Church in Abuja
Topic: Language & Culture
Posted on behalf of the Anthis family:

While in Abuja we went to church for what we thought was a standard 2 hour service. We ended up at Wuse zone 3 ECWA church's annual choir day service with visiting choirs and a visiting pastor. Allison chose to go to Sunday School instead of sit in the service. She did great. We were the only bituri (Hausa for "white people") in the church, and Allison didn't seem to notice. Three hours into the service Joel said surely it will end soon. The theme of the day was "God will not be mocked." One choir then sang a song about hypocrites. This was a very upscale church in the capital city, and had a video monitoring the service. During the hypocrite song Austin said "Dad, look you're on the TV screen up front," and sure enough there was the balding "bituri." At the four hour mark Abigail was fading, and we discretely made our way out the back.

Update:

Trip to Abuja, cont.
Topic: Family
Posted on behalf of the Anthis family:

We went to Abuja, the Nigerian capital, over the weekend to pick up a fellow Texan couple coming out to Jos for one week. This is just a short trip before they return home for support raising, bible school, and all the preparation necessary to move out here as full time career missionaries next August. It was great to be present and see things with the freshest possible eyes, as the wife had never been out of America before. After all, we have been here a month already! We are old-timers. It is funny what really does change in only a month. Joel couldn't help but bust out laughing when the wife asked how to work her hairdryer in the Anglican guest house in Abuja, and why the toilet just didn't seem to flush all the way. When faced with looking at how we were a mere month ago, it is shocking how we are somehow starting to accept as normal the plumbing and electricity quirks, dirt, vehicles spewing exhaust fumes, motorcycles carrying 3 people and their luggage going the wrong way down a crowded road and many other differences btw Texas and Nigeria.

Trip to Abuja
Topic: Family
Posted on behalf of Austin:

We went to Abuja on Saturday and came back on Monday (today).

At Abuja in the middle of the night the air conditioning did some thing wrong. The air conditioning started shooting ice chunks and got my mom and dad all wet! On the way back to Jos some people pulled us over and said that we did something wrong and that we would have to pay some money but when they were pulling other people over our driver secretly drove us away and we got away

Leave a Comment
Topic: Website
Comments you leave will be stored here and will also be emailed to Joel and Cindy. You can respond to existing comments by leaving your own comment. To leave a comment, click the comment link below a post. Your comment will be added to that post, and the comment link for that post will show that a comment has been added. (Instead of saying "No Comments" it will say "1 Comments", for example.)

Passport Adventure
Topic: Family

Remember the snake?
Topic: Family

New Pictures
Topic: Website
New pictures have been posted on the website: www.anthisfamily.com. Go check them out!

BSF in Nigeria
Topic: Family
Posted on behalf of Cindy:

I have been blessed to continue in Bible Study Fellowship here in Nigeria. Abby will attend with me and she is the only non-Nigerian child in the program. We had our first study this week and it was awesome. Abby did very well in her class and enjoys having her own school to go to like big brother and sister. My group is made up of awesome Nigerian Christian women who love the Lord and struggle with the same things I struggle with. I love how a relationship with the Lord bridges many cultural barriers. I am praying that God will teach me more of Himself and Nigerian culture through this time of Bible study.

While the study format is the same as BSF at home the surroundings are some what different! My discussion group meets outside the Church under a Mango tree. We were interrupted as we started by a group of stray dogs that decided to rest in the shade under the tree. Once they settled, we began. We had to speak up because the electricity in the church went out and a man came out to start the generator that happened to be in a shed by our Mango tree. Several chickens made there way across the court yard during our study and some goats were tied up near by. But we opened the awesome Word of God that is the same regardless of where you read it.

Language and Culture
Topic: Language & Culture
Posted on behalf of Cindy:

We have started our language training and I must say it is very humbling to have my 5 and 6 year old neighbors correcting my speaking. This week as I sat outside in our yard with all the children from the neighborhood practicing saying the names of different fruit that I had learned in the market, a little Nigerian girl asked me an interesting question. She asked me how many children did I have, and how many children had died. Two of her siblings had died because they had "sick hearts." Infant sibling mortality was a presumption to her, and to many children around the world. "I have three children, and they are all alive." Then pointing to Abigail, our youngest child, she said to me "you didn't birth her did you?" I was not sure what she meant so I asked her to say it again. She said, "the little one, you did not birth her." She was definitely referring to Abby who was running away from a little boy of about 1&1/2 years who had already successfully kissed her on the cheek. I said, "of course I birthed her, I am her mother." The little girl thought for a while and said, "she doesn't look like you, she has white hair." I explained that she was still my daughter even though she has different hair than I do. The girl was not convinced, but pointed to Allison and said that she was sure I had birthed Allison! Since I was there for all three of my children's births I said, "I can promise you I birthed them all!"

Abby and Friends
Topic: Family