Miles In Missions

AWANA Partnership

Posted: February 13, 2018 by Patrice Miles in AWANA, C.A.R.E. Africa, Egbe, Egbe Nigeria, Fundraising, Miles In Missions, Nigeria, Patrice Miles, People of Egbe, Prayer, SIM

AWANA Video

Do you participate in an AWANA program?
Do you know someone who does?
If so, please consider approaching the AWANA leadership and ask if they would be willing to partner with an AWANA in Egbe, Nigeria?

Our AWANA program in Egbe, Nigeria meets every Monday. The kids play sports followed by a biblical lesson and of course treats. We have over 200 kids that participate in AWANA. We distribute handouts at each meeting. The kids save every handout and bring them in little folders every Monday. I can only imagine these children getting them out at home and sharing them with their family members. God’s word is being spread through these handouts. The sweets are a special treat the children look forward to. It keeps them coming back to hear God’s word.

The handouts and treats are going to come to an end as we no longer have the funds to support these costs. We will continue the AWANA program, but funding is needed to print handouts and provide treats. We thought it would be so cool to find maybe two AWANA’s in the US that would partner with us at $25 a month each or $50 total. We could send letters, pictures and video back and forth between the AWANA’s. The kids on both sides of the ocean would be so blessed to see and hear from each other.

We of course are not limiting this to an AWANA program. If anyone is interested in helping us continue our AWANA program at the level we feel God has called us to please HELP. Click http://bit.ly/AWANAEgbe. If you know of an AWANA program that might be willing to team up with us please email me patrice.miles@sim.org.

What’s Lenny up to?

Posted: February 6, 2018 by Lenny in Jos Nigeria, Lenny Miles, Miles In Missions, Mission Trip, Mission Trips, Missionaries, Nigeria, Patrice Miles, Prayer, SIM, Uncategorized, Volunteers

I’ve been busy that’s for sure…

I’ve created SIM Nigeria’s Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Vimeo accounts. I of course stay busy finding and putting content on these social media pages for maximum exposure. I’ve been to several local events to film or take pictures to publish on our media sites. I’ve recently revised and published two very important brochures that SIM Nigeria uses for recruitment of short term missionaries as well as medical missionaries.

Along with all of this, there has also been a lot of traveling for me over the past few months in order to get video of four Theological colleges where SIM missionaries can come to serve. One of the colleges is about a 14 hour drive away from where we live. Another college is three hours away and yet another is about six hours away. This last one being located almost to the most northern border of Nigeria. Each visit consisted of many interviews with educators, administrators, and students. After all of the travel, I’ve spent about 60 hours editing this one video. The purpose of this is to get people excited about the opportunities to serve with SIM Nigeria if they are a professor or educator. Click the picture to see the video.

This will be longest of a series of videos I will complete for theological education in Nigeria. The idea would be to provide shorter versions of this to get people excited and if they should want more information, then they can watch this longer seven minute video.

Overall, my role here with SIM Nigeria is being well received by our fellow missionaries, who’s excitement is growing as they see the potential of helping their ministries. Also, our administration is enthused about this becoming a huge recruitment tool for our field. Some of the biggest excitement is from our Nigerian church, ECWA. These brothers and sisters who are ministering all over Nigeria, see the potential to provide a huge tool for them to reach the lost.

Pray for me as my work load is not getting smaller, but rather bigger. Upcoming, I will be working on videos and materials for medical missions, youth ministries, ministering to those marginalized & vulnerable in our society, short-term missions, the persecuted church, indigenous missions, trauma healing ministries, and so much more! Also, pray for workers, as the harvest is plentiful.

Accidents Happen!

Posted: January 30, 2018 by Lenny in Jos Nigeria, Lenny Miles, Miles In Missions, Missionaries, Nigeria, Patrice Miles, Prayer

Wrecked CRV

On New Years Eve, one of former colleagues from Egbe was in Jos to visit. She said she wanted to meet one of her friends just down the road and said she would get a ride in a small taxi called a keke (kay-kay). Patrice said, “No way, just take our car and come back when your done.”

Unfortunately, she made it only about a half mile from the house before she was hit by another driver. The 4-way intersection is unmarked with any stop signs and it is unclear who truly has the right of way, even though our friend was on the larger

“main road”. Thankfully she is OK and had only some bruising and soreness on her left arm from the impact. We are relieved that the side airbag did deploy for her safety.

My Find in Abuja!

