Update 2

The last  two days have been very productive days. Sunday morning we met our second translator (eric) and headed to the Nigeria church for service. 

The pastor and congregation welcomed us very warmly.

We joined the congregation as they broke into groups and each group wrote down their ideas on things they would like to see improve in Nigeria, how they would make these changes happen, and then draw pictures of the changes.

It was beautiful to see the hearts of these people. They wanted to see beautiful things happen in the community; health clinics, places for counseling teens who face abuse, a no alcohol and drugs law, paved roads and parks. 

  Each member of our group was also asked to speak in front of the church.

 We were not warned in advance that we would be sharing, rather we were just called up to the front and told to speak to the group.

After the service we visited with the pastor a bit before heading out to go door to door for health visits. 

We picked one street and had one group go on each side.

There were alot of children with the flu and coughs.  

It was wonderful when some women would invite us into their homes just to visit.

 It took us only a few hours to go the length of the street, we returned to our giant church that we call home and with the help of our translators and some locals found our way to a much anticipated frozen yogurt place.

Today we again spent in Nigeria. We  went to a school there to talk with the woman in charge about doing some work there. Due to some conflicts we weren't able to see her. 

It took only a few minutes of us being there for the children to realize that we were there. They started running up to us and hugging us  and talking to us excitingly, they also practiced their english phrases with us.

A woman there gave us a tour of the school and told us about the schools history.

Getting home had its obstacles. We were all for taking a canoe across the river and catching a cab there, but our translator/body guard thought it was a terrible idea.

As a native he said that the other side of the river was too dangerous an area. He would say "I am your body guard, but who is my body guard?".

  He then walked up to a police officer and asked him to drive us out of Nigeria and drop us off somewhere we could catch a a taxi. We squeezed into the police car and rode out of Nigeria.

The police officer looked at us strangely when he saw us back in Nigeria just a few hours later.

We continued our door to door checks down another road. 

It was wonderful to have children who had seen us that morning run up to us and hug us when they saw us by their houses.

We saw less ill children on this road and more ill adults. 

We took time to pray with every person and love them as much as we could.

We spent our evening connecting with the guards who stay here at the church.

We joked that they were our babysitters, and they laughed and told us that we were very good children.

We heard their testimonies and stories about their families and great things God had done in their lives.

We all prayed together before finally letting our translator go home and we ourselves went upstairs.

I am excited that I will be here for three weeks. 

I feel that the people we are meeting here will touch me in more ways and teach me in more ways than I could ever help them.

  

Please continue to pray for our safety, health, our translators sanity, and our relationships with those in Nigeria and here at La Roca.

 -Hanna Coffey