Adventist Mission

Mother of Many

by Belen Lohr

My hands shake slightly as I put on the last angel outfit on little Oyin. The white cloth is covering her entire body, the gold sash is snug on her waist, and I adjust the gold halo on her head, made from a long piece of “gold” ribbon. She looks beautiful and you could tell she feels that way as she rushes to join the other 40 “angels” sitting in the choir pews.

The place is almost ready as I glance up and see Mary Jo, our student missionary, finishing with a couple other costumes. We’ve worked hard to prepare for this night, making almost 70 costumes and a large white curtain to cover our stage mostly from scratch, setting up Mary’s tent-like house on one corner of the stage, an almost life-size stable, a small manger, and hay to cover the stage, and making life-size cardboard animals to add a special touch. We’ve practiced the many Christmas carols with the children’s choir every day for the last 2 weeks, many of which they have never heard before, and they are ready. I sit down at the piano and start playing Silent Night as the lights dim for the play to start.

As the narrator John the Disciple starts telling the story of Christmas to our audience, I look over to our children’s choir. Attentive and excited, they look adorable in their gold halos. We’ve been through so much together, and they surely are far from being little angels, as I remember the many times I have had to raise my voice to keep choir practice from becoming a chaos of 80 hyper children.(See the photo of some of the children with me below on the right.)

We've had lectures about not picking fruit from other peoples’ fruit trees, not throwing trash on the floor, not playing on the playground on Sabbath, and many more. If you ask any of them, they will quickly recite the choir rules: NO beating (hitting) each other, NO sticks to choir practice, NO urinating during practice, NO eating during practice, and when Auntie Belen raises her hand everyone’s hand is up and mouth is closed. I’ve even had to develop a system of points with name cards they hold during practice in order to earn their star for the day only if they are singing and not talking.

They are also divided into red, yellow, green, and blue teams that have been strategically assigned to keep siblings and friends apart so they may make new friends and sometimes even break down walls that we may place on them as adults. One day I had two boys approach me after choir practice begging to be placed on opposite teams since they were “enemies” and couldn’t stand the sight of each other. I told them to come 10 minutes before each practice, and the three of us would pray for each other. After about a month, they stopped coming to the prayer session and I noticed them sitting together during practice. I love these kids.

Besides all the discipline and structure, I think overall choir has been a very fun experience for them and also for me. The climax of it all was last month, when we “launched” our first Video CD, African Kids 4 Christ Sing Praise, a 50 minute music video with a mix of 20 English and African Christian songs. The theme of the launching was “Help a Kid to Help a Kid,” as we were raising funds for a KIDS KARE fund for poor sick children that come to our hospital. We had a terrible thunderstorm right before the program and we thought no one would come, but all 80 children were there, the church was almost full, and we raised over 1,000 U.S. dollars from the audience just that evening; the equivalent of 20 minimum wage salaries here in Nigeria. God is so good!

“Angels We Have Heard on High is next, Auntie Belen” says AY, the drama team director, as Mary Jo leads the choir to stand as the host of angels. You can tell they love this song, as they sing the “glo-ooooo-ooooo-ooooo- ria in excelsis deo” with all their might. I wish I could see the front of the stage, with the shepherds prostrating on the floor and the Bethlehem scene projecting on the white curtain. What I can see on my side is even more beautiful though, since the nativity scene is ready to display with Joseph standing beside Mary. Mary is sitting in front of the manger holding baby Jesus wrapped in swaddling cloths, which is a 5-day-old baby I had just delivered by C-section. The baby’s Muslim parents in the audience smile as they listen to the Christmas story possibly for the first time. Their little baby in this manger full of hay, held by a young teenager in a poor stable surrounded by a surprising mix of animals, shepherds, kings, and angels, symbolizes the Messiah, the King of the Universe, our Wonderful Savior, the Prince of Peace. This is a powerful story.

I thank God for the wonder and power of the Story of Christmas. I thank Him for His goodness and the way that He has blessed us. I thank Him for making me “Iya Ewe” as they call me, or “Mother of Many.” And I also thank Him for family and friends like you with whom I can witness and share all the blessings He has given this season.

Belen

Belen Lohr is an Adventist missionary in Nigeria. She's pictured here with her missionary husband, Jason, and their two children Michaela and Joshua.

Meet the Lohrs
Read their blogs!
Shrines
No Headaches

More Missionary Blogs

MISSION MINUTES
Sign up for free monthly
e-newsletter

ADVENTIST MISSION DVD
Get your free copy now

VIDEO PODCAST
Subscribe now and watch mission videos online

TELL THE WORLD
The church's vision for 2010

GIVE NOW
Conveniently give online.