The Anthis Family Adventures
Volume 2, Issue #4 joel.anthis@sim.org www.anthisfamily.com December, 2003
Anthis Family at SIMCO in July, 2003 Anthis Family in Abuja, Nigeria Oct, 2003
We do not have snail mail addresses for many of you. If you would like a prayer card and did not receive one by mail, please email us your snail mail address. We would love to send you one.
Anthis Update and Year in Review
Dear Friends and Family,
MERRY CHRISTMAS and HAPPY 2004! We have seen in so many ways over the last year the awesome faithfulness of our Great God. We can call 2003 the year of God’s faithfulness. In January of 2003, we were fully approved as missionaries. And here we are one year later, serving the Lord in Nigeria as full time missionaries. The year 2003 is truly an Ebenezer stone for us, a symbol of how the Lord has helped us. (1 Samuel 7:12).
2003 Highlights:
January 2003: Began raising financial and prayer support
May 2003: Put house in Houston on the market. God miraculously provided a buyer in 2 weeks and allowed us to rent the house back until our departure!
June 2003: Commissioned by the EPC as medical missionaries
June 30th, 2003: Joel’s last day of work in private practice with Texas ENT in Houston. God provided four great years with the best ENT group in Houston.
July 2003: SIM Candidate Orientation training in Charlotte. God provided great training and preparation for us through the staff at SIM USA.
August 2003: Final fund raising and good-byes to family and friends. In only 8 months God provided our full financial support and a team of prayer warriors to do the real work of missions: PRAYER!
September 7th, 2003: Arrival in Kano, Nigeria. All of our medications and Joel’s passport were impounded. God allowed the return of Joel’s passport a week later. At that time Joel was required to sign a letter forfeiting all the seized medicine and supplies. Miraculously 8 weeks later the customs official who impounded our goods, personally returned most of them to us in Jos! Thanks to all of you who prayed even after we had given up on ever seeing our medications again.
September 2003: Arrival in Jos, Nigeria. Settling into our house and beginning full time language training. During our third week in Jos, our house was robbed and most of our valuables were stolen. We are able to see God’s faithfulness even in this. We were physically protected (we were not home during the robbery), the thieves over-looked our laptop computer, and God has already provided for the replacement of many of our lost items. We have learned that He is our Rock and our true Protector. Some trust in chariots, some trust in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God! (Psalm 20:7)
October 2003: We continued with full-time language training. We see the need to speak Hausa to more effectively minister physically and spiritually to our patients. Joel operated on his first two patients and started part-time medical practice. We found out Joel is the only ENT surgeon in all of northern Nigeria!
November 2003: Cindy traveled to two small villages with a community health team for three days of medical outreach and evangelism. The highlights include seeing more than 100 patients, attending to the Muslim chief of one village and his nine wives in his palace and sharing a devotional there, sharing the message of the Gospel in evening meetings, and rejoicing as at least one man prayed to receive Jesus! Joel preached his first sermon in a Nigerian church.
December 2003: Looking back on the busiest and the most blessed year of our lives with thanksgiving to God. We are preparing to celebrate our first Christmas in Nigeria and pray that each of you can review your many blessings as you also prepare to celebrate the Reason for the Season.
Cindy’s Corner
The kids have also had a great 2003! One unexpected blessing of moving to Nigeria is that this is an awesome place to raise children. Austin and Allison are enrolled in a Christian school here. The school has children from many countries and cultures. Austin and Allison both have wonderful Christian teachers and are doing very well. They also love playing soccer and playing outside with all of our Nigerian neighbors. They have sling shots and are learning the art of killing lizards with them. We also have a new puppy (and future guard dog?) named Grace for 500 Niara (130 Niara to the $). Abigail loves the puppy as much as her big brother and sister. She also loves playing outside in a big dirt pile in our yard. She is learning Hausa and loves to greet people with, “Sannu”, and then tell them she is “biyu” (which means two!).
Hausa Language Class
In all that we are doing, we have continued to focus on Hausa language study. We learn new things every day. Today we learned that “Mu na da farin ciki” means “We are happy.” But literally it means “We have a white stomach.” When we asked our language teachers why having a white stomach means you are happy, they simply looked at each other and then said to us, “Because when you have a white stomach you are happy.” There you have it.
Medical Rounds
The Eye and Ear clinic at Evangel Hospital was completed and dedicated in late November, and Joel has started seeing patients there. The clinic building was largely funded by the family of Dr. Mark Lovett. Mark was a strong Christian who was in his final year of residency training in Ophthalmology two years ago when he suddenly became ill and the Lord called him home. Being with Mark’s family for the clinic dedication was quite moving and left us challenged to live each day for Christ.
Prayer and Praise
Praises
- God’s provision of an awesome support and prayer team
- God’s protection for our family
- God’s faithfulness in all aspects of our life, and in preparing a place in Nigeria for us to do good works
Prayer Requests
- Pray that we will stay the course in our language training
- Pray that God would give us the ministry that He wants us to have here.
- Pray for open hearts to hear the Gospel and believe in Jesus Christ, the Great Physician, who saves completely and eternally.
- That the medical equipment that Joel needs would continue to be both acquired and shipped successfully to Jos
In Christ,
Joel and Cindy
Austin, Allison, and Abigail
PS. We already sent this letter by snail mail with a prayer card enclosed. However, we do not have snail mail addresses for many of you. If you want a prayer card, and did not receive one by mail, please email us your snail mail address.