Whoo hoo!  The internet’s been decent so I was finally able to upload these photos of Judah and Jovelle’s Christmas present, as requested by a couple grandparents, so here you go, Dad and Mom…..    (And by decent I mean that it only took two days instead of four!    )  We have some more pics of the work in progress, but they’re hanging out on our friends’ camera right now, but the pics here give you the general idea, anyway.  (And besides, we know you really want pics of the kids anyway and not pics of us laboring away!)

For Christmas this year (well, technically Three Kings’ Day since we celebrated Christmas in Ireland and weren’t too keen on hauling this over there     ), Judah and Jovelle got a play kitchen that we made for them.  When we were in Lancaster, Pennsylvania during our furlough, we stayed at a little B&B that had an adorable play kitchen set.  I thought, “Oh, we could totally get something like that made in Nigeria!”

That thought, thanks to Pinterest, turned into, “We can do it ourselves!”  You should probably know that neither Chris nor I have much of a handy bone in our bodies, but I DID take a woodshop class in middle school and I used to be quite impressive with a hammer and some nails (except for that one incident where I missed….), so I thought, “No problem.  We can do this ourselves!”  Chris decided early on that that philosophy works much better when there’s a Home Depot around the corner and there are actually places where you can get some of the supplies that we took for granted in the States, but we persevered – and is it too prideful to say that I’m quite proud of the end result?  Granted, we couldn’t have done it without the help of our neighbors (Thanks, Phil and Steph!) and Phil’s mad drilling skills, but it’s kind of cool to see what you can come up with and the improvisations you can make when you don’t have typical tools and resources available.

Before - scavenged goods

Working away....

And after - Judah and Jovelle's new kitchen

The stove was an old medicine cabinet that I rescued from Chris’s office when they were clearing it out for their office expansion.  The little rack in it is from the office, too – an old fridge shelf that Chris laboriously cut with his pocketknife (and one that I decided should definitely be the rack after I saw the look of horror on his face when I contemplated, “So do you think we should use this shelf or the wooden one that came with it?”  “You mean you may not even USE this?!”  “Oh…. no.  Definitely using it.  Definitely.”).  I still have to spray it silver, but I decided that if I waited for everything to be done the way I wanted it done, Judah and Jovelle would be the only teenagers on the compound with a brand new (but perfect!) play kitchen.

The oven door is some leftover plastic stuff, but I might be upgrading that to something else a bit sturdier - though Judah doesn’t seem to know the difference or care.  I tend to be a bit anal – uh, a realist – and didn’t like that the oven door opened sideways instead of like a REAL oven door, but I got over that when I saw how much the door is opened and closed and how much easier it is for Judah to reach in the “oven” and get his food out.  I’m quite glad now that it opens that way.

The sink is an old little table… cut out a hole for a bowl, added a faucet, a shelf made from scrap wood, plywood behind the sink and on the sides and a curtain made from leftover material from our “real” kitchen curtains.  One of my favorite parts is the little bulletin board.  We made some boards for our house from ceiling tile, and we had some left that was the perfect size for Judah and Jovelle’s kitchen.  I covered it with some more leftover material (It’s a good thing I have no concept of dimensions, otherwise what WOULD we have used for their kitchen??    ), and now they have their own little kitchen board with pictures of Grandpa and Grandma Boo Boo (my parents, named by Judah because my poor mom always seems to have a boo boo) and Grandpa and Grandma Plane (Chris’s parents, named by Judah because we always seem to be flying on a plane to see them or picking them up at an airport).

The sink. The little curtain is from leftover material from the curtains in our (real) kitchen, and they can pull it open to get to the baskets of food and dishes underneath the sink. Although let's be real - they don't REALLY need to pull the curtain open to access anything since all the dishes are usually either on the floor or piled in the sink. Hmm, do you think he got that from me?!

The back of the sink is a chalkboard, thanks to do-it-yourself chalkboard paint recipes on the web. Right now they like the kitchen part too much to bother with the chalkboard, but one of these days!

