amy0b87982ac418
bluewatergigi
dbeville
Patrice Miles
Lenny
Wow! I cannot believe we have been in America for 6 months already!
Jolie, what is the best thing about being back in America?
1. Air Conditioning in my school.
2. A real school cafeteria with food.
3. The dinners you cook us at night.
(She is definitely my daughter, everything relates to food!)
Jolie, What do you miss about Nigeria.
1. I miss my friends, Caitlyn and Lowena
2. I am sad I will miss SIM Spiritual Life Conference in January.
Cason, what is the best thing about being back in America?
1. I love American school and making straight A’s now.
2. I love how much there is to do.
3. I love having all types of food options to eat.
Cason, what do you miss about Nigeria?
1. My friend Jephthah.
2. I miss having Jollof Rice all the time.
3. Freedom to do whatever and no rules.
Lenny, what is the best thing about being back in America?
1. Love having hobbies again like hunting.
2. More activities to do as a family and couple.
3. Being around my family again.
Lenny, what do you miss about Nigeria?
1. Food, Egusi & Pounded Yam!
2. Miss the missionary community.
3. Rainy season.
Patrice, what is the best thing about being back in America?
1. Food, Food, Food and more Food! (Doughnuts, cakes, cookies, real chocolate oh my!)
2. Seeing my kids joy as they play sports and are involved in different programs.
3. Hanging out and catching up with all my family and friends.
4. The participation and involvement from family, friends and strangers in C.A.R.E. Africa!
Patrice, what do you miss about Nigeria?
1. Food, Egusi & Pounded Yam.
2. Driving around with my driver, Samuel, on all our adventures in the crazy city.
3. Jumai, who helped me clean, cook and shop.
4. Those deep conversations with like minded missionaries who lived and breathed the same trials and tribulations we did.
5. My Nigerian brother and sister, Emma and Tofunmi.
6. Having to rely on God every day to just get from Point A to Point B in anything and everything I did.
I ask Amarachi to share her journey with me. In the early years the family lived in Lagos where they had jobs that paid for food and school fees for the children. Amarachi’s mother-in-law fell ill so she and her husband had to leave Lagos and move to Egbe to care for the ailing mother. Once in Egbe, they crammed all their possessions into the mother’s 20 x 16 sf room. The floor is dirt, one window, no ventilation, no plumbing, no electric, and no toilet. All seven lived in this one room for four years until the mother passed – now there are six. All six of them sleep on two foam mattresses (see picture). Before she passed, Amarachi’s mother-in-law taught her to make palm kernel oil to sell. The locals use it for skin salve and also take orally for stomach problems. The smell and texture reminded me of motor oil.
Amarachi also works with her husband who is a vulcanizer – repairs tires. Amarachi and her husband freelance a street corner where people know them to be honest workers. They attend church as a family and are well liked in the community. She and her husband are both hard working people but the need for palm kernel oil or tire repair is not much. The need to feed and educate her children is a constant worry for Amarachi. Her other three children will not be attending school as they cannot afford the school fees. Amarachi is very thankful Damilola has been accepted into C.A.R.E. Africa because her daughter will be well educated, looked after physically and spiritually and have a chance at a better life.
C.A.R.E. Africa is one of the only family based orphan care nonprofits in all of Nigeria. Everywhere there are orphans, there are orphanages housing them. Majority of them are poorly maintained, managed and overall a very scary site to see. So to find trainings on orphan care much less family based orphan care, is not easy. Even webinars and podcasts I have found outside of the US have been challenging for us in Egbe due to poor internet connections.
Emma and Tofunmi were invited to come to a one week training on Family Reunification in Nairobi, Kenya that 
One of the many hats I wear at C.A.R.E. Africa is child sponsorship. With over 60 children it is a huge task, but very satisfying. I know each one of these children and their needs personally so the investment I have in each on of the sponsorships is huge. Words cannot express the joy in seeing a child open a letter or a package from their sponsor when they have never had a gift like this before. I’m speechless when I see a picture of a child’s sponsor taped to the wall by their pillow when checking in on them. The greatest joy is getting to experience a child and a sponsor meeting for the first time in Nigeria when he/she comes on a mission trip with us.
Would you consider making a difference in a child’s life? We have so many in need and many on the waiting list. You can see all the children and the different ways you can help on our sponsorship site at 
This..fully describes how I felt after three days..lol! 
With the wonderful Harrars! 
I will never forget the time I walked into a widow’s ministry in Jos, Nigeria. There were many women at their sewing machines singing and smiling. Discipleship was going on, community was going on, empowerment was going on and I was amazed. My business mind started to churn and I asked questions about how the ministry was funded, what was their vision and mission statement, what was their URL for their website and how was their Facebook page doing. I will never forget the missionary’s response. “Oh, we don’t really have any of those things, God just continues to provide in unexpected ways. We always have enough to pay for what we need.”
A supporter recently recommended a book called God Guides by Mary Geegh, a missionary in India. It really isn’t a book, more a pamphlet and it isn’t written well at all. The content, however, is powerful. Mary tells stories over an over again of her time in India where there is a need so she rests at Gods feet, hears from him, obeys and then receives. She is constantly saying, “Where God Guides, HE Provides.” Over and over again in her life she rests at his feet, he guides her and she listens and obeys and then he provides.
3. Did you know that sheep stray off sometimes or get lost and get themselves into trouble? Wild animals actually lay in wait for these straying sheep so they can devour them. The Shepherd will find that sheep and if that sheep continues to stray the Shepherd will actually break the sheep’s leg. He will then carry the sheep until the leg is healed so that the sheep will begin to understand its need for the Shepherds protection from the animals prowling around waiting to harm it.
Miles In Missions 