Dance Party Church

Kristen and I just got back from church at our local congregation. It was "Praise Sunday", which as we found out means the normal three and a half hour service is all about singing and dancing. You know that feeling you get after a long night of dancing at a wedding... well we've got that after the service. Our legs are sore, we're all sweaty and we can't hear anything because the music was so loud. I will say that we were kept very engaged through the whole service. We were dancing and shouting to the Lord, we got to laugh into the pastor's microphone (he's quite the dancer himself) because he wanted to know what laughing in English sounds like (pretty much the same), then we left about 10 minutes early and the pastor chased us out of the church asking us why we were leaving (we are pretty easy to pick out of the crowd at church). Talk about getting called out. I had to give him a sweaty hug and tell him that we needed to leave to call our families.

We are starting to wind things up here at the clinic and get our loose ends taken care of as far as our projects we have been working on. We have about a week and a half until we drive back to Abuja for our flight. We met two Brits in Jos (George and Naomi) who were visiting the clinic a month ago from London. When we told them we were going to have an overnight layover, they offered to put us up at their place in England, so we'll have friends to stay with that night. Then it's back to Heathrow in the morning for our flight to Minneapolis. It's funny how you never know who you'll meet and how those people will go out of their way to help you out, we have really been blessed by those who have come into our lives. George is going to hike the Appalachian Trail next summer, so if anyone reading this lives near the AT and is comfortable with extending hospitality to George, I hope I can put him into contact with some people in the US to give him a break from the trail every now and then.

We are looking forward to getting our feet back on (cooler) American soil, the land of cold beer and pizza. We are excited to come back just in time for the election, although it has been nice to not have to listen to any of the attack adds. It is also interesting to see how the people in Africa are reacting to the run up to the American elections. The people here are just as invested in the elections as most in the US are. We are lucky to have satellite access at our apartment, so we have gotten to see all the candidate's debates as well as a lot of news on the financial crisis. This way we can jump right back into normal American culture.

As for now, our plans are still up in the air as to what we're going to be doing when we get back. Because our stay was cut short from what we originally expected, we do not have anything lined up for ourselves as far as housing and work. We will be going to Kristen's parent's home in Fargo when we return, and try to figure things out from there. I am still on the rolls with FEMA, and they seem to be in need for people after hurricane Ike, so I will hopefully be able to work for them in Texas when we get back. Kristen has also been applying for jobs in different places around the country, so if one of those works out we may take that up. Unfortunately, right now, we feel like we're in a position where we have to earn some money to help make up for the cost of the trip to Nigeria and to pay back some of our student loans before we can do anything else. This most likely means we will not be able to return to Colorado in the immediate future, but we are hoping to make it back to either Fort Collins or Denver soon, at least for a quick visit.

We have decided after a lot of prayer and deliberation that we are not going to be pursuing the Peace Corps and will be making the changes to our future plans. For those who don't know, the PC was part of my graduate degree at Colorado State University and Kristen and I were supposed to be going into the Peace Corps this past summer/fall. The reason we are in Nigeria at all is because we were postponed from the PC for a year due to medical reasons. Now that the economy is going into a slump, the government has been cutting funding for the PC which is making us think that we could be waiting a lot longer for the PC to come through for us. So, we have decided not to put our lives on hold anymore because we just can't depend on the PC working out. We also feel that God has been leading us in a different direction and has basically given us those 2-3 years back, and we want to follow what He is leading us to do. I will change my degree at CSU, which I can hopefully get away with without having to take any more courses, and start working on my thesis to complete the masters. As you can see, our future plans have been tossed out the window and we're having to make adjustments. God has been very good and faithful. He has been providing answers as well as more questions. Please pray for wisdom in our future decision making, we have some large changes to look forward to.

I hope you are all well,
Jon