"Godiya, Godiya ga Allah"

"Godiya, godiya ga Allah, mun kawo godiyanmu agabunka ya Allah!" God we thank you and praise your name!" Those words bellow the halls of the VVF ward every tuesday as the women gather to celebrate their healing from VVF. I too can be found singing those beautiful words, because I have become part of the women here. Though we don't always speak the same language, I have come to build special relationships with them. Those will not be forgotten. My Tuesday Bible time with them has been a huge blessing in my life, and I will truly miss coming. This morning I shared from God's Word, sang and danced with them for the last time. With tears in my eyes I shared how much God loves them, and that I love them. Though I may never see the fruits of my labor, I trust that a seed has been planted in their hearts. I pray many of these women come to know Jesus. Not just Jesus as a prophet and wise man, but Jesus who is the son of God and Savior of the world.

As my departure is fast approaching, I am slowly saying goodbye to every part of my life here. Though painful, it is necessary in moving on. I will never forget my time here. Ministry at the VVF has been a bright beacon of hope amongst the despair and sorrow of AIDS.

"Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm! Let nothing move you. Always give yourself fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain."

1 Corinthians 15:58

Bundles of JOY!!

My friend Hajara just had a beautiful baby boy on tuesday evening. He is so precious and weighs over 9 pounds. We all think he looks just like his dad. This is a great goodbye gift for me knowing Hajo and her new baby are safe and doing well! By God's grace she will be discharged from the hospital tomorrow.

My friend Dupe came to my house this week and brought her twin girls Grace and Glory who are three months old. In Hausa Dupe is also referred to as "Mama yambiyu" which means mother of the twins. Dupe is HIV positive and feeding the twins infant formula so their risk of acquiring HIV is small. They are growing well, although Grace (fair one) is much smaller than Glory. I pray they stay healthy and remain HIV negative....

A tribute to my dad

On this Father's Day I want to say a special word to my dad, who I have a great respect for. He is a man of his word, has a tender heart for people and never complains, but takes life as it comes. Whether he is bailing me out of a car flood, helping to change my oil in the car, getting tax stuff for me, or giving me advice, he has always been there for me. I miss my dad today. He is a man of integrity and very loyal. A realtor for over 25 years, my dad has been a hard worker and always faithful to those he is serving. He keeps to his promises, and wants the best for his customers. They all respect him and keep coming back to him because he has expertise in the field, and will try to get them a great deal. He knows his stuff.....

My dad is an avid Cubs fan and a super golfer! His golfing buddies know him as "The Commish" because he organizes their tournaments and keeps times. They all look to dad for his leadership and they know he will play fair. They also love him for his humor. He always has a joke or a funny story to tell. My dad loves his coconut cream pie from Baker's Square when we celebrate family birthdays. He makes the best stuffing at Thanksgiving, a skill he learned from his dad year after year at Turkey time.

Thanks for being my dad, for loving me through good and bad times. Thanks for showing me what it means to be loyal and dedicated. I love you very much, and wish I was there to spend this day with you.

See you in a few weeks!!!

Love your youngest daughter,

Susan :)

What is pizza???

A few weeks ago I invited some friends from Evangel over for pizza so I could spend more time with them before I leave. They all asked me what is pizza? They stared at it for a while looking unsure about trying this wierd food that Americans rave about. Josephine, Lami, Theresa and Ladi

Lami is one of the most joyful people I have ever met in my entire life. She is a widow with five children and living with HIV. Her husband died of HIV and only after his death did she too find out her status. She has brought much joy and sunshine to my life. I will miss her dearly.
The women are jubilating and dancing
Jospehine and Bulus enjoying pizza for the first time

Too young to die

Baby Elizabeth came to us a week ago monday at 10 and a half months weighing a bleak 6.5 pounds. My friend Kyenpiya saw Elizabeth and her mother Sarah at the market and seeing that they both were sickly looking and very thin, she asked them to come and get an HIV test. To no surprise they were both HIV positive. I am encouraged at ther boldness and desire to help this poor woman and her baby. Elizabeth could only wimper, and was eating so poorly. She looked like she was starving to death. We weren't sure whether the baby was literally starving, or if she had full blown AIDS already. She was so hungry and would eat as if she hadn't eaten for days. They admitted her to the hospital and put a tube in her nose for feeding. Kara and I went to visit them daily bringing them food, clothes and others things. We prayed with her and tried to encourage her to hang on. The level of poverty in this family was so sad for us to see. Sarah continued to wear the same clothes day after day. She herself could not be more than 80 pounds. We encouraged her to hold onto her faith in Jesus and to put her trust and hope in him. It boggles my mind the level of ignorance and lack of education and resources these peole have. Sarah had no idea that she herself or her baby were so sick. How could she not know? How could she wait so long to bring her baby for treatment? I will never as long as I live understand this. I am so sad because she could have been helped months ago, and yet she continued to starve month after month until a stranger on the street had to tell her to go and get help. There is something so wrong with that.


We tried so many things to sustain the baby's life, tube feedings, IV fluids, antibiotics and even put her into the ICU. But to no avial, all of our efforts seemed in vain. God took Elizabeth home this morning. She died at 9 a.m. Her mother came to us in tears and totally devastated. She took her back to their village for her buriel today. Yet another baby has died and I couldn't stop it. Nothing I did made a difference in the end. I am so angry. I refused to go and see the baby for fear I would have another meltdown, can't do that to myself. This is the third baby we have lost in the last two weeks. The only thing I can do is to trust in God's Sovereignty. I must cling to God's amazing love and goodness. Elizabeth was too young to die and I don't understand, but I guess I don't have to.


