Hello everyone, and greetings from Nigeria! We hope you all had a decent February, and that it wasn't too cold. It's been warm here in Nigeria as we prepare for the rainy season to return in late March or Early April. Most days the temperature is in the mid 80s to low 90s during the day and mid 70s at night. It always warms up a bit before the rainy season starts, so we are both very excited for that season to begin.
Looking forward to next year, we only have 27% of the support that we need for our 2nd year in Nigeria. Please prayerfully consider donating again for this coming year so that we are fully funded by the time we fly back in July. |
As many of you may know, both of our birthdays are in February, so we enjoyed celebrating with friends on the Hillcrest Campus. Every Friday we have a campus wide meal for all the staff, which just happened to land on Nathan's birthday this year. It was wonderful getting to celebrate with all of our compound neighbors. They made him feel very special. We celebrated Heather's birthday a couple days early since it was on a Monday this year. A Domino's/Cold Stone creamery joint store opened up just a couple blocks away from us recently, and the food tastes amazing. We decided to have a meal there to celebrate Heather's birthday a couple days early since it was the brand new restaurant in town.
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The valentine's day meal we went to was hosted at an American style coffee shop called Tin City, which just a short 15 minute walk away from us. Normally, Tin City serves espresso drinks, pastries and a small breakfast and lunch menu. For Valentines Day however, they served a lovely 3 course meal, which was perfect for a fancy date night. It was a wonderful experience. The profit all went to supporting a local widow's ministry in town.
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Nathan has recently had another chance to help serve the local missionary community with technical support. SIM is a very large non-denominational international mission sending agency. Their local office recently lost the main tech staff as he and his wife went back to their home country due to the imminent arrival of their child. Nathan is working with the SIM office to assist them in any way they need, as well as working to possibly develop some applications for android phones with them.
While not working with the SIM office, Nathan is continuing to work on his schooling. He has just finished a major application development course and is starting a discrete mathematics course once the project is graded. |
When Nathan's time isn't full of helping SIM, GLO or another family in town, he fills the rest of his time with finishing his college degree online. He was able to finish 2 very difficult math courses in March. He was also given an award for writing excellence after he completed an English course. I (Heather) am super proud of all of his hard work and dedication to getting his degree done!
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Heather was able to start middle school and high school band, as well as the 6th grade choir this semester. So far the kids are loving it. She has 3 concerts coming up at the end of April: 2 for elementary kids and 1 for MS/HS ensembles. Please pray for her as there are many things that go into those preparations, and she is the only music teacher in the school.
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Heather was able to start middle school band program up in February. It took quite a while for everything to get taken care of that needed to be before kids could start. COVID slows everything down and makes lots of extra steps necessary that wouldn't usually be. The Women of Hope at Mashiah Foundation (a ministry in town that teaches ladies who have HIV to sew and make a living for themselves) made the instrument bell covers that we needed before we could start. It is a challenge starting a program back up after two years without it, but so far, the kids have been loving it.
Heather has also started work on the high school's musical, Annie. This has been bitter sweet for her since Annie was the musical that Hillcrest was doing in 2012 when Heather's family had to leave Nigeria abruptly. She had been cast in the musical, but she didn't get to perform because they had to leave.
The school culture has changed quite a bit in the 10 years since Heather was here as a student. There aren't many kids that value the experience of a performing in a musical more than they value being in extra-curricular sports. With about 95% of the students being Nigeria, most of the student body doesn't have that kind of musical exposure. The same is true about the band program. That is definitely more of an American cultural thing than a Nigerian cultural thing. Most of my students don't have parents who play a band instrument. They haven't heard/seen marching bands play at American football games. The haven't been to concert band performances. Quite a few kids are interested in band, but it's different when you don't have that encouragement and push from parents to be involved in these musical activities because of their growing up experiences.
The school culture has changed quite a bit in the 10 years since Heather was here as a student. There aren't many kids that value the experience of a performing in a musical more than they value being in extra-curricular sports. With about 95% of the students being Nigeria, most of the student body doesn't have that kind of musical exposure. The same is true about the band program. That is definitely more of an American cultural thing than a Nigerian cultural thing. Most of my students don't have parents who play a band instrument. They haven't heard/seen marching bands play at American football games. The haven't been to concert band performances. Quite a few kids are interested in band, but it's different when you don't have that encouragement and push from parents to be involved in these musical activities because of their growing up experiences.
Thank you so much to those of you who have sent support specifically for those plane tickets since that was an extra cost that we didn't budget for for the year!
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As we said in our last newsletter, we are flying back to America in May to attend Heather's brother's wedding in the United States. We officially have tickets for those flights. We are very much looking forward to being back home for a bit, we are still trying to plan our stay though so if you would like us to come present or speak at your church while we are in the states, please reach out to Heather at [email protected]
with dates that would work for your church so we can make the most of our time. We'll probably have to stick with churches in Texas/Oklahoma or Illinois/Missouri since we aren't in the U.S. for very long this time. |
Please pray for the people of Jos. There were elections in February, and as a result there were a group of people that considered causing trouble since their candidate did not win the election. Thankfully there was just a peaceful protest by university students in town. Please send prayers of thanks for peace, safety and that those dissatisfied with the election results found ways to vent their frustration in a helpful way, instead of resorting to violence.
