God, we thank you!

Dear friends and partners in ministry,

I have to share a total miracle with you - another huge confirmation of God's favour on our work in Schools for Africa!

Last week as my team and I were driving south to Rivers State, (where we are now,) to add five classrooms, an office and toilets to our school here, we were discussing the upcoming work in Imala where we'll build a large school, teachers' quarters, clinic, etc., etc. for Fulani herdsmen, their families and others in that area. We talked about the work and how we will need to hire several new teachers for this large school, hopefully teachers living close by.

This area, largely Yoruba states governed by Yoruba chiefs, is under crisis right now, with the Yoruba fighting to expel Fulani from their place. Our hope is to meet these chiefs and request grazing reserves for these Fulani and their families.

As we were talking in the car, I mentioned to the team that since 2005 when Jim and I first came to Nigeria and began working with the Fulani, opening schools for their kids, we've had NOT ONE Fulani teacher apply to work with us! NOT ONE! And I said, how amazing it would be to have Fulani teachers, who would be role models to their students, living examples of what the children could be if only they stayed in school and graduated! And also to show the Yoruba that the Fulani are intelligent, civilized people, with whom they could live harmoniously, helping one another, being friends.

Well, here's the miracle! GOD HEARD ME! Because this Saturday, a well-dressed, very clean cut, FULANI man was brought to our work site by a friend from the nearby camp and introduced to me. After greetings, etc., the man told me he was a 'degree holder', (that's how they say it here,) and wondered if we were hiring teachers, as he himself wanted to apply! I almost fell out of my chair, I was so surprised! His name is Abubakar Mohammed. A Fulani man!

I told Abubakar about Imala, asked if he'd be willing to relocate there when the project started. He said absolutely, he would do so. He's not married, so is free to move there.

THEN, as if this wasn't enough of a miracle, at that very moment one of our teachers here at this school in Rivers State came out to talk with me. A fine man who has worked for us for three years, whose name is Ojo. And guess what?

Ojo is a Yoruba man! He said he is originally from Lagos, (an hour or so from Imala,) and has family there. He wondered if he and his wife, (also Yoruba, also a teacher with a college degree,) could be transferred to the new school in Imala! My brain was buzzing, at this point, when I thought of the possibilities! I told Ojo, YES, we could transfer him! Yes, I'd hire both Ojo and his wife Oluwanseun, (translated, 'God we thank you!' How appropriate!)

I introduced the Yoruba teachers, Ojo and Seun, to the Fulani teacher, Abubakar, and said - "See what God is doing ALREADY?" GOD has done this! God is bringing together Yoruba and Fulani, to stand together as teachers and leaders in front of the children, in front of their parents, to demonstrate that we CAN work and live together in peace!

God is so amazing!

It's just a total miracle!

Thank you for being a part of the miracle, as you continue to pray for and support Schools for Africa!

Much love,

Phyllis Sortor

Ojo and Oluwaseun, with their sweet boys

Abubakar Mohammed and friend

Bright Hope Christian Academy

SFA’s Gift to Bright Hope Christian Academy, Emiworo, Kogi State, Nigeria! Repair work!

In the following photos, you will see the original condition of the primary school, repair work, and final results! You’ll be happy!

Before

Heavy rains have eaten away at these foundations.

The original steps are gone.

Bright Hope Christian Academy is the first school ICCM founded especially for Fulani children.  Today, children of many different tribes are receiving a high standard of education at this school! 

Schools for Africa had the privilege of lending a hand and gifting the school with some much-needed repairs! 

WE ARE BETTER TOGETHER! 

Heavy rains have eaten away at these foundations, as you can see; original steps are gone.

REPAIR WORK BEGINS

Asphalt is used to fill eroded areas.

Gutters and downspouts for all the buildings. Teachers and school security were engaged to do most of the work! Extra money for them!

Asphalt and laterite spread to level the ground.

A blocked drain cleared and repaired.

Drums cut in half and used to catch rain water.

---

Sustainable Results!

---

Thirty-eight new Fulani children enrolled!  Paying school fees! 

Schools for Africa wishes to thank Bright Hope Christian Academy and ICCM for allowing us to spend two very happy weeks on the campus with them! Principal Roselyn, HM Gambo, their deputies, the teaching and non-teaching staff have all been so gracious, putting up with trucks coming and going through the gate, dust and dirt, ladders and paint cans everywhere…. but we’re all happy and thank God, now that the work is completed, for the good results which we pray will sustain the primary school facilities in good condition for years to come.

