Susan Essam, our Link Partner in Mission

Slideshow of life around the Christian Institute in Jos

 Dear Friends,

A big sense of guilt comes as I write that date, as I have    begun this letter so many times in my head, and fully intended you to get it long ago.  However, the greetings are the same!

This has been a remarkable year in many ways - filled with riots and troubles at first, but more recently, under a new Task Force Commander, we have enjoyed more peace, for which we thank God.  In fact I fully intended to write a few weeks ago after the last Muslim festival.  I was thinking how different life here is from life in UK.   The Sallah fell on a Sunday, and tension was high as everyone wondered what would happen.  However, security was very tight and their plans had been well laid, with the result that not one shot was fired in Jos.  That really was a gift from God!  That encourages us to hope and pray fervently for peace during the Christmas season, and that there will be no more bombs (there were three the   other week).

Meanwhile life has had some high days and festivals.  On Saturday 10^th December at the Christian Institute we dedicated Dare Sila building and laid the foundation stone for Ayo Kehinde House (right).  The first building was one of the     original ones, but had a fault and so could not be fully ulitised.  Now, however, all is set right, and it is a two storey hostel at the front and a single storey staff flat at the back.  The hostel is completed (apart from furnishings) and the flat almost ready.  The new Ayo Kehinde building is a huge project: a three storey L shaped structure with 9 duplex apartments (room, parlour and bathroom/toilet) for married couples and also one bigger staff flat on each floor, giving a total of 27 married apartments and 3 staff flats.  We move in faith, and trust that having begun, step by step we shall continue!!  It was a great day of joy and celebration.

Last Sunday was our Ordination: 4 deacons and 6 priests.  Another big day, held in a new church building in the heart of Jos city.  A packed house, a long service, joy and thanksgiving everywhere!

Having officially retired from CMS, I am in fact doing exactly the same work as    before – and thoroughly enjoying and appreciating it.  I truly thank God for the  opportunity to serve, as I now celebrate 28 years in Jos.  I would never have       believed it all those years ago, but God has his ways!  I much appreciated seeing many family and friends this summer, and look forward to meeting again whenever the time is right.  Everyone here joins me in sending greetings, including the owners of 20 paws and 24 baby paws!! (6 jet black puppies who cannot be told one from the other).

My love and deep gratitude to you all for all you do and are in my life.  May the Lord bless and keep you.        Susan/Sue

Dear Friends,

Greetings again from Jos! It was great to see so many people during the past month, to renew long standing friendships and to make new ones.  I am so very grateful to everyone for your love and care, your  welcome, hospitality and generosity.  May the Lord himself reward and bless you.

I had a good journey back.  The Cathedral minibus met me at the airport
and after a couple of visits in Abuja we got back here around 1 p.m. last  Monday.  A week ago!  In some ways it feels like yesterday, and in other ways, it feels like last year!  Little did I know as I was waiting at Heathrow, that about three bombs were going off in the centre of Jos. However, we thank God that this time there were no deaths, and injuries and damage were  minimal.        Security is obviously fairly tight, but everyone keeps going about their everyday, normal business.  We had 2 military and 4 police (all armed) outside the Cathedral yesterday – and I thought how different it would be for you at your Sunday services!  However, we all worship the one God, and we are thankful for our partnership and fellowship in Christ.  Let us continue to pray for one another.

When I arrived everywhere was surprisingly dry, and we were discussing how the farms would be. The last three days brought the answer, with abundant rain!  When I left I had asked the mechanic to do something to my car to stop water getting into somewhere where it should not – and so Thursday and Friday mornings really tested that job.  The water in the river was much, but I got through, and the car did start again later on!

It is good to see everyone again and to catch up with news.  The wife of the Cathedral Archeacon (the CI Bursar) gave birth on Saturday -  to twins (a boy and a girl) !  They have been married for at least eight years and have been praying for their “own” children (they have a housefull of extended family), so this would seem to be God's way of making up for lost time!

At the Christian Institute we are about to start exams for the part-time students, and then the full timers begin their new academic year at the start of October.  So my next job is to do the new timetable and to sort out courses, staff, and all the practicalities that a new year brings.  Meanwhile, I am just using the end of my laptop battery (no electricity, and the fuel pump on our generator has broken down) to send a short but heartfelt note to you, with a huge THANK YOU!

