HEAL Blog
Welcome! Here we will post news and highlight the faces, needs, and services of HEAL.A Welcoming I’ll Never Forget
I stepped out of the car into the BOMCA courtyard, ready to be received again on this my fourth mission trip to Nigeria. A little girl named Rosemary, who I know from previous visits, placed a small plant in my hands. Two others wrapped me in a colorful fabric and...
Agricultural Skills for Life
On my first trip to Nigeria in 2014, at the airport, I met a baggage carrier named Jasper who had a university graduate degree. Because of government corruption and lack of connections, Jasper struggled mightily to find employment that matched his level of education...
Violence Creates NYSC Shortage
Last week, I made a one day trip to the Nigerian Embassy in Washington DC to obtain a Visa for my upcoming 4th trip to Nigeria. After my appointment, I attended a lobbying event at the US Capitol on religious persecution in Nigeria. It was hosted by an organization...
Family Behavior and God’s Healing Workshop
We can all recall times when behavioral dynamics within our own families fostered division and disharmony rather than unity and peace. And, while we should always focus on the good times and be grateful for our families, we shouldn’t ignore the real harm that adverse...
Better Practices for Better Education
I remember when I was at Brother Rice High School how one of my teachers named Brother Moore would never give a grade of 100% on any of his tests or assignments. His reason, as he would say, was that “there is always room for improvement.” In HEAL’s educational...
Chinonso Receives First Communion
Everything in Our Lord’s life reflected His self-emptying by which He saved us from sin and death. By “self-emptying”, St. Paul refers to Jesus taking the “form of a slave” and “obediently accepting death” on a cross (cf. Phil 2:6-11). And, on the night before He...
From Dungeon of Despair to House of Hope
Sometimes, great servant leaders (Mt. 20:28) come from humble and dangerous beginnings. Take Moses, who Yahweh chose to lead His people out of slavery in Egypt. Faced with Pharaoh's plan to reduce the Hebrew slave population by killing newborn boys, Moses’s mother put...
Solomon Suffers for Security
“Before you leave the house, hit 5516 on the dial pad, then push ‘on’ and you will hear a beep sound.” That’s how my dad first told me to turn on our home security alarm. I’m sure you probably have invested in some kind of security system for your own home because the...
Servant Leaders in Action
Education is a core program within HEAL’s mission of forming Servant Leaders (Mt. 20:28) among West Africans. Now that the Ministry of Education has certified our school in Akpim village as a center for the Basic Education Certificate Exam (BECE), our teachers must...
Love Overcomes All
In the Garden of Eden, where God provided all the food and necessities of life in abundance for Adam and Eve, the prospect of losing it all loomed because of an ill-intended unwelcome guest, the devil. In the village of Umuagwu, the Mother Enabler Nursery and Primary...