storytime: the nigerians & eddie

peter & judah
Originally uploaded by nitaspitas.

Even though the Institute was for Eurasia, three Nigerians and a Ugandan attended as well. It was really cool to have them there to represent the diversity of God's kingdom, and they reminded me a little of my own fellowship at school, with the Africans making up a significant part of the population. Because of them, we got to sing songs like "Hakuna Wakaita" (No God Like You) and learn songs in Nigerian. They also shared stories with us about their students and the adversity they faced in their faith. These were people who were genuinely persecuted every day for believing in God, risking death. Yet even while telling these stories, they had huge smiles on their faces because of their joy in knowing God.

They also made an extra effort (like many of the people at the Institute) to get to know us worship team members. Because of our schedule, it was really hard to hang out with people except when we were all tired at night. Most of the time, we missed breakfast to get ready for the morning's worship session, and we had a different break schedule than they did. But they would schedule meals to eat with us or look for us during our breaks to find us and have some good conversations (or a good game of ping pong and a conversation, in the case of Bala).

They almost didn't get to go to Institute, though. Well, Eddie made it safely early the first week, but the Nigerians were caught in a customs nightmare in Egypt and had to take an extra week to get to Kiev. They brought so much joy and inspiration to the Institute, and I personally really appreciated their presence.