To Bless Others

Dear Donor,

Two years ago you joined my twin sister and I on a journey that we had hoped would lead to the joyful reunion with our father in Nigeria. Since that time, hopefully you have chronicled our journey via our blog. Our last post was Dec 20th 2009 and at that time we shared our status and how we sensed God leading us in a different direction. Considering the cost and the smaller amount of money we had raised we thought God might be leading us to have our father travel here. Because our faith teaches us that the effectual prayers of the righteous avail much (James 5:16) we also asked for the gift of your prayers So before we go any further, we want to first say thank you all for your prayers! We definitely heard from the Lord, though his answer was not exactly what we had been expecting.

Zec. 4:6 tells us that things are accomplished not through might or power but by the move of the Holy Spirit. The events surrounding the reentry of our father into our lives speak to this truth. For we did not go looking for him, and every effort he made previously to find us led to a dead end. But the Lord planned the events of that day in 2006, when, through an early morning phone call and “chance” conversation, we were reunited with our father after 27 years! Upon beginning this journey we reasoned that if God performed that miracle then surely He would provide the miracle of us meeting our dad face to face.

However, over the course of this journey it has become increasingly more evident, as our plans were met with frustration and dead ends that we were doing things in our own strength and not necessarily through the leading of His spirit. I know that’s a pretty blunt thing to say, nonetheless, we have come to embrace this truth. Some may conclude that the lack of resources needed for this trip has lead us to this conclusion, but no, we believe that nothing can thwart the will of God. Simply put, if God had wanted us to take this trip then he would have put it on enough people’s hearts, through his spirit, to give what was needed or provided through other means. Nothing is impossible or too hard for God!

With all that said, we are not saying that God doesn’t want us to never meet our father face to face, but for right now we sense God has said no, or just not yet. We trust God with our whole hearts and believe when he said in his Word “I will not withhold one good thing from you” (Psalms 89:11) that He means that. We are content to trust him at His word and believe even if we never get to see our father on this side of heaven, we will on the other side!

Now, I know what you might be thinking, “Well, what are they going to do with the money they have raised?” I am glad you asked! Believing that is it better to give than to receive (Acts 20:35) we would like to give away the $2,000.00 we raised! Given the poor economy, there is simply a huge amount of need out there and so we thought we’d donate the money to organizations that we have a heart for! This is what we desire to do, but we first wanted to ask you, our donors if this would be ok to do with the money you individually donated? If not, then don’t hesitate to ask for your donation to be returned. We would be happy to do that. (We just thought we might use the blessing to be a blessing to others.) Here is the list of the organizations that we would like to donate to:

1.) Agoon Alaska Alive (www.angoonaliveproject.org) 2.) The Elise and Joseph Foundation (www.elisejosephfoundation.org) 3.) Rock Ministries (www.rockministry.us/) 4.) Shalom Christian Missions (www.shalomchristianmissions.org) 5. ) Miss Strawberry's Cafe ( http://missstrawberryscafe.org) 6.) Heifer International (www.heifer.org) 7.) Experience Corps (www.experiencecorps.org) 8.) Habitat for Humanity (www.habitat.org) 9.) Wounded Warrior Project (www.woundedwarriorproject.org) 10.) Sickle Cell Disease Association of America ( www.sicklecelldisease.org) 11.) Young Life (www.younglife.org/us) 12.) Impact Movement (www.impactmovement.com) 13.) Sponsor Change ( www.SponsorChange.org) 14.) Harlem Children Village (www.hcz.org) 15.) Students First (www.studentsfirst.org

Please get back to us as soon as possible to let us know of your decision. You can reach us at: journeytonigeria@gmail.com. If we don’t hear back from you, we will assume that it’s okay to apply your donation to one of these deserving organizations. Thank you in advance for taking this journey with us and for allowing us the opportunity to bless someone whose need is greater than ours! Sincerely The Oladapo Twins

The Gift of Your Prayers

Dear Friends,

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! It’s been a while, yes I know! I am sure your lives have been just as full and active as ours with the advent of the holiday season. As we celebrate the miracle of Christmas and look forward to a new year, we want to share with you the latest news from our journey to meet our father.

As you are well aware, we have been going full throttle since April, praying and putting a plan in motion to get to Nigeria to see our father and his extended family. You have supported us every step of the way with your prayers, words of encouragement, and financial gifts, and we are grateful. But despite all of this, we have not yet met our fundraising goal. The trip would cost between $8,000 and $10, 000 dollars and we have raised just under $2,000 since April. While our desire to meet our father face to face is unwavering, we've grown weary, to be honest.

This fall, Lola and I sensed the Holy Spirit leading us to refocus our hearts and to designate Sunday evenings as our set time of prayer for the trip. The Word teaches that things are accomplished not through might or power but by the move of God’s spirit (Zec 4:6). During our time of prayer, we lift every detail before the Lord, and we can tell you that it has been a blessed time of insight and renewed vision for us!

In that time, we have been lifting up to the Lord the possibility of having our father travel here instead of us traveling to Nigeria. In our eyes, it seems more feasible considering the resources we have. That said, we know there will be considerable logistical issues and barriers to getting him here, and we need God to address each one to show us that this plan is from him and not us. We want to be led by God concerning this and so we ask you, our friends, to join us in praying for God’s will to be made known to us.

