Teacher Appreciation Day

Posted: March 4, 2016 by Patrice Miles in Uncategorized
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khriddle's avatarSwept Away

IMG_1858 CARE Africa Team with School Staff

The CARE Africa team had the exciting, privilege of hosting our first Teacher Appreciation Day! A time designated to honoring the teachers and administrators of Living Springs Academy, the school in which all twenty-eight of our CARE kids are currently enrolled and attending.   During this time together we sought to express our gratitude, question them about their needs, and of course pamper them a bit with refreshments. Teacher Appreciation is a well-known practice in the states, but for this group of educators it felt slightly bizarre to feel so appreciated!

IMG_5336 Classroom

Sitting amongst the crowd as a fellow teacher, I really identified and sympathized with their struggles. Teaching, no matter your location in the world, already offers its standard level of complimentary challenges. You know things like hours of lesson planning, grading endless stacks of papers, disciplining uncompromising children, keeping parents happy, and simultaneously remaining…

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Short Term Teacher Needed

Posted: February 16, 2016 by Patrice Miles in Egbe Hosptial, Miles In Missions, Missionaries, Nigeria, SIM, Volunteers
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DSC_0007It’s hard to believe that our family has been blessed for almost two years now by Katie Riddle. She has been an amazing teacher for Cason and Jolie and my BFF. Katie and her husband Nick will be heading back to the states for furlough in August of this year. She will be gone 3 to 4 months and we need a substitute teacher. As hard as it would be to replace her, we need you.

If you are a teacher and can serve one month, two months or the full four months, we would love to have y1004091_10100789188202608_1460737636_nou. Cason and Jolie currently use the Abeka DVD curriculum along with some other resources. School days are Monday through Friday 9-3pm. There are of course many other ministry opportunities to dive into, but MK (missionary kid) education would be your main focus. Click this link teacher to learn more about the opportunity. Also feel free to email me at Patrice.miles@sim.org with any questions.

Growing in Number, Growing in Love

Posted: February 9, 2016 by Patrice Miles in Uncategorized
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Beautiful blog on three C.A.R.E. Africa orphans that are no longer orphans!

khriddle's avatarSwept Away

IMG_0903Recently our home has undergone BIG, BIG change! We have grown from just two to a family of five! WOW, a shocking statement I know, but this is a story which began just weeks after our arrival in Egbe in 2014. One morning Duro, the lady we had just hired to work in our home, came through our front door weeping hysterically. Through tears she explained she could not work that day because her niece had just passed away. After hugs and praying together we of course sent her home, telling her to take all the time she needed.

The next week Duro returned to work. Life went back to its normal fast pace, and we soon began to not think much more about the incident. However, about a month later Duro asked to speak with us. The same niece who had passed away had three children, and their father…

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Check It Out

Posted: February 2, 2016 by Patrice Miles in C.A.R.E. Africa, Nigeria, Orphans
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DSC_1625Amos is an artist from Ibadan who carves wood and paints amazing African scenes. He has supported his family for over 20 years through this trade. His artistic skills have allowed him to send 3 of his children to university. University in Nigeria is very expensive. There are no school loans available to allow Nigerians to attend. University must be paid in cash up front. On average one term is n150,000. Middle class Nigerians make n20,000-n40,000 a month outside of the larger cities. You can see…very few people can afford to go to University on the income they make.

IMG_1843 2C.A.R.E. Africa is excited to have partnered with Amos to help him support his family and all proceeds will go to C.A.R.E. Africa for orphan care. Several of his pieces of art are on their way to the U.S. as we speak. Small paintings will be $10 and large ones will be $15. He also has some stunning African table clothes and napkins to match for $25. I have sent one nativity seen but more can be ordered and he also has many other wood carvings that you can see below that can be ordered. He is truly gifted and his work truly captures African scenes.

You can visit the Fabulous February Fling at Cropper Baptist Church in Pleasureville Kentucky this weekend to see his artwork in person. Click the link to get additional info on the craft fair.

