Day 12 (Second Sunday)

Today the team split as Chad and Whitney went with Okay to one man village while the rest of us taught Sunday school classes. This week Amanda taught the older kids from the book of Esther while Katherine taught the younger kids about knowing Christ personally. All three lessons went well with no incidents (Godswill was a little quieter today) and we met as a group after Church to enjoy minerals together. The minerals were provided by a couple who were celebrating their first anniversary by bringing minerals and doughnuts, and singing a special number. That seems to be the way the celebrate any occasion, let the person get up and sing a special number. I think we have heard like three special numbers for the anniversary and for birthdays. After that we went to the Green Apple for lunch as a team. Here we had jollof rice, and geri and soup (Scott). The rice was wonderful; it was like beef fried rice with a whole lot of spice to it. When we were done with lunch we went to the basketball court for one more day of hoops before we had to go. Chad’s team did good as usual, My team did ok, and Katherine didn’t play this time because she was wearing sandals. When it was time for us to go most of the people there asked us to come back next year and play again (most of them knew Chad from last year’s team). When we came home that night I picked my hair into a fro just to prove it could be done, and we sat an discussed college football for an hour. More later from Abuja.

Day 11 (Ground Breaking and Great Fellowship)

Today was the day that the team broke ground on the basketball court. Chad and Katherine worked all day at the court helping the masons and laborers, while Whitney and I blazed a trail through the weeds to Prince’s house, and Amanda and Scott studied for their upcoming lessons. After the work day was called we went as a team to the big youth game night. Alex and the church choir put on concerts, they served doughnuts and mineral, and we had multiple appearances by the team members as guest something-or-others. Scott was the guest speaker, Katherine was called up to give her testimony, Whitney was asked to do a guest concert that we postponed till Wednesday, and I was asked to get up and do a stand up comedy routine (I declined this but I will get even with Beth for this one) and to close us in prayer (which I did). It was a great time of fellowship that we got to share with the church here in Abuja. The story behind us getting the basketball court started was amazing in its self because the masons told us there was no way we would be able to get the sand for the concrete during the wet season. It took several days but Chad and Sam managed to find some in a neighboring village and get it delivered to the church. We also had two guys that were willing to drive to a town two hours away to find rims and backboards that were suitable for play. The rims that they use in the park here are just rebar that is bent and welded into the shape of hoop, and their backboards are just plywood. The rims haven’t been delivered just yet so keep praying for that and hopefully they will be good enough to last. More later from the Abuja Blog Squad.

Quick update. We also went to the orphanage with the girls house group and spent an hour with the little kids. It was good to bless them and the workers there. The sad thing is that the orphanage is supported by churches here that send teams over to walk the property and hand a check to the workers without touching the kids. While we were there the first time a group of men showed up in a nice car and got out and talked to the lady in charge of the nursery house while the rest of the workers kept the kids from touching them. The people at the orphanage are totally blessed by the way that the Calvary people want to be hands on. Beth, Jenny, and Nikki go there at least once a week to play with the kids. Prince and Flo went there after their wedding reception and spent the afternoon playing with the kids. While we were there all of the older girls wanted to know if we had pictures of the wedding. They ended up watching the video of the vows that I had taken over and over with Beth for close to half an hour. Sorry I missed this before so hopefully you all find this update. Parker Smith

Day Ten (Marriages and Markets)

Today we got to witness Prince’s second wedding. Just in case you are wondering in Nigeria they have a three-fold marriage process. 1. The traditional wedding 2. The court wedding and 3. The church wedding. The traditional wedding is to get the parents permission to marry the girl. The court wedding is their legal marriage and the only wedding required by the government. The church wedding is an American style of wedding I think, and afterwards the couple is allowed to officially say they are married and live together. It was very interesting because they do four weddings at a time to save time in court. Prince and Flo’s wedding was in the third set so we witnessed a total of 12 weddings in one sitting! The funny part was that Prince and Florence want to save their first kiss for the alter but the judge required that they kiss at the wedding to make it official. Before Flo even saw it coming, Prince kissed her on the cheek and they sat down laughing about it. The judge didn’t think it was good enough so after Prince told the audience to look away he kissed her on the other cheek. Afterwards we had their reception in a park were they served egg rolls and minerals. For you oeebos an egg roll is a hardboiled egg inside of a dinner roll, and minerals is what they call soda here. After the time in the park we headed to the trade village market which is right in the center of downtown Abuja. So picture down town Portland and right in the middle is this walled in village of huts with thatch roofs. It was totally awesome! There we found hand carved masks, chess sets, djimbes, and animals. There were also clothes, animal skins, and leather goods there. As Amanda put it “Its not about spending money, it’s about getting things.” My favorite buys were the Djimbe and the Ghana trade beads. Afterwards we went to AJ’s Pizza, “The only pizza chain in Nigeria” as the sign puts it. The pizza was god but the time spent with the team and the rest of the gang here was what made it special. We are hoping to go to the trade market again later next week so we will keep you informed. From your friendly neighborhood blogger, DragonRunner11.

