18 People (16 Nigerians and 2 Americans) had a great adventure this last December 23rd to 31st in the open, wide, rocky and mountainous plains of Monguna district in Jos, Plateau State of Nigeria. The temperature was about 15 degrees celcius most of the stay except the last three days when we had as low as 5 degrees celcius. Our base camp was at about 4,500 feet above sea level on a 1,450 feet high mountain.
There were 5 staff, with the two Americans (Mark Mickelson and Paul Moody from Spokane, Washington) adding their considerable experience and skills to the success of the program. The temperature was low enough that even our friends from the temperate region of the US had to put on their jackets!
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| Orienteering and Map reading class handled by Paul Moody |
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| Cold enough for the American but obviously much more so for the Nigerian! |
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| Paul Moody and Mark Mickelson, from Spokane, USA |
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| Hiking and backpacking (Mark and Dare had packs of 2 ladies who had blisters and toe injury) |
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| A beautiful sunrise on Tee's Mountain |
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| Mr. Gunwa Ibirogba beside the Akinbo's Tent |
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| Mark Mickelson on the Rock! |
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| The Team near Manguna Lake |
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| One Strong and agile old man on the rocks! |
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| Hiking in from Tenti at night! |
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| Key Activity Instructors |
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| One nice and tasty roasted goat head coming up! |
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| Light moment playing scrabble |
Activities included backpacking, map reading (using a topo map and a google satellite map), orienteering and a whole series of discussion and lectures aimed at developing all of us into hardy adventurers who never say never,. are commited to developing the heart of a servant in their environment and communities, serving selflessly for the joy of serving, learning to internalize and personalize all the excellent skills and information they have been blessed with and of course seeing themselves pushed to and beyond the limits of their expected endurance and setting newer, greater limits and discovering we can be indomitable, strong, commited to excellence and whatever task we assign ourselves. All participants showed themselves not of those who "faint in times of stress" as Prov 24:10 mentioned.
The daily campfire discussions and strong bond of family and friendship built is one to be experienced and not talked about! We also had a buffet night and a night of roasted goat meat!
Church service in the mountains provided us with the best church setting in all the world that week we believe! You need to see the pictures to agree with me!
Experiences of participants will be put here as soon as they are sent in. keep on keeping on! May you have a day of adventure!
Oludare Akinbo, Challenger co-ordinator.
Hey Dare,
ReplyDeleteGreat job on the write up and photos! They bring back inspiring memories of the wonderful adventure we all experienced together. God's blessing and inspiration truly made this Challenger program a successful endeavor.
Paul Moody