At debrief the squad leaders changed up our teams. The last 7 months I have spent with the same people and now we are all on completely new teams. I’m not going to lie I went through heartache leaving them behind, but I have full assurance that God knows what He is doing and the team I was placed on is exactly where I need to be. So after leaving New Song and saying good-bye to them the morning of the 5th I was off to the airport with my new team Judah (Jordan McGuffin, Brad and Erica Baldwin, and Justine Zins). Immediately we knew this was good, that this was the exact team God needed to bring into Nigeria.
We landed in Jos around 1pm and met Kyle Abts at the airport, who is our amazing contact this month. This city is one of the most beautiful places I have seen this year. It is full of mountains, rolling hills, lush vegetaion, and not to mention cool weather (upper 70’s, low 80’s). Kyle and his family are from my home church, Elmbrook in Wisconsin, and have lived in Nigeria the past 10 years. We got in his truck with all of our bags and drove from the airport to where we were staying. All along the drive we witnessed devastation from the previous conflicts that have occurred. Burnt businesses and burnt homes were everywhere. My heart immediately began to break. But God comforted me saying, “this is exactly where you need to be, for I am a good God.� I trusted Him.
Kyle drove us to our guesthouse and let us get settled in. The guesthouse is amazing. We are so blessed to be here. So much space, a basketball court, a water tower, huge yard, swing set, hot showers, a clean towel, laundry done for us, a microwave, clean water, running toilets, closets, the list could go on and on. The favor of the Lord for our obedience in going is definitely on us. Kyle then took us to the local market to get groceries (they even had cheese, chocolate, and dr. pepper).
After unpacking Kyle had us over for dinner at his house for the best Jollof I have had in Africa! It was great sitting down with him and hearing his heart for this amazing place. Kyle is involved in so many ministries here including city, urban, youth, sports, home construction, worship, and the list goes on and on.
As a team we ended the night as a team back at our new house. We spent hours getting to know each other. Mike and Patti Paschall were right at our debrief when they said what took months with our old teams could take only hours with our new team. That is exactly what happened, we have a crazy sense of unity that I cannot even begin to explain. Mike spoke over us that we have an unfair anointing on our team. All I know is I am so blessed to be with these people, doing this ministry this month.
