lady i didn't know and her husband who is Nigerian. I overheard her accent and didn't think it was American !! and so when her husband left I asked her where she was from...
She replied London !!! and was so excited when i in turn said I was British too :)
She has been living here for a year now and has had no contact with a white person and lives on a totally Nigerian compound in Jos, she badly needed a friend who she could relate to and was so excited to talk. Her husband commented that she was obviously meant to come to the shop today to meet me !!! She had never met a missionary or knew much about ministry ( a suprise to me here )and was keen to be friends.
When we met later in the week it turns out she was a brand new Christian and was in need of someone to Disciple her. She has come through an awful lot in her life and God has brought her to Nigeria and got her attention....and then a few months later he introduced her to me :)
I felt God say to me that he wanted me to disciple her !!! wow.. I was already super busy and not looking for new challenges and I had not done one on one discipling before but I knew this was from God and he had a job for me to do :) Not quite what i was expecting to be doing here so far from home but God had a plan...

Well we have met a few times now and its so exciting to see someone grow in their faith, she is coming each week with loads of questions from the daily studies she is doing and we are having hours of discussion. She sadly has not ever had conversations about God with a British person before and God has designed it so well that she has come out of her country and yet connected with someone to help her understand her new faith .... and that is ME !!!

If you have never had the opportunity to disciple someone one on one I challenge you to look for those God opportunities he brings along your way. It is very challenging but so exciting and encouraging and really builds your own faith as you reflect on who God is and the changes in your own life.

When our life belongs to God and we let him be in control its amazing to see what he uses us for. We are flowers quickly fading , here today and gone tomorrow and we need not to miss the opportunities he gives us to bring Glory to him.

Life in Ministry...

Kings Kids ( the ministry I work for ) --- Vision Statement says...

We aim to HONOUR GOD by developing Young People who love and serve God and impact their society for Christ and mobilizing the local church to do the same.

As I have been reflecting on this vision recently i have been challenged to think about what that means and what my part is in the fulfilling of this vision, what it looks like to me...

There have been many challenges since I last wrote a lot of political, religious and tribal instability here in Jos and many people have lost their lives, and yet despite it all I am here continuing to carry out God's call to Honour Him by serving where He has called me to be, fully carrying out the ministry He has given me. I know that this is where God wants me to be serving Him by ministering to the many young people he is rescuing and bringing from darkness into light .
We recognise that this is God's ministry and Trust Him to provide for the needs of looking after 250 children on a daily basis, He brings individual lives to us through so many different ways each broken, rejected, abandoned child special to Him and He asks us to Honour him by the way we love them, respect them, care for them and teach them about their Saviour.
We aim to disciple these young people to teach them how to live a Godly life and see such amazing changes from when they arrive as they heal and blossom with new life, and are released from bondage, free to live a life that Christ intended for them.
Discipleship is an ongoing thing, its challenging and requires much patience and forgiveness and encouragement....as we "pour out our lives" into these young ones so that they can grow up to impact their society for good .
I am still amazed and and in awe of the changes God's love brings to a child's life and feel humbled and privileged to play my small part in the process.

Just this week we have received four new girls each with a story to tell. One new girl Fatima is a 14 year old beautiful girl. Her mother is a prostitute and drug addict she has never known her father. She has been a "hidden child" she has brought herself up her mother leaving her for days on end as she went about her business, she was taken to school but that is the only place she went as she had to keep out of sight. As she has got older there was a real danger she could be groomed for a similar life one she was trying to get her mother to stop doing . Her mother felt she was too much disturbing her life and so brought her to the ministry so she could carry on her lifestyle in peace. Fatima gave her life to Christ and came to live amongst the sixty other girls....quite a change for her...she had never had a friend before or so much company it was quite overwhelming at first. Then just a week later i saw her grinning from ear to ear fully integrated with her "Sisters"...she told me she has never been so happy she is bursting with happiness a real testimony to the ministry and a reason we need to be here for others like Fatima.