Screen Shot 2016-02-01 at 8.30.52 PMWe also have a local U.S. artist who has partnered with C.A.R.E. Africa too. He is well known for his pallet work and has designed an Africa  wall hanging for. These will sell for $75. All the proceeds go to orphan care. For more information on any of our items feel free to email Diana Beville at dianabeville@gmail.com. You can also look for what is left from the craft fair by visiting our Etsy store next week at https://www.etsy.com/people/CAREafrica

 

 

 

Name Our Shop

Posted: January 26, 2016 by Patrice Miles in C.A.R.E. Africa, Orphans
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Our New Store

Our New Shop

6 months ago Emma and I started praying for God to show us a way to sustain the C.A.R.E. Africa ministry from within Nigeria. We felt he was leading us to open a shop. I told Emma the only way I would do it was if the shop was in a high traffic area, was in a brand new building and the landlord must be fair. He laughed at me but said he would pray about it. Right before I left for my furlough to the states Emma found the perfect place. It was at the busiest intersection of Egbe, brand new and the landlord we knew very well. Praise the Lord!

Inside the Shop

Inside the Shop

In November the shop was ready and Emma was about to sign the contract. I for some reason was not at peace about it. I talked to Emma and he also said he had not been at peace about it. The money was just too much and we didn’t know yet how we would get supplies for the store. As disappointed as we were to let this amazing shop go, we felt the Holy Spirit telling us to be patient and wait.

Since I have returned to Egbe, the storeowner wanted to re open negotiations. I again told Emma the only way we could do it was if he agreed to x price and also gave us 3 months to get the store ready. Again, Emma laughed but said “God can do it!” I am happy to say he did!! And to just to give you goose bumps, we had a donor send money to pay for the store rent in the entire amount! Can you believe this?? If we had signed back in November we would not have the discounted rent, the 3 months extra to get the place ready or the money that our gracious donor sent.

DSC_2073C.A.R.E. Africa is excited to announce that we will be opening a store in Egbe across from First Bank on May 1st. It will be a sports and bead store along with seamstress area while carrying any U.S. items we can get. We need your help with contacts in the U.S. If you know anyone that can donate or discount used sports equipment, beads for jewelry making, used iPhones and electronics and any other goods we can get, please email me at Patrice.miles@sim.org. We also need your help for a name of the store. Please comment below and let us know your ideas for a store name.

Our Dream

Our Dream


Our Dream

Our Dream

A Gift for You!

Posted: January 23, 2016 by Patrice Miles in C.A.R.E. Africa, Egbe, Miles In Missions, Nigeria
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DSC_9946

Susanna, Gift, Ngozi (Goodness), Thankgod and Favor

Over a year ago I met women named Gift. She was a widow with 4 children and she was struggling to provide for her family. C.A.R.E. Africa took in her children and enrolled them in school and our other programs. We then wanted to empower Gift so she could one day take care of her children on her own. She said she wanted to learn to be a seamstress. Seamstress work in Egbe is high in demand. Fabric is selected from the local market and then women and men choose their style and the seamstress makes it. The traditional African fabric is worn by many people everyday. The goal would be for Gift to learn this trade and then we would help her get a sewing machine and her own shop.

2013 ankara dress style

Traditional African Fabric Outfit (Ankara)

We found a local seamstress to train Gift on Monday, Wednesday and Fridays. Gift needed the remaining days to find work so she could buy food and provisions for her family. The plan started out well but eventually Gift was missing her classes. I asked her why she was not coming. She advised me that she needed to work more. Working only two days a week was not enough to feed her kids.

I completely understood, but it caused a dilemma for me. How do I empower women if they cannot take time away from work to learn a trade? God put it on my heart to try and get a sponsor for Gift the same way we have been getting sponsors for our children in C.A.R.E. Africa. I sat down with Gift to ask her, “If I could have your income supplemented for a year would you commit to seamstress training for that entire year?” I made it clear she could not miss one class. She agreed and I then felt led to ask a friend I know in the U.S. for her sponsorship. She said “yes” to sponsoring Gift. I was so excited to have our first Empowerment Sponsorship!!

DSC_0571To put icing on the cake, two days later I get this Facebook message….
Patrice, I have just received a check here for $200 from ————-, which is one of the churches in the Heart of Texas Baptist Network. She is saying that they want it to go toward Nigeria missions. She is very learned on the things going on in Nigeria and she suggested a sewing machine, but she said should would like for you to make a decision where it goes based on your deepest need.

