amy0b87982ac418
bluewatergigi
dbeville
Patrice Miles
Lenny
Yes, tomorrow Friday October 21st is my birthday!! I had the joy of celebrating my birthday last year with family in the U.S. I remember everyone asking me what I wanted for my birthday. I mentioned things like Starbucks coffee, getting my nails done, a nice meal at a restaurant and other treats that I dearly miss here in Egbe. Today in Nigeria I have had many ask the same thing, “What do you want for your birthday?” Considering that I am in the bush and my requests are very limited, the first thing I thought of is AWANA shirts for my AWANA club.
Our AWANA club has grown to 200 a children. It is one of the highlights of my week. Half the kids have AWANA shirts from a previous donation, the other half do not. They wear a colored shirt to be identified with their house. Without a shirt it is hard for us to know who goes where. The children also wear their shirts with pride when they come to AWANA. They love the fact that they are a member of something.
The children without shirts are always asking when they will get their shirt. The shirts are printed here in Nigeria for N1,500 or around $5 U.S. The best birthday present would be to wake up tomorrow morning and have the money in donations for 100 AWANA shirts. If you want to give a child or several children an AWANA shirt click Patrice Birthday Present and submit your donation. Write in the memo AWANA.
“As Iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.” – Proverbs 27:17
This member and his wife are dear to our family. (I will not name them, because sometimes they visit “closed” countries and I do not want to endanger them or the people they meet in the fields there). We met them a little over four years ago, when Patrice and I took the Prospectives class at SECC. They were the “course facilitators” and this class was instrumental in helping us to become missionaries. With their heart already set for missions, this couple was determined to go to the field to see graduates of their class, SECC members, and friends (us). 
Also at SECC is another great program which many know as simply DC which means Developing Co-leaders. It is a 21 month class based on bible study and meeting in a small group to discuss many topics throughout the two years. It can also be thought of as discipleship training. Both Patrice and I have completed this course in the past, which is dear to our walk with the Lord and so had our fellow SECC member who was coming to join us on the field. It was brought up one day that he could come here and teach a few of these classes and build into our sphere of influence here on the ground in Egbe. We picked two topics, Managing Conflict and Intro to Leadership.
We used the scriptures for many discussion questions on judging others, tolerance, where each of us sees conflict in our lives, how to handle that conflict, and many more topics. We even covered the book of Philemon (only 25 verses). Where Philemon was asked to take back his old slave who had stolen from him and ran away. Talk about conflict!
However, our motto for the three weeks wasn’t about managing conflict, it was about iron sharpening iron and one man sharpening another. Our thought and prayers through this teaching is that a few of the 75 in attendance will step up and say they want to be able to sharpen other men (and women). We offered the entire course of DC lessons to them when they are available to start up their own small groups. We ask you to pray that the seeds that were planted bring good fruit, that at least two or three of these groups gets started and we begin to have a multiplication process of leaders developing co-leaders, in turn developing more co-leaders, and so on.
Several months ago our team started praying for a senior member of Egbe to join our C.A.R.E. Africa team. We love our young vibrant team but knew we needed some wisdom and age on our team. Almost all of our 35 orphans live with caretakers that our twice our age. They are all respectful and grateful for our help but we wanted someone that could really understand them. We wanted someone their age that could truly disciple and mentor them. After several weeks of prayer Tofunmi asked if she could bring someone for us to meet that might fit our criteria. When Mommy Balogun walked in the door, I laughed. We already new each other, we were Tolusha sisters. Tolusha was a class I attended for about a year when I first got here. It was immediate confirmation for me that she was the one God wanted for our caretaker manager.
I am excited to introduce you to Mommy Balogun. She has been with us for over two months now. She has started a compulsory weekly caretaker meeting where she educates all the caretakers on family preservation and God’s word. We have seen a huge improvement in our caretakers attitudes and communication with C.A.R.E. Africa. Thank you Lord for adding another Egbe angel to our team!
All week long we had talked and planned our 2nd camping trip to Prayer Rock. The kids were so excited and so was I. Getting off the 30-acre compound and out of the routine of life here is always a joy. Upon arriving to the campsite we immediately saw the herd of Fulani cows at the bottom of the mountain. Lenny, the kids, and our visitors went to go ahead and trekked up the hill. Lenny and I decided letting our two dogs out was not going to be wise. I returned back to the compound to take the dogs home and on my way back I saw 3 more Fulani men heading for prayer rock on a motorcycle. It was dusk so I immediately knew they were heading to camp for the night.
