Orphans | Miles In Missions

Archive for the ‘Orphans’ Category

Is Sustainability Possible?

Posted: March 8, 2016 by Patrice Miles in C.A.R.E. Africa, Egbe, Egbe Nigeria, Miles In Missions, Nigeria, Orphans, SIM

Gabriel and Family

I am excited to introduce our first Nigerian sponsor, Engineer Gabriel and family. Gabriel answered God’s call 2 years ago and left his job and family in Abuja, Nigeria to serve in Egbe. He worked alongside Lenny helping to build the wall around the compound and our new Guesthouse. He also spent his free time tutoring children around town and teaching at a local school. Many people were blessed by his time in Egbe.

Gabriel and his Hillcrest Mait. Staff

Construction at Egbe started to slow and a job in Jos, Nigeria opened up at Hillcrest International School. The position was for HOD of maintenance. Gabriel was a perfect fit and they hired him. He now is managing 11 men and living on the school compound with his family. God honored his obedience to come to Egbe in so many ways and the Hillcrest job is just one of the fruits we have seen from that.

Grandma and 4 of the 6 children she cares for waiting on her N1,000.

Gabriel was aware of our outstanding C.A.R.E. Africa applications and asked if he could help. I told him of a recent visit to a grandmother who was caring for 6 of her grandchildren in a one 10×10 room. Bolu is in JS1 (6^th grade) and her Father was killed by his own brother out of jealousy. After his death Bolu’s mother left her with grandma to go and try to find work in Ibadan a town 6 hours away. The day we visited grandma she was at home with her 4 other grandchildren and they where waiting on 1000 Naira ($3) to arrive from a family member so they could go and buy food.

Bolu

Gabriel will be sponsoring Bolu but we still have 5 other children in this household that need sponsorship. We are praying for God to bring more Nigerians alongside us as sponsors, volunteers, care takers and mentors. I truly believe that when more Nigerians start helping Nigerians like Engineer Gabriel, we will see a true change in this country that will last for generations to come. As we wait on God to bring these fellow Souljourners to us please consider sponsoring one of the children above for $35 a month. Email me at Patrice.Miles@sim.org for more information on how you can help.

Check It Out

Posted: February 2, 2016 by Patrice Miles in C.A.R.E. Africa, Nigeria, Orphans

Amos 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.

C.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 PM We 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

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

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.

C.A.R.E. Africa is excited to announce that we will be opening a store in Egbe across from First Bank on May 1^st. 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

Here We Are, Send Us Back!

Posted: October 15, 2015 by Patrice Miles in C.A.R.E. Africa, Egbe, Egbe Hosptial, Egbe Nigeria, Fundraising, Lenny Miles, Miles In Missions, Missionaries, Nigeria, Orphans, Patrice Miles, People of Egbe, Prayer, SIM
Tags: Africa, CARE Africa, Egbe, Egbe Hospital, Egbe Nigeria, Missionairies

ISAIAH 6:8 THEN I HEARD A VOICE OF THE LORD SAYING, “WHOM SHALL I SEND? AND WHO WILL GO FOR US?” AND I SAID, “HERE AM I SEND ME!”

HERE WE ARE! SEND US BACK! It has been over two years since we said “Yes” to God and sold everything we owned and moved to Egbe, Nigeria. Many of you have journeyed with us in prayer and or financial support over the past two years and we cannot thank you enough. We are excited to be on home assignment for the next 3 months. During this time we will be traveling the U.S. to share our story, do debriefings with our agency, work at the Global Missions Health Conference and so much more.

Lenny is in phase two of revitalizing the hospital. Construction work has slowed and he is now working towards discipleship of the construction staff in both construction and spiritual growth. The hospital administration is also in phase two as most of the buildings are built and equipment is in place. We now need short term and long-term medical missionaries to say “YES” and join us in Egbe.

C.A.R.E. Africa has grown and we now care for 25 orphans. We still have many applicants that want to join our program but we are waiting on God to show us next steps in this ministry. C.A.R.E. Africa is also exploring synergies with Spring of Life, which is an HIV clinic that evangelizes to the community through HIV testing and counseling. God continues to use us in Egbe as the needs are big.

