Archive for the ‘Missionaries’ Category

You might be a Missionairy in Africa if…….

Posted: October 11, 2014 by Patrice Miles in Egbe, Miles In Missions, Missionaries, Nigeria
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You might be a Missionairy in Africa if….
IMG_04901. you know how to pop mango worms out of your dog.
2. your shirts smell like BO and you don’t care becuase you smell like everyone else.
3. you go weeks without shaving your legs, armpits or facial hair.
4. your kids ask nonchalantly if the nail boys are going to kill you as you are stopped on the side of the road getting harassed.
5. you feed your dogs chicken bones daily.
6. you have to tell your kids friends not to sh_t in your front yard.
7. you carry a role of toilet paper, hand sanitizer and bug spray in your purse everywhere you go.
8. your child and his friends carry a machete wherever they go.
9. everyone’s legs in the family look like they have visited an acupuncturist from all the mosquito bites.
10. your guard asks if he can eat your cats.
11. your 8 year old daughter receives marriage proposals everywhere she goes.
12. you blow dry your hair next to your generator, as that is the only source of electricity.
13. you are excited to receive chickens, goats, fruits and vegetables as gifts.
14. you de worm your kids along with your dogs.image
15. you hear the “f” word from the church pulpit.
16. you smell something burning and you don’t jump up to see what it is.
17. you can’t stand other missionaries.
18. you reuse water bottles and ziploc bags at least 10 times.
19. you stop taking anti-malaria medicine.
20. your amazon prime has at least 20 plus shipping addresses in it.
21. you eat processed foods and get sick.
22. you make Ebola jokes when someone has a fever.
23. you tell your kids before they go to bed to brush their teeth and wash their feet.
24. you hear screaming at night and don’t worry becuase it is just the local church night vigil.
25. you can fit your entire family on a motorcycle.

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Back to Normal…… Sort Of

Posted: October 4, 2014 by Lenny in Egbe, Egbe Hosptial, Lenny Miles, Miles In Missions, Missionaries, Prayer
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willSince returning back home to Nigeria from our three week break, a few things have changed. Most significantly for myself, I have been asked to take the role of Construction Manager. This has happened for several reasons;                    –The role just fits me better. With my past experiences in building new homes and other construction experiences, this is where God can use me most.                                                  –We had to say goodbye to our friend and Samaritans Purse Construction Manager, William King. William had served two and a half years in this role, but he is moving on to another part of Africa.                                                                       –New missionary Rick Bradford and his wife, Martha, arrived less than six weeks ago. Rick has become the new Maintenance Supervisor, filling my vacant role. He has extensive maintenance experience with a large steel company in Canada.

teamSo, along with change come new challenges. Work has gotten much more demanding for me. I feel the pressure coming from all around. Some of it is brought on by myself, but other things are external forces that seem to weigh me down. The pressure of running a multi-million dollar project, accounting, ordering, directing, and managing, all the while trying to make sure no one is stealing or cheating, is exhausting! The thoughts of, “I’ve got to do all of this myself!”, has really started to creep into my thinking.

In addition to the construction, our Family has been on the ground serving in Egbe for the longest, just 13 months. People many times look to us for answers to questions that we have no answers to. Our missionary community has grown leaps and bounds since we first arrived. In August of last year, there were only three other full time missionaries on ground, now there are 12 plus our family. This is great, but along with it comes its own challenges. We all live within a one and a half acre area, where we serve, live, work, and on most weekends eat together. Everyone has different demands, opinions, needs, and life experiences that can be challenging.

All of this is happening while we are trying to keep our families healthy and happy. We also hope that God is glorified through it all.

Screen Shot 2014-10-04 at 4.10.25 PMWait… wait just a minute! This doesn’t sound right. Aren’t we taught as Christians that we should glorify God first, take care of our family second, and thirdly take care of work? Why is it that everyday I have this order reversed? Even while writing this blog, I have done the list backwards. Work first, family second, and then God. What is wrong with this picture? What does it all mean?

