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bluewatergigi
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Patrice Miles
Lenny
Meet Mommy Okikiola and Mommy Favour Girl……yes that is what we call them. These are two of our caregivers in our program. They take care of Okikiola and Favour.
Mommy Okikiola is actually the Aunt of Okikiola. Okikiola was abandoned by her father when she was very young. A few years later she was then abandoned by her mother. When we met Okikiola she was not in school and she was with living with her Aunt. Her Aunt was owing 3 terms of school fees to Okikiola’s school and was voiceless and exhausted.
Mommy Favour got pregnant out of wedlock when she was very young and the boyfriend abandoned her. She was living with her mother and trying to complete seamstress training. When we met her Favour was not in school because she didn’t have money for school fees. She was voiceless and exhausted.
A year ago a missionary in Egbe showed me a trivet from Burundi she had bought that was made out of bottle caps and African cloth. She told me I should try and see if I could do this in Egbe with our caregivers. With the help of google I was able to learn how to make these beautiful pieces and train Mommy Okikiola and Mommy Favour. They make one piece about every 3 days and get paid immediately upon completion.
C.A.R.E. Africa’s vision and mission is To Invest Courage into the Voiceless and Exhausted. Empowerment is one of the many programs we offer to accomplish this. Both of these women have been empowered by learning how to make trivets. Help us empower them by purchasing one, two or three trivets for Christmas this year. They are only $8.00 and have the C.A.R.E. Africa label on the back stating that they were handmade in Nigeria. Order now to have yours by Christmas! Visit our Etsy store at http://bit.ly/CAREtrivet to place your order.
I truly believe the expectations placed upon you living in America (Babylon) are so much harder than my struggles living in Nigeria (even now with all the violence and rioting). 
When I think of your daily battles I am humbled.
Many of you know our Nigerian daughter, Titi. For those of you who have no idea who she is – I invite you to click on the following link to read Titi’s amazing testimony. 
Finally one day we got an acceptance letter from Webster University, a U.S. University located in Ghana. They offered her a 25% scholarship. We were excited as she would be close enough to travel home for visits plus the food wouldn’t be so different and there would be a large African population for her to make friends. The icing on the cake was a U.S. college education. It sounded perfect! Then one day I was telling a fellow missionary about our many challenges with college applications and she asked if we had ever tried Lancaster Bible College. I said 
Ok God, you have provided the school, the scholarship and the housing now we need a Visa. Our experience with a Nigerian being granted a Visa has not been a good one. On top of everything there was the pressure of forfeiting the Webster University scholarship if we did not respond back within a few days. We moved forward with Lancaster Bible College believing that God hadn’t opened all these doors only to have her Visa application denied. On July 16th, Titi’s 20th birthday, she was granted a U.S. Visa. But we barely had time to celebrate as we now faced the $15,000 hurdle…her tuition, airfare, monthly meals and supplies. Lord we need a miracle!
Titi is in the states now at Lancaster Bible College studying social work. She has a blog you can follow called 
How it all began….
I immediately reached out to my Business Coach, Scott Beebe with Business on Purpose 
Since then it has definitely been a learning process. Marybeth and I continue to trust the people God is putting in front of us to catapult this school to its opening Sept 10, 2018. I could write an entire story about all the miracles that have occurred along the way but I will just share a few. With Marybeth’s blessing, one of her staff members has volunteered to leave the comfort of Jos and move to Egbe for a year to provide consultation and mentorship to our new C.A.R.E. Africa school staff. Other miracles include the qualified teachers God has provided that are full of joy; the U.S. mission team who just happened to be teachers and knew exactly how to decorate classrooms; curriculum getting delivered just in the nick of time AND some unexpected donations that allowed us to buy a few more needed supplies.
I recently read a book called God’s Smuggler. It is a true story of how a young, Dutchman by the name of Brother Andrew risked his life to bring faith and hope to believers behind the Iron Curtain. While reading the book I was continuously jealous of all the miracles Brother Andrew experienced. Some were as simple as a cake being provided for a meeting where he had no money to buy one. Others were big miracles like not getting checked at checkpoints where he had over 100 Bibles hidden in his car. I was so jealous and I felt if he experienced miracles in the 1930’s why can’t I experience God’s miracles in the 2018’s. I got on my knees and begged to see, hear, and experience God like Brother Andrew did. I begged God to “show up and show off” as I like to say.
Pray for me, for my family, for my husband’s media ministry, for my CARE Africa staff and for our school that we are starting in Egbe. My family and CARE Africa staff have experienced some serious spiritual attacks such as health problems, computers crashing, uncontrollable emotions/ thoughts, missionaries leaving, different cultural problems and even serious and brutal killings only miles from our home. There is sin in this world and when God is visibly doing big works in your life – evil is going to want to try and conquer it. There is a battle going on that our small, small minds cannot even grasp. It is a battle for our minds and souls and we know we are the winner, but there is nothing that says we will not experience suffering.
Family Based Care is all the rave at any adoption/orphan conference and in any article, blog or discussion regarding orphans and adoption. There are hundreds of studies that show most children in orphanages are there because of poverty, not orphanhood. Many children we call “orphans” have some form of family that would care for them if they had the means. Strengthening families is the best way to meet the needs of orphans and other vulnerable children.
They go to school for 8 hours a day in a Nigerian school system where cheating is overlooked and teachers send them on personal errands during school lessons.
Pray for the five teachers that we have hired for our school. They will come to our city, Jos, for three weeks in August for training. Their eyes will be opened to a different way of teaching and how they can truly make a difference in each child’s life at our school. 
Over a year ago, while looking for HIV/AIDS resources for Spring of Life Egbe counseling center, I stumbled across a hospital in Jos called Faith Alive. What started out as a small clinic for HIV/AIDS patients is now a three-story hospital that serves over 10,000 patients a month with various medical problems, provides ongoing care for HIV/AIDS patients, provides maternity care and performs about 3-4 surgeries each day. What makes Faith Alive unique is that all medical care is offered free of charge. Dr. Chris Isichei , Founder of Faith Alive, relies on local Nigerian doctors to volunteer their time outside of their regular jobs at other hospitals. Dr Chris has been a source of encouragement and help to me in my ministries in Egbe over the past year. When I asked how could I help him, his only request was for more volunteers.
My first volunteer (guinea pig) is Carman Marflak. Carman is a nurse anesthetist who has made several mission trips to ECWA Hospital Egbe and is also a member of one of our supporting churches back home in America. She was coming to ECWA Egbe Hospital for her 5
It hasn’t been easy being our volunteer guinea pig. The OR at Faith Alive is under equipped. They need a new anesthesia machine, new OR beds, running water, better sterilization equipment and so much more. Many times Carman was the only anesthetist available due to a shortage of nurses on surgery days. “Grandma” Carman has survived an exhausting but rewarding two-weeks and her experience is helping me better prepare future medical volunteers for their service at Faith Alive. We currently have 2 pre med students and 2 nurses coming to Jos in June and a general surgeon is coming long term next year!
If you or someone you know is interested in medical missions, please email us at 
Miles In Missions 