"Friends Are Friends Forever When The Lord's The Lord of Them"

Hi Everyone,
I remember a song from about 25 years ago by Michael W. Smith that talked about friendships. Our daughter, Kelley, used to sing it at church and Crist and I love the words to the song. Well, last week, some dear friends joined us in Nigeria for eleven days. We've known Diane and Bobby since we first moved to North Carolina 17 years ago and Jim we just met but feel like we've know him forever. That's the neat thing about being "brothers and sisters in Christ". The picture above was taken as we were on our way to church last Sunday. Bobby is a UMC pastor in N.C. Diane is to my right and Jim lives in Florida right now but used to live in North Carolina. For the past week, we have kept them very very busy!!! On Tuesday and yesterday we spent full days at OLA doing much cleaning and renovating in the Baby's Room. Below is Jim and Bobby holding Ocachee and Lucky. Who do you think is cuter - the men or the babies - grin!!

I have the personality that likes to see "results" so yesterday's efforts were so rewarding. After finishing up in the Babies' Room, we went to the "ladies' room" where Abigail (the woman in the wheel chair that we've shown alot) and Esther (one of the orphans - only she's 20 years old now) and two other women live. It was sooo dirty and had curtains hanging from strings that were nailed to the walls (see picture). There were crumbs EVERYWHERE (no wonder they have rats) and it just looked neglected and sad. So Crist and Bobby put in curtain rods for all eight windows and we hung new curtains that we had made. Then ALL of us moved bunk beds and closets and swept and mopped and cleaned and threw away and voila! What a transformation!!We're going to be hanging mosquito nets over each bed also soon. I'll show more pictures as we get them. Two of the women even helped us clean and they LOVED the results. There's something so cool about the feeling you get when you can actually SEE such good results after alot of hard work. The women just felt so good about their new room. I'm so thankful that we were able to help accomplish that feeling for them. There's not alot of joy in their lives I don't think.

Then, when we arrived back at our apartment, there was Gus, our grandson with his body suit he had designed from balloons stuffed into his shirt and pants. MUSCLE BOY!!! We loved it and it was the perfect ending to a very good day!

There are no two days alike EVER here in Nigeria. Each day brings new challenges and new excitement and new joys for all of us. Yay God!!!!!

In-joy,

Eileen and Crist

P.S. Our wonderful driver, Alphonsus (who has become also a dear friend and brother in Christ) - his six year old daughter, Ruth, died on Tuesday. She had been ill for the past two years and the doctors could never find out exactly what was wrong. Please pray for Alphonsus and Esther for God's comfort and strength to sustain them in the days ahead. The funeral is today.