God bless and keep you,

With my love,
Susan

Dear Friends,

Greetings from Jos!  I am looking forward to seeing you soon!  I know that some may think: after 4 years, why only one month?  Honestly, the days of mathematically working out how many days leave I can have for how many days here, and working out what I can now do for myself free from the shackles of work – those days are long since over, thank God.  But I thought that before I come I might try and explain this a bit more, sharing some of the considerations, and so trying to give a further glimpse of what the life of a mission partner (well, let me say rather, this mission partner!) is all about.

The truth is that my top priority is to live for Christ, to serve him and do his work.  This applies to the whole of life, and means that life is united, not a segmented collection of “work”, “leave”, “family”, “home”, “away”.  I love my family (decreasing in numbers!) and friends in UK, but God will bring us together in his time, and meanwhile my family here need my presence more than my family in UK.  Yes, of course, if I were not here someone else would do the work, but I believe that this is what God has called me to do, and my work at the Christian Institute in particular now seems like the culmination of all the experience and training that life has given me.

Therefore, while deeply appreciating and indeed relying on the prayers of the saints in many different places, the situation and needs in Jos are to be considered carefully when it comes to timing and length of leave.  After over 27 years, we have been through quite a lot together, especially in the last few years, and those shared experiences, those difficult times give an extra dimension to relationships.  I don’t have to be the one who knows it all, or who has all the answers (I don’t have them!), but together we can move with the Lord.

To find a possible time to travel has not been simple, even when at long, long last the necessary immigration papers have become available and are being completed. As Admin Chaplain I have to consider the Bishop’s own schedule (which is becoming world-wide in its scope).  At the Christian Institute we have no long summer vacation as we alternate full-time and part-time programmes with very little break, and of course building and development projects continue throughout.

Part of my role is to encourage and train young staff as well as students, and to delegate work and responsibility as appropriate.  It is interesting to reflect that when I first began as Acting Dean the college was small with just a few teaching staff and so I found myself doing almost everything, from accounts, to maintenance, from admin to secretary, to lecturer, to chaplain . . .  Since then, to the glory of God, and through his provenance, we have grown in numbers of staff and students, in programmes and departments, in land and in buildings.  We now have a Chaplain, a Bursar, Secretary, Librarian and two Assistant Librarians, and Admin staff.  Yet, somehow, no matter how much work I give out, I still have a very full table!  Just at the moment, however, we are particularly short of senior full-time staff.  Our gifted, young H.O.D. English / Admissions Officer / Head of Community School died in April.  Our Librarian / Examinations Officer is now away every other month doing his Ph.D.; our H.O.D. ICT is doing his MA at Uganda Christian University.  Our Bursar, after years of waiting and praying is at last pregnant – and she is carrying twins! So her work at CI is limited.

I thank God for the opportunity to serve and to live and work here.  I also thank God so very much for the consistent, faithful prayers of so many people in so many different places.  May God bless and reward you all.

I look forward to seeing you!

The Lord be always with you,

With love,

Susan

(Susan visited us on 21st August and preached at the 10am Family Service)

Dear Friends,         

CHRISTMAS & NEW YEAR GREETINGS

FROM ALL IN JOS ! ! !

A joy-filled record for the Christian Institute this year was that no less than three of our members of staff, including our two residential staff were married during the first seven months of the year.  The first couple, Rev. Godwin and Rachael Makabi, were to have been married in the Christian Institute Chapel, but the security situation made us change to a church on the other side of town (C.I. was safe, but access to it was not easy).  Rev. Godwin is our Librarian and lecturer and Rachael is our College nurse.  Rev. Tunde and Afodia Yusuf were married in the Cathedral (Rev. Tunde teaches Islam and I.C.T.).  It then fell to our chaplain, Rev. Simon Onuorah, and his wife Gloria (one of our Health students) to be the first couple ever to be married at the Christian Institute. Three days to remember!

I am aware that it is quite some time since most of us met in person, but it is most likely that I shall be in England next year, probably for July / August.  I shall at that time retire as a C.M.S. Mission Partner (as I reach that magic age of 65 – I still cannot believe it!), but I then hope to come back to continue working directly with the Anglican Diocese of Jos.

This is a small note, but it comes with a big load of love and good wishes to you all.   May the Wisdom of the Magi, the Joy of the Shepherds and the Peace of the Christ Child be yours in fullest measure.            Sue

Latest from Bishop Benjamin Kwashi, of Jos

Dear Friends,

A VOICE OF REASON 4

For unto us a Child is born,

          Unto us a Son is given;

          And the government will be upon His shoulder.

