Conflict in Jos

I should have written about this sooner, but I'm not really a reporter. Even if I had written earlier, I wouldn't have been able to add any news about the conflict. So now, about 3 weeks after the violence broke out, I guess I'll give a summary for those who haven't heard anything about it. Please understand that this is NOT necessarily an accurate account, but rather my collection of the fragments that I gleaned from online news agencies.

Back around Thanksgiving (for us Americans), there was an election in Jos for what I will call a ctiy councilman's seat. After early predictions that the predominantly Muslim party's candidate was going to win, people gathered to see the results. When no results came, they got restless and feared that the government was tampering with the results...not an uncommon practice in one of the world's most corrupt nations. Violence broke out and soon the political tension mixed with religious/ethnic tension and it escalated. I have heard numbers that put the total number of deaths above 400, but who knows what is accurate. Homes, churches, businesses, and home-based prayer centers for the Muslims were burned. The Faith Alive clinic escaped without damage, though several of their staff lost homes and I would imagine that many patients lost theirs as well. The last I heard from Dr. Chris was actually a letter from a California woman who has been at the clinic for a few years now. She said that the clinic was operating at a lesser capacity than normal and that the staff had not all returned. Things essentially were taking a back seat to the recovery process.

I was alerted about the violence through an e-mail sent by one of my fellow travelers. If not for that, I would have had absolutely no idea that anything was happening. To the best of my knowledge, the rioting didn't even make a ripple here in the US media. All of my subsequent information came from Reuters.com and BBC.com. That same weekend, as you may know, gunmen terrorized Mumbai, India. That tragedy which claimed the lives of 179 people, garnered all of the headlines, while the deaths of 400+ in Jos didn't even warrant a mention. Now , I am not trying to say that one event was more tragic than another, the loss of any life is tragic, no matter the location or number of people lost. My theory is that the loss of 400 lives in Africa is not big enough to merit serious media attention. I have nothing to back this up with, it is strictly opinion, but I think that Africa sees so much turmoil that news agencies must have a cutoff for how many people have to die before it becomes newsworthy. But even then, why aren't we hearing daily updates about Darfur? For some reason, Africa is still the lost continent.

I hope that anyone who is reading this will pray for peace and healing throughout our world and for God's love to be felt by all people. May God be with you this holiday season. Merry Christmas.

If you are interested in making a contribution to Faith Alive, please visit their website www.faithalivenigeria.com. Share the love of Christ by making a donation in the name of a loved one instead of a traditional present this year.

Yes, I'm Still Around

Hey I'm back. Well, kind of. I don't really have any intention of blogging as often as I once did, but I noticed that someone has been checking in to see if anything has been added to this site. So for that person and anyone else who happens to stumble through here, here's what you have to look forward to. Mainly, I want to get back into the habit of posting videos on a regular basis. I still have a lot of interview footage that no one has seen except me. There are some really compelling stories and they may serve to bring more attention to Faith Alive and even the whole HIV epidemic in Africa.

I got a little burned out before, essentially working on Faith Alive videos for 5-6 months after my trip, on top of the 40 hours I put in at work each week. It's sad because I really enjoyed the making them. That's a topic for another day.

So, that's it. A short update. Please leave comments if you have any specific things you want to know about.

Food for Thought

I'm not posting a video this week. I could tell you one of several reasons/excuses, but all you need to know is that there won't be a video this week. Instead, enjoy the week and take some time to reflect on how blessed we are as Americans as we carry on the spirit of July 4th.

God be with you!

Faith Alive Interview Series Part 6

Faith Alive Interview Series Part 5

Faith Alive Interview Series Part 4

Interview Series Part 4

I'm back!

Sick again

I came down with a fever and a cough last night and ended up staying home from work. I suppose I could have worked on my next interview portion, but lying on the couch felt better. So who knows when I'll get a new interview up. Sorry.

Lazy Day

I took the day off yesterday, so I should have a video up tomorrow. Sorry for my laziness!

Faith Alive Interview Series Part 2

Wait for it...

So, I'm not going to have a video up today. I was sick yesterday and spent most of the day laying on the couch feeling sorry for myself and I had planned to put the video together over the weekend. If I can get it edited tonight, it may be up tomorrow, so check back! It's ridiculous how long it can take a 5 minute video to encode into the correct format for the internet.

Faith Alive Interview Series Part 1

Part one of a series of interviews with the staff and patients of the Faith Alive Clinic in Jos, Nigeria. This interview features Here it is!

Part one of a series of interviews with the staff and patients of the Faith Alive Clinic in Jos, Nigeria. This interview features Dr. Chris Isichei, founder of Faith Alive, talking about how the clinic started and it's humble beginnings.

I know, I know

I said I'd have a video posted last night, but I didn't. And the video I plan on posting is still encoding, so it'll probably be tomorrow before it's up. But it should be worth another trip here to watch. It'll be an excerpt of the interview I did with Dr. Chris Isichei and it pertains to how the clinic got started. So come back soon!

I have a decision and how you can help!

So I think I have made a decision to keep going with my blog for a while. My first plan is start posting excerpts from the interviews that I shot in Nigeria. I'm going to commit to one a week and I may be able to ramp it up from there. So look for a new video next Monday and I'll try to keep them going from there. I'll also mix in some general thoughts here and there, just to keep it interesting.

I really appreciate all of you who've been checking in over the past few months and especially the past couple of weeks when I haven't been updating. And I haven't forgotten about my plan to put up info on how you can help. Just to get you thinking about what you might do with that stimulus check you'll be getting, consider these options:

- For only $183 a year you can sponsor the ARV's (anti-retroviral medications) for an HIV positive patient at the Faith Alive Clinic through the Save-A-Life program. These drugs are literally a new lease on life for many patients, but most HIV positive people in Jos can't afford them and Faith Alive only has a limited supply. In fact, between PEPFAR (President's Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief) and the Save-A-Life program, over 3,000 patients are on ARV's, but there are over 10,000 more on the waiting list. If you would like more information, please e-mail me at faithalivefpc@gmail.com and I will put you in contact with the appropriate people. Be aware that this commitment is more than just one year. Once a patient starts on ARV's they cannot stop taking them or they risk severe side effects and jeopardize the drugs' effectiveness.

- For about $150 you can sponsor one child's school fees for an entire year at Elim Private School. You may be thinking, why pay for a kid in Africa to go to a private school? Why can't they just go to a public school? That's simple, it's not an option. All of the schools in Jos are private and the only way kids get any kind of education is if their parents can afford to put them in school. Elim School is a kind of partner with Faith Alive and the principal is actually one of the key volunteers for the Sunday support group. Elim accepts all children, but also takes in kids who have been orphaned or lost a parent to HIV. Again, if you're interested in learning more, please e-mail me at faithalivefpc@gmail.com. You can also look through my old posts to find a video about Elim or click here.

