Sister Oresoa & Sister Felicia Visit Nativity

Yesterday evening, Sister Oresoa and Sister Felicia joined past Anawim Home Team and Home Team members for coffee and fellowship at Church of the Nativity. Some people had seen Sister just a few weeks ago and some had not seen her in a few years so this was a great opportunity to share stories and memories. Sister's energy radiated through the room as she made her way through the crowd.

Sister Oresoa and Sister Felicia will be joining us at Church of the Nativity this Sunday, October 17th for the 9AM and 10:30AM Masses. Please join them in Cafe Vista after both Masses if you would like to meet them.

Photos:
1. Anawim Team member, Lisa Hobbs introducing her children to Sister Oresoa.
2. Rob Devereux, Anawim Team Leader, catching up with Sister Felicia.
3. Sister Oresoa and Sister Felicia talking with Brian Crook, Church of the Nativity Missions Director and Fr. White, Pastor at Church of the Nativity.
4. Sister Felicia, Dr. Chris Isichei, and Sister Oresoa on set discussing the partnership between Church of the Nativity, Anawim Home, and Faith Alive Hospital.

Clean Water in Hwol Yarje

NATIVITY:NIGERIA has made the final arrangements to begin the drilling of a new borehole for clean water at Hwol Yarje, a village where Faith Alive Hospital directs a school just outside of Jos. The community, some 500 people and growing, is in dire need of a clean source of water. The only source is a shared stream that runs through the farmland. It is a kilometer walk to and from the stream for the villagers. Everyone carries as much as they need for the day from this stream that is also used for water for the livestock as well as all other daily living needs.

NATIVITY:NIGERIA will also be providing a series of latrines at this site for use by the men, women and children. Working with the school teachers, sanitation has been incorporated into the daily curriculum of all students. This includes the necessities of hand washing, using potable water, and personal hygiene. Faith Alive Hospital will also be providing adult education for members of the community.

This borehole and latrine are part of NATIVITY:NIGERIA'S ongoing commitment to provide clean water to Faith Alive Hospital in Jos and Anawim Home in Abuja. This will be the sixth borehole completed by the team this summer.

Find more information on these projects on the Water page. Thank you for your continued support!

For more information on Hwol Yarje, please take some time to view the links below:

A short video shot by NATIVITY:NIGERIA teams, which shows the stream currently serving the Hwol Yarje community as well as the children who live there, is available here.

Some more details regarding, including more pictures and how Faith Alive Hospital got involved in the community, are available here.

A reflection entitled "Love Story" about the children of Hwol Yarje, written by Dr. Gin Gin Diokno upon her return from Faith Alive Hospital in August of 2009, is available here.

Journal entries and pictures from Rob Douglas, Greg Strouse, and Teresa Pompa about their day at Hwol Yarje during the summer of 2009 are available here and here.

Visiting with Dr. Chris

In the past few days, Dr. Chris Isichei, Director of Faith Alive Hospital, has been visiting with different organizations in the States. Dr. Chris was gracious enough to spend some time visiting with past NATIVITY:NIGERIA team members as well as our planning committees. Last night, Dr. Chris came to Nativity to work on some filming with Church of the Nativity's Creative Director, meet with the Pastor, and discuss the water projects we are currently partnering on. Dr. Chris informed us that the borehole drilling has begun at Bakin Kogi and will begin shortly at Faith Alive Hospital. NATIVITY:NIGERIA is providing a borehole for Faith Alive Hospital's satellite clinic in Bakin Kogi as well as a backup borehole to the current one at Faith Alive Hospital. Working with Dr. Chris, the team also finalized plans for a borehole and sanitation facilities at Hwol Yarje. This site is home to a village and a school which is directed by Faith Alive Hospital. Through an integrated education program, school teachers will incorporate sanitation, hand washing, and the importance of using potable water into their daily curriculum. The hospital will also be providing adult education in conjunction with the village leadership. The team is also working with Dr. Chris to identify other projects to partner on in the future.

