October 1st Nigeria celebrated their 49th Independence. All of the Hostel parents for Hillcrest School here in Jos, Nigeria descided to gather together and go... well you will find out more in the video.

Do know that this was still recorded in Nigeria.

Being where we were and what we were doing was a surreal feeling. It was not the Africa we see everyday for sure but it was a good get away for the "fam".

Enjoy, we did.

I know I apologize for not placing a video on here last week or even this week. I have ideas but have not edited or even video’d everything that I have wanted to. So hopefully I will have something next week.

I do want to seek your thoughts. “The few. The proud. My blog followers”.

A few weeks ago we were sitting in Church listening to the Pastor speak. He made some comments and I am not exactly sure how to take them. So please leave me your thoughts.

He was talking about doing the Lords work. Great topic, I know. My problem lies in the statement that even though you are self centered the work that you are doing is what the Lord wants you to be doing.

I agree and understand his work is to be done with who we are. But what I disagree with is that this is how the Lord has, in a way, ordained it for even those who are self centered. That it is still OK to be a self centered person even if doing the Lord’s work. This I disagree with.

I agree He can and will utilize these and all situations where His name is professed.

It was the fact that he said what he said and did not say that self centeredness was a bad thing. He left out much, we need to as He has requested “put no god before Him”. Am I, Toby, not a possible god to myself if I want myself to be?

Christ can and will use those who are self righteous, I agree. But not needing to change is where I have the issue.

Maybe it was something he accidently left out of his talk but for some reason I have had this thought stuck in my head since then. I am not a fan of the self absorbed person that all they can talk about is themselves with Christ sprinkled in for good measure.

Am I being a bit judgmental? Why yes I am, I guess. I grow weary and see that Christ is not fully honored when “I, me, etc” is where I find the most joy when speaking to others.

The scariest thing to me is the fact that this can also be such a divisive wedge between the one being spoken to about Christ and the saving knowledge of Christ. One can see thru us and what we say to actually see the real meaning to
His truth and not our own.

Love the Lord your God with all of your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. (Deut. 6: 5)

Unfortunately the mission field is not immune to the self righteous. At times I think it can be worse. It is easy to get the thought that hey I am a missionary, I am better than others since I have given up my creature comforts back in the states to live without much electricity, without all the restaurants while the culture around me is harder to live in. I live in a part of the world where things do not mesh with my way of life, where you would have a very hard time living. But not me, here I am in Africa. Living for the Lord, and where do you live? What are you doing to proclaim His name to all the World?

Please pray that this is not me at this time. Also that I will take a back seat to Him with whom I serve. Pray that this will not become me when we are back in the states. I do not want that for the Lord or for myself.

My latest Vlog.

I know you have been asking yourself "when your cook needs money to go shopping how do you get her the money?"

Thanks for asking, I have answered your question in video form.

It is between 5:30 and 6 in the morning here in Nigeria as I upload this video for you. Ya have to get up early or stay up late to upload things so the traffic on the web is lighter.

Well this is a vid of Caden's 2nd Birthday last weekend. Since it was a laonger video and to not make the file larger I did not include any words or details on the vid itself so I will try a little tutorial before hand.

First thanks to all that sent him gift's and cards.

He had many gifts so we stretched him opening them over a weeks time. He really enjoyed that.

He received a tricycle from his Meemaw Pawpaw. He loves bikes and especially Motorbikes as you will see later in the video.

Got many books, which he loves.

Got aChaba, Motorbike, from our lifegroup which he just loves and plays with all the time. On our bed, on a railing and in the driveway as you will also see.

We had some of the families from our compound over for Cake, which was decorated and built like lego's. Mom is awesome to make him such a cool cake. He loved it. He also loved it that his Meemaw and Pawpaw from Texas were able to join us as well via Skype. They watched him open his gifts and stuff his face until he was blue in the face, literally.

You will also notice 4 HS kids in the video, those are his "brothers and sisters" here in the Hostel. All great kids.

Well I hope I covered it all.

Happiest 3rd year, to you, my little man.

Love you Caden Wilson Abts.

Ahhh, Art.