The reentry of our father into our lives was nothing short of a miracle -- we are sure of that. We did not go looking for him, and every effort he made to find us led to a dead end. But the Lord planned the events of that day in 2006, when, through an early morning phone call and “chance” conversation, we were reunited with our father after 27 years! If God performed that miracle then surely he can provide the miracle of our meeting our dad face to face.

Isn’t that what this season is all about—miracles? God performed an even greater miracle some 2000 years ago with the virgin birth of the Savior of mankind—Jesus Christ. This truth provides us with great comfort, especially after many awkward calls with our father where we hear in his voice his desire to be reunited with us and are saddened by our inability to tell him when that will happen. We know that since God performed the miracle of the Christ child then, nothing is impossible for him now.

So if you were to ask us what we want for Christmas this year, it’s not what you might expect. We want your prayers; give us the gift of your prayers! For we know that the effectual prayers of the righteous avail much! Keep praying and believing that God still performs MIRACLES! That’s our Christmas wish list this year—prayer!

Merry Christmas and to all a year full of miracles.

Lola and Taiye Oladapo

UPDATE FROM THE BIRTHDAY GIRLS

Dear Journey to Nigeria followers, friends and family,

Taiye and I are excited to report that with your support we have raised some $2,000 dollars towards the cost of our planned trip to Nigeria to see our father for the very first time! Since the launch of this blog page back in April by my dear friend, we have been engaged in a flurry of activity in an effort to raise the necessary monies for our trip to Nigeria. These activities included...

*A letter that we sent out to family members and close friends soliciting their prayers and financial support. Taiye and I would like to pause and say thank you to our family and close friends for supporting us financially and through your prayers! We are privileged to have each one of you join us on our journey!!!

*We also created a 10 min. documentary about our efforts (we're still looking for an editor so if you know of someone who can edit this interview for us please let us know) that we plan to post on God Tube and You Tube.

*One of our most successful and enjoyable activities was our 30th Birthday Benefit Dinner Party that our good friend Bonnie Gable hosted back in early August! We had 16 of our closet and newest friends join us for an evening of sharing , laughter and good old fashioned fellowship! We raised just under $700.00 dollars that night! Although we have said it once before, we cannot say it enough: THANK YOU! Thank you for your continued support!

We specifically want to thank

• Bonnie, for putting the benefit together for us, in the midst of your most stressful week!

• Thank you, Cherry, for being a constant source of encouragement to us and for your prayers over us that night and always.
  
• Thank you, Susanna, for your selfless sacrifice-- seeing our need working to meet it. You're a blessing to everyone you meet. I'm glad God saw fit to have us meet 7 years ago now!
  
• Thank you, Lynne for coming even after not seeing me or my sister in seven years! That really meant a lot to us…oh and thank you for your generous donation!
  
• Thank you, Josh and Heather, for your faithfulness over the years...we know that we can always count on you guys to have our backs!
  
• I can’t forget Amiee, who has been there for us for the past 12 years! Your faithfulness is unmatched and we are blessed to be able to call you FRIEND!
  
• Thank you ,Jodie, newly weds, Brandon and Rachel, servant Kelly, and my partners in justice Neil and his girlfriend Yrine!! You guys rock!!!! Oh, I can't forget Erica! Thank you Erica for you freindship and support!
  

Thanks to your generosity, we are closer to reaching our goal of raising some $6,000 for our trip. But there's still a fair bit to raise! We had hoped to have raised enough to purchase our tickets by the end of the summer so that we could travel to Nigeria in December for Christmas. We have not yet reached our goal but we are encouraged because we know that ultimately God is in control of the date and time that we will be reunited with our father! That said, we are going to keep moving and praying and waiting to see what the Lord does over the next weeks, months or even years. However long it takes we are committed to taking this journey with you by our side! We will get to the “promised land” one day!

Please continue to lift our efforts up in prayer and we will continue to post our progress and interesting stories to keep you coming back and spreading the word! Thank you all and God bless each one of you!

Sincerely,

The Oladapo Twins

Summertime...

Summer update:

• At the beginning of July, we informed our father with some sadness that we had decided to post-pone our travel plans to December 2009. Our aunt will be free to travel with us then, and hopefully we'll have raised a bit more money. We hope to purchase tickets by September 15, 2009.
  
• Thanks to our dear friends and family, we have raised $1200 towards our goal of $4000! Thank you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
• We are still raising money - no gift is too small.
• Taiye is working for MuralArts.org, to create a mural in our neighborhood! Check out the size of this piece of art! Taiye and a team of artists are transforming an ugly empty wall into something bright and beautiful.
• We celebrated our 30th Birthday on July 31st! Hooooray!
  We're still in celebrating ;).

Father's Day!

How can we explain the emotions that coursed through us as we selected our first Father's Day card for our own dad? Taiye was quietly excited and I was visibly moved, but both of us marveled at this new experience. For so many years, we'd felt the absence of our dad every time this special day came around. What a privilege to participate this year! We looked through so many cards! Finally we decided on something simple and we have sent it with lots of love to Nigeria.

Documentary 101

We are so thankful to our friend Julia, who has a production company and has helped us to begin documenting our journey. We had our first impromptu filming session in her living room. Neat!!!

Lola's passport arrived! Yippee!!!!!!!!!!!!!