Bridging Culture. Working Together.

Driving in Lagos brings on mixed emotions. Sometimes gratefulness when I can enjoy AC on a hot day.  Sometimes anger, when the yellow buses continue to cut you off intentionally.  Sometimes fear, when you get a flat tire on an unknown road.  Sometimes confusion, when you sit in standstill traffic for over three hours when your conscience didn't allow you to  follow all the other vehicles that were going the wrong way on a one way to avoid the standstill.  Sometimes laughter, when you get stopped three times by Police/Road Safety on your way to your in-laws house.   On New Year's day, Dami and I were driving to his parents' house, which is about 24 miles from where we live.  However, it can sometimes take more than three hours to get there because the road is not good.  As we took a small detour to buy bread to make shawarmas along the way, we got stopped by the police.  Dami was the one driving, but the police proceeded to come and ta...

Mrs. Ezepue never thought of starting a school in Rivers State, Nigeria.   She was trained in her younger years as a teacher and was working in the public school system when her husband came home one day with a burden that God had laid on his heart, to raise up a new generation.   As a pastor, he didn’t quite know what that meant.   Mrs. Ezepue felt a strong impression to follow the message that God had laid on her husband’s heart and to start a school that would raise up the next generation to follow Christ whole-heartedly.   She started the school on September 18 th , 2000 with only one child.   She began with pre-nursery to primary three.   Gradually, year by year, the school grew.   This current school year, the population is over 400 students from pre-nursery to secondary school.   The greatest joy for Mrs. Ezepue has been seeing God at work in the lives of the children.    Serving as a Resonate missionary with the Association...

My favorite dish: grilled croaker fish and chips "You who buy imported western food; don’t you know how important food is to a culture and that by avoiding it you are avoiding connecting with your host culture?" "You who buy food from the local market and street vendors, don’t complain when you get typhoid or amoebic dysentery. It’s your own fault. You know how unsanitary all that is." (https://www.alifeoverseas.com/youre-doing-it-wrong/) My attempt at making eba and ogbono soup I have been on a mission for the last nine months to find original cream cheese, but I have had little success.  The only thing I found was light cream cheese (which just isn't the same) and it cost almost $6.00 for a small packet.  It's just not worth it.  When I go to Shoprite (the supermarket that is not far from my house) I pass by the cheese aisle, checking the prices, just hoping that it might go down.  I still haven't made the dive into the dark-side of buying...

There was a recent blogpost that was posted by A Life Overseas called you’re doing it wrong.   It gives a list of the various polarized views on how to integrate into a society and culture that is vastly different than your own.   Many of these things I have wrestled with myself and I still wrestle with.   I want to devote my next few blogposts to share some of my own thoughts regarding these various perspectives.    http://www.alifeoverseas.com/youre-doing-it-wrong : You missionaries living in guarded compounds, you’re obviously not really invested in your community. You alienate your neighbors with barbed wire topped fences. You missionaries living in houses and apartments in local neighborhoods, you are risking the safety and well-being of your family. Thank God for those missionaries in that guarded compound nearby that welcome you with open arms and shelter you in times of trouble.” The fence and the security post of the ACSI Nigeria office  ...

Take possession of your stomach, before it takes possession of you. – St. John Climacus During the West Africa Summit on Christian Education that ACSI organized, one of the speakers emphasized the importance of teaching our students to fast from the age of three.  In that moment, I was quite concerned that he was advising schools to make fasting compulsory for students from the age of three years old.   Coming from the U.S, where fasting is one of the spiritual disciplines that does not get much attention and is often neglected, I quickly dismissed this idea.  However, here in Nigeria, fasting is a regular practice among  Christians in the church from a young age so I figured that before I jump to conclusions, I should do some research.  So I did the Reformed thing to do and consulted a friend who just graduated from Calvin Seminary.    It is very clear that Jesus has given us instructions to fast.   In Matthew 6:16, Jesus says “when you...

Lagos is known as the city that never sleeps.  The day to day hustle and bustle of Lagos reflects strongly in the driving.  You are the only one whose time matters on the road.  No one else's time has any value to you.  I have been told that if you can master driving in Lagos, you can drive anywhere in the world. Yellow buses and kekes.  The first piece of advice I received when I arrived in Lagos is not to pick a fight with the infamous yellow buses and the three-wheeled kekes.  They believe they are immortal.  No fear.  Let them have their way because they think they own the road.  They pull off to the side of the road without warning, drop off passangers, and continue to merge with oncoming traffic as if no one else could possibly be driving on the road.  But, rumor has it that the current governor of Lagos State has a masterplan to get rid of the yellow buses. Lanes.  Lanes mean nothing in Lagos.  Wherever your car is,...

A rural school in Sierra Leone I know sustainability is a buzzword right now and you are probably sick of hearing it but despite the word's overuse, it feels like nothing is changing.  Over the past few years, I have learned that in missions there is still a lot of progress that needs to be made.  North American Churches are still going on short term missions trips with suitcases packed full of North American resources, we continue to fund church buildings and school buildings in countries that we claim have few resources and in many cases we build the buildings ourselves.  We pay school fees for students and send a one-way stream of outdated, used books, we donate pencils and toothbrushes that probably cost three times as much to buy here, we ship hundreds of containers of used clothes to Sierra Leone, all with good intentions.  Our White savior complex is still on point.  Many of these good intentions continue to create a perpetual attitude of dependency....

Disclaimer: I am making large generalizations in the following blog-post, so take it with a grain of salt.   I just finished reading several thought provoking and critical books on the rise of Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) called The Crisis Caravan  by Linda Polman and  Chasing Chaos  by Jessica Alexander.  I am also in the middle of reading  Dead Aid  by Dambisa Moyo, A Zambian economist.  While I must admit I have been feeling extremely cynical about humanitarian aid after reading these books, in many ways they reinforced my experiences observing humanitarian aid from the outside and inside in Sierra Leone.  We often only hear part of the story so let me tell you a different story that we often don’t hear.   The number of International NGOs has now exceeded 37,000 and a capitalist industry has grown up around humanitarian aid as they compete for the flow of billions of dollars within humanitarian territory.  ...

Below are several quotes by prominent African leaders, both past and present, that have shaped the way in which I think about missions: “You cannot develop people. You must allow people to develop themselves.” ~ Julius Nyerere, former President of Tanzania “In Africa today, we recognize that trade and investment, and not aid, are pillars of development.” ~ Paul Kagame, President of Rwanda    “The notion that aid can alleviate systemic poverty, and has done so, is a myth.  Millions in Africa are poorer today because of aid; misery and poverty have not ended but increased.  Aid has been, and continues to be, an unmitigated political, economic, and humanitarian disaster for most parts of the developing world.” ~ Dambisa Moyo, Zambian Economist “Many Africans succumb to the idea that they can’t do things because of what society says.  Images of Africa often promote a single story and are negative – war, corruption, poverty.  There is a gro...

We enter into these beautiful churches, tourists in an unfamiliar land, gazing at the beauty of the church.  Learning how the church was built hundreds of years ago, relying solely on manpower.    Tourists standing in line for hours to see the wonder of the church building.  While embracing the awkward role of a tourist, gazing up at the Notre Dame, I realized that I didn’t actually think about God.  I thought about the building, the painter, the laborers, the architect who designed it.  I never stopped to think about the purpose behind the building.  I never once stopped to wonder at the beauty that ultimately God created.  It was almost as if I was worshipping man who drew, designed, and built these historic churches.  I wasn't actually worshipping God in this holy place.  I forgot who created man, who gave man the creativity and knowledge to be able to design such a feat. Maybe these historic churches have become an idol....