The Anawim Around Us

"The mission group is named the Anawim Team because we stayed with Sr. Oresoa at their Gwagwalada location, called the Anawim Home. While we were in Nigeria, Sr. Oresoa told us the meaning of "Anawim." It's a Hebrew word that is found throughout Scriptures meaning poor or afflicted, the outcasts and rejected. More specifically "anawim" characterizes those who, due to their circumstances, cannot not rely upon their own strength but have to rely upon God to provide for them. "

Above is an excerpt of a new blog post from Anawim Team Member and Church of the Nativity Director of Missions, Brian Crook. You can find the rest of this post and more reflections on his blog. You can also find the link to this blog on the left side under "Partners."

Wins

"I am writing to acknowledge the generous donation of $... to the Hope for West Africa Foundation, Inc. in support of the Faith Alive Water Projects. The donation will be used to drill two boreholes, one at Faith Alive Hospital and the other at the Bakin Kogi Clinic. Currently, this clinic has been closed due to lack of water. The borehole will benefit a large number of patients ending long hours traveling to Faith Alive Hospital for care."

Above is an excerpt of a new blog post from Anawim Team Member and Church of the Nativity Director of Missions, Brian Crook. You can find the rest of this post and more reflections on his blog. You can also find the link to this blog on the left side under "Partners."

Retelling Stories

"The team visited a few of these sites one morning. I don't know what kind of picture forms in your mind when you think about the five of us going into these rooms to give out rice and soap, but try to picture fear and anxiety, ghastly smells and dingy, dark places. As we pulled up to the third location to give out the last of the rice, Sr. Oresoa turned to Francis and said, 'Do you remember this place?' A chill ran down my spine. "Here is where I found you," she said. "Here is where I saved your life."

Above is an excerpt of a new blog post from Anawim Team Member and Church of the Nativity Director of Missions, Brian Crook. You can find the rest of this post and more reflections on his blog. You can also find the link to this blog on the left side under "Partners."

Nativity in Nigeria

A story from Lisa Hobbs, an Anawim Home Team Member:

When we stayed at St. Benedict's Monastery in Ewu and attended Mass, I had to laugh. Here we were in a room of monks celebrating Mass. Although the songs were different (mostly in tribal languages), the people certainly did not look like us, and it did not smell like what we knew (the room was overwhelmed with incense) the brick walls behind the altar made me think of Nativity and I had to laugh.

What a comfort to know each day when we went to Mass we had the same readings and some of the same prayers as our family and friends at home. It was such an unbelievable tie to know our Catholic faith has no boundaries. We are all with God and that makes us feels so close.

This country was populated with Catholics. We joined over 100 people everyday at 6AM Mass at Sacred Heart in Gwagwalada - and this was in the dark. These parishoners said prayers and read their bibles with flashlights.

Just when you think you are worlds away and things are so different... you realize the Catholic Church is universal!

A Place for Lorenta

A story from Lisa Hobbs, an Anawim Home Team Member:

Lorenta was one of the orphans we met while staying in Anawim. She was a very tall beautiful teenage girl with a soft quiet voice. Lorenta had an incredible work ethic, sweeping up every day (they use a tiny bundle of sticks and are completely bent over - I just wish I could tell them about a broomstick!), she was a great student and she was a nurturer to the little boys.

She had a very bad open wound on the top of her foot so throughout the day she was limping. It was more upsetting to our team that she had to suffer and hobble around, because there was no money for the medical visit to the doctor to get the glass out of her foot. We gave her some of our first aid ointments and bandages and she said in time the glass would come out. How brave!

While we were at Awawim, Lorenta was told she would be leaving to be fostered by a family! She would be helping with a family around the house and with their small children and I hoped she would become part of their family. She seemed a bit nervous and also scared to be leaving - but the next day her bag was packed.

I spent some time with her to see how she was feeling. She was hopeful the woman she would live with was not wicked (I assured her Sister would certainly make sure it was a loving woman). I asked Lorenta to remember to do well in school and continue to study as she is a very smart girl. She seemed less concerned about school and instead said she wanted to make sure she went to mass, said the rosary and was committed to prayer.

