Little Ogechi wears her new pressure garments.

Caught in the midst of crisis and watching people running down the street, Edwin heard a loud bang. Next thing he knew he was in the hospital with burns on one side of his face, both arms and both hands. The loud noise he remembers was a petrol bomb exploding against the building beside him. Edwin spent two months in the hospital before being discharged. He came to Healing Touch about three months later with thick scarring on both arms and hands, and limited movement in his wrists and fingers.

Four-year-old Ogechi was caught in a house fire and suffered burns to her face, her left arm and hand. She came to Healing Touch six months later with scarring and contractures of her left arm and hand.

Burns occur in devastating numbers in Nigeria. Many people, just like these two, are left with thick, ugly scars and spend the rest of their lives trying to hide their skin from staring eyes. Seeing these patients scarred and disfigured inspired me to find ways to help patients recover better and prevent the development of thick scars. I opened a burn clinic called Healing Touch that serves patients who have healed from burns within six months or less.

If God had told us, back in 2007, “Toby and Alycia, I want you to join me on the frontline of a spiritual battle in a city where my enemy is dividing people through fear, misunderstanding and hatred; to show my love and help with reconciliation,” we probably would have followed Jonah's lead and run in the opposite direction!

Yet, here we are, five years later, doing just that. We are excited to announce that we have opened the BRICC (Building Reconciliation in City Center). We have a meeting room 3 blocks from the Jos Central Mosque and an office a few blocks from the meeting room. The neighborhood is mixed, with Muslims living in one direction and Christians in the other. Toby has partnered with a Nigerian pastor to run this community center, which is aimed at facilitating reconciliation through relationship building. We are very excited about the level of interest in the community for this endeavor and the support we have been given from the neighborhood leaders (both Muslim and Christian) and even from the head Imam of Jos.

From the blog of Missy Camiola

About a year and a half ago, we started going into a filthy brothel, we call the blue place.  We soon met several girls who were very pregnant and working as prostitutes there.  We talked to the girls about Christ and encouraged them to leave the life of prostitution before their babies were born.  They did not leave.

We then tried to encourage the mothers to leave once their children were born.  One mother did leave, but without her daughter, Nansik.  As soon as we realized that Nansik’s mother had abandoned her, I asked the brothel owner, Mamma, if I could take the baby and care for it.  Mamma asked me how much I was willing to pay for the child.  I assured her that I wasn’t interested in buying a child, but I was interested in helping her and if ever she needed me to take the baby, I would be more than happy to do so. 

Over the next year, I had several conversations like this with Mamma and they all ended the same way with her saying, no.  Many babies come and go in this brothel, but Mamma believes that Nansik is the daughter of her grandson, so she did not intend to let her go.