Updates # 2 from Nigeria ....

howdy y'all ... here's the latest updates from Esther (via me .. Daniel !)

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we spend most of our first two weeks in south of nigeria , in a town called egbe. this is where the orphanage is (or what we called care center). there are 14 boys in the care center and we got to serve by building new bookshelves and bunk beds for the boys and helped organize the things we brought them. we also bought all 14 of them walmart crocs. they all LOVE it!! i praise God for all these boys- they all were street kid who fought and stole food trying to survive, but now, they are our brothers in Christ whose faces glow with our Lord's radiances everytime we see them. they all have beautiful voices that sing sweet melody to our Lord. during our time in egbe, we got to be a part of the commisioning ceremony for the care center. i got to play my violin (which a lot of people have never seen before). we also got to go to the Al Egbe (egbe's king) palace one of the days for Dr. Goen's chiefing ceremony. the king ordered his tailor to make all of us matching outfits, clothed us with those outfits, and we all marched in the ceremony behind the Dr. Goen and al egbe. it was such a neat picture of how the day will be like when our Lord, the King of kings, clothe us in his righteousness as we stand in the midst of his glory. we had an orthopedic surgeon on our team as well. so, i got the opportunity to scrub into the operating room with him. i watched his operate on 7 different people, and got to assist him in 2 of the surgeries. the hospital here are very run down. nurses would walk around the hospital barefoot! most of the equipments are not sterile and there's no ac or any kind of ventilation. we operated in a room with very dim light, operated by a generator that works most of the time. Dr. debari, the surgeon, is a very well-known surgeon in the US. with his excellent skills and his creativity in using the little we have here in nigeria, he successfully done 17 sugeries. on our last surgery of the trip, i assisted him in operating a lady's right arm. because we have been doing so many surgeries, there were not enough gowns (the shirts that surgeon wear to protect from getting their clothes dirty) because we used SO many of them already. so we operated the last lady in our normal clothes. right when dr. debari was cutting the incision, the warm blood squirted all over my body! what a story! i got to suture up two of the operation under the supervision of dr. debari. yes, i was sweating like a dog because blood were oozing out here and there and a life was on the line, not to mention the machine that measures the patient's heart beat was beeping consistently...but praise God.

we also drove an hour south of egbe to okeloke, where the fulani lives. the fulani live in grass hut and we had the privilege to spend the night out in the camp (usually, the head of the camp has to invite outsiders to join them). not all the people from our team spend the night, but rachel and I did. we showed the Jesus film in their language and the video More than Dreams. then, we spend the night in their grass hut. they fed us rice and milk (though it is NOT good to drink their water, but it also is rude to not drink / eat things they offer you. so, after praying, rachel and i took gulps of their milk:P- praise GOd we are still alive). i also watched a fulani christian man, abraham, run his little clinic for the fulani people. we saw lots of cases of malaria, typhoid, and also tenus. the babies were crying and crying and some even looked so pale that we had to ask the family to drive them to the nearest hospital as soon as possible for blood transfusion.

all that to say, the Lord has been very gracious in showing me lots of different things here in africa. i praise God as well for his faithfulness in showing me many truths about his Son through my daily reading and meditation of Hebrews. it's been very humbling to understand the price that was paid through Jesus that made it possible for me, a wretched sinner, to come into our Father's presence with prayers, petitions, and praises. it's so powerful to understand that Jesus is it! what he did for us on the cross, ONE TIME, was enough to satisfy the wrath of God. That's the first coming. we always talk about the second coming in america, but most of the world hasn't even heard about the beautiful first coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and what he accomplished on our behalf for his glory. my life will never be the same- please pray that all that is within me and my outward actions may align and reflect the true image of my savior. however, please continue to pray for breakthroughs in each and one of our lives. i feel like we need to have more faith and so far the things we are doing are things that we can "handle" or makes logical sense. pray that our eyes will be open to things that the Lord may called us to "step out the boat and onto the water" and walk with him. pray for protection over our dreams at night. i have had a couple of nightmares while i am here (which doesn't usually happens) and praise God, that has gone away by the power of Christ. but still pray that the blood of Christ may shield us and be with us as we travel, sit, walk, and rest. may all the glory, honor and praise be return to our Lord- the only one who is worthy of all of our praise.

i am also currently learning how to speak hausa. pray that the Lord may provide the ability to do so and do it quickly so i may be able to talk and love on those he may place in our paths.

i love you all. goodbye for now.

**sorry for the broken english...i feel like my english is deproving.:P

esther
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via
daniel =P