Reflection from Shagali

Although a month has passed since our exciting "Shagali" event, our thoughts and prayers are still with our strategic partners in Nigeria. We continue to prayerfully lift up our Nigerian brothers and sisters as they resiliently persevere through the trying times their country now faces. In this memory, today's reflection comes from Gin Gin Diokno, a member of both the 2010 Faith Alive mission team and the 2012 Anawim Home mission team. She shares some insights on her experiences in Jos, where our parish has invested in several local communities, providing boreholes and wells there to offer fresh clean water to hundreds of Nigerian people.

"I've fallen in love with a special place called Jos, and a farm called Hwol Yarje. People in this farming community do not have access to clean potable water. Yes, that is still the grim reality even in the outskirts of the city of Jos. Children did not have access to schools. Dr. Chris [founder of Faith Alive Hospital] and Naomi, later joined by Amos, the architect, told us about the history of how the temporary school structure came about. We entered the three classrooms adorned with simple posters of alphabets, letters, and drawings hanging on the aluminum walls. We walked a few paces further, and there it was: an empty lot full of promises.

In front of us was a football field of grassy, untended land, surrounded by a low hollow brick fence, waiting to be dug and built upon. This is where 200 plus kids can comfortably site on their desks, learning not just about science, math, reading, social studies, English, but also their Christian faith.  This is where girls and boys will gather to sing to their visitors at the top of their lungs in unison: You are welcome to Faith Alive Community School. You are welcome to Faith Alive Community School. You are welcome to Faith Alive Community School. You are welcome."

Dr. Chris Isichei, Gin Gin Diokno, & Father Michael White (Pastor, Church of the Nativity)

Shagali: Partners in Prayer event, August 2012