I don’t say all of these things to complain or seek sympathy, but just to simply say that we are all human. Some people seem to put missionaries on a “spiritual pedestal”, but in reality we are just like everyone else. We can all let our circumstances drive us. In the process, we can easily leave God out of it and try to control it ourselves. This isn’t God’s plan for our lives. He wants us to seek him first and then all else will fall in place. Including our families and work.

I was challenged by our small group here in Egbe to make sure that I am seeking God first. Truly it’s made a difference in a few days already. Things that I’ve wanted to get off of my to-do list are getting done, emails rolling off my fingertips, and other administrative stuff getting plowed through. Sometimes, even with a little time left over for fun! How can you allow God into your life to take away the weight of your to do’s? Seek him, ask him, and watch what he can do in your life. He loves you enough to take it from you!

Please continue to pray for our family. Dry season is approaching and the heat and dust can be extremely uncomfortable. This can add stress and irritability, so continue to pray for us to put God first through it all

 

Ebola in Nigeria

Posted: September 15, 2014 by Patrice Miles in Egbe, Egbe Hosptial, Egbe Nigeria, Miles In Missions, Missionaries, Nigeria, Prayer
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The world was awakened to Ebola several weeks ago when our fellow SIM friend Nancy Writebol and SP worker Kent Brantley contracted this horrific disease. It seemed like anything I read on Facebook was about Ebola. Since then we were relieved to hear that all our SIM friends that were living in Liberia, are back in the U.S. and doing well.

IMG_2990I am sure you have heard that Ebola is in Nigeria now. Currently there is 19 cases and 7 deaths. Lagos and Port Harcourt are currently the two effected cities. Both of these cities are about as far away from Egbe, as Louisville, Ky is from Charlotte NC. Due to the distance one would think the likelihood of it coming to Egbe is very small. However, when the first case was reported I gripped my chair and my mind started racing. What if it spreads? Can it come to Egbe? Will people hear about our fancy new hospital and think the Western doctor can cure Ebola?  What can we do and how can we control it?

Well you cannot do anything but prepare for it and you definitely cannot control it, you can only contain it. This statement is not something that comes easily acceptable to me and my Western mind. My whole life I have planned, studied, prepared, and controlled everything…or so I thought. Now I am faced with something so much bigger than my mind can even grasp. The funniest thing is if you talk to anyone in the Egbe community, they are not worried or anxious. Their response is that Ebola will not come to Egbe. They say it with such faith and belief it will make you tremble! “Ebola will not come to Egbe!”

photo5555I don’t know what God has planned, but what I do know is what he promises. Jeremiah 29:11 “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

As our medical team creates an isolation ward, security is tightening, pre screening of patients is starting and we have ceased all visits to the wards by non-essential personal. While all of these pre cautions are being implemented and the local churches are praying for this hospital at 4:30am every morning, I find peace in my time here in Egbe. Everyday I wake up in the freedom to know that he has got my family in the palm of his hand. He has us right were he wants us.

I am so proud of the team of professionals I serve with. I have watched our Medical Director, head Family Physician, Samaritans Purse Project Leader and my husband spend hours on meetings, calls back to the states, intense research and collaboration and then implementation of new policies and procedures. This disease is foreign to everyone here but “Who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” (Esther 4:14).

For more information on the Ebola Crisis visit http://www.simusa.org/ebolacrisis

 

 

 

Spiritual Attack

Posted: July 22, 2014 by Patrice Miles in Egbe, Egbe Hosptial, Egbe Nigeria, Missionaries, Nigeria, Prayer
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thessA friend who I met in Egbe, while she accompanied her husband to work on our lab, led me to a Beth Moore study recently. Today is Day 2 and it started out saying ” Anything God emphasizes, the Devil seeks to exterminate.” This spoke to my soul and led me to blog to you today.