Day Nine (The Breath before the Plunge)

Due to rain and lack of funds available the five musketeers (the team minus Chad) were stuck in the house while Chad and Josh went to the bank. We ended up spending the day deep cleaning the inside of the apartment and preparing for our Sunday school lessons that we will be teaching on Sunday. We spent some time as a team worshipping and praying before doing a short devotion. Afterwards we had a really good talk and then rested for the up coming work. More to come from the Abuja Blog Squad.

Day Eight (Weeds and Wheelbarrows)

Today the team was cutting weeds out in front of the church so they could use the field as a parking lot. When we cut the weeds we were using hoes, scythe, and machetes. We ended up clearing close to an acre of weeds while we ended up acquiring blisters all over our hands. We had a guy named Jeffery who showed up and wanted to work so he went and got a wheelbarrow and helped Amanda and I fill the floors in the Sunday school huts. This is were Sam comes into the story again. After working on his day of we made it up to him by paying him for his labor and giving him the next day (today) off so he could rest. Any way, Sam shows up in his nice jeans and a white basketball jersey just to check on the stage that had been concreted. He needed to throw water on it so it would dry hard in time for the service that night. When he saw us weeding he rolled his jeans up to his knees, turned his shirt inside out to avoid stains, grabbed a scythe and a machete, and went to town. He ended up cutting down as many weeds as the whole team in less time with his dress clothes on! The guy is this absolute servant/workaholic that is always just a phone call away when we need him. That night Chad taught what looked to be the first topical study the Nigerians have ever heard. Honestly I don’t think they’d ever turned to that many references in one night. It turned out really good and the people were blessed by it. Quick update on the braiding attempt by Katherine and Amanda, IT LOOKED HORRIBLE! I looked like a combo of Medusa and the psycho waiter of bedtime stories. Any it lasted two hours, and I got lots of crazy looks from the girls and Okay. More later from the Abuja Blog Squad

Day seven (Rest and Rain)

Today was the churches day of rest but for our team of six it was a day of restlessness. So we called up Okay and headed of to the market. We ended up taking a very round about route that started with a trip to mechanic village. The village is basically a junkyard with scattered houses were the mechanics live. We went to Okays mechanics house to check on his car which has a broken crank shaft. When we got there they were on lunch break eating Gary and Soup (read day five) in the house which is made of scrap tin and surrounded by wrecked cars. After a quick talk with him we headed back to the market. We got to the highway and were standing there trying to hail a bus when a guy in a flatbed truck used for hauling livestock showed up and offered to give us a ride. We hopped in and had the ride of our lives in this huge cage down a highway in Abuja. Okay video taped us while we had a dance party and got the craziest looks from the people driving by. When we got to the market the driver gave u the news that the ride was absolutely free. When we got to the market we spent the first few minutes looking for soccer jerseys but had to take shelter from the rain quickly as it started pouring. When the rain let up we went to the fabric store to look for material for our Nigerian outfits. We then proceeded to get towels and light bulbs, after which we got a bus and headed home. The buses here are old Mitsubishi vans that are missing windows and the doors don’t close most of the time. There were some times when we hit the bumps that you could feel the frame on the bus bend to sickening angles. When we got back to the house Chad went to check on the stage project, this is where Sam comes in. Sam is the percussionist at the church and is Josh’s right hand man. He has a background in real estate so he has been helping us with all of our building projects. When Chad had called him up to get some masons to try and finish the stage while Prince was out on visitation, Sam had come down to help get things set in order. He decided to stay and supervise the work to make sure it got done right and ended up skipping his day off and started mixing and moving concrete so they could get it done on time. The stage project turned out perfect and just in time for Prince to get home and see it. Right now while I am blogging Amanda and Katherine are trying to do my hair in corn rows. More later from the Abuja Braid Squad.

Day six (Clean Up Crew for Christ)

Today we woke up and had our team devotions, afterwards Chad and Josh went out on business while the rest of the team cleaned up the compound that Josh lives in. This basically was weeding and picking up trash for about to hours. The way they pull weeds here is awesome. They get these crazy looking hoes and just hack the weeds of at ground level, and then we pick them up and pile them in a compost pile. We later went and worked on filling in the stage which was long and exhausting but we got the whole thing filled and packed in less than one day which was awesome. When we got back from that the Neighbors had all come and talked to Josh and thanked him for the work that we had done. One of he neighbors wanted to know “What kind of people are these?” they told Josh that they had had neighbors that were Christians and some even pastors that would gladly clean in front of their own house but never the whole compound. They were all blessed by the work that we did for them and we were blessed to hear that. More later from The Abuja Blog Squad