Since getting the kitchen, Judah has played with it every day, sometimes for more than an hour at a time.  He has recently discovered that he can add water to things as well – as we learned when one day he had quietly gone into the bathroom, filled up his little pitcher in the sink and resumed cooking lemon soup, this time more liquid-y than when he first started.   It’s a good thing our floors are concrete, because it really doesn’t matter how much water spills on it.

My parents brought some play food and pots and pans for us when we were in Ireland, and Judah is having a ball with them, too - and we’re having so much fun seeing how much he enjoys playing with everything and how much his imagination is kicking in.

6

Judah was SO excited when he unwrapped this (aka "followed the string to where the kitchen set was covered with a sheet")

Even Jovelle likes to get in on the action.....

Of course, you’re welcome to come visit us anytime and enjoy the “fruits” of our labor, as Judah will surely cook you up a feast!

Ever since we first arrived in Jos back in 2009, the price of petrol (gas) was subsidized by the government and fixed at a rate of 65 naira per liter. On January 1 of this year, the president announced that the fuel subisdy was to be removed and that petrol would now be sold at the market rate.  This gave petrol stations the right–or so they thought–to charge as high as 160 naira per liter!  Most stations were hovering right around the 140 mark.

Obviously, people weren’t too happy about this.  And since the price of petrol impacts the price of transport which impacts the price of nearly everything else, it meant that the cost of living in Nigeria jumped significantly overnight.  Labor unions got organized, and last Monday (January 9) they launched a major nationwide strike affecting nearly every industry.  Some cities completely shut down while others saw major demonstrations and protests, including a few that turned violent.

Thankfully, at least in part due to a large military presence and the State of Emergency that was placed over our city of Jos on New Years Eve, our area was calm and quiet for the duration of the strike.  The week started slowly as people were cautious to venture out, not wanting to get caught in some sort of violence should it break out–but hours stretched into days and things remained calm.  By the end of the week, life in Jos was largely operating as normal.  Even banks–who technically were closed–were still operating “back door” services.  (That is a post for another day…but it basically means that if you knew an employee at the bank, you could use a back entrance to get in and take care of your banking business.)  The biggest disruption to our work was the massive number of international flights into and out of Abuja that were cancelled, leading to some of our staff and other visitors being stranded at airports in places like Ghana, Ethiopia and England.  Some folks who were trying to leave the country were stranded in Abuja.

By Monday of this week, the government relented and partially reinstated the fuel subsidy, standardizing the price at 97 naira per liter.  This seemed to satisfy the labor unions and the strike was suspended.  Petrol stations re-opened (with LONG lines, as everyone who didn’t want to fill up at N140/litre was now low on fuel), government offices were back functioning, and the front doors to banks were now the main mode of entry.

We remain safe and grateful for the peace that was granted to Jos during this time.  However, the future remains uncertain, as it seems as though some people were not satisfied with the reinstatement of the fuel subsidy but are pushing for more reforms and changes in the government–known as the #OccupyNigeria movement.  More demonstrations have been scheduled for tomorrow, and we don’t yet know what these will look like, or if they might turn violent.  This is in addition to continued terrorist acts (including tonight’s bombings in Kano, a city several hours north of us) being claimed by a extremist sect called Boko Harm.  Your prayers continue to be coveted: for our safety and that of our friends and colleagues here, for  God’s Word to radically impact the lives of all Nigerians, and for His true peace to reign throughout the entire country.  Thank you for your prayers!

There’s an Indigo Girls song I used to listen to over and over that started, “Each time I pull down the driveway, I wasn’t sure when I would see you again….”  Sure, they’re singing about a romantic relationship, but….

I often think of that song when we prepare to head back to Nigeria.  I think of it, especially, when we leave our grandparents.  It doesn’t matter where you live, of course, or how frequently you see someone – each day is a gift that doesn’t come with a guarantee.

…So when we’re pulling out of the driveway or hugging our grandparents good-bye, in the back of my mind I can’t help but wonder if this time will be the last time we get to do it.  Whenever we say good-bye to someone when we’re in the States, always lingering is the question of when we will get to see them again, if we will get to see them again.