We have had so many answered prayers here in Egbe and continue to daily. The arrival of two more Missionary families this week and still more arriving in the following days is an answer to so many prayers. We are now the second largest SIM Missionary establishment in Nigeria. Our OPD is now open and operational. We have a great Medical Director and Hospital Administrator that are making some amazing changes. I would say that God has emphasized our community and we are on the radar! This is why Beth Moore’s quote spoke to me this morning. “Anything God emphasizes, the Devil seeks to exterminate.”

riddlesSpiritual attack has definitely been felt by all of us in one way or another. From sickness, uncomfortable rashes, electrical issues, marriage issues, sleepless nights, work issues,VISA issues and back at home U.S. issues we are feeling an increased spiritual attack. Our Missionary community is tired most days and we all feel the emotional fatigue from these spiritual attacks.

Beth Moore says;                                                               Are you In a season where faith feels like hard work?           Is loving laborious?                                                         Is hope circling the drain as you keep longing and waiting?If you answered yes to all three questions you are under a triple threat. Satan cannot snatch faith, love and hope from you. You have to hand them over.

Pray our Missionaries and my family decide not to hand over anything  to Satan today tomorrow or any day. Pray that as we are becoming a beacon in Nigeria that we will not experience any repercussions from our popularity. Pray for God to give us the strength and wisdom to discern and persevere.

Beth Moore says we are not like everyone else breathing the worlds toxic air. Our flight has been hijacked by hope! So many have had hope to see the day that this Egbe community is revitalized and it is finally here! 

Front hospital

If You Build it They Will Come!

Posted: March 19, 2014 by Patrice Miles in Egbe Hosptial, Egbe Nigeria, Missionaries
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Egbe Missionaries 2014 copyEgbe Missionaries 20144Egbe Missionaries 20146

Swept Away

Posted: February 12, 2014 by Patrice Miles in Missionaries
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In November 2013 I remember an Egbe family meeting to go over possible transitioning of Samaritan Purse workers Abby and Mark Anderson to The Miles Family and William King. Abby went down her 3 page paper of what her duties were from compound manager, guesthouse manager, volunteer coordinator, EHR accountant and more.  I will never forget the question being asked, ” Patrice how are you going to do all this and homeschool the kids?” I really had no clue how, but I knew in my heart that God did not bring me all the way to Egbe to be a worn out, exhausted,  frustrated mother, wife, friend and Missionary. I knew he has a plan and I told everyone that day that God was going to bring a teacher to Egbe.

After our family meeting training began for my new roles.  There were many times school was neglected or not done up to my standards.  I could sense myself starting to get overwhelmed and frustration coming on. I  had emails of people that were interested in coming to teach my kids for 3 months or 6 months. I opened those doors but just never felt God leading me to walk through them. He used people on the ground to help me stay focused on Gods will and not my own, even when it wasn’t what I wanted to hear. I remained faithful and knew in my heart he had a plan.

21454_10100789186241538_150652324_nTo say 30 days later I was swept away by God answering my prayer for a teacher, would be an understatement. I received an email of a couple that wanted to make Egbe their home. It just so happened that one of them was a teacher. Wow! I love it when God shows off!

1004091_10100789188202608_1460737636_nI am so happy to introduce you to the Riddles. They visited Egbe last year and their hearts were swept away. Ever since they returned to the US they knew God was calling them to something bigger. Read there story at http://riddlessweptaway.com/about/ Katie will come to Egbe to teach MK’s.  Nick will be serving and helping the people of Egbe at the hospital through construction, EMT experience and more.

918_10100789188591828_1840768417_nWe are praying for them to arrive in June but this depends on support. So many of you already support our mission in Egbe financially and or through prayer and we cannot Thank you enough. If you feel led to support the Riddles please click https://web.simusa.org/Give/missionaries.php. Their Missionary ID is 042310.

They also need a lot of prayer as they just recently told their current bosses, family members and friends about their departure. What they will go through spiritually, emotionally and physically over the next few months will be exhausting. Pray for them to continue to be swept away daily by God while he opens doors and shows them something so much bigger than they ever could have imagined.

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