Kid's Corner: Austin
Topic: Family
We are making a lot of new friends, but we will remember all of you who are praying for us. Our school is very nice I feel accepted there. My teacher`s name is Miss Dykstra. She is very nice and she is a missionary. We are making new friends and adjustments. I am having fun learning new games but there is one I did not have to learn. SOCCER!!! We are also learning Hausa. Ina wuni(good morning). Ya ya yali (how is your family). Sai anjema (see you later).

Kid's Corner: Allison
Topic: Family
One day when I went to the market, I realized that little baby goats, and chickens, and roosters were running about. Sometimes if we are lucky we get to see baby chicks. My mom and dad are really nice to let Aunt Di send us poptarts. I am having a really good time. There are some things you can do in Nigeria that you cannot do in America, like having really high playgrounds. My sister Abby is very happy to see her new friend David.

To market, to market we go
Topic: Family
Posted on behalf of the Anthis family:

On Saturday, I decided to take Allison with me on my weekly shopping trip. Since I still am afraid to drive, we took a taxi. Allison enjoyed the ride with the 4 other passengers! Once we arrived there was still much walking to be done. There are no HEB's or Kroger's here! We went to each area of the open-air market buying our vegetables from some women on the sidewalk along the way. The vegetable ladies were thrilled when Allison tried out her Hausa for them. We even took some time to look at some Nigerian fabric. Allison wants to have a dress made, so we will return to the market to buy some colorful fabric when we have less to carry. All in all we probably walked well over a mile, but Allison was nicely rewarded with a pineapple Fanta and a package of TicTacs. She even said she would like to come again!

Allie goes to work
Topic: Family
One thing Allison has been looking forward to since we have been here is going to work with her Daddy. She was told by another missionary kid that that was allowed out here. Her chance came Sunday. Joel had to go check on a woman he had operated on this week and took Allison down to the hospital with him. She was very good and enjoyed the privilege of seeing the women's ward first hand. She noticed everything and commented on how some of the patients looked like they were hurting. She has been dressing up like a doctor at every opportunity since her trip to the hospital and now says she wants to see the operating room. We may wait on that!

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

Passport Adventure
Topic: Family

Remember the snake?
Topic: Family

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.

Abby and Friends
Topic: Family