There are plenty of ways that you can get help and I encourage you to find something that is meaningful to you, even if it's not with Faith Alive. To see more info on our church's website, click here.

Where do we go from here?

The same question I've been asking myself since I got back from Faith Alive now has to be asked about this blog. I really enjoy writing stuff here, but I don't have much else to say. I mean, I do, but it doesn't necessarily relate to the topic of this blog. I guess what I'm getting at is the fact that I don't know what, if anything, you can expect from this blog in the future. If I decide to completely abandon it, I'll at least post one final message saying so. That just means you need to check in still!

One thing I would like to do is provide some links and more information about ways you can help. I'm at work now, so I don't have time for it, but that would certainly be a reason to come back.

Have a good day!

Happy Earth Day!

What you've been waiting for

Well, the moment that's been 2 1/2 months in the making. Really I guess it could said that it's been over a year in the making sense that's how long I've been looking for a project like this. I hope you enjoy it.

A Bittersweet Moment

The past 2 days have been wonderful. Hanging out with Dr. Chris and the other members of the January trip has really been a blessing to my spirit. The past week was a little stressful knowing that I had this deadline coming, but also with added projects at work. But after I completed the video late Monday night and got it out to DVD, everything immediately got better. Well, almost. I still had to make it through work yesterday, which was one of the most frantic days I can remember. But as soon as Dr. Chris came in to dinner yesterday, I felt an enormous sense of joy and relief. For the past month I have been working steadily on this video in anticipation of his arrival. I wanted everything to be perfect with the video even though I knew he'd be thrilled to have it in any form. So when he showed up, all the stress melted away. It was no longer a deadline that I was trying to meet, it became a chance to share my gift for Faith Alive with a man who has inspired me to take on this journey of video craziness. And then to have him compliment me, and thank me and tell Anna how appreciative he was for my work absolutely blew me away. I have so much respect and admiration for Dr. Chris, that those words of gratitude will probably sustain me for a long time to come. I must confess to that I felt very unworthy of his praise. Here is a man who has devoted so much of his life to helping the less fortunate, and yet he's thanking me for 2 months of work in my spare time? I guess I really can't explain the joy that brought me.

Tonight was when Dr. Chris spoke to our church. The turnout was very good, in my opinion. The sanctuary was probably at about 80% capacity. When he was here in November, the crowd wasn't even large enough to justify using the sanctuary, so I was very pleased. My video was shown just before his talk and it seemed to complement his presentation very well. I hope that it is a tool that he can use in the future, to help put faces to the stories that he shares.

So the bittersweet part of all of this is the fact that it's all over. My video is pretty much ready for mass distribution, Dr. Chris will be leaving tomorrow, and the Heart of the Father in Africa campaign will be over in the next couple of weeks. So what do I do now? I'm hoping that this video will open some doors for me to work for other non-profits in the future, but in the meantime I guess I'll just look for ways to pitch in as I can. I don't want this to be my one big contribution. I want to make a habit of it. Actually, I want to make a life of it. As hectic as the past weeks or months have been, they have also produced the most gratifying works I've ever made.

By the way, the video is encoding right now and I'll post it as soon as it's done. May God be with you all and please offer an extra prayer for Dr. Chris and the entire Faith Alive family tonight.

Refreshing

I'm not going to write much, but I just wanted to say that you should look for the Faith Alive promotional video on Thursday evening. Tomorrow promises to be extremely busy and I doubt that I will have a chance to post it. I showed it to a small group tonight comprised mainly of my fellow travelers, but it also included Dr. Chris. It was great to see him again. I have been looking forward to his visit since we left Nigeria in early February, and now that time has come. Tomorrow is his talk and I can't wait to hear him speak and hopefully pass along the passion that he has shared with so many of us, now.

Have a great day and may God be with you!

Burning the Midnight Oil

Okay, so it's not quite midnight. It's 11:36 to be precise, and I'm trying to finish up the intro graphic for the Faith Alive video. Stylistically, it is done and looks good. I based the design off of an idea that my friend and former co-worker, Dion, came up with. I just need to tweak a few things and it isn't the fastest process in the world. At any rate, I am nearing the end of this leg of my journey. I have mixed emotions about almost being done. On the one hand, it'll be great to have my life back to normal. But, on the other, I'm not sure how I feel about my involvement with Faith Alive reaching an end. Yes, there are other ways I can help, I'm sure. But basically since January 25 (and before), my life has been all about this video for FA, and now that's going to end. I kind of feel like I'm going to finally be leaving Africa. I've had daily reminders of the people and the sights and sounds of Jos, Nigeria for 2 months since we got back. Now, I won't necessarily have that. I'll have the videos and all the raw footage, but it won't be something that I have to open up and look at everyday. It's going to be weird. After 2 months of probably 60 hours of working on video stuff (between my job and Faith Alive stuff), I'm going to just have my work. I never would have thought this would be a problem, but I don't really see how all the momentum that's been building within me is just going to stop. Clearly I'm going to have to find another way to get my dose of giving back. Okay, my latest graphic preview is done. Let's hope it looks good so I can go to bed!

Thanks for reading! God be with you!

Progress

It's hard for me to believe, but I am actually almost done with the main Faith Alive video. I met with Scott (a pastor at our church) this morning, and he recorded the voice-over for me. And tonight I laid down his voice track behind my rough cut and synced up the video. It is looking really good, if I do say so myself. I'm meeting with Dion tomorrow to brainstorm some ideas for the graphics side of things, and then it'll just be a matter of polishing the video up. There are a few shaky shots that I need to replace and some others that are just too dark. Imagine that, filming people with dark skin in a dark room with little or no light, and I can't use the footage? All in all, this has really come together quite rapidly in the past week. I met Russ to discuss the script 2 Sundays back, and now it's looking like I'll have this done by Saturday night if I work a full day on it! I must thank God for the ease with which this has progressed, because I was starting to get burned out a couple of weeks ago. Now I'm once again excited about this video and can actually start looking down the road to what other projects I might take up. One that I am considering involves using this blog to showcase several excerpts from my interview with Dr. Chris. If you watched the last video I put up, then you know that he has a lot of compelling things to say. I feel like I would be doing the clinic and the world a disservice if I didn't share more of his insights.

Well, it's 11:00 and I can go to bed at the earliest time I have all week! Dr. Chris will be here next Wednesday and I'll post the video soon after that! Thanks for stopping by and God be with you!

An Interview with Dr. Chris Isichei

This video was composed for church to promote the upcoming visit of Dr. Chris Isichei. For those who may not know, Dr. Chris is the founder of the Faith Alive Clinic in Jos, Nigeria. He is an incredible person and I may post more video of him on here later on just to share some of his story and outlook with everyone else. He is truly an amazing individual, and I encourage any of you in the Fort Collins area to come hear him on April 16. It was his visit in November that lit the fire in me to go to Faith Alive. I still find his statement of "the greatest investment you can make is in human lives" to be one of the most compelling statements that I've ever heard.

