Gateway Baptist Church supports Nicky Brand, one of our church members, who has been serving in Jos, Nigeria for the last year through SIM (Serving in Mission).
Formerly a teacher at one of our local secondary schools, she spent a year out in Nigeria in 2005 after which she returned home for further training at All Nations Christian College.
She returned to Nigeria in 2009 to look after street children and orphans, again through SIM and supported by her church family at Gateway.
UPDATE
(updated 26/07/2010)
Nicky willshortly be preparing for her return to Nigeria. Her prayer calendar for August is available online here
From Nicky's Autumn newsletter:
Hi there! Firstly I want to apologise for the delay in this newsletter. There has been a lot going on here and I have been travelling, too, so I will try to catch you up.
My group at camp
In August we had a camp for all of our children, divided into senior and junior. This, for many, was the first ever opportunity of having a week's holiday. I was helping to run senior camp and we had over 100 boys and 6 girls! A team came from Moody Church, Chicago, to help us with the teaching and I, too, had my own group, which I loved. It is always amazing to me how long our children here can sit and concentrate and how hungry they are to understand the Bible. It was a fun week, despite lots of rain.
Changed Lives
Monday and Agwom
After camp, a couple of our older boys, Monday and Agwom, went home to live with their families. It was amazing to hear the testimonies from the families as to the changes they could see in their boys, both of whom had lived with the ministry for many years. Both are orphans and now the wider family is accepting them back.
Monday's family
Crazy Texans!
During this time I also had Jana staying with me. She was from Texas and here for two months. It was a really special time and we had a lot of fun comparing the British and American cultures and encouraging each other. Her stay culminated with the Crazy Texans arriving for two weeks. As always, they are larger than life, amazingly enthusiastic about everything and very supportive. I love spending time with them, even if they do give me a hard time about the way I speak.
Up in the clouds ...
Middle of Nowhere
... over the mountains ...
After they left, I went with a group of fellow missionaries on a much needed holiday to a place in Nigeria that didn't feel like we were in Nigeria -- Obodu. It was an eight hour drive which ended in the road turning into hairpin bends to climb up to the top of a mountain range. We were above the clouds and it was amazingly cold and wet! Then there was a cable car down to a water park all in the middle of nowhere. We were the only ones there so it was very peaceful and relaxing.
... miles from anywhere!
Girl's Ministry
Our Girl's Ministry has continued to grow -- we now have 42.
I stated in the last news that we eeded to raise money for another building. Well, God has provided and we will start building ext week, room for another 30 girls. It is strange now, at Gyero, we have equal numbers of girls and boys, which is a first.
Nkiru
So many children get badly treated here by the very ones who are supposed to care for them.
One such case recently was Nkiru. She came to us so undernourished. She was all bones, she had a drunken mother who beat her every day and if she had one meal a day she was fortunate. Thankfully, she was eventually thrown away by her mother to an aunt who brought her to us. She is so lovely and is now putting on weight. Another example of the reason our ministry exists.
A few pictures of the girls follow.
The Wider Work
I have recently returned from a trip around our four outside stations across Nigeria where we look after around 80 boys. We were looking to encourage the staff, interview all the children and to do some training and auditing of how each centre was doing. It was interesting to see the differences and to travel with a cross-cultural team comprising Nigerian, British, Dutch, American and Swiss. We are all so different and yet can work as a team. Awesome. I was involved in talking with the leaders, colouring, cooking, playing sport, doing crafts as well as 5.30am morning devotions etc, so I came back shattered but excited at what God is doing through our ministry, and with a greater appreciation of our staff who live and work with our children 24 hours a day.
Community and World 