BHCA Dyna put in order, to bring the distant children to school!

Happy children! Fulani, Hausa, Bassa Nge, Igala, Igbo, learning and playing together…towards a better, more peaceful Nigeria!

WE WILL BE BETTER TOGETHER, IN 2021! 

Bobi Grazing Reserve Report

Read the report here.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Greetings to all of you - family, friends, and Partners in Ministry - and best wishes for a very happy and meaningful celebration of Jesus’ birthday! As we draw near to the end of a most challenging year, we must thank God that He has carried us through and blessed us in so many unique and wonderful ways.

God is faithful, loving, and good. His promises are for all of us who put our faith and trust in His Name!

I’m writing this from my apartment in Abuja, where, because the risk of contracting Covid19 is so great, both in air travel and in the U.S., I’ll be spending another Christmas. Hopefully, Christmas next year will be in Seattle!

Actually, along with Mogodi, his family, and many other friends in Port Harcourt, we celebrated an early Christmas on December 18th! A cow was purchased – butchered and reduced to small chunks of meat in about 180 minutes - then along with pounded rice Fulani style, was served to at least two hundred people – Americans, Hausa, Fulani, and Yoruba together! It was such a happy occasion, exemplifying the peace and unity among people of different tribes and languages that is our deepest prayer for Nigeria.

For the past, nearly three weeks, our team of ten, led by Producer Rev. Mike Henry via internet from Wenatchee and Andy Yardy and Yayo Ahumada, Director and Cinematographer, finished the filming for the upcoming documentary, Kidnapped Redemption. Rev. Mike, Andy, and Yayo were here last year too, filming in various locations, but they all agreed that this year, the pieces just seemed to fall together perfectly, and all of us are so excited about the final product, due to come out by May 31, 2021. News and updates can be found on the website, KidnappedRedemption.com.

When the holidays come to a close, we’ll be turning our faces towards the new project in Imala, Ogun State. Once the land given to Alhaji Bature has been legally secured, our SFA team will work with Alhaji to scout out locations for the camp, school buildings, teachers’ quarters, and clinic, and begin work. I thank God for my new assistant, Mrs. Zainab Lawal, who will closely oversee and manage our existing schools and clinics during the time it will take to develop and oversee the new projects in Imala.

And I thank God for all of you who have been so faithful in supporting Schools for Africa. I don’t know how to thank you enough. I can only say, may God Himself reward you, bless you, and grant you the desires of your hearts. May the new year, 2021, be the year of God’s favor in your lives and those of your families.

Please continue to hold Schools for Africa in your prayers and in your hearts. We are all together in this ministry, and we are definitely better together! Again, thank you so much and God bless you!
Phyllis Sortor

Imala Report

November, 2020

I just returned from the King’s Palace in Imala, Ogun State, where we were ushered into the throne room, Dr. James Rose invited to sit at the right of the King’s throne and I to sit on his left! (Hmmm, so I’m the goat??) The rest of our group was asked to sit on the couches lining the three sides of the room.   

In Nigeria the custom is to bow very low when you are in the presence of a king all the while chanting the king’s local traditional name.  In Ogun State, the name is ‘Kabiyesi’.  So, the group, (except for James and me,) bowed to the ground crying “Kaaahbiyesi, Kaaahbiyesi!”  I had been following James’ lead – and was so greatly relieved when he didn’t do the bowing and chanting thing!  

The meeting with Kabiyesi was to inform him of our findings of the past three days and request land for the first Fulani family’s rotational grazing project.  

The first family that will receive land from Kabiyesi is Alhaji Bature, brother to my long-time colleague, Alhaji Mogodi Musa! Amazing! 

I first met Alhaji Bature at a meeting yesterday of several area Fulani, a meeting in which I informed them that Kabiyesi wanted to give land across the dam where the Fulani could live in peace, raise their families and cattle, have schools and clinics for their families. I began the session by telling the story of meeting Mogodi in Akwa Ibom State and working with him to open the first school for Fulani in Emiworo, Kogi State.  The moment I mentioned Mogodi’s name, this tall Fulani man jumped up and shouted, “Mogodi is my brother!  I know Emiworo, I know Hope Academy, I know all about rotational grazing!”  

We visited Alhaji Bature’s village today – I should say - villages! He has an enormous, extended family!  In his immediate family there are one hundred adults, three hundred children and eight hundred cows!  Can you imagine!  During our visit, we talked over the very serious commitment he would be making by accepting to change from the traditional mode of grazing cattle to managed, intensive rotational grazing.  We talked for a long time at the end of which Alhaji stood and promised, in front of the large group of witnesses before him, that he would do this grazing project, would never disappoint me or his brother Mogodi.  