Elim Private School

One of the core focuses of our church's post-Lenten campaign is support of Elim Private School. This is a video I put together to promote the project. Elim is in Jos, Nigeria and I was lucky enough to spend a couple of hours there while at Faith Alive. The school's headmistress (principal) is also a volunteer at Faith Alive, specifically with the Sunday afternoon support group. Like most schools in Jos, Elim charges their students a minimal fee to pay for teachers and other supplies. I think a student's fees for a whole year are less than $300. If you are interested in supporting a student financially or learning more about Elim and how you can help, send me an e-mail and I will put you in touch with the appropriate people. For any educators who might be reading, this may be a good opportunity for a pen pal relationship. Who knows, but let me know if you're interested. Enjoy!

You See What We Saw

I said I would get this up this weekend, so here it is. This is the video that I made to share with our church about our trip to Faith Alive. It's basically a summary of everything that we did in Jos. A rather short summary considering we were there for 10 days. At any rate, I am excited to have this done and was very glad to share it with my trip mates. I've kind of taken for granted the fact that I've been able to relive (or at least revisit) the places and faces of Faith Alive, so it was nice to see my other travelers reactions to the video that I've seen dozens of times while editing. I hope you enjoy it.

Post-Lenten Journey

Happy Easter! I once heard a pastor say that we are 'Easter people' because we don't end the story of Jesus with his crucifixion. So, I don't think I am late in saying Happy Easter, since really we should be celebrating it year round.

It's been a while and I've been REALLY busy with the FPC video. As a matter of fact, I'm still at my office right now (6:45pm) working on it. Actually, I'm just leveraging the power of my work machine to do the work for me. It took my laptop over 2 hours to push out the video last night...this beast of a computer is on track to get it done in about 40 minutes. But the real news is that it's almost done! I know that any of you still reading this are anxious to see more videos, but I want to show it to my fellow group members first. It'll be like a premiere they see it, and this will be the theatrical release. I'm going to see them on Friday night, so I'll probably be posting this on Saturday.

In other news, our group was in the local paper today. Click here to check it out. It's pretty cool that our church is getting some recognition for their efforts, and hopefully it'll help spread the word in the community.

Well, that's all I have to say for now. I still have 25 minutes of computer rendering to wait for before I can leave, so I'll put some pictures in here. From left to right: a message written on the outdoor check-in at Faith Alive, a teacher at Elim School, and the room I shared with Bob. My bed was on the right and yes, we did put the mosquito nets down. This just happened to be the last day there.

God be with you!

Gaining momentum

In this picture, Innocent, me and Christy. If memory serves me correctly, Innocent is Dr. Mercy's driver, and just a generally helpful guy to have around. He also gets into Nigerian soccer the way I get into Georgia Football. Christy was one of our cooks, and my takwara. I have no idea if I'm close to spelling that right, but it means "name-sake" in Hausa. She tried to teach me a lot of Hausa, but I wasn't a very good student.

I think I have just finished the preliminary version of the script, formatted correctly and everything. It's amazing how excited I get when I can actually devote time to this project. I can't wait to get into the real editing of it. Now that I've got my road map, I should be able to have a very rough cut by the end of the week! This is all pending approval from Russ and any other Faith Alive board members of my script, but I'm not anticipating any major overhauls. I was pretty conservative in my approach and went basically with a straightforward sales pitch about the clinic and what it offers. I'll get fancy with some of the intro graphics, but this is meant to be about the clinic and getting people interested in helping in some form or fashion. So I didn't delve too deep into the HIV epidemic as a whole, and chances are that you aren't going to cry when you watch it. But I haven't picked out my interview pieces yet, so there is a chance that they'll add that emotional element. They will without a doubt, I guess the question is about how much I want to introduce. Only time will tell, and you'll just have to keep checking back here until I get the video done and posted online. In the meantime, someone sent me this link the other day: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWybv7vTJ38

It actually came from Erika, who was on the trip. I think a lot of us are struggling with the excessiveness of our lives, even in the places we don't see as being excessive. But when you know how far a dollar can go in other parts of the world, it's kind of hard not to question every purchasing decision you make. So, this video kind of portrays that on a larger scale than I deal with, but the message is the same. And whether you like it or hate it, I think it's a neat concept.

Happy St. Patrick's Day to you all! May God be with you! Thanks for reading!

Scriptwriting

My task for today has been trying to write a script for the Faith Alive video. Ideally, I would have done this prior to ever setting foot on a plane. But I didn't. So now I'm trying to retrofit my footage to a script...not the easiest thing in the world to do. However, it has gone remarkably well. I just opened my little word pad thing and started typing, and 2 hours later I have a first version of the script. And as I was writing, I would have little flashes of where certain interviews might fit in. It's really pretty cool, cause this will allow me to move much faster on the basic structure of the video. If you think of it as a body, the script is the skeleton, it's the foundation from which everything else comes. (That's why I should've had this done long ago!) Then the images, are the muscles and organs. They're the part that really does all the work for the video. And then the graphics are the skin. Well, it would actually be better to say that they're the clothing, but what need skin somewhere. At any rate, the graphics are the part that make the video look finished. And so with that metaphor, I become Dr. Frankenstein, trying to piece together these parts to make a functioning beast in the end. And with any luck, I'll pull it off. I need to polish up my script and get it formatted so that I can send it off to Russ for the go-ahead. I think it's a good start, and I can actually envision what it'll look like. That's usually the toughest part, and I'm starting to breakthrough it.

That's it for now! Thanks for stopping by and may God be with you! And I have to say this...How 'bout them Dawgs!

A new kind of balancing act

Before I went on my trip, I wrote about my concerns of finding a good balance between videoing and participating while in Jos. As it turned out, that wasn't an issue and if there was ever a question of which to choose, I chose to be there in the moment without the camera. A good example of this was a conversation I had outside the clinic on the wall with a woman waiting for her sister. I had a nice talk with her and let her son play with my still camera while we talked. (see pictures). And when her sister came out of the clinic I didn't grab the camera and ask to shoot them, although I knew I'd built up enough trust with them to get their permission. Instead, I talked with her for a little while and even prayed with them before heading off to lunch...which I was about 30 minutes late for. Anyways, it was a really nice interaction that I couldn't spoil with technology. It was just a genuine conversation that will be preserved in my memory and nowhere else.