I covet your prayers as I deal with these situations that seem utterly hopeless. One verse that I am clinging to is Psalm 119:28, "My soul is weary with sorrow, strengthen me according to your word......I run in the paths of your commands for you have set my heart free!" Praise HIM for I am free, Jesus has set me free.

A moment with a Leper

"A man with Leprosy came to him and begged him on his knees, "If you are willing, you can make me clean." Filled with compassion, Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man, "I am willing," he said. "Be Clean!" Immediately the leprosy left him and he was cured." Last week Kara and I went to Blindtown, an outreach to Muslims where many people are suffering from Leprosy and blindness. We gave much needed drugs to those who are unable to come to the hospital for care. This woman had Leprosy in her hands, feet and eyes. This disease eats away at the nerves and results in numbess of the affected parts. Often times when those with Leprosy bump themselves or trip on something, they don't realize they have an infection in the leg or foot because their body doesn't register pain. It severely affects their mobility and quality of life.

She is considered an outcast and yet had an amazing smile and warmth about her. When we entered her one room house, I greeted her in Hausa, "Sannu mama, ina yuni, ya ya gida, ya ya jiki?" I immediately put out my hand to shake hers. She smiled and slowly placed her right stubby hand into mine. Because of the Leprosy she was missing all fingers on both hands. I wonder what she thought at that very moment? not many people are willing to touch a Leper for fear they will too get it. Even though it is a contagious disease, one must spend a significant amount of time in close quarters with a person with active disease to actually contract it. Most of the people here have been suffering with Leprosy for many years.

We saw another man with Leprosy who struggled to crawl up a large set of cement stairs into the room where we were giving medicine and taking blood pressures. I offerred to help him up the stairs which is considered culturally innapropriate. It is not acceptable to touch a Muslim man unless for example he offers his hand out to you first. I guess that was one time I was not following the cultural norm. I felt so humbled and helpless when he refused my help, but I understood and realized afterwards it was not the best idea. But God's love is so much bigger than cultural standards, bigger than gender and any kind of sickness. His love covers us all, even the most unclean. There is not pit where his love is not deeper still.

During those short moments with these precious people, I was reminded of Jesus. I smiled as I thought about how he healed the man with Leprosy, and how much love he had for him. I pray that our example of Jesus' love will show them the healing power of Jesus to save and to make them clean again. I pray they will know him as Savior someday!

EMS kids

Last week me and Kara went with a few other girls to EMS, a missions school for Nigerian missionary children whose parents are living in remote areas. We sang, danced and played games with them. They are so precious!!

The kids are enjoying dancing

Kara greeting the children

Me and Jael

Peter and Paul

Meet Peter and Paul, a set of twins whose mother is HIV positive. They came to see me a few months ago, and were extremely small, as twins usually are. We began giving the mother infant formula for them. Since she has been feeding them well they have grown leaps and bounds, and as you can see are happy and healthy. I am so amazed and thankful for their improvement these last months. It is truly a miracle.

Thank you God for this success story, may there be many more like this........

Losing Rejoice

"Praise be to the Lord, to God our Savior, who daily bears our burdens. "

Psalm 68:19

For the last few months I have been working with a client and her baby whose name is Rejoice. At first, the baby was very fat and healthy looking. But over the last month she reduced weight and was very sick. I had been hearing that the mother would go out and lock the door leaving the baby alone with the 9 year old son. She would be found crying and crying, not being fed enough. Her neighbor who is also a client of ours has testified that there is obvious neglect. One night Rejoice's mom saw that the baby was dying, her breathing slowing, so she panicked and called her neighbor. The neighbor was the one that convinced her to bring the baby for the hospital. When she brought the baby and I saw how malnourished and small she was, I was so disgusted, especially after hearing about the neglect and poor responsibility of her mother. That day after seeing how thin she had become, I had grown so discouraged. But the baby was put on admission in the hospital and got much better. I saw a glimmer of hope that maybe her mother was waking up the reality of parenting, and would change her ways after almost losing her 8 month old. I have had to deal with such anger at her for how she is treating the baby. I went to her house one day and tried to talk with her seriously about taking better care of her baby. I told her that if she didn't take care of Rejoice very well that the baby would die. She kind of smiled and acted nonchalantly, and that made me even more upset. This is not a joke; this is a precious life; an innocent baby who has been born to an HIV positive mother who may also be positive with this deadly virus. After many of us tried talking with her, she continued in her behavior. My fears came true when I found out that Rejoice died last tuesday. I was beside myself, so upset and angry at her mother. I have asked myself over and over, was there something else I could have done to stop this? did I do enough? could I have saved the baby? what could I have done to prevent this? I feared what I would say to her mother upon seeing her. I have been praying that God would help me to love this woman as terrible as she is. She knew how sick she was, and said she never had money for transport to the hospital, yet had money to go out and run around doing who knows what. It's almost like she wanted the baby to die. She came to see me yesterday, and God's grace was amazing, as it always is. She sat down and I started crying, saying how sorry I was and asked her what happened. The most amazing thing is that when I looked at her all I saw was love, and felt compassion. I reminded her of our conversation, and told her I hoped that she did everything she could do for the baby to care for her. She just kept saying, "it's no problem, no problem." I asked her how she could say it's no problem. She said she had done her best, and that God knew he would take the baby when He did.

I thank God for helping me deal with this situation in His strength, not my own. Please pray for Helen, that she would be convicted of her sin and turn to God. Only God really knows her heart. It's not for us to judge or condemn her. Pray for my heart as I deal with another terrible loss....

Like so many other situations I deal with on a daily basis, I have to again come before His throne of grace and ask for help, because I don't understand. I don't have the answer, but must rest in His absolute Sovereignty and allow Him to bear my burdens, and the burdens of many around me.