A Brother for Christmas- no wait- how about 40!!!!

"Aunty, when you going to be with your family this Christmas?" "Well, I don't get to see my family for Christmas this year. Will you be my brother for Christmas?" I asked this cute little boy on a walk through the village- after our Christmas program. "Sure!!!" That is how I saw this 3 days in the village with 40 boys in our care center. The missionaries with City Ministries wanted to make Christmas special for the kids in our care center. So 40 girls went to stay with the aunties in Jos and me and 8 other missionaries went to the village for the boys. We had so much fun!!!

Playing games, For something extra fun, we loaded the boys up and took them to the city for a night. We stayed in our friend Emma Loise's house- ( sorry girl-your house and yard will never be the same =0) Did we ever have a house full!! For an extra special treat we served them Suyia ( meat on a stick) with their rice and beans. That night we watched a movie and then all bedded down for the night- Sleep tight!!! The next morning we served tea and bread to the hungry boys...
We split the boys in 4 groups and did fun christmas activities... They loved decorating Christmas cookies....and eating them- but you should have seen the look on this little dudes face when he tasted icing for the first time =0)

They created their own Christmas cards... And decorated paper chains for our cactus christmas tree in the village...


And played more games outside.

After a big lunch of indomie--(Ramen for you American readers) and getting all the boys down from the orange trees....


The boys all climbed in 2 SUV's ( the big van didn't work out) to head back to Gyero. Christmas morning we decorated the Christmas tree and went to church with the boys.




Here's the boys sporting their new Christmas clothes!!




"There won't be snow in Africa this Christmas..." But we had fun celebrating Christmas a whole new way. What a great christmas!!!! I love my Brothers so much and pray they will grow up to be godly handsome young men who will greatly impact this nation with Jesus Christ!!!

Busenitz : WhitePages

Busenitz : WhitePages

My ROUS encounter!

My heart is just returning to its normal pace.... ( ok so this was last week but I just had to share it with you)

ok so my friend Holly and i were talking and all of a sudden she shouts, i just saw a really big rat on the other side of your guitar

Picturing a 5 pound rodent ( like the ROUS’s on Princess Bride)

anyway- being so brave ( not) I frantically closed my bedroom door and put blankets to seal off the doorways. SInce there was no traps- and I didn't want to kill the thing in my house- well,,,, I jumped back on the chair I was standing on and screamed. I know thats not too heroic but its all I could do. My friend and I were laughing and screaming. Suddenly I had an urge to face this problem with courage. I got down off my chair.... marched over to my garbage can and set off to capture my prey. Success! But now what. How could I get it out of my house. I called my friend Matt on the phone to see if he would come assist- his nickname on the compound is Mr. Health and safety- he wouldn't answer his phone. So once again the responsibility was on my shoulders

I grabbed a dust pan to slide the garbage can on.... It would have worked perfectly if I hadn't taken so long to flip it and put on the lid

My friend shouts, ' It's coming out!! I jump back and run to our posts on top of the chairs. At this point I was ticked it was taking so long to take care of this guy- and was at a loss for a new tactic. By now my ROUS was taking another lap around my apartment. It did arrive back to where I had it caught in the first place. As It climbed on my baricade I had set up- ( my fluffy towel) I swiftly landed my garbage can right over the top- Success!!! for the second time. We wasted no time flipping the can over and placing the lid on top. Now a new predicament- what do we do with a captured mouse? We decided to deliver it to Mr. HEalth and Safety. That didn't prove helpful- he didn't come to his door. Aha! My friend and I decided to take it to the guard to take care of. So with garbage can and fluffy white towel in hand we showed up at the guard shack- surprising him with our appearance. We told him our tragic story and asked him to kill the ROUS for us. He told us just to let it go. Lame. But at least it was closer to where he sleeps and far away from us so we were ok with it. We took our prey outside the gate- and He took the lid off and freed our friend

The ROUS running for its life ran back under the gate and hid in the corner right nestled up to the gaurds shack

we told him thank you and ran back to our apartment

Actually the ROUS is only about 4 inches long-but the way my heart was pounding it might as well have been bigger!!!

We wouldn't have worked so hard to catch the thing if we would have known we would end up just letting it go outside. He better never show up again!!!

fun times in the village

Remember the little piggy who went to market =0)

I love this tree- it is so beautiful!!!!

Hey friends!!! How about going with me to the market in Miango? Ok I would love to show you pictures but they all got loaded backwards so if you could just help me out and scroll to the bottom and read up that would be great!!!! And people say I am not normal... seriously.