So why am I bringing the balance issue up now? Cause it's an even greater concern now. Here's what I'm juggling: a job, editing 2 videos in the next 3 weeks for Faith Alive and First Pres, and trying to live a healthy life that doesn't involve staring at a computer for 14 hours a day. To complicate things, I am often really annoyed to be at work editing videos that essentially tell people how to make lots of money so that they can be happy. The real theme is follow your passion, and that'll bring you success, and that'll lead to happiness. But when a book by the title of Do What You Love and The Money Will Follow is cited as a source of inspiration, I think we all can figure out that the idea is money is what makes you happy in some form or fashion. Now I don't mean to rail on my employer and I am very grateful for the work, it's just hard to work on those videos for eight hours while I know that I have the content at home to be making a video that really can make a difference in someone's life. I really enjoyed working on that piece for the church last week because it was for something that I believed in. That's doing what I love, and it's not with the premise of leading to financial gain. Would I love to get paid to make these kinds of videos? Heck yes. Would I love to do these kinds of videos even if the pay was only enough to scratch by with? Absolutely, because I would be producing something with a purpose. Look, I don't mean to get all preachy and this is getting way off topic, but it's playing a big role in my stress as of late. The fact of the matter is simple: I want to work on my videos for FA, but by the time I get home and cook (though Anna has been great at giving me time off from that) and eat, I have at the most 2 hours of good brain power left. And that's all assuming that there are no other evening commitments. So where is the balance to be found? I've already planned to work on the weekends for the next few weeks, but I still need more time. I still am confident that I can get these projects done, but the quality of them is my main concern. I want to ensure that what I hand off to the FA board is something they'll actually want to use, and something I'm proud to say I made.

So now that I've typed for 15 minutes, I hope I can shift into editing mode. But I really needed to vent some of that...Anna has probably heard enough. So thanks for reading if anyone still does. I'm still going to write, so check back every so often.

Let there be video!

As promised...



This video is going to be shown in church and used in other places to promote the church's projects after Easter. The campaign is called "The Heart of the Father in Africa" or HOTFIA if you like acronyms. Anyways, I spent most of this morning and afternoon making this and I'm really pleased with how it turned out. Perhaps the greatest part is the music. It was recorded at the morning devotional at Faith Alive. As I was editing this piece, I had in my mind that I would use some other music that I recorded while there, but I accidentally deleted those files while trying to make room on the hard drive. So after I'd laid out the voice over and put in the visuals, I dropped the music in and the way it plays is exactly how it fit without any editing. The "praise the Lord" at the end starts at exactly the right time. It was pretty stunning when I played it the first time. It's like it was made for this. I hope you enjoy it!

The Waning Blog

So it would appear that I'm not going to be able to sustain this blog for long. Obviously, since I can't post more than twice a week. But I may have some incentive for you to come back...VIDEO! Yes, that's right. I should have a video ready to put up here on Sunday. It's for the church's post-lent project. And I got a rough cut done of the church version of the Faith Alive video last night, but it'll still be a while til it's ready for showing. So check back on Sunday afternoon and I hope to have something. Thanks for stopping by! I apologize for my lack of sharing!

Quick Update

I haven't given up on writing, so keep checking every couple of days. I've just gotten busy again with work and life and blogging has fallen lower on the priority list. I will be posting more pictures on here, too if that interests you more than my ramblings. If you're really interested in pictures, and I mean REALLY interested (cause there are over 500), you can go to:

http://faithalivefpc.shutterfly.com/?a=1&emid=sharshar&linkid=link4

Hopefully that'll work! Also, I should start working on videos in earnest this week. I just have one more tape to log and capture. I should have finished that this weekend, but Anna took me on a 50 mile bike ride that depleted my desire for anything except the couch on Saturday...and I did our taxes. Woohoo.

Check back soon!

Slipping back into busyness

I know that there are at least a few of you who are checking in on my blog, so I just wanted to say thanks for stopping by! I haven't quit writing, I've just been busy.


We had an impromptu meeting the other day at the Faith Alive office here in the Fort. 2 of the key women responsible for getting FA the momentum that is has right now were in town to transfer some of their obligations to members of our church. Sally is the president of the FA board, and Pam is probably the first American who got involved with Dr. Chris way back in 1998. It was really interesting to here the stories of how they became involved. And they're just really nice people, to boot. It was nice to be with everyone again, and it was just about as chaotic as it was in Nigeria, once again. Who knew it could take over an hour for 11 people to introduce themselves and how they got involved with FA. Especially when the basic answer for most all of us could be the same....Russ. It's really neat to think that my involvement and my video can all be traced back to Russ riding a bike at the gym and seeing a report about famine in Niger. That's what lit his internal fire to go to Africa, and through a recommendation of someone he met at FPC, he ended up at Faith Alive a few months later. I can only hope that I can influence people in the same way. I spoke to my parents on the phone last night and the pastor of their church (the one I grew up in) asked them to have me write a little trip report for their church newsletter. So the doors are opening for me to share my experience. If even one person I share my story with makes some commitment or lifestyle change, then I'll be happy.

As for my video(s)...Erika sent me list of the dates she would like to have 3-4 videos done. All of them are late March through April, so I have time. I'll be focusing on the main Faith Alive video, since that was my main reason for going, but I'll still put my heart into the others as well. So I should be pretty busy over the next month!

Oh yeah, the pictures...from left to right: the line waiting outside the clinic, a little girl at the village, and Tina from the sewing school, ready to be my apprentice! If you click on any of them, you should get a full size version.

Thanks again for reading and may God be with you!

Part Tres

Okay, so I'm actually going to finish this story tonight. There's not much left, just kind of a wrap of how this story is unfinished. But before we get there, let's go back to the strange brew the woman was working on the first day I visited. It was still in the pot the next day and it looked pretty thick and gross. It's made of ground millet or guinea corn, so you can probably imagine what a grain based drink might look like. At any rate, I was taking a picture of an older woman looking out of a window onto the scene of us with the kids, when she asked me to come inside. As it would turn out, there was another woman breastfeeding a baby in there and she's the one who wanted me to come in. Even she wanted to be "snapped." So I took her picture and as I was showing it to her, and laughing about the results with them, I got offered some of the drink for 20 Nira. I respectfully declined, even though I was a little curious. Just not curious enough to risk my health on a batch of home-brew made with creek water. After that, I came out and saw some of the rest of the group heading into previously unexplored parts of the house. We went through a short hallway that led into a small (8x10') courtyard. I call it a courtyard, simply cause it was surrounded by walls, and had no roof. There were clothes hung out to dry here and 3 or 4 doorways leading off. One of them was a bedroom that had a wooden bed with no mattress and I didn't see any blankets, just maybe a sheet. One of the village elders was in the courtyard and I was a little worried that he would be upset that we were back there. You see, I thought the group members I were following had a host, but I never saw one. So I asked the elderly gentlemen if that was his bed. Actually, he didn't understand the question, but when I put my hands together and pretended to sleep on them, he pointed out of the house, indicating that he lived at one of the other complexes. So, I guess he couldn't care less about us poking around, since it wasn't his house! One of the doors must have led to a bathroom of some sort, cause there was an outlet for one near where the feeding occurred. The smell of urine and a wet patch leading from a cutout at the base of the wall was a dead giveaway. Not exactly flush it and forget it! After that little excursion into the inner part of the house, we walked down to the farmland. There was something surreal about walking on a dirt path with the sun shining on you and thinking, "I'm in Africa." It wasn't quite like the Lion King, or anything, and I never thought I was in danger or being trampled by an elephant, but it was still a neat feeling. Just the idea that the dirt getting on my feet was from a continent I'd previously only dreamed of visiting. Russ and Kay stayed back at the village and gave the kids a couple of soccer balls. They had a couple of makeshift goals set up and ball that was flat, so they were having a great time when we got back from our walk to the land.

