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6 February 2005
Hi to you, or better yet, I can greet you with the local greeting.
Sunnu!
I am sending on this picture of one of our students and her mom and young brother. All of our girls come from remote villages and live in the mud huts without services of any sort. We have gone out on the past few weekends to visit the families and greet them with the news that their child, the teen girl we have at the center is doing well in school and that we are grateful that they would let her come to us for furthering her education and gaining valuable skills that will make her an asset to her family, village and maybe her country. The girls appear to have good situations upon our visits. Many come from loving families who have suffered severe poverty, multiple deaths, deaths of parents. What doesn’t show up in the pictures is the past of beatings, slavery, abuse and extreme hunger that some of them faced while in the village setting.
The picture here shows a round hut on feet. It is used primarily for storage of grain from their meager farming of millet or guinea corn. Or, it may be used to house the chickens during the rain season. The fields are bone dry right now and we see no food available. Their common meal is made of a fine grain called acha. It is kind of like cream of wheat or couscous. They almost always season it with pepe. A hot cayenne type of pepper. That is the meal of the day and week and month, day after day until the rains come.
We are invited into the homes. This picture shows the humble interior of a hut. We were greeted with many smiles and heartfelt curtsies and hands clenched and tapped on the heart of the greeter. One of the mud block rooms has dirt floors, swept clean and everything is quite clean in that manner. A mat on the floor is evidence of the sleeping arrangements at night. Not much to see here for furniture or “stuff” If the family has ever received a greeting card, chances are it is tied to a string and hung on the wall from the rafter. I will forward a picture I took of one of the houses that had furniture and even a loose tile floor of asbestos tiles.
You will also receive a picture of several of the kids who come to see who these strange visitors are. We greet them, hear the stories, pray with them and then on our way out, we are stopped to be introduced to several orphans who need homes and people to love and care for them. Many times they have been too old for us to take here, as we only take in the ones under 5 years old. It is heart breaking. We must pray for God to send more help for these people. The kids are suffering for nothing they have done. They suffer a lot.
So many come to ask us to take the kids who have been left behind as the parents die. They are great in number and need. May God bless those who are caring for them at this time and may He protect them from further abuses. Who needs this extra mouth to feed and body to bed down at night. I have met some who are growing so tired and weary because they have taken in so many over the years. They are old and wrinkled and still responding.
I hope that these pictures tell the stories that some days I am just to weary to tell, or speechless upon remembering. In spite of the poverty of the families, we were gifted with a live chicken from 2 of the families we visited. It took a long time to find the chicken. They would not let us leave until we accepted it. It was almost impossible to accept. I said, “no, no. please, we cannot accept.” I was quieted and reminded that the insult of not accepting these gifts would be harsher on them than the loss of their offering was to them. I think of the bible stories of sacrifices of the animals or grains or first fruits. ( we were also offered bags of acha) stories of God accepting these gifts as pleasing sacrifices and evidence of what the heart attitude was. Here, we see that same thing in this culture. The heart attitude and culture and custom. I am not to judge any heart attitude, but my own. I certainly would have not let on that I even had a chicken if I were them. Could I have given my last meat meal to visitors ?
There is much joy and much sorrow. But we find more joy! The families were quite glad to have something of value to share.
I am slowly learning my way around the customs and language and area. Some days I feel so grossly inadequate, and other days, so rich with experiences and hope to share. I pray God will make me useful as I forge along wondering what to say and what to do.
Please keep praying for our usefulness as we show up every morning. May God’s grace be poured out upon each of you as you also wake up to each morning with the same desire.
With love and care for each of you too.
Auntie Jude
Posted by libbystokes at 09:53 PM | Comments (0)
27 January 2005
Hello to all of you!!!
Happy New Year to all. I hear that the winter has hit the U.S! I am amazed how little we hear of anything outside our area. We huddled around the TV in town to hear and watch the rescue from the Tsunami, but besides that, we are pretty isolated here.
Where do I start? I hope to send you all the best news and stories, pictures and prayer needs for the upcoming year as I greet you and ask for the same from you.
Let me start here by letting you know that I am trying to get help with my lost address book and the way mail goes out of here so that I can keep in contact with you. I need a computer tutor!!!!!! Even our missionary friend is stumped as to why my address list continues to get lost in the computer most days. So I am trying to start over with all my entries. Please bear with me and pray for my communication needs to be met soon.
Our Mission here in Jos is everything and more that we talked about together. We are watching as the young teen girls make daily progress in their vocational training and academic lessons. The greatest progress is their spiritual and social advances. We see very shy and inexperienced young teen girls acquire understanding, courage, patience, dignity, and joy and hope as we carefully take them through life’s lessons every day. I will have progress reports and stories coming soon. The orphans we take in, we will get 6 more this week, are no longer orphans. They have a family here, brothers and sisters, mommies and aunties and uncles and a great Heavenly Father. They too come to us without language skills, social skills or often times even the ability to use their limbs as they often come malnourished and badly neglected, yet within months, they develop miraculously and are showing signs of bonding and healthy responses in all areas. The work here is non stop and my favorite part of it is that we have so many children in need who respond to love and attention, discipline and stimulation. We have mommies, women from the local villages, who have dedicated their lives to become the national, real mommies to these kids and we are beginning to seek mentors from the community for our teens that will soon move into the working world.
This is real, “hands on” satisfying work and our team of co-workers, Missionaries and Nationals, are full of purpose and diligence. I have a lot to learn to meet the demands of daily life here, yet I know that I already fit in and serve a great need.
Please keep us in your prayers and thoughts and if you can, drop a letter in mail [If interested in mailing Judy a Letter, please leave a comment for this entry with your name and email so that you can get her mailing address]. I sure would love to hear from you and hear all about your comings and goings. On Tuesday, just like in the service, we have mail call. I sure need to get called.
If you are inclined to send any news clippings from the paper, interesting pictures of yourself or of the family, please do so.
If you are one who would consider sending tapes of weekly sermons, music or even movies, they too would be most welcome. We share them between ourselves here. They could be sent to the same address with the following ideas for safe arrival.
Mail in a padded manila envelope average letter size or legal size rarely requires us to pay any duty. No food stuff at this time. I would rather, at this time, just get some good news and pictures and music. (I have heard that rats in the local post office nibble on anything with a pleasing taste, so some have said that if you put scented dryer sheets in the envelope, the rats stay away.) That is why I won’t ask for any food stuff yet. If you have questions, let me know.
I am just beginning my third month here with Rafiki. My ears are beginning to hear Nigerian English much better and I find myself singing a lot more than I ever did. Singing and work go together here. When we sing worship songs from the hymn book each morning, I know the girls cannot read the music, so where does all the harmony come from? It is a natural talent. I noticed the same thing with the choir at church. All they have are the words. No notes to follow. And yet, I hear 3-4 harmonies.
I praise God for the way He works this all out for the good of those he brings here. For providing for our needs as we work each day’s details out. For keeping me healthy and strong.
Please continue to pray for the new orphans to arrive and for their adjustments as they begin their new lives here.
For our spiritual and emotional and social growth and adjustments as we learn a new way of life and service with all new people and situations.
And please pray for more people to answer yes to the call on their hearts to inquire about how they too can help through the Rafiki Foundation. www.rafiki-foundation.org
Until later, I am joyfully serving in Jos,
Judy Stokes
Posted by libbystokes at 09:37 PM | Comments (0)