          And His name will be called

          Wonderful, Counsellor, Mighty God,

Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. (Isaiah 9:6)

        God’s gift to mankind in one huge precious, inestimable bundle, is Jesus Christ, the Son of God.  Through him we are adopted as children of God, by believing and trusting in his redeeming work and grace.  This is worth celebrating and doing so joyfully, not in ostentation but as a sign of gratitude to God.  At the same time the celebration is a mark of our reconciliation with one another and of our reconciliation with God.  This calls for true joy and celebration.  The Christmas period therefore carries with it the mark of who God is in our lives, and what he has done, so that through us others who may be less fortunate may get to know God and be grateful through our gifts, our sharing with one another in love, our celebration of reconciliation, and in practical ways demonstrating the mercy, kindness, and generosity of God to all humanity.

          For us in Jos this joyful celebration was interrupted on the evening on 24^th December by at least six bomb blasts in two different locations, in Gada Biyu and Unguwar Rukuba.  In Gada Biyu the bombs went off, one near a church and the others in places where they caught people who were doing last minute shopping for Christmas in a local market.  In Unguwar Rukuba the bombs brought down a beer parlour and a nearby building.  Both locations suffered fatalities, and there were a number of other casualties who are now receiving treatment in hospital. 

          Again, the international media, with a reporter reporting from far-away Lagos, was very hasty to put religion into the bombings, whereas in fact we do not yet know the sources of the bombs nor what they intended to achieve.  The media was quick to say that one bomb was in a Christian area and another in a Muslim area, thereby immediately making insinuations and pitching the two different communities against each other, and thus giving the opportunity for careless, opportunistic, unemployed people to engage in senseless destruction of lives and property.  We now have a difficult situation on our hands.  If only the media had left the bombings as neutral until the investigations are carried out; if only the security agencies were left to do their job in separating crime, criminality and mischief from religion . . .  But we now have a sad situation on top of a very difficult set of circumstances.  Our Christmas services were scantily attended, our celebrations interrupted and no-one is happy.  However -

          Though the fig tree may not blossom,

          Nor fruit be on the vines;

          Though the labour of the olive may fail,

          And the fields yield no food;

          Though the flock may be cut off from the fold,

          And there be no herd in the stalls—

          Yet I will rejoice in the Lord,

          I will joy in the God of my salvation. (Habakkuk 3:17-18)

          We are a community of hope, a product of hope, sustained by hope in the knowledge that he who saved us is exceedingly abundantly able to deliver from hell, from death, from darkness and from Satan.

          Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy; to God our Saviour, who alone is wise, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and forever. Amen. (Jude 24-25)

The Lord be with you

+Most Rev. Dr. Benjamin A. Kwashi

Archbishop of Jos

Deaconess Susan C Essam Susan has been working in Jos since her arrival in in December 1983. Susan has  travelled widely, teaching and preaching and leading TEE (Theological Education by Extension). When the Rt. Rev Dr Benjamin A Kwashi was consecrated and enthroned in February 1992 as Bishop of Jos, he asked Susan to work with him. Under his leadership the church has taken on a new lease of life, and God can be seen working in and through his people in amazing ways.

Susan is the Bishop’s Administrative Chaplain and also finds herself involved in many aspects of church life including teaching, preaching, writing and editing. Music has come to the fore again in recent years and she is Director of Music at St Luke’s Cathedral, and Head of the School of Music at the Diocesan Christian Institute. Since February 2000 she has also been Acting Dean of the Christian Institute.

Susan was born and brought up in Northamptonshire. She read music and gained her teaching qualifications at Southampton University . On leaving University she taught in Norfolk . From there Susan went to Lincoln Theological College , and later worked in the Diocese of Worcester, becoming an ordained deaconess in 1980.

The CMS Link Scheme connects congregations in with world-wide mission through a CMS Partner in Mission .  It brings British churches into closer partnership with churches in another culture.  It also brings the experiences of Christians of other cultures into our worship and witness there in .

Through our link with Susan, we gain a greater understanding of God’s work in the Jos Diocese of , a very different culture from the Diocese of Coventry!  We contribute to that work through prayer, letters and financial support.  We are challenged in our own mission and learn much from Susan and her colleagues through both Susan’s letters to Viv Lott which can be viewed on the Oureach Noticeboard and which are sometimes included in the Searchlight,  and her occasional visits to the parish.  Susan's most recent visit to St. Andrew's was at the end of August 2005.