After we left, we went to the very American feeling coffee shop in the downtown district. I was one of the few who stayed behind and was fortunate enough to hear Amos and Russ talking about the reality of building a school for those kids in the village. The church was building a new building, so they could use the existing one for a school. And Amos figured that a teacher would only cost about $120 a month. So Russ jumped on this idea and presented it to the group that evening. Most of us were not in a mindset to say "yeah, let's do it," coming from a place where schools don't just happen wherever you can find shelter and a teacher. But nevertheless, Russ was unrelenting and took the bull by the horns. And we were all happy for that. So the next Monday, Amos set up a meeting with the village elders and church leaders. And along with Dr. Chris, Russ, Kristen, and Bob went out to talk about the school. I wish I could have gone, but filming obligations prevented it. Apparently, everyone in the village, including the kids showed up dressed in their Sunday best. The meeting went well and there was excitement from the elders and the church leaders. So when we left, Amos already had a teacher in mind and Faith Alive is on the verge of having a major presence out there at the farm land. It is very possible that our chance outing to that village is now going to result in a school and lunch program. That means that we can have a lasting impact on that village that extends past one hour of lunch and fellowship.

If you are interested in learning more about the school as it develops, just shoot me an e-mail or leave a comment. I can't say for sure when it will get rolling, but Amos is the best guy we could have working on it in Nigeria, and I know that it will happen. In the meantime, thanks for reading and God be with you! Time to log some more tapes!

Part Dos

When we showed up to the village the second day, it seemed as though the population had doubled or tripled. There were kids everywhere, and the longer Amos gave out hats, the more that kept coming. It was a pretty incredible to watch them coming from distant houses that we couldn't see. Even though we only experienced a small portion of the village the day before, this day was introducing us to the people who were living at all the other houses we passed on the way in. I guess when you roll up in a bus with a dozen white folks, you're bound to make a scene! As soon as we got out, I just jumped right in with the camera rolling. I haven't got to that tape yet, but it should be interesting. Since I was there the day before, one of the men remembered me and we immediately got to chatting in the little English that he knew. We walked around to the backside of the house where the men hang out and play mancala, but I couldn't stay long cause I knew there would be so much going on with the kids and the food. So I was pretty shocked to come back around the house and see the women and children of the village standing there facing the people of our group. Apparently everyone else wasn't integrating so smoothly. It struck me as odd, but it didn't take long for everyone to start mingling freely. As it would turn out, some of the people in our group were so overwhelmed by the sight of the kids in dirty clothes, no shoes, and in an obvious state of malnutrition, that they were sort of in shock. I can't blame them one bit. But the longer we stayed the easier it was on both sides. Upholding Nigerian tradition, our group had to eat before any of the villagers would take a bite...visitors first, even though we brought the food. I was too busy filming and talking to eat, so I neglected the custom and no one seemed to notice. We ended up only feeding the kids, I think that was a village decision. So 4-5 kids would gather around one plate and eat with their hands. The strange thing was that they were picking around the carrots! Amos would later point out that they aren't used to eating them, because even though they're easily accessible and fairly inexpensive, they probably never ate them. In fact, we saw some of the women carrying melons and other veggies away from the village, apparently to sell, on our way out. It's not uncommon for people to sell the foods they grow that are rich in nutrients, to buy yams, which are cheaper and go farther. So after the kids had all gotten there fill, they started opening up the pastries that Russ had bought from a local bakery. As with the veggies, the kids were unfamiliar with plastic wrapped food, so even though they were given the sweet rolls as soon as we got there, they didn't really understand that they could eat them. Or they were just saving them. At any rate, Mary Jo got a surprise birthday cake which she shared with the villagers. One by one they came up with their hand outstretched and got a big handful or cake and butter-cream icing. Yum. She was thrilled and even got the traditional "Happy Birthday" song, and at her request, a Nigerian song. Okay, I have to go, but I'll go ahead and post this in case some one checks in. I'll wrap it up later! Thanks for reading!

Recapping...part uno

Ahhh....Uno. Russ, Kay and Kj introduced us to Killer Uno, a variation that has a lot more rules and tricks. There was a handful of us who really got into it and started staying up late to play. I only mention that cause I used "uno" in the title. It triggered a thought, so I ran with it. I want to start giving more detail about what we did while in Jos, so I figure I'll just start around where I left off...with taking lunch to the village.

When the idea came up the night after we'd visited, everyone was excited, though only George, Russ, Dr. Chris and I had been there with Amos that day. I was nervous though, just because I was afraid there may be a negative reaction to a dozen white folks showing up with a hand out. And as foolish as this seems now, I actually thought "what if we show up and they've already eaten?" I was wrong. When we were there the first time, we were just going to look at the farm land that a village member had donated to Faith Alive. Their immediate plan is to subdivide it and allow patients from the support group to grow crops. It's a large piece of land and should be able to support a good amount of growing. A couple of the village men accompanied us on the walk out to the land, and when we got back to the village (really just a church, one house and 2 small buildings for storing grains) more of the villagers had come out to greet us. A few of the men were playing mancala, and they tried to explain it to me, though I couldn't follow the action. And then there was a woman working over a large pot over a fire like you'd associate with a witch's caldron. Dr. Chris said that it was an alcoholic drink...it looked like some sort of porridge. There were a handful of kids there, probably 8-10. So when Amos was giving me and Russ a ride home and stopped to buy some knit hats for the kids, I was surprised that he got 25. But as it would turn out, 25 was just barely enough...

This is long enough for right now. I'll finish it up tonight or tomorrow night!

My soldiers need backup

Hey everyone, sorry it's been a while. As I said before, I got sick right after we came back, and I'm still on the mend. At Faith Alive, they teach their patients about white blood cells by relating them to soldiers defending your body. Clearly, my soldiers are overwhelmed. I wound up missing Monday and Tuesday from work, and I still haven't quite shaken off my fever. I went to the doctor on Tuesday and she wasn't sure what was wrong with me. She thought I looked too healthy to have the flu, so at the advice of the local infectious disease doc, she drew some blood just to be safe. It turns out that I'm okay, no malaria or anything was found. I didn't think there would be, but when you spend 2 weeks in a country that you have to get 5 vaccines just to feel prepared to travel to...you can never be to cautious. My fever is slowly going away, and I'm feeling better day by day.