WOW!! He knew what I needed before I even asked Don’t you just love it when you hear Gods voice, obey and then he just opens the floodgates!! Spend time with him today…….hear his voice today……obey today……..he will provide more than you can even begin to imagine!

Why do we do what we do?

Posted: January 18, 2016 by Patrice Miles in Egbe Hosptial, Egbe Nigeria, Miles In Missions, Nigeria, SIM
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This amazing video give a small glimpse of why Miles In Missions wakes up everyday to serve at ECWA Hospital Egbe. Come and join us out in the bush. We have plenty of openings for short term and long term missionaries!! Visit http://www.sim.org/index.php/opportunity/country/NG for more information on opportunities to serve in Egbe, Nigeria

 

Screen Shot 2016-01-18 at 3.59.33 PM

Post went out and it wasn’t finished….

Posted: January 14, 2016 by Patrice Miles in Uncategorized
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So my normal is computers doing what they want and my post went out and it wasn’t pretty yet. Then the internet went down and I couldn’t go and change it. O Nigeria O! Click here to see the prettied up post that is actually readable. Pretty Post

 

What is Normal?

Posted: January 14, 2016 by Patrice Miles in Egbe, Egbe Nigeria, Miles In Missions, Missionaries, Nigeria, Patrice Miles
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What is normal? Google says normal is conforming to a standard; usual, typical, or expected.

Miles Family

Before God called me to Africa normal was;                   -a job I went to every day of the week that paid me in American dollars                                                                  -a house I paid a mortgage on that had AC in the winter an awesome fireplace for the winter
-a church in a building with amazing worship talent, small groups and many other activities to get involved in
-a school for my kids that I paid tuition for and I tried to get involved in
-3 meals a day with food that I could drive 5 minutes away to purchase
-weekly dining out dates with my family and or husband
-weekends full of events from sports to birthday parties
-changing weather from hot to cold every year
-once the weekend was finished, I did it all over again the next week

I loved my normal! It was comfortable and I knew what was expected of me and what I expected of others. I normally felt in control because everyday was the usual, typical day.

Miles Family PicSince moving to Africa, the normal is;
-a ministry I am apart of everyday that pays me in smiles, thank you’s and stress.
-a house I rent with undependable electricity, bugs, windows that stay open year round and currently Harmattan everywhere
-a small church in my home worshipping God with my husband and two children in our family room
– a school for my kids that is free and they are the only two children
– 3 meals a day all with my family with food freshly killed or store bought over 7 hours away
– weekly dining out at the Guesthouse with fellow missionaries
– weekends filled with hiking, bush rides, bead making, getting a suntan or just hanging out.
– changing weather from hot to hotter and hottest
– once the weekend is over I have no clue what next week will hold and have stopped trying to plan it or guess what might happen.

I love my new normal! It is very uncomfortable but not in the way you would think. I don’t know what to expect and I don’t always understand what others expect of me. I never feel in control. Everyday holds new problems and stresses that I am not prepared to handle. I have to sit at my makers feet every morning in order to be prepared for the day. It can be freeing if I let it, but then it can also be stressful if I try to do it on my own.

I encourage you to embrace your normal, but to always be open to a new normal God might be calling you to. Weather it is a new job, switching kids to a new school, a new friend, a new home or maybe a move around the world. Whatever your normal or new normal might be, you cannot do it alone. Trust in him and have faith he will always provide what you need even if it may not be what you exspected.

 

 

Egbe-ites Going Away Open House

Posted: December 29, 2015 by Patrice Miles in Egbe Nigeria, Miles In Missions
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egbeiteThe Egbe-ites head out on Saturday morning, January 2nd for two years. We are so sorry if we didn’t get to see you while we were in town. We would love for you to stop in for some appetizers and to say good-bye 6pm-9pm Friday, New Years Day, at my Father’s home. The address is 12334 Dominion Way Louisville, Ky 40299. We will also have FREE t-shirts available for anyone that hasn’t been able to get one yet. Click Miles In Missions to make your donation or email me for check or cash options and you can pick up a shirt on Friday or we can mail it to you.

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