I was thinking of this when my father called to tell me that my grandpa passed away this week.  I was thinking of that last hug I squeezed in when Grandma and Grandpa were loading up the van and pulling out of the driveway, when I grabbed the camera that time, though I had never done so before.

Grandpa and me (And you know I'm thinking more about my grandpa if I'm willing to post this post-pregnancy picture!)

My grandpa was quite a character; I used to joke that he would’ve fit in with the cast of Grumpy Old Men quite well.  He had been battling dementia for quite a while, and my grandma was his full-time caregiver.  Though his memory failed him, there were times when we would see glimpses of him shining through, times when he would come up with the wittiest comments that would have us all rolling on the ground laughing.  Often he would remember things from some time ago, like when he worked as an airline mechanic for many, many years.  Judah still talks about “Papa Jack” working on the airplanes.  (Okay, so he sometimes gets confused and thinks he flew rockets, but still….)

…And despite his memory, I think he lit up when the great-grandkids were around.  He usually had to ask several times who they were, but I remember when Judah was just a few months old and we went to visit them.  He kept looking at Judah and saying, “That is one little peanut!  How old is he?”  We would tell him, and he would exclaim that he himself was WAY older than that.  After Jovelle was born, he was staring at her and asked what her name was.  When my grandma told him, he looked puzzled, then asked her to spell it.  She did, and he declared that that was a really strange name and he had never heard of THAT name before.

I laughed and said he wasn’t alone in that sentiment.

My dad e-mailed us mid-December (after several failed Skype attempts.  Darn internet!) to tell us that Grandpa’s health seemed to be going downhill.  Interestingly, just days before that, Judah randomly began talking about “Papa Jack.”  We saw a model of a rocket and Judah declared, “Papa Jack fly rocket.”

Me: “What?”  I thought I had heard him incorrectly, as he had never talked much about Papa Jack when he wasn’t around.

Judah: “Papa Jack fly rocket.”  My next thought was that JUDAH was confused.  Usually when he sees a rocket he talks about my parents because we saw a shuttle launch with them.  When I asked if he meant that, he was insistent that, no, Papa Jack was who he meant.  I finally figured out that he was talking about when Papa Jack worked on airplanes.

That wasn’t such an unusual conversation, but two days later, Judah said, “Me see Papa Jack” and repeated it several times.  I couldn’t get much more out of him – a dream, maybe? – but I began to think it strange after that and even get concerned.  After all, he rarely talked about him, and then he suddenly brings him up several times in a couple days.

The next day my dad told me that Grandpa’s health was failing.

It’s strange to not be with our loved ones to share this loss with them, and in some ways, I suspect that I am processing this loss much more differently than they are right now, they who are having to take care of phone calls and arrangements, they who will mourn with a memorial service and burial, they who are together and sharing memories and stories…. I suspect that the next Christmas that we are all together, it will really hit me that my Grandpa isn’t there with us.

I’m glad that the last time my grandparents pulled out of the driveway, I savored that time with them.  (Even if it did cause them to pull out 45 minutes later than they started pulling out!)

Please pray for our family during this time, and especially for my grandma.

Nigeria has been in the news a lot lately, so we wanted to share a quick post that we are all okay here in Jos.  Various security issues have been taking place in different parts of the country, but for once Jos is actually calm right now–even with the indefinite nationwide strike entering its fourth day.

Thank you all for your continued prayers, but please don’t stop.  The security situation here is still volatile and though we are taking all the necessary precautions, your prayers are vital to the Lord’s work here in Nigeria.

 

I’m embarrassed to admit that this post has been sitting on my computer in an unfinished state for about a month. (Michelle, I am SO sorry! I MEANT to send you the Christmas in Nigeria info a long time ago, honest I did! Having it after Christmas doesn’t help much, I know, so I am very sorry!)

…But for what it’s worth, Christmas in Nigeria….. (…Although, interestingly enough, we’ve yet to actually SPEND a Christmas in Nigeria. Somehow we have been gone every year at Christmas time. Our first year living in Nigeria, we were unexpectedly able to go to Urbana. Last year we went back to the States for Jovelle’s birth, and this year we spent it in Northern Ireland. We are looking forward to spending Christmas in Nigeria one day, but for now, we will share a bit about the holiday season based on what our friends have told us and things we’ve observed leading up the day.)