Our car suffered the worst. We deemed it a total loss and sold it for parts money. The good news is that SIM has a car insurance group and they are covering most all of the funds for replacement cost of that cars value. The only problem now was buying a car in Nigeria. The last car we bought, we bought from a missionary and we knew the history.

I had to take a short trip to Abuja to car shop and it was quite the experience. Most everything that I could look at had been wrecked and had terrible quality repair jobs. I was a little bummed that I couldn’t find something dependable until we came across the last car that I would l

ook at that day. A British embassy employee was selling her car and it was perfect and well maintained. It was $1,000 more than what the insurance company was giving us but we were just so grateful to even have found something.

Pray along with us that the deal goes through and that this new car will last us a very long time!

Ayomide’s Home Visit

Posted: January 24, 2018 by Patrice Miles in C.A.R.E. Africa, Egbe, Egbe Nigeria, Fundraising, Miles In Missions, Missionaries, Nigeria, Orphans, Patrice Miles, People of Egbe, Prayer, SIM

Meet Ayomide, his grandma and his half brother. He currently is enrolled at C.A.R.E. Africa and needs a sponsor. Click the picture above to watch this video to see our home visit with is family.

All new intakes at C.A.R.E. Africa receive a home visit after their application interview in the office. This allows us to see the environment they live in. We can then determine if the child is being cared for appropriately and if there are any environmental issues like sanitation that need to be addressed for the health of the child. We are also able to ask more questions to see if the families story is the same as when we did the initial interview in the office. Overall the home visit is verifying with our own eyes that the child and the caregiver are truly vulnerable and exhausted and need C.A.R.E. Africa’s help.

If you are interested in sponsoring Ayomide please email me at patrice.miles@sim.org or click http://bit.ly/CAREAFRICA. Sponsorship is $35 a month but any amount you can help with would be greatly appreciated.

Trouble in Jos…

Posted: January 19, 2018 by Lenny in Jos Nigeria, Lenny Miles, Miles In Missions, Missionaries, Nigeria, Patrice Miles

Click the picture above for a quick video of how long the line is waiting for gas.

A fuel crisis has been ongoing for about two months now in nigeria. Every year around Christmas the gas stations start to hoard their fuel in an effort to drive up prices as the demand grows. Everyone wants to travel back to their various homes and villages throughout Nigeria to visit their families for Christmas.

The result however is somewhat chaotic. People wait in tremendously long lines all day long for just a little bit of gas. Sometimes they sit there all day to finally get their turn at the pump and there is no fuel. It’s not uncommon to see a fight as you drive past the lines from one car cutting line in front of the other. Or a fight at the pump for the last drop of gas. In addition, we have notice that NEPA, the electricity company is giving power a lot less. Cell phone service is not as strong as it was two months ago and the network is constantly going down. All of these companies need fuel for generators to run things so if fuel is scarce, electricity and cell phone service is too.

For us, it just makes things more expensive. Instead of waiting in the long lines, we buy our gas where prices for gas are double or triple that at the pump. Driving the car or running our generator suddenly becomes an expensive proposition, yet we have to run our gen more because natural electricity isn’t coming to the house like before.

Please pray that the fuel shortage ends soon!

Click the picture above for a quick video of how long the line is waiting for gas…

SIM Nigeria Spiritual Life Conference 2018

Posted: January 16, 2018 by Patrice Miles in Miles In Missions, Missionaries, Nigeria, SIM

We had just a little bit of fun at SLC Conference 2018. Click on the picture above to see a great video of our fun time at Miango put together by my favorite videographer, my husband!

Enjoy Psalms 143:8 The Message

Posted: January 12, 2018 by Patrice Miles in Patrice Miles, Prayer, SIM

Someone sent me this verse yesterday and I just had to share in case anyone else was needing to hear it too!

Psalms 143:8

A “Future Story” with C.A.R.E. Africa

Posted: January 10, 2018 by Patrice Miles in C.A.R.E. Africa, Nigeria, Orphans, Prayer, SIM

I am reading a book called “A Framework For Understanding Poverty”. The four things that move you out of poverty are employment, education, relationships, and a future story. C.A.R.E. Africa focuses on education and our programs allow us to build relationships with our kids so we can teach them about Jesus and their future story.

I recently was blessed to get to invest into two of our oldest C.A.R.E. kids, Michael and Toyin. Michael wants to join the Nigerian Army and is an amazing boy with goals and vision. He was brought to me almost four years ago by Shola who worked in our home. He was her neighbor and his mother was unable to pay school fees so he was just roaming about. I paid his school fees and a month later saw him walking in the town during school hours. I asked why he wasn’t in school and he told me his teachers were on strike b/c they hadn’t been paid in 6 months. I came to the conclusion that I couldn’t just pay school fees and think that itwould help children like Michael. I had to be involved in their lives. Michael is one of the reasons C.A.R.E. Africa was started.