Lost and Found

These last few days have brought home afresh to me the message in Luke 15 when Jesus is talking about the parables of the Lost sheep and the prodigal Son and the cost of Discipleship and forgiveness. I love the way the shepherd kept searching for the one sheep that was lost, leaving the rest and searched until he had found it and then returned back to the rest rejoicing . Also the way that the father welcomed back the prodigal son even though he had made bad choices and treated him really badly, he forgave him and celebrated that His Son had come back home..

My understanding has been awakened this week afresh as one of my older girls aged 16 decided to run away and we had no idea why or to where she had run...she just did not come home from school. The staff tried looking for her but by nightfall they had no idea where she was. I rallied people to pray along with us that God would a. protect her and b. would expose to us where she was hiding. The next day i joined the search for this precious daughter who has been with us for two years and has made so much progress...
Mama Sati and I visited the school, talked to friends, visited friends homes gradually formulating a picture of what had been happening recently and gaining and checking out leads...we were going from here to there meeting so many people , and just when it seemed we were getting no where fast we got a call from her uncle to say she was at his home....and could we go and get her !!! yeah... we were rejoicing that she was ok but had so many unanswered questions that needed answers
God had answered our prayers and exposed where she was...we hurried there and talked with her relations and discovered no real answers ...
Only God really knows the why ? and how ? and where ? we carried our daughter back into the fold to her sisters all who had been so worried about her .
It was then that we had to make some choices, just like the father did in the prodigal son parable we had to accept that she made some bad choices, had probably done some wrong things and we needed to forgive her and love her despite everything.
It is not always easy to do but God calls us to disciple others, to encourage the weaker brothers and sisters in the faith, to forgive when they do wrong and keep loving unconditionally like he does to us.
I don't know what the future holds for her but i do know that i have to ask God to help me trust her again and to keep loving her and to pray she will learn from her mistakes and grow closer to God as a result. I am grateful that our shepherd never gives up on us even when we go astray he will always search for us until we are found and he can bring us home.

Christmas Shopping with a difference.....

This week we have been Christmas shopping for our children, but it is unlikely to be like anything you have experienced yourselves back home...
There are no toys to buy, no special sweets or videos, no decorations in the shops and no Christmas carols playing and this week sees the 1st of December... In this culture the thing that children love to receive more than anything is a new set of clothes and shoes if the parents can afford it....in our case we needed to buy for 250 children...which as you can imagine is quite an ordeal and costs quite a lot of money. It is great to not be caught up in all the trappings associated with the build up to Christmas, so much simpler and the real meaning of Christmas can be the focus.
So this week I was responsible along with Mama Sati and one of our Aunties to find 62 pairs of shoes for our girls and to buy the material for new dresses and headscarves to complete the outfit.
It was a memorable experience...I had asked them to measure the girls feet not really thinking about how they would do that !!! but these ladies are so resourceful they arrived with lots of pieces of straw from the brooms all different lengths with names attatched and little bundles of wool. So we set off for the market.....remember it is very hot dry and dusty here at the moment ...the shoe area of the market is a warren of small concrete stalls one on top of each other with narrow walk ways between...so many small shops all squashed together and all selling the same things it is mind blowing how they can sell anything all competing with each other. We arrive at the first shop and try and browse....but everyone is shouting out to us from all over trying to get our custom...one man persuaded us that he had wholesale shoes and as we needed a large number we followed him...down alleys and eventually upstairs to a shop full of shoes all sides of the walls...we are given a wooden bench to sit on and then are shown all the varieties...
The aunties are satisfied and so he asks what size ??? well i hand him a piece of wool and a wooden stick !!! and we begin...trying to keep the name and the shoe from getting muddled up. While we are there people keep coming in and out trying to get our attention whilst we are getting hotter by the minute and trying to concentrate on the task at hand. The measuring is very random, the colours and styles pretty awful nothing like buying shoes at home. We eventually have around 40 pairs and decide we need to go elsewhere for the larger girls ones...and so the haggling over the price we are prepared to pay begins....satisfied we hand over our money and then a boy is called to take our very large sack to the car...on his head we quickly follow behind and process once more back through the alleyways to find the car....we pay the boy for carrying our bag and then we have to go back and begin again !!!
This time we are looking for more classy shoes with heels for the older girls...each has given their ideas to Mama and so we look for shoes that to me are highly unsuitable for church in the village which is where they will mainly wear them !!!! but i have no idea but Mama knows what she is looking for !!! and she haggles prices and tells the men her exact wishes it is very interesting to watch...but time consuming as you can imagine :)
Eventually we think we have enough and set out to find headscarves. Whilst sitting in a shop on the upper level we suddenly see the head of a rather large lady emerge on a rickety looking spiral staircase...she is crying for help as she is suddenly frightened...i leap up and give her a hand and pull her up....a few minutes later we see a young man trying his luck coming up the stairs too looking for help !!! i told him he was not a damsel in distress ....sorry ...everyone laughed !!
Finally we are done and its 4 pm and we haven't eaten since breakfast.....and now shopping is over the ladies are hungry and no Mc donalds handy so we stop at the side of the road where they are barbequing chickens and fish on old barrels and wait while they cook.....eventually we eat and can laugh at all the craziness of the day....done for another year :)