The Christmas season kicks off at the beginning of December, when shopkeepers blast Christmas music on their speakers. Sarah hums Christmas music as she works, and when I look up and ask, “Is that ___?!” [insert Christmas song here], she says, “There is Christmas music everywhere! It must be in my head!”

Presents don’t seem to be that big of a deal, and when it is, it seems to be more because of Western influence.

Food, though, is a big deal, as is going to church and visiting people. Christmas Eve is not a big holiday like it is in the U.S. There is no big dinner or church service. In fact, often people will eat something quick – “just no rice!” Sarah says, because on Christmas day, there will be rice aplenty!

On Christmas Eve, food preparations begin for Christmas day. Women prepare large pots of joloff rice (No, like LARGE, probably wouldn’t fit on your stove, pots. Picture almost Halloween-like cauldrons over an open fire.) and make chin chin, a fried goodie made by African women who often don’t have ovens in which to bake things. Meat is also typically served on Christmas day, usually fried meat or chicken. Sarah insists, though, that no matter what is served, “Red stew and chin chin are compulsory.” (Joloff rice and chin chin seem to be common across the board, while red stew seems to be more of a personal preference.).

On Christmas day, families go to church to celebrate the birth of Jesus. There is loud singing and lots of dancing (though Sarah says that she and her family and friends have become quieter in recent years because of all the troubles in Jos). After church, the greeting begins. People go to visit their family and friends throughout the day, and the host provides bowls of rice, meat and chin chin to the guests. Most every house that’s visited would offer these foods, so it’s not considered rude to ask if you can take the rice with you if you’ve had your fill at other houses! (You may wonder, like I did, who’s home to visit if everyone is out visiting! Someone explained to me that greeting is usually done “up” socially – you would go to visit, for example, the church elders, who would stay home to receive visitors. Sometimes those who are wealthier and could afford to serve meat to all their visitors would stay home as well. This doesn’t mean, of course, that friends don’t go visit their friends – but this is one reason that going to visit someone at his or her house is seen as a great honor. Sometimes, Sarah says that groups of children will even go visiting as well.)

After a full day of church, singing, dancing, visiting and eating, people go home and, as Sarah says, collapse in exhaustion!  Some things are the same no matter the culture!

The holiday festivities don’t end there, though. Because Nigeria was once an English colony, they celebrate Boxing Day. People celebrate in different ways, but one popular way to celebrate in Jos is to gather with lots and lots of people at the local polo field to watch, well, polo. A lunch is often packed, and people will spend the entire day and into the evening at the fields. The zoo and wildlife park here are also quite crowded.

People who don’t go back to their village for Christmas will often go back for a New Years’ celebration. The village that Sarah is from, for example, has traditional dancing on New Years’ day.

…But wherever you are in the world, and whatever traditions you have for the holiday season, may you celebrate the birth of Christ, and may you celebrate it with joy!

For all of you who pray for us, give financially, encourage us in any way, or otherwise support worldwide Bible translation, this message is for you.  (Click on the image above to be redirected to a special Christmas greeting from Wycliffe.)

Yes, you read that sign correctly.  We’re spending Christmas in Northern Ireland.

Christie’s parents were planning to spend Christmas here with family friends and we have always talked about wanting to visit Ireland together since we were first married, so this seemed like a perfect opportunity.  And to top it all off–her parents didn’t know we were coming.  We somehow managed to surprise them!  Living thousands of miles away from family has many disadvantages, but one advantage is that if we want to surprise someone, it certainly makes a big impact!

This article was originally posted on thewordislife.net and written by Dwayne Janke.

Everyone listened intently as the national translator read from the Mwaghavul [MWA-ga-vool] New Testament. But these people in north central Nigeria were certain that they had never heard the story before. “Where did this come from?” they asked when the reading was finished.

The translator smiled.

“You’ve heard this story every Christmas,” he answered, “but always in Hausa” (the trade language of that area of Nigeria). Indeed, this was the first time the Mwaghavul worshippers had heard the story of Jesus’ birth in their own language. And on this Christmas day it was also the first time they truly heard its message.