I have been working with a group of 8 High School graduates transition out of the ministry they have been a part of for some over 11 years. This means all they know is this ministry and structure this ministry gives them. I had set up some "life skills" classes for them to learn and see what this world might hold for them.

4 of them were interested in Art and how they might use their God given talents to produce things in which to sell or 1 day use art for graphic design or computer design. I have a few Nigerian friends that use art in their profession so one day I took the four interested guys on a field trip to see their shops and learn. A few times we went back where my friends would then hold little clinics for them to learn even more.

Here is a brief look.

The four guys:

Musa, Ishaku, Ishaya and Paul.

My friends:

KC Martins, Fidel and Charles.

My first Video blog for you

Here is our first time bbq'ing some ribs and some pork chops. Mmm Mmm good!

You all know how I love the obviously funny stuff in life. Well I keep seeing these trucks around town that are just over stacked. Well here is a pic of one, this is nothing tho compared to some. I want to get a few more crazy pics of things out of the norm for us Americans.

Below was just a nice way to wrap up fathers day, Caden asleep on my chest! Love it!

over 2 months & counting

It is hard to believe that I have lived here in Nigeria for over 2 months now. As I past that 2 month threshold here in Nigeria it meant I have reached and past a milestone in my life. I have never been out of the US of A for longer than the above mentioned 2 months.

Where is my thinking on all of that? For the most part it has been great and I am really feeling that my life is now found here in Nigeria. On the roads my new life revolves around thousands of motorcycles, no street lights, traffic cops in orange (they have the nickname of “yellow fever”. Don’t ask me I did not name them), pot holes, no roads on some streets and various other obstacles that exist making driving a challenge.

Life at home revolves around a very large “fish bowl” called the Mission community where all seems to be known, very little electricity, dinners out mean visiting another’s home for dinner, being home far more often than in the US, house help to take care of all the things we hate to do along with other stuff.

Work right now is limited due to the ministries that I am apart of right now. Having a few meetings a week, a bible study with the staff of Transition House, leading a bible study with a group of Nigerian guys moving out in the next half year, checking in on the status of a new v-ball league among local churches and now making sure that the team staying with us right now has everything they need and their stay is comfortable.

Life is good. We have truly started to settle in and see that life here and around us is where we are meant to be. Of course there are still times that you have the thought “what am I doing here in Nigeria, that’s in Africa!” but that thought is seeming to come far less often When I drive on the crazy streets of Jos I am feeling comfortable as well.

We are meeting and getting to know others, missionaries and Nigerian nationals, to really make this our home. Pray that this will continue to become home for us as we live and listen to where the Lord would have us in the future.

I know I have stated many times that we would not be here if not for all of you. So thank you for your support.

Love and miss you all.

Scary that I have not been online in over a week.

It is not a feeling I like by the way, I like to be connected to people, the news and “life” around the world. So I am looking forward to our move into the Hostel in a few weeks where we will have access to internet all day if we play it right.

I have created a video of our first month or so here in Nigeria. So if it is not posted on our website just yet keep coming back to check for it. It will give you an idea of some of the first things we have seen during our time so far. It will give you an impression (as well as a video can without seeing it all first hand) of where we are and places we have seen.

Keep checking for it to post. Also do come back to my blog here and leave me a comment. Thanks.

It has been a great first month and have met many awesome people during our time so far. We look forward to getting to know them more and sharing with you as much as we can possibly do thru our internet site and e-mails.

Do I need to answer that call?

The other morning I was awoken by something I have never been awoken by before. A call to prayer.

I sleep with a noise maker next to the bed. I have to otherwise my mind begins to race and I will never sleep. The electricity was off and the batteries in my noise maker had run dry, so no noise within our bedroom. So when the call to prayer went out I heard it, loud and not so clear since it was in Housa.

What is a call to prayer? For most that is a good question.

The call to prayer is from the Muslim Mosques that are around. I have to believe that in the US of A there is a law that keeps the call to prayer outside of the mosque quiet. But in most countries the call to prayer is loud and over a speaker placed outside. Thus the reason it is called a “call to prayer”. Muslims pray 5 times a day on a set schedule.

I have heard it numerous times since our arrival here in Jos. But that morning it was loud. Plus with no other noises outside or inside so it came thru our window very loud.