Sobering place- the miango cemetary. We gotta see where a lot of missionaries are buried. Reading the tombstones we saw so many missionary kids there. Thinking about the pain the parents must have gone through- wow- not words. And then their was one gal that was 24 when she died. I don't know what you all think about cemetaries but they remind me that we weren't made for just life here- but we will live forever someday. Ecc 3:11- God has set eternity in the hearts of men. Also the hope of eternity in heaven shines through the verses these people chose for the stones like this one: " with Christ- which is far better." Phil 1:23 I loved this one that talked about a gal who was a "Beautiful Singer.- They sang a new song. Rev 5:9"
Ok you might think this is a little morbid- but i just want to challenge whoever is reading this- know where you are spending eternity. God is preparing a place for you- there's always room for more!!!!! And He gave his life for you!!!! "And He died for all that those who live- should no longer live for themselves but for Him who died for them and rose again." II Corinthians 5:15. (my life verse) He's my reason for living!!! - Thanks for reading this crazy ordered blog. =0)

Ok this is just to show off my hair and my cute dress barn shirt =)

I love it that Nigerians love bright colors- bright fabrics and lots of style!!! These 2 beautiful ladies were gracious to let me take a picture of their shop. See anything you want a whole dress made out of? Including a head tie of course =0) You buy it in 6 yard units. I saw this great neon green and hot pink tomato pattern. But I bought the green blue and green Pepsi pattern

OK it was like craziness- lots and lots of people at the market- and they really don't like us taking pictures so i took this one from the parking lot. We were like the only 4 white girls in the whole town. =0)

This is the picture that gave this blog post its title. This little piggy went to market and never went home. =0) Fresh meat!!! I bought some bacon here and it was sooo good!!!

I still cannot get over how every Nigerian- from 2 years on up has the gift of balancing stuff on their heads. I have seen ladies with huge loads of firewood on their heads. Crazy.

If you started here- thanks for following instructions. =0) This is the beautiful scenery on the way to Miango. The potholes in the road were so bad. Little boys were filling them with dirt all along the road- we thanked them by throwing small change out the window which they snatched up so quick. Ok next picture.

When you don't have Kentucky Fried Chicken......

It all started with a game of Farkle ( for those who play it on facebook- you all are missing out on the real deal.)
This is high stakes farkle- previous losers have spent the night duct taped to a tree- eaten a fish head.... you get the idea.
Well this friday night the stakes were set- the loser would buy a chicken in the market and slaughter it- the second to the last would help pluck and de-gut the chicken- and we would all have a bar-be-que. Matt got to do the killing and I got to help with the cleaning it up.

SO Matt did a little research on the internet- to find the least bloody way of killing a chicken- so this is him trying to dislocate the chickens neck.

the audience cringing...

This brought back bad memories of butchering chickens one time as a kid- But I faced the challenge with a smile. =0)

Yes- we ate the chicken feet- and the head too I might add.

Nice you can pick your teeth with your food =0)

The chicken tasted so good with Kari's mango marinade.
Crazy day. Great Memories =0)

So there is no Kentucky fried chicken here- and it definitely was not fast food- but oh was it the freshest ( is that a word?) meat I have ever had.

Swimming and fried chicken!!!

What a blast to meet a bus from Gyero ( the village where city ministries runs a care center for street kids and orphans) full of giggling little girls all sporting their swimming costumes ( my english missionary friends term for swimming suits) at the pool in Jos. For some this was their 2nd or 3rd time, for others including an Auntie it was their first. =0)

They giggled and squealed in the cool water and had a great time. I soaked up quite a bit of sun- but for some reason still seem so white. =0) One girl the other day when I was visiting Gyero looked at her arm then mine, then hers then mine and commented, " Black, white, Black white." Now I'm a lil red- hoping for a lil tan.

That evening i was inspired to make dinner for my friends. So I made fried chicken strips, mashed potatoes and gravy and carrots. And for dessert a bowl of fresh pinapple. It all turned out sooo good!!!!

Thanking God for fun blessings!!! "Every blessing you pour out I'll turn back to praise."

Coming soon!!!! Saturdays unforgetable chicken dinner!!!

sunday fashion- and pizza!!

Hey do you love our Nigerian Flare?All dressed up for church- and my Texas friend Gay Lynn is so excited to be taller than me in this picture =0)

And nothing to feel like a Sunday but going out for pizza after church. Although this chicken pizza is not quite the same as my favorite stuffed chicken bacon ranch pizza from Papa Murpheys. This had a tomato sauce, chicken, corn, and a lil cheddar cheese. But it was so good. I also ordered a Pinapple Mineral ( their word for soda, pop, fountain drink, coke- whatever you call it)

I miss my church family back home- but trusting God for a new Nigerian church home- still visitng churches.

That's all for today- more pictures coming soon. My internet is up and running again. Mun gode Allah. I thank God. He keeps filling my days with blessings =)