Dreams broken, Dreams begun....

What a week it has been since i last wrote....
One of our graduated boys came to see me last weekend in a real confused state, he has been saving hard , doing lots of jobs for people to try and earn money so he and a friend can begin their own business. They have been dreaming of what their future will look like and planning what steps they need to take to get there....BUT he received news that has broken all of those dreams....He has gotten his girlfriend pregnant and her parents have sent her away from the house and she is now his responsibility....Not what he had planned, He was feeling so guilty and needed to be able to talk to someone who would not condemn him but someone to help him sort through what was going on in his head and help him seek forgiveness . I was the person he chose to talk to....As I sat listening to him my heart was broken as i felt his pain and i was incredibly humbled that he felt he could come and confess....broken dreams..
Then just as i was trying to get my head around the first broken dream I was informed by our nurse that one of our girls has tested positive for HIV ....I was just commenting after last weeks funeral that i didn't know how i would cope if one of our girls died and then a few days later here i am trying to explain to a teenager that she has a fatal disease and all the implications that go along with it...we have no idea how she contracted it and as she sat and wept all i could do was hold her and cry too and reassure her that it was not her fault her dreams were broken....
BUT
This week I have had the opportunity to dream dreams that God has for this ministry alongside a visitor who is looking to partner with us as we look to see how we can prepare our children to leave us and set up on their own. A year ago i had sat with this lady and expressed a dream that i felt God was showing me of a "vocational centre" that would be ideal for our kids, she too was thinking something similar and she went home and drew it out...then when she came back we discussed our idea one year on and were getting excited but knew now was not the right time and it seemed such an impossibility so we put it on the back burner while we worked on other things...BUT... We got the opportunity this week to meet the Governor of this States wife and went to view a vocational training project that she has been developing...as we were walking round both of us could not contain our excitement as we were witnessing the reality of something like what we had been dreaming before our eyes....the Governors wife had been dreaming for 6 years before beginning .... I was amazed that something like what i imagined could be done here and knew i have to trust that God can do it if He wants and i just need to keep the dream alive until the time is right...
I was able to start to clarify the dream of transitioning our older girls out of the ministry too, I was able to see that we should start working on the three older ones and had them to stay over this week to work with me and our visitor to brainstorm what they were thinking and dreaming for their future...it was a special time and awesome to see how these girls are able to dream of a bright future as a result of our ministry rescuing them from a hopeless situations. Their lives have been totally transformed by God .
As I reflect upon this week I am glad that God is not suprised by anything, he knows before we do what is coming and He holds everything in his hands. He knows our hopes and dreams, he knows that sometimes these get shattered and broken, He shares our sorrows and rejoices with us in our joys. He can bring dreams to fruition and provide all that is needed to fulfill them.
As I walk step by step with him i know he will accomplish what he wants for this ministry and all involved in it at just the right time.