Toyin is another amazing story. Click Toyin Story 1 and Toyin Story 2 to see past blogs on him.

I brought Michael and Toyin to Jos for some special lessons for their WAEC and JAMB testing. These test are equivalent to the SAT/ACT in the states. These two boys have shown great attitude and perseverance in their time with us at C.A.R.E. We wanted to invest in them so that they can be as prepared as possible for these exams.

I will have to say bringing these two boys out of the village for the first time and into the city was one of the funnest things I have ever done. They had their first ice cream, their first paved roads with paint on them, first traffic lights, their first tall building (taller than two stories), their first indoor market (grocery store), their first movie in a theatre, their first shopping mall, their first zoo with live animals, first pancakes and syrup, and so much more. Their minds were completely opened to how much God loves and values them but also to a whole world out there.

Please pray for these boys to do excellent on their WAEC/JAMB testing. Pray for us to find out how to get Michael into the Nigerian Army School and for the finances for his schooling. Pray for Toyin to discern his calling and make some big decisions on what he would like to pursue for higher education.

You are one of those…..

Posted: December 23, 2017 by Patrice Miles in Lenny Miles, Miles In Missions, Missionaries, Nigeria, Patrice Miles, Prayer, SIM

You are one of those….. “We couldn’t do this without you” people. You are one of those…. that shows up for us. You are one of those…. we lean on. You are one of those…. that allows us to do what we do in Nigeria.

You have housed us longer than is socially acceptable.
You have made meals for us or taken us out to eat.
You have licked envelopes for us.
You have sent encouraging emails and notes to us.
You have prayed for us.
You have raised early in the morning to go to the airport for us.
You have hefted 20, 50 lb. bags for us.
You have run to the store and shipped weird items to people coming to Nigeria for us.
You have loaded items on containers for us.
You have helped us with some piece of paperwork for a passport, taxes and or insurance.
You have slipped cash in our pocket.
You have mailed Christmas cards for us.
You have shared our story with others who now support us.
You have worked long hours at a CARE Africa booth for us.
You have raised money for us.
You have boarded a plane to come and visit us.
You have worked a job so you can quietly, faithfully make a donation to us.

You are the unsung heroes of the faith.

Goers get the praise, but senders are the saints. Without you, our kingdom work in Nigeria would deflate. You are the helium in our balloons, the gas in our engines, the sugar in our cookies. Goers know there would be no going without the sending.

You are one of those….. “We couldn’t do this without you” people. You understand our passion, you see our calling, and say, “Yes. I am here for you”. Chances are, we haven’t thanked you enough, not enough to reflect all that you mean to us, to our work.

We want to take this Christmas season to tell you that we are so thankful for all the big and small ways you support us. Truly, we could not be if it weren’t for you.

wishing you a merry

December Egbe Visit

Posted: December 13, 2017 by Patrice Miles in AWANA, C.A.R.E. Africa, Egbe, Miles In Missions, Mission Trip, Missionaries, Nigeria, Orphans, Patrice Miles, People of Egbe, Prayer, SIM, Volunteers

This was my second visit to Egbe since moving to Jos. I was so impressed with my team and how great they are doing. We were very busy of course meeting with various community leaders, interviewing new children for our programs and also preparing for Christmas. Check out some of the photos of my trip!

Baba and his wife our chief encourager! He comes to the CARE center a few times a month and prays with my staff and encourages them,

Writing to their penpals in the states.

Last AWANA of the year.

Home Visit to a new intake.

New Intake Visit

CARE staff

Christmas Cards for the sponsors.

December Birthdays

Last CARE Africa Child Celebration of the month. They all received a package of clothes, jollof rice, drinks, and candy.

Secretary Cecilia……accounting, accounting, accounting, accounting!

My babies

Clothing Donation

Clothing packages for the kids.

Caregiver check ups.

Donation from the states for the caregivers.

Someone gave the money they would have given for teacher appreciation gifts to us for food for our caregivers and the kids. They will be putting this picture in each card for the teacher letting them know what their gift went towards.

Gifts from sponsors

Caregiver presentation of the CARE Africa fabric for all events.

Dinner under the moon with Chief Doyin and his wife. Chief continues to support us with wise counsel as he is known by the Ilegbe of Egbe as the Egbe Encyclopedia.