Another Birthday Party for Joshua
Last Saturday was Joshua Gidado’s 35th birthday. Actually, his birthday was a couple of weeks earlier, but he wanted to have the party a little later thinking that rain would be less likely. August is the height of the rainy season. If you haven’t read about Joshua before, he is bright, self-educated, the soccer coach for a neighborhood team that has played in state matches, but he is severely disabled with brittle bone disease, osteogenesis imperfecta. We first met him at his eighteenth birthday celebration, a few days after we arrived in Nigeria. (Read my post about our last visit).
On Monday, I got a text message from Joshua saying “my house collapsed in the night and we’re staying with neighbors.” The heavy rain had weakened the mud brick house until one corner had simply shifted, destroying the wall of one room and part of another. Our friend Peter Fretheim of SIM’s City Ministries sent some emergency assistance and the Gidado’s are now looking for another house to rent, but they really in tight straits financially.
The party went ahead anyway. We had a very hard time getting our car over the rutted, muddy road, and almost got stuck, but we did get to the house. Joshua’s mother, Esther, showed us the damage and told how they had lost a lot of supplies such as their store of rice. Joshua was on the porch of another house, greeting the visitors and posing for photos with them as they came one by one or in family groups. (See video). I talked to him about the soccer match his team had been planning, down to the southeast of Nigeria, and he said it had been canceled because of the risk of kidnapping and other violence in that strife-torn area.
We stayed for an hour and a half, but the real “program” was just getting started when we left, though there had been impromptu singing and dancing all along (see video). Once again, I was encouraged by Joshua’s trust in God even in such difficulties.
Tags: birthday, encouragement, Joshua