When I returned, minus the dogs, sure enough, all the Fulani men had posted up camp at the bottom of the rock. I knew that the situation was not the best and needed to consult locals to see what their thoughts were on us camping with the Fulani so close. One phone call was all I needed as a friend asked us to leave immediately. We packed up everything we had put together, tents, coolers, chairs etc etc. Once home I called my friend back to question his advice. He advised me we had no interpreter and Fulani don’t understand English. He said that it would only take one misunderstanding between the two camps due to the language barrier and violence could break out. He also advised that even the calm Fulani are known for their thievery and it wasn’t wise to sleep through the night with such a temptation for them only steps away.
We were all so disappointed. Just another time we try at planning something fun for our family to be together and it doesn’t work out. I tried to make the best of it for the kids and we made s’mores in the oven and I promised pancakes in the morning. The s’mores were wonderful but the morning revealed we had no flour for pancakes and of course there is no grocery store or Bisquick available, HAHA!
There is so many times like today that I just want to close up shop and stop trying. I just want to eat a bowl of sugar, go to bed, and loose myself in a book for hours. I am so spoiled rotten. Just because I didn’t get to go camping and the Internet didn’t work I am depressed and frustrated. I live in Africa and am surrounded by people with no food, no clothes, no education, poor health and a faith that is only skin deep. What am I complaining about? I am so selfish! It was then I realized that I have let Satan trick me again. Trick me into not seeing his handy work pushing at my buttons. Pushing at exhaustion, boredom and a sense that I deserve everything b/c I am serving the Lord in Africa. He so easily swindles his way in through my circumstances and tries to get me down. Does he do that to you? Does he know your buttons and push them? I read somewhere that we should be proud to know that Satan tries to push our buttons because he doesn’t care about anyone unless they are important to God…unless they are a threat to him. I don’t know how I feel about that? I do know that I am grateful today for recognizing the true culprit in the last 48hrs of my life. I am capturing my thoughts and throwing them out. Satan will not win this battle today! Don’t let him win one over on you either!
The Miles Hotel opened June 1st 2016 when Southeast Christian members and friends Joe and Wyatt Brown, Payton Sheeran, and Nadia Miles arrived. Joe and Wyatt served in construction and HIV outreach for almost two weeks. Payton served with C.A.R.E. Africa for one month. Nadia was our jack of all trades for two months serving as meter maid, reading teacher, inventory clerk, babysitter, pen cleaner, AWANA helper, and brochure stamper. Having a full house for the past two months has had its ups and downs. We’ve laughed a lot and also wanted to hurt each other a few times. We had no clue that God might be preparing our hearts and minds for something so much bigger.
Nick and Katie Riddle, two fellow missionaries have been fostering three C.A.R.E. Africa kids. (See their story by clicking on 
The Miles Hotel is once again full. We have three new beautiful faces that are teaching us so much about Nigerian culture while my kids are teaching them about Nutella, sorry Nick and Katie. I have tasted Golden Malt, rice and palm oil, and laughed till my belly hurts when Testimony says the funniest things. I know we are still in the honeymoon stage but these kids are the sweetest. Katie and Nick have done an amazing job at parenting. My kids and the Riddles kids have always been friends, after this experience I believe the bond will be more like brothers and sisters. It will be a relationship that lasts a lifetime no matter where in the world they all are.
Thank you Lord for unexpected bumps in the road. We grow closer to you as we jump over them. Please pray for Nick and Katie as they seek God’s wisdom in next steps for their family. If you would like to support them in their next Egbe term either one time or monthly, they could use your help as their family has grown. Click 
After 5 years of amazing donations and 18 containers shipped, our warehouse had an overwhelming amount of leftovers from projects and give aways. We wanted to find a strategic and fair way to get rid of the items. It was suggested that we have a yard sale, (Bonanza Sale is the African term). C.A.R.E. Africa volunteered to organize the event. We would sell the items way below cost so everyone could afford to buy something and the proceeds would be split 50% to the hospital benevolent fund and 50% to C.A.R.E. Africa. We passed flyers out and alerted churches. We prayed we could sell everything and not have to bring anything back to the warehouse.
We showed up at The True Vine Collection store to set up outside in the car park area at 9:30am with the goal of opening at 10am. We were mobbed by people that did not stop coming and coming until 1 hour later when all the goods were sold. It was crazy and the C.A.R.E. Africa team was exhausted. Our day of rest turned out to be a day of caos. We will definitely do things differently for our next Bonanza sale but all in all it was a success. It was a success because our crazy Saturday morning brought joy to one Egbe community member Monbo. Monbo is a mother with 6 kids, two of which are members of 
C.A.R.E. Africa. She has had a grinder for years, grinding peppe and other local foods for the town. Her grinder has broke many times over the past few years and the cost to fix it was getting too much and she had been left with now work. With the 50% proceeds that C.A.R.E. received from the sale Monbo was empowered through a new grinding machine.
Miles In Missions 