And because of my illness, the whole reintegration/culture shock seems to be going by pretty smoothly. It turns out that when you can't do anything but lay on the couch and watch TV, you slip back into traditional American culture pretty quickly. Now that's not to say that I'm just going to ignore what I saw in Nigeria and move on, I hardly think that is an option. In fact, I imagine I'll be examining my lifestyle for a long time to come. Now that I'm back at work, I'm starting to get questions from co-workers about the trip. I don't know how to answer "how was your trip?" It's just too complicated for that kind of question. The trip was good. It was challenging on many levels and absolutely worth going on, but how can you put into words what it's like to have children invite you into their homes because they are so proud of them, only to find one room stuffed with all the family's possessions and one bed? Or how can you relate the feeling of sharing a meal with a village's children and laughing with their parents? I know that for some, just saying what I just did might satisfy their questions, but it just doesn't feel right to me. It feels wrong to reduce the people we met to a mere anecdote to be shared casually. The people of Jos deserve better. In fact, the people of Africa deserve better on many levels. The fact is, there are people in Jos of whom I am jealous. If I had the faith and joy that many of them have, my life could mean so much more. I'll elaborate on that at some later date.

A final note for this Valentine's Day...I am sickened by the fact that our government is spending God knows how much money investigating whether or not MLB players are using steroids. Is that really something that our government needs to be involved in? Last week I was with people who make $50 or less a month and were scraping to get by. And I come home and see just how wasteful we are as a country showcased on every news and sports channel. That hits me in the pit of my stomach and I sincerely hope that it does for you, too.

Thanks for reading and God be with you!

Hot like Africa

I'm home from work today cause of a 101 degree fever. Yay! I can't say that I was ready to get back to work, but this isn't any fun. I've felt okay for the most part, just worn down and a little feverish. Oh well, at least I waited til I was home to get sick. That's all I really feel like writing today. I hope y'all are doing better than me!

Back in the US of A

Let me first say thank you to everyone who read this while I was gone. I wanted to share more with you, but I had a hard time justifying my use of the internet when my time could be spent with my other group members or at the clinic. So for the past week I've pretty much shunned the internet. I did send Anna a couple of e-mails, but even they were short. So, thanks for reading and I'll try to do some recaps on this in the coming days.

As for now, I'm tired. We left our hotel in London yesterday at 6:00am local time and arrived in Denver around 7:30pm, which is like 2:30 am in London. So by the time we finally got back to the Fort, we had been travelling for nearly 24 hours. Yuck. Thankfully, we arrived at night so the sleep schedule should get back to normal fairly quickly. I slept about 10 hours last night and I still feel a little worn down. Partially from the travel, but also a part of it comes from the long days we had in Jos the past 2 weeks. But now it's time for reintegration into American society and culture. It's time to see how my mind and my heart react to the differences. We stayed in a pretty comfortable place and ate good food in Jos, but as soon as we left our apartment compound, we were surrounded by extreme poverty. It's already kind of weird to sit here and look at all of the stuff we own. It's weird that we have running water and don't have to rely on a generator for electricity. I have a feeling that the next couple of weeks are going to be tough for me. I haven't talked too much to Anna, yet just cause I don't even know where to start. I feel like I can't even say anything that can convey what we saw. Pictures will help, and I hope the video does as well, but there's something about being there that you can't explain. So if you talk to me in the next few days, just bear with me. Believe me, I want to share my story, but I still need to figure it out for myself. So is it good to be back? Yes and no.

Thanks for reading and God be with you!

Sanu!

Hey, I took up the torch for the group blog today (faithalivejourney.blogspot.com), so here's a copy!

Hey all,
Holly's back, with more energy than the rest, but nothing exciting to report. I haven't felt up to par today, so I came back to the guest house at 9:30 this morning and slept for a good 8 hours! Something I've never done before. No worries, family, I'm okay and there's plenty of mothers to take care of me...just needed rest, and I'm feeling much better than I did this morning. On behalf of the group, that's the report from today. Wait! Chris has just come to the rescue and has decided to blog. An addendum to yesterday's report...Kristen realized after blogging last night that she forgot to let you all know that we brought our lunch to the village that we visited. Even with hungry stomachs, they made us eat first...amazing. Mary Jo has a birthday coming up and Russ suprised her with a birthday cake. They sang "Happy Birthday" in English, our version, with us to Mary Jo. They absolutely loved the cake! Ok, I'll let Chris take over and share his experience for the day.

This is my first time with a cross-blog message, as this will be on the main group blog and my personal blog. (christonigeria.blogspot.com) All in all, today was a slow day for us. If I were to list everything that I did, I'm sure most of you would say I was crazy for calling it slow, but I guess that's a sign of how entrenched we are at Faith Alive. The past few days have really opened our eyes to the issue of malnutrition in children. I confess that I haven't read Kristen's entry from yesterday yet, but I'm sure she mentioned our trip to the outlying village. Today, Bob, George, Russ, Kay, Erika, and I joined Daniel, Asham, and Ezekial for a home care visit. They normally travel by motorcylcle, but we took the van and it took about an hour each way to reach the destination village, and another half mile walk from there. The visit was for an 18 year old who they suspect contracted HIV from a rape. She looks to be in good health and the guys said her health is improving, though she has not been taking any ARV drugs, cause she is in her third month of treatment for TB. Just like yesterday, we got to see all the kids from the village and a few of them were clearly malnourished. We even got to see them getting a bath, which involved a lot of scrubbing! It was funny. But after that we stopped at Asham's village on the way out as a casual pit stop. However, we were greeted byy the moaning cries of Asham's mother who was ill. He said she was sick yesterday, but had clearly worsened. Given where the fact that we were there with a van, we decided that she should come back to FA with us. So 11 of us crammed into 9 seats and we came back. As it turns out, the doctors as FA said that she had had a stroke and needed to be admitted to the local hospital. Unfortunately, the hospital is on strike and not admitting patients. Thankfully she will be staying overnight in a mission house, but I don't know when she will receive adequate medical attention. So, please pray for Asham and his mother, and all of his family. Also, Erika delivered a great message at the afternoon staff devotional. I won't divulge much, but she said before the trip that she wanted to have her world rocked...if it hadn't been before today, it was. She did a great job!

Being here has been to9ugh on everyone. We are constantly challenged to live our faith and perhaps, even sharing it is more of a challenge. I think that I'm dealing with the pain and the suffering here by focusing less on that and more on the positives. To be able to play with a child with a bloated belly and a blank stare and actually make them smile is an incredible feeling. I know that when I leave the problems will still be here and that I will never truly leave them, as they will be engrained in my mind and heart. But my hope is that for one day, or even for one minute, that I have made a difference in their life. If I can bring joy or happiness to any single person in this 10 days, then this trip will have not been wasted. I am encouraged by the work being done and the people doing it. For those of you who contributed to this trip, and all of you at First Pres. I can assure you that this is truly a noble cause and a great learning experience for all of us here.