I was startled to learn that hundreds of groups in Nigeria still don’t have the Christmas story, or any of God’s Word for that matter, in their heart language. About 150 of them have a definite translation need.

Nigeria is located in central Africa, a region that is home to more than 800 million people. This central African region represents over 30 per cent of the world’s remaining Bible translation need (about 940 languages).

Due to Nigeria’s tight visa restrictions, it is difficult for expatriates to tackle much of the work directly. In doing my research, I learned that local involvement in the Bible translation task by the Nigerian Church, believers and agencies is key. That potential is enormous. Nigeria has tens of millions of believers. Hundreds of Nigerian Christians are serving as missionaries in dozens of countries. Long viewed as a mission field, Nigeria is now becoming a major sending country. Yet Bible translation, even within its own borders, is not getting much attention.

Because whether it’s the Christmas story, or other important portions of God’s Word, too many Nigerians haven’t really heard the message – yet.

Our baby is three.  We can hardly believe it.  He is growing so fast and amazing us every day with how much he’s learning and growing.  And he’s humbling us, too, with how much we don’t know, as we realize how completely dependent upon God we are for this whole parenting thing.

This year Judah had his first birthday party with friends.  We’re not necessarily big birthday party people, but we probably were big birthday party kids, and how Scrooge-like of us would it be to not make a big deal out of birthdays for Judah and Jovelle just because we’re old and grumpy?

And truth be told, we had lots of fun celebrating with Judah and creating some new traditions.  We decided we would do a week of celebrations (It’s only fair, after all, since I tell Chris that my birthday should be celebrated all month long.    ).  We’re still working on some of them (and we expect some will ebb and flow depending on circumstances and ages…..), but ones we like at this point are…

• Bursting through a door of streamers on the actual day.  Saw this somewhere and wanted to do it but didn’t have streamers.  Oh well, next time.
• Filling the bed/ room with balloons.  We actually filled our bed with them this year because a certain someone came creeping into our room in the middle of the night, and he LOVED it.  (The balloons, not the creeping in.)  He woke up later than us (Whaaaat?!), and we didn’t even hear him get out of bed and join us in the living room.  Suddenly, though, there’s this smiling little boy clutching a balloon standing in front of us in the living room and exclaiming, “Balloons!”

Birthday (party) morning balloons! (Don't mind the sagging diaper. Details, details.)

• Handprints on a birthday tablecloth (Can you see that I’m slightly obssessed with handprint crafts?).  My parents’ neighbor in Florida does this, and I love it.  Totally stole the idea from her.
• “Interview” questions (likes, friends, etc.)
• Each year we also like to write a letter to Judah on his birthday.  Hmmm.  We should get on that.
• Look at pictures and tell stories about birthday child and about birth.
• We always got to pick the birthday meal growing up, too, so we will continue that as well.  We just made a plate that I love and that we’ll use to celebrate the birthday person, and even to celebrate other accomplishments (whether it be Chris doing something at work or one of the kids celebrating something).

Our celebration plate (and another book - hurray for missionary sales! - for Judah. I meant to have people sign his book, but I totally forgot.)

Another thing we did this year and really enjoyed was going shopping for a new book.  (If we’re in the States, we’re thinking this could be a fun chance to do an outing with lunch or something.)  There’s a really cool bookstore near Chris’s office, and we decided to go there for some book-picking-out.  Judah was really excited because he loves reading, but he’s never gotten to pick out a book to keep before.  Definitely want to keep doing this.  We don’t really do many presents, but books we definitely do.  I even made myself get over my hesitation at buying books when there are perfectly good ones at the library.

Carefully perusing his options

Jovelle overseeing the process

The final choices

...And the final choice!

He was so excited to pay for his book and carry it himself. We had so much fun shopping with him, too.

On the day of Judah’s party, we had one present waiting for him at the foot of his bed.

…The rest, though, he had to work for.   I love scavenger hunts, so we hid Judah’s gifts, scavenger hunt style, and he had to find them.