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The Elementary Field Day was at the beginning of March. That is an event that has been happening for a very long time. Heather has very fond memories of those team-building activities in team meetings leading up to the day and then the games and activities of Field Day and finally the water slide at the end of the day. Heather got to co-lead the blue team along with the kindergarten teacher. She had so much fun cheering for her team and encouraging them as they played! They were even given permission to take their masks off outside for the day (a big deal)!
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During Hillcrest's Spring Break, we hoped to drive down to Alifokpa, the village where Heather's Grandpa did Bible translation work and where my dad spent his early growing up years, but we were advised not to because of frequent armed robberies and kidnappings that have been going on on the route. We pray that things will become safer so that we can go visit our friends down in Alifokpa very soon. That is one of the places that Heather did not receive closure with when her family left suddenly in 2012. She never got to say goodbye to them.
Please join us in prayer that the people who are making the road dangerous will end their violent ways, |
and pray that we are able to figure out a way down there even if it has to be a different, less direct route. Here are some pictures of a couple of friends from Alifokpa who we particularly look forward to seeing again when we are finally able to visit: Simeon (left), Dinah (top right) and Odey (bottom right).
It ended up working out well that we didn't go anywhere over Spring break since it was the first school break when Heather did not get sick. We were able to get the rest that we needed so that Heather was ready to start teaching again and finish out the school year strong.
It ended up working out well that we didn't go anywhere over Spring break since it was the first school break when Heather did not get sick. We were able to get the rest that we needed so that Heather was ready to start teaching again and finish out the school year strong.
Prayer Requests:
- Prayers of thanks for keeping us safe during those times of unrest.
- Prayers of thanks for all of the incredibly helpful Hillcrest staff and other friends here in Jos who have helped make our transition go as smoothly as it could.
- Prayers of thanks for an incredible, supportive staff that Heather has been able to become a part of.
- Prayers of thanks for all of the financial support that we have received for our first year here in Nigeria.
- Please pray that we continue to raise what we need for our 2nd year out here before we come back to the U.S. for an official furlough.
-Prayers that Nathan's schooling continues to go well.
-Please pray that COVID does not interfere with our travel back for the wedding.
We are truly blessed to be in so many people's prayers during this process. Thank you so much for your continued prayers.
- Prayers of thanks for all of the incredibly helpful Hillcrest staff and other friends here in Jos who have helped make our transition go as smoothly as it could.
- Prayers of thanks for an incredible, supportive staff that Heather has been able to become a part of.
- Prayers of thanks for all of the financial support that we have received for our first year here in Nigeria.
- Please pray that we continue to raise what we need for our 2nd year out here before we come back to the U.S. for an official furlough.
-Prayers that Nathan's schooling continues to go well.
-Please pray that COVID does not interfere with our travel back for the wedding.
We are truly blessed to be in so many people's prayers during this process. Thank you so much for your continued prayers.
HOW TO SUPPORT US
To support the Pittmans’ ministry online, click here. One-time or automated contributions are available.
OR
Mail a check to:
Global Lutheran Outreach
6709 Ficus Dr.
Miramar, FL 33023
Put "Pittman" on the memo line of the check.
Global Lutheran Outreach is a not-for-profit corporation under section 501 c 3 of the Federal Tax code. Contributions are tax deductible to the fullest extent permitted by the IRS.
OR
Mail a check to:
Global Lutheran Outreach
6709 Ficus Dr.
Miramar, FL 33023
Put "Pittman" on the memo line of the check.
Global Lutheran Outreach is a not-for-profit corporation under section 501 c 3 of the Federal Tax code. Contributions are tax deductible to the fullest extent permitted by the IRS.
GLO now officially has a way that they can accept stock donations to our ministry support fund! Working through Thrivent, they can accept the stock, liquidate it and put all of the funds that come from that into our support account. Since you would be donating the stock to a not-for-profit corporation under section 501 c 3 of the Federal Tax code and not cashing out the stock yourself, you don't have to declare that stock as income or pay taxes on that donation at all.
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If you are interested in donating this way, please email [email protected] to get further information on how to do it.
Thrivent Choice Dollars® can help missionaries!
Are you a member of Thrivent Financial who's eligible to direct Choice Dollars®? Choice Dollars charitable grant funds can make a world of difference to our organization as we work together to send missionaries! Your Choice Dollars directed to Global Lutheran Outreach support missionaries who are underfunded or experience a temporary shortfall in funding.
Directing Choice Dollars is easy. Simply go to Thrivent.com/thriventchoice to learn more and find program terms and conditions. Or call 800-847-4836 and say "Thrivent Choice" after the prompt. If you have donated your choice dollars to GLO and would like them to be earmarked for us specifically, please email us at [email protected] with the amount that you have donated and express that you would like to donate them to us. We can forward your email to GLO, and they will get those funds out of the general GLO pot and sent to our support account. |