amy0b87982ac418
bluewatergigi
dbeville
Patrice Miles
Lenny
I don’t know if you remember, but my birthday was on October 21st. I had asked for 100 AWANA shirts for my AWANA club kids. I am happy to update you that I received donations for exactly 100 AWANA shirts. Not 99 or 101 but exactly 100!!
Do you remember Mosun? She was a partially blind HIV patient with Spring of Life. We had discovered that the eye drops that she had been using were finished and she didn’t have money to buy more. They had really helped her vision and it had been months since she last used them. We had asked for a $50 donation so she would have eye drops for 1 year. God answered and she has eye drops for one year now.
Do you remember the story of Toyin? Toyin went from an abandoned child to restoration with his father and then restoration with his mother. They are all together now in the family house, Praise the Lord. Click Toyin to be taken to the blog on him. We have not found a sponsor for him yet so if you would like to sponsor a child it is $35 a month and you can email me at Patrice.Miles@sim.org
We also have an update on our one time donation campaign for our transition to Jos. We started our campaign with the #GivingTuesday which raised almost $10,000 that day for our ministry in Nigeria. Later my husband created this beautiful blue pie chart. As you can see the updated chart shows that God has really been speaking to people all around the world to support our ministry in Nigeria. Click one-time to be directed to the site for a one time donation.
The last update we have for you is on our monthly support. We had sent out a blog informing everyone of our loss of three large monthly supporters totaling $1,500 a month starting January 2017. We have been praying and praying for this need to be met. We are still in need of $1,450 a month in monthly supporters. Please pray about it and consider signing up by clicking monthly to support our ministry in Nigeria monthly.
Lastly, just this week we’ve received word that the children have passed their entrance exams and have been fully accepted into Hillcrest international School. Cason will start 9th grade and Jolie 6th in August later this year. This school has a rich history with SIM missionaries and is one of the best international schools in all of West Africa. We know and fully expect that this will prepare them for college anywhere in the world or any next steps in life that the Lord has in store for them. Thanks so much to Katie Riddle who has been teaching them over the last couple of years to prepare them for this next step!
I am so excited to send these awesome pictures to you of the new C.A.R.E. Africa Educational Center. Our staff have been praying and praying for months for a building for C.A.R.E. Africa. Currently we have been housed in the hospital compound in a 10×10 office at the Spring of Life clinic. The hospital and Pastor Alabi have graciously let us use this space for our office, weekly caretaker meetings, monthly child celebrations, Saturday weekly discipleship and weekly staff meetings. We have grown so much that we were starting to dominate the space and the kids coming and going was just too much.
We are excited that God answered our prayers with this building that has 6 class rooms, 4 administrative offices, one large hall and one small hall and a playground area. We will be able to host our AWANA program here and have the space we have needed for so long to break into small groups for team time. We will also be able to split the small kids and the big kids up for the council time now.
Last but not least we desire to open an IJMB course for secondary school graduates that scored too low on their WAEC/JAMB/NECO. This course with the passing of the IJMB exam will allow them direct admittance to 200 levels in University. This is another opportunity for secondary school graduates that are currently not available in Egbe.
I was so excited to get to attend the wedding of Toyin’s parents a few weekends ago. If you don’t remember Toyin’s story of reuniting with his Father over a year ago, click 
Recently Toyin’s sponsor had has to discontinue his sponsorship due to the loss of employment. We are so thankful for the 2 years that Toyin’s sponsor was able to support him. Without them we would not have had the financial means to help Toyin and his family. If you are interested in continuing the sponsorship for Toyin, it is $35 a month. Click 
When we announced we were moving to Nigeria in 2013, the number one question I received was “What are you going to do?” Everyone understood Lenny’s role, but they wondered how I was going to manage going from a businesswomen to a stay at home homeschooling mom. Fast-forward to 2017 and I have to laugh at all the hats I wear… Egbe Hospital Revitalization Accountant, Office Manager, Volunteer Coordinator, Guesthouse Manager, C.A.R.E. Africa Marketing Manager and Spring of Life Project Manager. I had never expected to fill any of these roles when I said yes to the missions call, but God knew. He had been preparing me for years in my U.S. business life for this time in Egbe, Nigeria.
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.
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!
Miles In Missions 