Feb. 23-Homeless in Houston-The Final Week

Nigeria ’Not Certain’ Who Attacked Equatorial Guinea (Update1)

By Dulue Mbachu and Antoine Lawson

Feb. 19 (Bloomberg) -- Nigeria is unable to ascertain the identity of gunmen who attacked Equatorial Guinea on Feb. 17, Foreign Minister Ojo Maduekwe said.
Equatorial Guinea’s Information Minister Jeronimo Osa Ekoro blamed rebels from Nigeria’s Niger Delta region for the attack near the presidential palace in the capital, Malabo. Nigeria’s renegade Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta has denied it was involved.
“The authorities in Equatorial Guinea themselves are not certain about the identities of those people,” Maduekwe said in remarks broadcast on state-owned Nigerian Television Authority today. “But whoever they are, whether they are militants from the Niger Delta or they are mercenaries from outside Africa, this kind of act should be condemned.”

Equatorial Guinea, a former Spanish colony, was the target of a failed coup d’etat by foreign mercenaries in 2004. It vies with Sudan as the third-biggest oil producer in sub-Saharan Africa, after Nigeria and Angola. The country has been ruled by President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo since he seized power in a 1979 coup.

Equatorial Guinea’s embassy in Libreville, capital of neighboring Gabon, said today that 15 people captured after the attack are being interrogated by the police. The assault was staged by fighters traveling in an unspecified number of boats and were repelled by Equatorial Guinean forces using helicopters, the embassy said.

African Union Condemnation
African Union Commission Chairman Jean Ping “strongly and unequivocally” condemns this week’s attack, the Addis Ababa-based organization said in an e-mailed statement today.
Ping “is concerned about these unprovoked and unwarranted attacks by unknown persons and groups, and calls on those behind them to stop the attacks immediately.”
This week’s attack underscores the need for countries in the Gulf of Guinea, which holds one of the world’s richest hydrocarbon reserves, to increase their security cooperation “in order to confront non-state actors who wish to destabilize the region,” said Maduekwe.

In recent months attacks have increased off the coasts of Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea, threatening shipping and oil operations in the Gulf of Guinea, according to Bergen Risk Solutions, a Fantoft, Norway-based security advisory company that works in the Niger delta.
To contact the reporters on this story: Dulue Mbachu in Lagos at dmbachu@bloomberg.net; Antoine Lawson in Libreville via Johannesburg at pmrichardson@bloomberg.net. Last Updated: February 19, 2009 06:10 EST

Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah-more insanity from the "Dark Continent." Wonder why it so deservedly got that moniker??? Anyway, last night, we had a pleasant dinner with Brian and Debbie Hodgsen from Marathon. He is a chemical engineer; Debbie is his lovely wife whom I sponsored when she came to Malabo on her Advanced Trip. We ate at a wonderful Latin American Restaurant and shared stories. As Jim was relating our experiences to them, I realized he is much more bothered by this than he is letting on to me. I know he wants to keep me from worrying about our situation, and I know he has a strong faith. But last night, I realize as he was sharing that he is bothered, he is hurt, and I just cannot stand to see him that way. He is such a very good man, an honest person with so much integrity. He does not deserve this.

I woke this morning with a heavy burden to keep him in my prayers all day. As low as he gets, Jim gets up, goes to work, works out, and promises to love me. I wouldn't take anything for being with him, and I want to help him through this mess. Deep down in my soul, I know things are going to work out in a surprising way. But in the natural, I cannot see how. We have blessings-at least if there is no job with Marathon, we have some savings, Marathon has offered some type of severance, and we can make it for awhile. I think what I'm dreading most is just living out of these damned suitcases and in motels and with family and friends for an undetermined amount of time. But, Jim remains positive about our many blessings, all the people (including Brian and Debbie who offered us their home for a week), Janet and Charles, perfect strangers who have made our lives so much easier introducing us to a great church, Bible Study, and even Spanish classes, the wonderful staff here at the Hilton Garden Inn, Stacey, the gentleman who gave us an entire free month's pass for the 24 hour fitness gym next door prior to his resigning, and on and on, John & Angel letting us come up just to get out of the hotel. I even have to thank Paul Michele, the President of AMPCO, who has generously taken care of all of our needs both in housing, food, and transport until Saturday. This has been a constant balance of good and bad-good, the people; bad, the situation.

Nevertheless, here we are on Monday, Feb. 23rd. On Saturday, the 28th, things come to a close and we must move forward. As Jim says, we have Plan A and Plan B and a half of Plan C. So, we will be going SOMEWHERE, just not sure which direction.

My Bible Study lesson is from Numbers and it's all about the Children of Israel complaining, angering God, and wanting to return to Egypt. Remembering the past good food, but forgetting the slavery they found themselves in. One of the questions asked in the Bible study for his week is:

What is our response when things are hard or you do not get your way? DUH, and Ugh. I probably don't handle it really well based on this latest challenge. But I know that the Bible teaches that in whatever circumstance to be content-in much or in little. In difficult circumstances I am comanded to:

1. Praise the Lord-Psalm 16:6
2. Be still before the Lord, wait patiently, fret not for evildoers-Psalm 37:7
3. Keep a happy heart (is that possible when things are going south)-Poverbs 15:13
4. Be content in all circumstances-Phillipians 4:11-12

My daughter, Missy, reminded me that I have asked for patience and now am in the classroom. Thanks, daughter, but I am aware and most certainly will think twice before asking for this again. Getting close to God is a heavy requirement, and I am seeing how easy it is to trust when we are in the sunshine. It's those murky, damp, dark places when we cannot see beyond our noses that it is the most difficult to believe and to trust. I am thankful that I have Jim to lean on and that he is truly leaning on God much more than I am, otherwise, I'm not sure I could make it.