Hear Me Out

If you don't believe in miracles, just hear me out.
I'm about to rock you.

Shortly after I moved to Nigeria, my paternal grandfather was diagnosed with cancer. He underwent surgery while I was home for Christmas, and we were able to be with him, Grandma, my aunt & two uncles during the holidays.

(at my college graduation last May)

Since my return to Nigeria, Grandpa has been back to the hospital, undergoing further tests and scans to determine the type of cancer he has and how prevalent it is in his body.

Mom called me this week with the results of that PET scan:
(Are you ready? Are you ready?)

There is no cancer anywhere in his body.

The doctors' reaction was something along the lines of, "We know you have cancer because we left some in there during surgery." (They couldn't get it all.) And now there's none. He hasn't even had chemo or radiation yet.

Tell me there's not something supernatural about this. Go ahead, I dare you. My family will laugh you out of the room. This has miracle written all over it. My. God. heals.

All blessing and honor, glory and power and praise.

Prayer Request

This one is urgent and hits close to home for me:

Iona, the 5-year-old daughter of my pastor here in Nigeria, is being medivac'd out of Nigeria tonight; they suspect a serious blood condition. Please pray for her quick and comprehensive healing, for wisdom for the medical team caring for her on the way out of Africa, and that her mother Annabel will get a seat on the same flight. Her father, Ulric, will be staying behind in Nigeria with the twins, Caitlin and Meriel, who are 6.

Yes, Iona is the same little girl I profiled in my previous post about hiking in the bush.

This family has become quite precious to me in the 3 months I've been here. Their hospitality literally welcomed me into the fold at Abuja Ark Church, and their selfless leadership has caused me to conceptualize "church" in a new way. Please join with me in prayer for Iona's complete recovery.

Christmas Music in October

While I usually keep to a strict No-Christmas-Music-Until-Thanksgiving policy, I feel it is a greater sacrilege that I'm seeing 95 F in October and missing Fall completely. Besides, I'm on a different continent...I'm playing by different rules here. My current soundtrack is Sara Groves' Christmas album. Don't hate.

I'll post something poignant and introspective later this weekend. Which is not to say I've already written something and am delaying in posting it to build suspense...those are just the standards I'm setting for the post-yet-to-be-written. Let's catch up on a few pieces of news first:

I'm almost legally allowed to work in Nigeria. Almost. The process of converting my visitor's visa to a temporary work permit is really complicated, involving a copy of a copy of a copy of a form that got printed off the internet at some point a long time ago. Anyways, the Nigerian government now holds copies of my passport, vaccination records, teaching contract, and college diploma (!) and we're pretty sure they're going to let me stay. :) But more importantly, they're going to let me travel at Christmas and reenter this beautiful nation to which I'm slowly losing my heart.

I went to the FIFA World Cup U17 match between Brazil and Switzerland tonight. I don't know how Nigeria got the bid, but the tournament is being played at the National Stadium (which is across the street from our compound). The teams are practicing on the American School's practice fields, so FIFA gave them a whole section of VIP tickets for the tournament. The teachers that go to my church invited me to tag along, and I'm not one for turning down a chance to be an annoying sports fan. :)
For my first soccer match, it was pretty cool. Let's just forget about the moment when I realized that U17 means the players are under 17 years of age. Nope, 17 does not mean the number of teams in the league, Mag; way to make the connection. Anyways, so the match wasn't as big of a deal as I thought it was, but I met some new people and made some new friends.

Speaking of which, the friendships are coming--slowly, but they're forming. My counterpart at the American School, M, is in her early thirties and hails from Wisconsin. She has offered to help me plan Literature curriculum and even borrow her lesson plans for next semester; this is a huge relief and another answer to prayer. She's a Green Bay Packer fan and easy to talk to. I'm going over to her apartment after church tomorrow to help her dye her hair. Yep, female bonding at its best. :)

I also got a chance to talk with our new neighbor, L, who just graduated from college on the East Coast in May. He's Nigerian-American, and has returned to Nigeria for a few weeks to visit Rachel's sons. We talked for a while last night over tea and it was just really good to talk to someone my own age with a Boston accent and an understanding of American culture. We commiserated about graduating, moving on with our lives, and living far away from home. It was really encouraging and was exactly what I needed.

For those of you faithfully praying for my health, I appreciate it very much. I can breathe through my nose again, which really is a bigger deal than it needs to be. I've just never been so grateful for my health.



Countdown: In 6 weeks + 24 hours, I'm going to be on a plane home. Get excited.