Catching Up

Shoot! Sorry to those of you who have been wanting to keep up with what I've been doing here in Nigeria. Leave it to me to forget about the existence of my blog for a month and a half! God has been quite busy working in my life and in lives of people around me. Since the beginning of March the photography ministry has progressed quite a bit. It had been going slow, but making the choice to bring my camera with me to a small cultural festival turned out to be a turnaround point! I had been advertising the ministry over a email group called joslink, but I hadn't received many offers from missionaries around the area who needed help. At this cultural festival two women noticed me and asked if I was the one sending out emails about the ministry. After a few minutes of conversation I had two gigs lined up! Since then, word seems to have gotten out and I have managed to keep relatively busy. Unfortunately, I only have an iPad to go through photos with (trust me, it is SLOW), which was causing issues with the length of time between taking the photos and returning them to whoever I was helping. Thank the Lord one of my kind neighbors has been so gracious as to let me borrow her Mac with iPhoto on it when I need to do editing. The video work with Sports Friends has progressed as well. Lately I've been working on a project that calls for testimonies from kids who have gone through the program. I spent time in a village called Pushit conducting interviews and getting shots of our Nigerian friend Moses leading a coaches training. Seeing the way that God has reached out and touched the lives of these children through the coaches in the program is amazing and encouraging. Often times I don't get to see the results of the ministry we do here, and with the state of turmoil that Nigeria is in it is easy to become discouraged, but God has made it clear that He IS at work and He IS changing lives. Due to the job market back home in Vancouver, I've got to depart a month sooner than I expected. I will be leaving sometime within the next three weeks! The next few weeks will be stressful preparing to leave. First, I have paperwork to get through and lots of arrangements to make, but since Nigeria has such a relationship oriented culture, a lot of my preparations lie in relationships. I need prayer for ending well here in Nigeria. I will be focusing on seeking wisdom in the way I prepare these relationships for my departure. Goodbyes are going to be hard, but I know God has got some pretty big plans for me elsewhere in the world. Thanks everyone!