Lorenta showed me a letter she had written to Sister Oresoa and the others in the orphanage. It was a love letter to Anawim. She thanked them for all that they did for her and she said how she was going to do her best to do what is asked of her with the new family. She was feeling the loss of leaving Anawim, but she was thankful - knowing she was given a great opportunity.

I was hoping to visit Lorenta at her new house, to make sure she was taken care of and loved, but we never had the chance. I wanted my relationship with this girl all tied up neatly before I went home so I knew she was happy. But that didn't happen. I will just have faith that she is well just as I have faith all the other children in Anawim are doing well with bright futures ahead. Faith is the confident belief or trust in the truth. I know Lorenta had faith in God - that is the truth!

Anawim was Home

A story from Lisa Hobbs, an Anawim Home Team Member:

Well I have been back home in the States for 1 week and the reentry has hit full force. At my office there are lots of emails to check and clients to call, then making time for the conversations with friends & family, throwing a 7th b-day party for my twin boys, finishing summer reading & math book with my daughter, buying back to school supplies & organizing their uniforms by next week. Uggh! I am so nervous this mayhem will take over and wash away my experience in Nigeria.

But if I take a quiet moment and think about all that I saw and all that I did - I am really missing the days at Anawim when we had time to just be present. I loved the days when I could walk out of my room and make my way through the compound. Maybe visit the young mothers who have their hands full with the babies but are so interested in us too "does everyone speak English in the US?", "Do your parents kick you out at 16 years old", "Was Michael Jackson troubled ?". Then maybe see some of the young boys who just loved to snap pictures with our cameras, share a smile (twins Paul and Peter no matter how cool they tried to be - once we saw them they were ALWAYS cracking a smile !!) and playing football - such great athletes! I was naturally drawn to the little girls and small boys - hoping they were out of siesta so we could skip rope, do hand claps, sing songs, and I loved the impromptu dance parties! I was always hugging and holding them - rubbing their cool skin (it is 90 degrees - how are they cool ?? ), loving their smiles, and knowing they are just waiting for us when we get "home" to Anawim. Brian is so right - you could feel it - they LOVED us!

We had many new adventures outside of Anawim either teaching, taking babies to the "hospital", outreach with prostitutes, lepers, bush people, etc. But when we got back we were always glad to be "home". Especially after the road trips. When were gone for a day or so we kept saying we could not wait to get "home" - which confused some of those on our team , but what we meant was that Anawim was our home.

At our Anawim "home" and it felt so different than it does now . We did not feel like we had work to do, errands to run, racing from one event to the next , with a to-do list etc. I guess when you are doing God's work it does not seem like a job . I know for Sister Oresoa it is a calling. I am so grateful I could spend those days with her, to see someone who had been chosen for divine service, and I thank her for inviting me to her home.

Love

"From the moment we stepped out of the car at Anawim, we were loved. The boys and girls ran to us, hugging, touching, holding, loving us. They braided Lisa's and Christy's hair. They sat on my lap asking why my skin and hair were different from theirs. (One boy, Jude, went back to his room and came out a minute later with a small packet of shampoo -- he told me to have it so I could use it to keep my hair clean and beautiful.) They asked us to read them stories and play games with them. They begged us to stay out of the sun so we wouldn't get too hot. They offered us their seats when we came to see them. They danced and they sang. These children, these beautiful, happy little boys and girls -- they knew love; they loved love! And they loved us, people who looked strange and talked differently, people who couldn't understand their situations, people who came from far away and were leaving soon enough, they loved us all the same, they loved us as themselves."

Above is an excerpt of a new blog post from Anawim Team Member and Church of the Nativity Director of Missions, Brian Crook. Brian will be sharing his thoughts on Church of the Nativity's work in Nigeria and Haiti this summer on his blog. You can also find the link to this blog on the left side under "Partners."