So, at five this evening we went to Kabiyesi’s palace to request land, land which would be sufficiently large to accommodate Alhaji Bature’s family and a rotational grazing project for eight hundred cows!  

Kabiyesi granted Alhaji Bature one thousand acres of land!  

And this is just the beginning!  Kabiyesi is ready to give land to at least two other prominent Fulani families for the same purpose!  We hope to position the three parcels in such a way that a community farm and teachers’ quarters will be convenient to all three locations.  

It’s all about peace.  Giving land to Fulani who have previously never been landowners gives them the sense of being real Nigerians for the first time.  Providing a school for their children, training their women to be healthcare providers – these things have never been done for them before!  They now have such hope, such joy, a completely new lease on life.  They are cared for, they are loved.  They are recognized and valued as people, as Nigerians.  So wonderful!  And as they are recognized as real Nigerians, they put off their former anger and resentment and begin to live as equals with their neighbors.  

We, in Schools for Africa, now have a massive work ahead of us!  The process of resettling these Fulani families is our responsibility!  

Here is how we’ll proceed, by God’s grace.  Between now and January, James will work with Kabiyesi to identify and locate the one thousand acres, which by the way is on the other side of a dam, (with no bridge,) and pass the information on to me.  As soon as this is done, I and my team, Lawal, Sani, our two police officers and Wada, (the mason we’ve been working with,) will go to Imala, along with Alhaji Bature and locate the area on his newly acquired acreage where he would like to create a small village for himself and his family. We’ll help the family move across the dam and settle in, along with all their cattle and sheep. Staying temporarily in tents within that village, we will begin by building the teachers and visitors quarters, then build the school.  We will work with Zainab to hire teachers, enroll children and start school.  

After that, I’ll work with Alhaji Bello Mahmud and Haruna Ali to do a one week’s training on rotational grazing for all local herdsmen.  We’ll then do a GPS survey of the thousand acres, separating it into paddocks. The community farm will have to be identified as well, which Alhaji Bature’s family will share with at least two other families that will settle there in the future.  

And there’s still the health care issue to address.  In partnership with James Rose, we’ll build a clinic and train Fulani women to be community health workers.  I’m praying for a strong, capable nurse to come to help with this training and set up the program properly.  

We visited the Queen’s school in Imala.  After all I’ve seen of schools in Nigeria, I thought of myself as immune to the worst conditions.  This school however really shook me.  

Not that the facilities weren’t clean, or that the children weren’t nicely dressed in beautiful uniforms, seated at their desks with paper and pencils in hand!  Just that, for all of the classes, from Nursery, through the primary, junior high and high school grades, there was only one teacher!  For ALL of them!  

She had written lessons on the boards, which the children copied into their notebooks, then sat quietly for hours until it was time to go home.  

Zainab, my assistant, has promised the Queen to contact the government and get teachers for that school, whether graduates, or from the two programs, Empower and Nigeria Youth Services, she will find teachers.  I’m so thankful we can be of help in this terrible situation.  

In summary, in Imala, Christian Development Foundation is developing vocational training in various fields, West Africa Theological Seminary is planning the building of a large Christian university while we in SFA are working with the thousands of Fulani to ensure that they also feel loved and cared for.  It’s a great partnership and a great ministry.  

I hope we can work together to make this project a lasting monument to the faithfulness, grace and goodness of God to ALL His people, whatever their tribe and language.

Phyllis 

SFA Article in Light + Life Magazine

Be sure to check out SFA in this article online or in the December issue of Light + Life Magazine.

HARD BEGINNING, HAPPY ENDING…BELLO BELLO!

At the PTA meeting yesterday at Big Dam Primary School, we heard about the boy Bello Bello for the first time.  He was twelve years old we were told and absolutely brilliant – undoubtedly the best student in the school. Both his uncle and the Head Teacher stood and complained to us that they were on the verge of losing Bello Bello, as his helpless old mother needed him desperately at her home, a home which was far from Big Dam.  Formerly, he had been living close to Big Dam with his uncle and sister, and so was able to attend school there. But as his helpless, widowed mother needed him desperately, he was relocated home, the relocation happening this past March.  In Nigeria, schools were locked down from March until early June.  