After being awoken by the call I could not fall back asleep, it was around 6 or so in the morning. All I could do was think.

Here are a few of my thoughts.

How very sad. Being a Christian I can have a personal relationship with my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. He asks to chat with Him as much as possible, without a set schedule, anytime anywhere. He is saddened when we choose not to during the day but if we are in Christ we want to talk to Him. Not to be told too at specific times during the day.

They are following man in His call to prayer. It is not God speaking to their heart asking them to take some time to chat with Him a while. They seem so accustom to this mind frame that even when they commit to Christ they may wait for mans call for him to pray to God.

God never asked us to stop our life for Him as we go thru the day. Where ever they are and there is a call to prayer they stop and pray. Even driving past a Petrol station there were about 20 guys on their carpets kneeling and “praying” to their god.

They all come into the mosque, separate the male’s from the females, line up in a large open area and begin their prayers.

It just saddens me that so many people are fooled to believe that Islam is the way to God and to a life ever after.

So to answer the question above: NO I do not need to answer that call.

A few of the funniest things I have seen that I wish I had photo’s of.

The funny part is that they all take place on motorcycles that are tooling around Nigeria. The roads seem to be cluttered with them and they will carry almost anything. Here are a few examples for you:

1. A Door! Yes you heard me right. We were driving around yesterday seeing a few of the ministries around Jos and coming down the other side of the road is a cycle with a passenger on back and on top of his head is a full sized door. Talk about drag, that bike had to be pushing hard. These are not Harleys with big ol’ fat engines.
2. 1” x 1’ x 12’ boards. I think there were about three boards on top of the passengers head. Those things were bending like crazy. I am surprised first off the driver could see around the boards and that the boards didn’t shift the weight all over the place throwing the bike on the ground.
3. There was a fella on a medium trying to put this huge bag of, what I think were, potatoes on his bike as well. Unfortunately for him the bike took a tumble (as witnessed by my wife and our driver). This time he was the only one on the bike and to hold all that and drive. Yikes!
4. A Wheel barrel. Yes a full size one not a kiddy sized wheel barrel. The scary thing is that it was making a u-turn in the middle of the road and did not take a tumble, at least not at that moment could have further down the road that I am not aware of.

I have been told that most of these motorcycle drivers do not have licenses. They seem to be pretty laxed on their rules of the road already and then to learn that half of the bike drivers are unlicensed can be a bit scary. They swerve in and out of cars without much notification but a honk on their horn if that.

This is just an example of the most populr motorbike in Nigeria, a Jincheng!

So much to say so little time

When I say that I mean that!

All I can really say is that my biggest hardship so far is not being connected. I know I have said that and have put that on facebook as well but it is the truth. I love knowing what is going on and what is in the news. I miss connecting with you all and all the great things going on.

In our small group back home we have 6 couples and 4 of them just bought homes. We will not see the homes until we see pictures. That is sketchy due to the internet or the lack of the internet we have.

Babies, we have some friends that are pregnant and we will miss seeing their child when so little. Again only by photo's but they do not do it justice.

Just the relationships that I already had and the ones that I have been building recently. When we get home all of the relationships will have changed. Hopefully fo the better but I know they will have changed.

Well I must quit before everything shut down on me once again!!

Tobias

I miss you all! But there are some great relationships here to be built as well which I look forward to. So take care and remember us who areout of sight but yet prayefully not out of mind.

Welcome to #2

If you have found this Blog you have been to our new Abtstra Network Website. Cool eh? A huge thank you goes to Kevin Whitaker from Bent Tree who is experiencing Life thru his ministry of creating our site. He will be maintaining it as well at this time as we need to learn how and plus we need to adjust to the new life Christ has laid out before us in all in Nigeria.

With all that "Welcome to my second BLOG!"

The first one is dead but yet not gone, since I had not posted on it for so long I forgot all of the information needed to get in and continue to post. So instead of knocking my head against the bed that I find myself on at this time I took the easy route and created a brand new BLOG!

This one will be specific to my thoughts, our travels, and all that goes into our life as we travel and follow the Lord to Nigeria.

I cannot say how often I will update it but I will certainly try so you our faithful supporter can see into your ministry in Nigeria that you have become apart of.

In Him whom we serve