I hope this isn't too long! God be with you all! Say-go-bay! (Goodnight in Hausa)

You're Welcome!

So everyone here in Jos greets you with the phrase "You are welcome" to which you reply "thank you." It seems backwards at first, but when you spend any amount of time with the people, you understand that they truly mean that you are welcome in their country.

Over the past 2 days, I've sat in on HIV testing and counseling and been to a remote village on the outskirts of town that was basically a mud wall house with a dirt floor and 3-4 generations of a family living in it. I've done much more, but as time on the internet is at a premium with our group, I need to just hit the biggies.

So testing and counseling....basically patients are given pre and post test counseling and we got to sit in with them in the post test as their results are revealed. Talk about feeling uncomfortable. In the five patients who I sat in with, only 1 (thank God) was positive, but for others in our group there were higher rates. And this happens daily. It's not like this cilnic just opened its doors and people are just having a chance to be tested.

And the other big thing was the village. I want to hold comment on it for the most part because there is talk of us taking and sharing lunch with them tomorrow, and I'll have much more to say after that. At any rate, I've been doing a whole lot on a little sleep and I'm exhausted! It's a little after 9:00 and I've been up since about 5:30. But it's hard to slow down and rest. I've been trying to pace myself, so this afternoon I just hung out with some patients/clients in the social services sector where they are taught trades that they can use to make money. Okay, now off to bed! Thanks for reading and God be with you! As hard as it may be to imagine, God is here....I am certain of that.

Greetings from Africa!

We made it indeed. It was a LONG trip to get here, but tonight we are enjoying the comforts of our apartment and a home-cooked meal. Our apartment is nice and the people are absolutely the most welcoming I've ever met. London was brief but fun and yes I did get fish and chips. Between the two flights of 8 and 6 hours I only slept a total of about 5 hours. I took a nap this afternoon and then we went to the afternoon support group. It was amazing. I wasn't prepared for it, being sat in the very front facing everyone (over 100 patients easily) and then being asked to share a little about ourselves. We were then asked to speak some words of encouragement if we wanted, and I actually felt inspired to do so. Maybe it was because the woman who was translating what we said in our intros told the crowd that I looked like Jesus, or maybe it was that the guy who asked for the inspirational words was looking me dead in the eye almost the whole time he was talking. At any rate, I basically said that although they were honoring us that we were very appreciative of the opportunity that they were giving us to be there and that even though we're Americans and they're African, we are all brothers and sisters. I know it's super cliche, but there was a very strong sense of community and family in that room. It quickly turned from being nervous about looking out at them all to looking them in the eye and sharing a smile. It was pretty darn powerful. I didn't take the camera for that leg of the journey, but I've gotten shots of lots of other stuff from London to the drive up. I wanted to experience this first hand without the distraction and I'm very glad I did it that way. I can't even imagine how the rest of the week will be! I feel kind of weird being on the internet, so I'm going to close this out. Thank you all for your prayers and support! God be with you!

The Time Has Come

Well, this is my last night in the Choice City for a while. We're meeting at 1:30 tomorrow and should be on the road to DIA by 2:00. I confess that I'm not sure what time my flight is tomorrow night, but I know it's going to be long. Okay, I just checked and it appears the flight is at 6:30. So in less than 24 hours I'll be airborne. In just three days I will have been on three continents! It's funny to think about it like that. It's been a rough week for me between work and trip preparations, so I'm anxious to finally get this thing underway. I'm pretty exhausted today, so this probably won't be very long. Maybe I'll feel inspired tomorrow and write more...if I have time. But since that isn't guaranteed, I want to take a minute to thank y'all for your support and prayers. A lot has happened since I decided to make this trip, but things have consistently worked in a manner that makes me think I am indeed doing the right thing. As I said, I'm anxious to get going and I can't wait to share my experiences with you. I hope to update this often, and we also have a group blog that we'll try to update. We may even get to add pictures, but don't hold me to that. www.faithalivejourney.blogspot.com

I do have one point that I want to touch on that I just realized today. Yes, just today. I was trying to imagine what preconceived notions I had about HIV/AIDS and those who suffer from it. And I realized that I don't think I've ever met someone who's had AIDS. Well, at least not anyone that I was aware of. And that throws into sharp relief the cultural differences of our country and the rest of the world. I imagine that the majority of the folks I'll be interacting with in Jos, will be either HIV positive or in some way affected by the disease. So to say that my world view will change is probably an understatement.

So, thank you all for reading and I'll be in touch! God be with you!

Balancing Acts

Balance. We all deal with it everyday. I for one have been trying to balance multiple projects at work this past week, all the while facing my upcoming departure for 2 weeks. But that's not the balance I want to talk about. My concern is balancing my role as a videographer and that of a person who wants to be hands-on. You see, I like to be involved in things like helping others. I am not the kind of person to serve on the board of a non-profit or just talk about how we can make a difference, then pat myself on the back for being a good, caring individual. Clearly there is a place for people like that, but I'm not in that crowd. I want to get my hands dirty. So, I'm trying to imagine what it will be like in Jos when I feel like my primary role is to be an observer through the lens of a camera. I kind of had the same feeling when I visited Mississippi and New Orleans a week after Katrina with representatives from United Way and the Community Foundation of Fort Collins. I went with a video camera to document them dispersing money that had been raised in the FC community. It was great to be a part of that, but I really didn't feel like I was doing much. I think that's why I really enjoyed our mission trip to Gulfport, MS that following spring. Finally, I wasn't just an observer, I was a contributer. So for this trip I have to find a balance. I think the trick will be to be conscious of this and not allow myself to slip too far in either direction. Let's face it, if I make a really good video that gets shown across the country and raises lots of money and attention for Faith Alive, then I will be making a very big impact. On the other hand, if I travel all the way to Africa and hide behind my camera the whole time, then I think I'll be missing out on connecting with the local people.

Am I worried about the balance issue? Not really. I feel like I have been called to go on this trip to make a video, but I'm not just a video guy. I think having a camera and the need to interview people will give me ample opportunity to connect with and learn about people while I'm there. I also think having the desire to pitch in and help will provide me with a nice break from looking through a viewfinder, and probably open my eyes to things I might otherwise have missed. So rather than those two facets of my trip being independent, I think that they can actually be complementary and improve my experience.

I hope this makes sense. I'm kind of writing in a stream of consciousness fashion, and I don't feel like proofreading. So welcome to my brain and some of what goes on it there!

Only one more day! Thanks for reading and God be with you!