Please come out to our open house in Louisville, KY @ Southeast Christian Church on Thursday Nov 5^th from 6pm-7pm so we can share the past two years with you through videos and stories of our time in Egbe. There will be catered food, African handmade products, unbelievable videos and pictures even from Cason and Jolie. Our time is short in Louisville and this may be the only way for us to see several of you.

We are excited about continuing with SIM as long-term missionaries in 2016. We were blessed with many financial supporters over the past two years but due to other obligations several have been unable to continue to journey with us financially. We will need to raise an additional $2,500 a month in monthly supporters to make up for the ones that are unable to continue with us. We also have a goal to raise $20,000 for ministry projects, as well as one time fees needed for things like airfare back to the field. We know God will provide and have already booked our tickets back to Egbe for Jan 3^rd, 2016. Will you come and journey with us?

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Please take my children!

Posted: September 22, 2015 by Patrice Miles in C.A.R.E. Africa, Egbe, Egbe Nigeria, Miles In Missions, Orphans
Tags: Africa, African Education, C.A.R.E. Africa, CARE Africa, Egbe, Egbe Nigeria, Nigeria, orphans in africa

Brothel Ladies, Blessing is on the far right.

Meet Blessing. While I was in the US earlier this year a few of our missionaries on the ground stumbled onto a brothel in the town. They met several times with the prostitutes there and built some relationships. A local Pastor, Pastor Wale, came alongside them and was able to get a few ladies to leave the brothel. The church found them places to live for free and even gave them money to help start small businesses. Blessing was one of the ladies that choose to leave the brothel.

When I arrived back to Nigeria in May, Pastor Wale asked if he could enroll Blessings’ two children in CARE Africa. Currently the children lived in another town with grandma and he wanted to reunite them with their mother. Without a guarantee of an education the pastor was concerned for the boys. We immediately said yes and the next week Blessing was reunited with her two boys

Blessing right after being reunited with her two boys.

The following Saturday she came to CARE Africa. When she walked in the door she started crying and begging us to take the kids from her. “Please take my children! This is too much for me!” She said the money she was making selling beans and rice was just not enough to support her and the two boys. She said that everything was much harder than she had imagined it would be. We explained to her we were not an orphanage and prayed with her. We prayed for God to give her the strength to handle her new life and not revert back to the old one.

A few weeks ago I went to check on Blessing and the boys. We sat and talked about the upcoming school year. Once all contracts were signed and everything was understood by all parties I asked how her business was doing. She said it was still the same but she was managing. I asked her if now, a month later, she still wanted to give Friday and Samuel to me and she laughed and said “No”. I told her how proud we were of her for managing and not going back to what she knew and what was easy.

Last week at back to school meeting at CARE Africa.

I then asked her what she needed to help her business do better. She said she needed to be able to buy in bulk. If she could buy more than just a days supplies she would have more profit and thus could invest more into her business. Emma and I started calculating what a whole bag of rice would cost and all the supplies she would need and it came up to N17,000 ($80). I opened my planner and showed Emma what I had written on my to do’s for that day. “Deposit N18,500 from craft sales from volunteer team.” The day before I had sold N18,500 in crafts from CARE Africa to a recent team that visited Egbe. I love it when God shows off! I asked Emma if he felt like we needed to talk about it more or if he felt led to go ahead and help her. He just smiled and said “It looks like we are just suppose to go ahead and do this.” God’s timing is so amazing.

Emma explained all this to Blessing in Yoruba to make sure she knew all the events that led up to her getting this money. I wanted her to understand how none of this could have been a coincidence. Emma explained how God planned for us to visit her that day and to have this money in our pocket from sales yesterday. I looked her in the eyes and said “God loves you Blessing! He thinks you are special! He has chosen you!” I loved getting to see the shy smile on her face as I spoke these truths to her. You could just see in her face that no one had ever told her this.

Samuel on the Left and Friday on the right.

I am so blessed to get to watch God change lives in Egbe. Thank you for continuing to support Miles in Missions and CARE Africa so we can continue to show God’s love to people that have never been shown love. God loves you! He thinks your special! He has chosen you!

Friday and Samuel are Blessings’ children’s names. Friday is currently sponsored but Samuel is not. If God is leading you to help Samuel, click CARE Africa and sign up to send Samuel to school for only $35 a month.

Samuel pounding yam!

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