International News

Nigeria Interns' Summer Stories

June 24th, 2008

Our Nigeria Interns have arrived in Jos and begun serving alongside Jason & Emilee Munafo. Join us this summer as we share excerpts from their stories.  

As we made our way over to the CLAF orphanage, I didn’t know quite what to expect. We arrived and walked into the gate to find the children dancing in the main room of their home. They were so happy and full of life! We all introduced ourselves and played a name game with them to get better acquainted. We read with them, sang with them, made some arts and crafts with them. They soaked up every word of affirmation and moment of attention we gave them. There are fifteen children currently at CLAF. CLAF stands for Children’s Love Advocacy Foundation. These children are orphaned because of AIDS, some of these children have the disease themselves. We are not told which are infected. There is such a stigma here, a shunning of these kids because of something they cannot help. But they are beautiful children, so full of hope and energy. I asked my group of three kids I was playing with to sing me a song. All three looked at each other and began singing “I have a Father, I am not an orphan. No, I have a Father up in the sky who loves me.” The song continues, yet I don’t remember all the words. It was just amazing to me that these children still have such a strong faith. They are dealing with much more than I am, and still they maintain more hope. Christ tells us to come to Him like little children. I have been reminded of that. I am sure I will have much more to share about the CLAF orphanage! We will be there twice a week from now on. On Tuesday’s we are doing a Bible program with them called Bible Superhero’s. We do crafts, memory verses, songs, and other fun activities with them. On Thursdays (starting next week), we will be doing educational activities such as Science, Math, reading, Music, Computer Skills and other topics. I get to teach them about volcanoes and earth formations next week! There is actually a dormant volcano nearby that we will take a field trip to! I am really excited about this.