Corinne In Uganda: I Made It To Nigeria!

Friends and Family,

I made it to Nigeria! Thank you so much for your prayers. The traveling went well; I was even able to sleep most of my time on the airplane. In fact, I was sleeping so much that I kept sleeping through the complimentary beverages and meals! So, I finally asked the man next to me to please nudge me if I was sleeping when the stewardess came through. I didn’t miss any meals after that!

I arrived in Abuja at 4:30am and went through customs without any problems. Daniel and his dad were both waiting for me at the airport, and we traveled to Jos from there! The 3 hr drive from Abuja went well. We went through about ten military check points during their drive. Sometimes the soldiers would pull us over and ask about the luggage in the trunk, but usually they would let us drive through. The military presence in Nigeria, specifically Jos, has been heightened due to the unrest and terrorism.

Thank you so much for praying for my laryngitis. God has definitely answered your prayers! I think a miracle has happened. From the time I left home to when I was in London, I had absolutely no voice. All I could do was whisper. Last time this happened it took me five days to even start getting any sort of voice back. On the flight from London to Abuja, I still had no voice. Well, when I got off of the plane in Nigeria, all of the sudden I had a voice! It was a weak sounding voice and still difficult talk, but it was definitely better than whispers. Now that a couple more days have passed, my voice is almost entirely back to normal. Praise God!

My time with Daniel’s family has been wonderful. His parents are devout Christians, and so our time has been full of sweet fellowship. We enjoy meals together, evening devotions/prayer time, and just time getting to know one another. It is really neat to be staying in a Nigerian household. It is different visiting a country and staying in a guesthouse than actually staying with natives. I get to do everything from taking bucket baths to eating traditional meals (sometimes without utensils!) to shopping at the street market to get groceries. Dr. Mrs. Iya even took me fabric shopping so that a tailor can sew me some traditional Nigerian dresses!

I had the awesome opportunity today to visit Rafiki (www.rafikifoundation.org). I’ve known about Rafiki for about four years now, but I’ve never actually been to any of the villages. Well, it turns out that Daniel’s dad is the chairman of the board of trustees for Rafiki Village Nigeria. What an awesome opportunity to meet the director of the orphanage and take a tour of the campus! The director, Melanie, knew that I’m on my way to work at Good Shepherd’s Fold in Uganda, so she was more than willing to answer all of my questions about Rafiki orphanage (and believe me, I had many questions!). We spent about two hours speaking with Melanie and touring the campus. Rafiki is one amazing organization, and I loved seeing the ministry first hand! Rafiki seems to be very similar to GSF, and it made me even more excited to start working in Uganda. Melanie offered to meet with me later on this week to talk more about Rafiki, so hopefully I’ll have an opportunity to take her up on that!

At this point, I thank God for all of prayers He has answered! Specifically, please praise God for granting me traveling mercies and a quick healing from laryngitis. As far as prayer requests go, I please pray for the following:

- Please pray for continued safety in Jos. The state of emergency has been lifted in Jos, but it continues to be an area of unrest. Pray that God would bring peace to the city of Jos. The Islamic holiday Ramadan just started, so pray that violence does not increase. Also pray for the churches, as Sunday is approaching and church bombings tend to be a common act of terrorism.

- These two weeks at Daniel’s house will also be the last two weeks I have with Daniel until we are separate for two years (except occasional visits). Please pray that our time together would be sweet and that the goodbye wouldn’t be too hard! Pray that my relationship with Daniel would act as a stronghold for me rather than an emotional breaking point.

- Daniel has a visa interview on the 26th. Please pray that the American embassy would grant Daniel a student visa for the upcoming semester!

Thank you so much for your prayers and continued support. I hope that my update encourages you to pray! I've included several pictures for you to check out:

Nigeria has beautiful landscape. It's very green right now because it's the rainy season. Those mountainish shapes in the background are actually large rock formations!