When schools reopened in June, Bello Bello resumed his studies at Big Dam Primary but arriving very late every day.  Although scolded and disciplined for his tardy arrivals, he never told the teachers he was walking 15 kilometers to school every day.  The uncle and Head Teacher asked us to visit the home and talk to the mother about releasing Bello Bello back into his uncle’s care, but it was a big dilemma.  To keep Bello Bello in school at Big Dam was cruel.  No twelve-year-old should be made to walk fifteen kilometers to school every day and fifteen kilometers back home again!  But sending him back to live with his uncle close to the school would hurt the old mother!  What to do?  What to do? 

Eventually, the PTA meeting ended and the crowd of over one hundred parents and staff dispersed to their various homes, the Bello Bello matter still very much up in the air.

Sani, Jacob, Zainab, and I got into the Sequoia, left Big Dam, and began the long drive back to Alhaji Buba’s compound, where we live.  After we’d driven about 3 kilometers, we came across this small boy trudging along the main road all alone, wearing a rather ragged SFA uniform with a school bag over his shoulder.  We stopped and asked where he was coming from and where he was going.  He said he was coming from school, Big Dam, and going home.  Where was home, we asked?  He mentioned an area very far from where we were, past Alhaji Buba’s compound, past the Friesland Campina milk collection center – at least 15 kilometers away.    

“Hop in,” we said, “we’ll give you a ride home.”  I fished an unopened bottle of water out of my backpack and gave it to him.  He immediately opened it and drank thirstily.  

“What’s your name?” asked Zainab.

“My name is Bello Bello,” he answered.

Zainab looked at me.  “What?” she exclaimed!  “TWO Bello Bello’s in the same day?  What are the chances of that happening?”  

“I don’t know,” I answered, “Bello is rather a common name, after all.  It’s not beyond reason that there could be two Bello Bellos!”  

We began to discuss his school situation.  This Bello Bello said he was in Primary 2. Zainab asked to see his school books and saw that his work was amazing.  Beautiful handwriting, illustrations, and full marks on each assignment.  We told him that it made no sense for him to attend Big Dam as it was so far away from his home, that we would transfer him to Bobi 1 Primary School, although, as we continued the long drive to his home, we realized that even Bobi 1 was very far from his home.  

Finally, we turned off the dirt road onto a little path, following it to a very poor compound deep in the forest. In the distance, we had seen a woman pounding corn, but she must have run away when she saw us coming because, by the time we entered the compound, she was gone.  Bello Bello searched for her in the various huts but she was nowhere to be found.  

Zainab gave Bello Bello N2,000, about $4.50, for a new uniform, we said goodbye and drove away.  Along the way I decided to buy this Bello Bello a bike, so he could at least get to Bobi 1 Primary School more easily.  We asked our driver, Sani, to pick him up at his house the following morning and drive him to Bobi 1, taking him to the Head Teacher’s office for enrollment.  

That evening, sitting around the fire, we were talking about this Bello Bello we had met on the road.  Then Josephine, the Head Teacher at Big Dam, (who was visiting us at the time,) said, “But that’s the Bello Bello!  He’s the one the uncle and I were talking about!  That was him, that you met on the road, walking home!”

Of course.  How unusual would it be to discuss than actually meet two different Bello Bellos on the same day!   

And the solution to the dilemma of how Bello Bello could live at home with his mother and still attend school had already been provided! He would transfer to Bobi 1 Primary and ride a bike to school! 

Today, Sani took Bello Bello to Bobi 1 and watched as he was formally enrolled in Primary 2.  After school, he came over to Alhaji Buba’s compound where Okon gave him a big serving of rice with red sauce and fried plantain!  Then Lawal arrived in the pick-up, bringing a shiny new bike for Bello Bello.   

And Bello Bello happily rode his bike home to his mama! 

---

I will never forget the story my first ICCM Director, Ann Van Valin, used to tell - the story of the starfish.

Early one morning a man walked down to the seashore near his house.  During the night the tide had washed up and stranded thousands of starfish onto the beach, where they were dying in great numbers.  

The man observed a small boy running back and forth from the beach to the water’s edge, gathering starfish and throwing them back into the water.

The man approached the boy and said, “What are you doing, Son?  There are thousands of starfish on this beach; you cannot possibly save them all!”

“No,” panted the boy, still running back and forth, throwing starfish into the water, “but I can save this one, and I can save this one, and this one!”  

Think about it.  We CAN save children in Nigeria – not all – but we can save this one, and this one, and this one.  With God’s help and your support, we will save the children, one child at a time.