Explaining the concept to Judah

Excited and ready to get started! (And somehow in the 2 minutes between this picture and the previous one, he managed to get fully dressed, complete with the train engineer cap that belonged to Chris as a boy.)

Here’s a look at his clues:

1. We can’t believe our baby’s three!  The days have gone so quick-i-ly!  You’re growing so fast (and clever, too), so we’ve hidden your gifts just for you.  You’ll have to work for your gifts this year (but not too hard, don’t you fear!).  Clues are hidden all around – solve them all and your gifts are found!  So are you ready to start our game?  Chug to your first clue by your choo choo ____.
2. Your next clue is hidden in a cardboard roll (Look for it near the toilet bowl).
3. You set the table with this kitchen gear, and there’s also a clue hidden here.  (kitchen drawer where his plates are)
4. Green like a frog, they go on your feet – and hide a clue to your birthday treat. (frog boots)
5. Pushing friends is really not kind – unless it’s on this, where a clue you’ll find…. (swing)
6. You’ve figured out the clues, you’re almost done – but there’s one more clue before your gifts are won.  You’ll figure it out quickly, we know you will, so here we go with one last drill.  When riding along in the car for trips, you should always buckle up in this…. (car seat)

We needed to help him figure some of them out, but for the most part, we were surprised at how quickly he caught on and was able to figure out the clues.

One of the clues hidden in his favorite shoes (Rain or shine, he wears them EVERYWHERE, and someone always comments on them!)

Jackpot!

The funny thing is that our neighbor, a 10 year old boy whom Judah ADORES, had wrapped a gift and placed it in the wagon that we were borrowing for Judah’s birthday party, so when Judah figured out (right away, might I add) that his next clue was by the swing, he ran outside – but got distracted when he saw this gift from his friend, thinking this was what the clues were leading up to.  He then got distracted by a baseball bat and once again had to be reminded of his search.  Oh, well, what’s a minor hiccup or two?

His party was appropriately a train theme.  For the party, Judah painted oatmeal boxes to make them into trains, and I assembled them and lined them up while he was still sleeping.  I looked dubiously at our creation and wondered if they could pass as trains, but – and this is one thing I love about kids – when Judah came out of the room and saw them, he jumped up and down and yelled, “A train!  A train!”  Oh, you amazing child, you!

Once I saw them through Judah’s eyes, I thought our little Nigerian-oatmeal-box trains were quite cool.

The party was really simple – a couple of friends (We were going with the “one friend for each year” thought.), simple food, a train story and playing with Judah’s train set.  Each kid got a little boxed lunch in one of the little trains: a PBJ sandwich cut out like a train, a little snack mix and carrots.   We brought little Thomas the Train fruit snacks (which Chris says are inappropriately named since they’re neither fruit nor snacks) for favors from the States.

We had plans to make trains from cardboard and play Pin the Caboose on the Train after reading a story (circa 1940) about a caboose, but we only made it that far in the Daydream Stage.  No matter, though, because what the kids seemed to enjoy more than anything were the wagon train rides.  The wagon we borrowed magically became a train with nothing more than our imaginations, and the kids loved being pulled around in it.

The cake, though…. well, that’s another matter.  Again, thank goodness for children’s vision!  I was going to just do a plain cake and set up a train and track around it, but my friend had a cake pan that she let me use.  Okay, fine, so it was a bus… or work van…. Well, we’re not sure WHAT it was, but we knew it could be a train with a little work.  I could see it, really I could….

But somehow….

Oh well – Judah knew what it was supposed to be.  I think he knows his mother is an abstract artist.

See? He doesn't care about the shape!

A little smoky when the candles finally got blown out... because, funny story - I accidentally put these trick candles on the cake. On the plus side, all the party guests got a chance to blow out the candles.

After singing the traditional birthday song, we like to sing a song that our friends, the Rivera’s, used to sing at every birthday celebration, too: “Many happy returns on the day of your birth, many reasons for joy to be given.  And may the dear Father prepare you on earth… for that beautiful birthday in heaven!”

We are so grateful for the joy that Judah brings to us.  Our hope and prayer is that he will grow in God’s grace, favor and wisdom as he grows in stature (Luke 2:52).