So this is my first blog entry… I’m not in Nigeria yet, in some ways it feels a very long way off, and in others just round the corner and very exciting / a little scary. What I am embarking on is so different to my trip round westernised Australia and New Zealand, I don’t think it’s fully sunk in yet. Although I have been told I will get a huge luggage allowance, I have also been warned that trying to use GHD’s is pointless as they barely get warm due to the electrical differences. Some days I will get electricity all day if I’m ‘lucky’, and the malaria tablets are likely to send me a bit crazy. I reckon I’ll come back to England appreciating the creature comforts!
Those of you who followed my Australia/New Zealand blog will probably have noticed I have a habit of writing what I’m thinking, and not proof reading what I have written before posting it. Mum moaned at me for doing this so I will probably continue in the same vein to remind her why she loves me and misses me.
Story behind why I’m going
What I am doing came as a big surprise to some people, but it was the result of a series of events which meant I was left with little choice! While I was in New Zealand I decided that I wanted to take a different direction in life when I returned to England. I had previously been working as a Financial Consultant for Nationwide and couldn’t transfer my qualifications to another industry so applied to do an access course in Computing and IT to hopefully get me in to university to study from September 2010. I arrived home in August 2009 and was accepted on the access course. I applied to and was offered a conditional place at Southampton University to study IT in Organisations. I joined a new church when I got home which is Kings Community Church in Hedge End. I instantly felt at home there and made a great group of friends really quickly. As I settled in to the church I began wondering what my long term future was going to look like, I was set on going to uni, but did I want to be sat in an office staring at a computer screen, was this God’s plan for my life? I had loved my time traveling and had felt very drawn to other cultures. I shoved it to the back of my head, and justified my future career choice to myself and others with the line “I’m doing a non geeky IT degree which is all about managing people and products, and not about being a computer geek”. It worked for a while but in my head I felt trapped with the choice I had made, and that I couldn’t disappoint those around me by changing my plans. A few things happened that really challenged me:
At some point early this year (or maybe end of last year) I went away with the 18-30ish group from church to Butlins (classy). It was an awesome weekend, but the thing that challenged me most was a talk from a guy called Simon Guillebaud. He is an inspirational speaker and has written a book and dvd series called More Than Conquerors. (see http://www.more-than-conquerors.com/) It’s all about stepping out of your comfort zone and following God’s plans (in a nutshell). It got me thinking more about my future, but left me with the attitude “God hasn’t shown me another option so I guess I’m meant to be going to Southampton Uni”.
Shortly after I got dragged in to helping out at the Kid Klub holiday club at church, I thought “I don’t really like kids, especially the annoying ones, but hey, it’s three days, it’ll be a laugh, and how hard can it be?! “ I really loved it, and joined the Kid Klub team after to do Kidz Klub on Sunday mornings. The more I have done Kidz Klub the more and more I feel passionate about it. Being a poor student I realised that I wasn’t going to be able to afford a holiday this year, and really wanted to do a mission trip, so I found and booked a trip to Serbia with Oak Hall.
I went to Serbia and spent most of the time working with Refugee kids which I really enjoyed. A couple of people said to me that I should be a teacher and not doing an IT degree. I laughed at them and said I couldn’t imagine myself teaching, but it made me think again about my future. I said to them that God hasn’t given me another option, but if he did then I would consider it.
The day I got back I found myself daydreaming on Google, and stumbled across the Mission Africa website. I was looking at a page which had five different short term mission opportunities on it. Without reading any details of any of them I knew that I had to do the City Ministries Street Kids one (see http://www.missionafrica.org.uk/Mission_Africa/streetkids_1.html). I have never had such a strong feeling. I thought ok, so I’ll do my degree for three years at Southampton and then go to Africa. Very quickly though I realised that the right thing to do was to go to Nigeria early next year, and then go to Moorlands Bible College to study Theology. I finished my access course the week I got back from Serbia after a lot of hard work and managed to get a distinction which was my condition for Southampton. I was like “ok God, so you’re gunna make me do this the hard way”. I had a huge decision to make because if I was going to reject my Southampton Uni place it would be before finding out whether I was able to go to Nigeria and Moorlands. I applied to Moorlands and Mission Africa holding on to my Southampton Uni place as long as possible. A close friend challenged me and said that maybe I should step out in faith, reject my Southampton place, and then I’d hear from Mission Africa and Moorlands. I listened to her (one thing I have learnt in life is listening to women usually pays off) and rejected my Uni place. Two days later I received confirmation that I’ve been accepted for the Nigeria trip from Mission Africa, and also received confirmation from Moorlands that I will have an interview with them in October.
Last Saturday I went to the Mission Africa Conference in London which helped answer some of my many questions, and made it feel a bit more real. It was great to meet people who have been, and the other two people going to (a different part of) Nigeria.
So that’s me up to date. The biggest challenge facing me now is raising the money for Nigeria. It’s going to cost me £4000 for the six months. I would hugely appreciate any financial support you feel able to / led to give, and of course the most important thing… prayer!
I will write more about what I’m actually going to be doing another time, you can see more about the project by looking at the Mission Africa website link above. I will be at the Gyro Care centre which is outside the City of Jos.
Congratulations for getting to the end of my ramble, I will update this when I have more news. You can either subscribe on here, or I will send a message to the Facebook group (see http://www.facebook.com/?ref=logo#!/group.php?gid=146607928712348) when I update this.
Neil