Time Crunch

So how restful do you think 2 weeks in Nigeria will be? I have a couple of projects at work that I'd like to wrap up before I leave and I was told of another one that I may have to shoot and edit before Friday as well. AND to add to the fun, I have a second interview with the school district on Thursday afternoon. Oh, and I'm going to have to get my second hepatitis vaccine on Friday since the health dept. was closed yesterday and they only do walk-ins on Mondays and Fridays. Yay! Nothing like a nice relaxing week to prepare for an international mission trip! Oh well, such is life and I should be thankful that I have a job to keep me busy.

Oh yeah, Russ isplanning on all of us going into London on Saturday for lunch, which means I'll get my fish and chips! And hopefully no one will mind if I have a pint of some English beer to go with it!

Happy Tuesday!

All my bags are packed, I'm ready to go...

To borrow the words of Mr. John Denver, and anyone else who's sung Leaving on a Jet Plane through the years. My bags are packed and I am ready to go. Well, mostly. I got all my stuff into one bag and that bag is now in a U-Haul box with another trip-goers' stuff. It's Bob's stuff to be exact. Since there are still a few days left, I may find a couple of last minute items I need to pack or stash in my camera/carry-on bag, but for the most part I am done packing.

We met tonight to go over some final details and pack the stuff we had into boxes. There are 14 boxes of meds being stored at a refrigerated foods warehouse in town, 8 boxes on their way to us from another Faith Alive person, and 5 boxes of supplies in the office. That leaves 3 pieces of luggage that we can check. Russ and Kay are sharing a bag, Bob & I are sharing a box, and KJ has some room in a duffel bag she's packed. Everyone else is packing their stuff in their carry-on.

Oh well, there's more to say, but it's late. And besides, I need to have something to say the next few days. Thanks for reading!

The Great Commissioning

Yesterday was our last Sunday in church before we leave, so there was a commisioning/blessing and laying on of hands at the 11:00 service. It was really nice to have not just the pastors, but about a dozen or so members of the congregation come up for the prayer to show support. Afterwards I did a short on-camera interview with everyone about their pre-trip thoughts. I plan to use it as an intro for the video I want to make that is First Pres specific. It was pretty neat to learn why everyone has decided to go and what they're expecting to take away from the trip. I even did an interview with Russ being my interviewer. I must say, I am much more comfortable behind the camera. I felt kind of awkward, but I suppose that's how most people feel in that situation.

I also packed last night. I didn't start until 10:00, so I hope I wasn't too tired to get what I need. I'm actually impressed with the size of my pile of clothes. If I weren't carrying on the video camera, I'd be able to fit all my stuff in a carry-on with ease! It certainly helps that we'll be able to get clothes washed while we're there. I probably need to pack an extra bag or something so I can bring back some gifts. After all, we'll be taking 2-3 boxes of meds apiece on the way over, but nothing is coming back except our personal belongings.

Oh well, I'm actually at work right now, but wanted to get an entry in for yesterday's events. Thanks for checking in!

One Week Left!

I don't have much new to report, but figured I should at least check in since we leave in a week! In fact, in one week I'll be on a plane bound for London at this time. Wow.

I picked up the camera from Bryan today, so I get to play with it this weekend and make sure I know everything I need to about it.

Good night!

10 days and counting

10 days! That's it! I still don't think it's completely sunk in. Maybe when I'm on a bus from Abuja to Jos I'll finally believe it. In the midst of my disbelief, I still have to act like I'm really going to Nigeria at the end of next week. We're meeting on Monday to pack our boxes of medications and we're supposed to bring along what we're planning to take with us. We're allowed 3 pieces of checked luggage each and a carry-on. Other folks are probably going to be able to put their clothes in their carry-on, but I'm out of luck. I need to carry on my camera so that it's handled with care, so my clothes are either going in a shared suit case or in a box with meds. Honestly, I'm not sure how much to take. We can have our laundry done while we're there, so I can go on the light side. Plus, it's going to be 80 so shorts are going to be a mainstay. I guess I'll end up packing very light and doing my best to stay clean!

So like I said last night, I am looking forward to one thing in particular when we're in London. What you ask? Fish and chips. Yep, good ole fried fish and french fries. It makes me hungry just thinking of it. I was in London for a couple of days in 2002, but it was near the end of my trip and I was definitely on a budget. I cooked most of my food myself. In fact, my one memory of food in London was swiping some dipping sauce from a McDonald's to put on a sandwich I'd put together from a trip to the grocery store. I don't know if I'll get my chance this time either, but I'm going to mention it to Russ on Monday. Seems like those fish and chip stands were pretty common, so as long as I can get into London, I can clog my arteries!

Thanks for reading! God be with you!

Put it on my visa...

My visa finally came yesterday! I've never applied for a visa before, but it really seems like it's a way for the country your visiting to get a sort of "entry tax." It seemed like much more of a formality than a screening process. With that said, I have no idea what goes on behind the scenes of the Nigerian consulate and they may have done a background search on me for all I know. But I think it's much more probable that they just wanted my money.

And that brings me to some exciting news. I spoke to Russ on the phone today and he says that by his latest count we've actually raised $9,000 more than we needed for our trip! That means that the 7 or 8 (I keep forgetting how many) of us have raised around $14,000!!!! I take no credit in this and I applaud those of you who made a donation of any amount! It is truly a blessing for Faith Alive and for our little group. Just so you know, all of that excess money is going to Faith Alive. And that is in addition to the half-million dollars in medication we're delivering!

I knew that this trip would have a lasting impact on those of us who are going, but I never imagined how much more our trip could give just by us showing up!

Thanks for reading! I'll be posting more and more as the trip closes in, and maybe even while I'm in Jos. Next time, I'll reveal what I'm looking forward to in London....

Happy New Year!

I'm now less than 1 month from departing on my trip. Actually, I leave in a little more than 2. January 25, to be exact. I got all my vaccinations about 3 weeks ago, so I'm now resistant to Hepatitis A & B, Yellow Fever, Meningitis, Typhoid, and Polio. I also should be getting a visa issued from the Nigerian government sometime soon.

Things are coming together for our trip, but it still doesn't seem real. I've been through a bit of an ordeal with securing a camera for this adventure, but I have one lined up that should do a great job. That's the one problem with being a professional videographer...it's really hard to be satisfied with "cheaper" cameras when you're used to shooting on really nice equipment. After purchasing and returning a camera, I will now be borrowing one from another member of our church, Dr. Bryan Willson. I actually helped him pick out this camera a few years ago when he was looking for something that was easy to use, small for travel, and somewhat inconspicuous. Who knew that I'd need a camera with those same qualities? I think my chance run-in with Bryan at church and his volunteering the camera (before I even asked) is just another way that God is involved in this crazy adventure of mine.

I have much more to say, but I need to save something so that I actually come back to this and update it more often. Thanks for stopping by!!!