The first edition of Leaving Prints On Hearts was held last year, on the 24th of June 2017 in Four locations including Lagos, Ogbomoso, Ile-Ife Nigeria and The Gambia. This time, we added an extra location, Ondo, which made it five.
This year’s event was held on the 30th of June 2018, except for Ile-Ife which was held on a school day, cos it was a school outreach, and here is a summary of the whole event in all five locations.
LAGOS
Venue: Footprints of David Art, Bariga. Lagos Nigeria.
Volunteers: Debbie, Tobi, Victory, Damilola, Solomon, Wisdom, Jumoke, Selene, Oreoluwa, and Victor
The outreach started out in a slow motion but seeing the children rush up in excited as they anticipated on what we had in store for them. They bubbled in happiness and the kept touring around in expectant of the next game. The children were filled with so many talent and they showed us with their dance Talent.
Along the line, They were enlightened about what the organisation was about. The children at FOOTPRINTS OF DAVID ART were incredibly amazing. Seeing their immeasurable smile, melted the hearts of every one of the volunteers. At the end, the distributed gift items to about 100+ children, 20 women and a father who decided to be involved. Gift items were also given to the community leader. We indeed left prints on hearts.
OWO, ONDO
Venue: School of the Blind, Owo. Ondo Nigeria.
Volunteers: Olayemi, Ibukunoluwakinsha, Adebola, and Samuel.
We arrived at the school for the Blind around 11am, met with the coordinator who asked the students to come out of their hostel.
The woman told us the school of the visually impaired, which is called the school of the blind, consist of the students who attend a government secondaty school, Owo High School while the pupils (lesser than age 12) attend the School of the Blind.
We talked to them about the goals of Teens Meet Online and how we intend to help them. We gave them the gifts we took there, and they sang songs to thank us.
The school had students who were totally blind and some were partially blind, it was easy communicating with them because they all heard what we said. That day was fun and challenging as the students sang songs to show gratitude to God.
OGBOMOSO, OYO.
Venue: Nigeria Training for the Blind, Randa Area. Ogbomoso, Oyo Nigeria
Volunteers: Victoria and Doyinsola
The first day we went there to confirm the venue, the place was too far from school area but the whole experience when we met these wonderful people was wow.
The venue has different compartments which include the house for the blind, both young and old, and their school as well but we were told that some people attend school somewhere else.
We also discovered that they are familiar with their environment in the sense that they can actually go out to buy something without anyone following them.
We had two speakers among three people that went there; the first person decided to speak in Yoruba and the other decided to speak English and they all responded well.
We started with an opening prayer and two girls out of the people we went to see came out to lead the worship and praise session. I was overwhelmed because their voice was so lovely.
After then, we addressed them on how to get closer to God and we also told them that there’s more to what they can do and God is actually watching over them.
They were so happy to have us around
We went there with foodstuff which includes: Rice, beans, spaghetti, noodles, semo and other food ingredients
After dropping the foodstuffs with the assistant matron. Some of the guys there spoke with us and asked a lot of questions.
We felt so good about the outreach. It was indeed a success
God bless TMO.
ILE-IFE, OSUN.
Venue: Ife City Junior School, Ile-Ife. Osun Nigeria.
Volunteers: Promise Uche, Boluwatife Ishola, Oluwatomi Kehinde, and Similoluwa Kayode
On getting to the school, our intention was to reach out to the senior school students but we were not allowed to. We were told that a group of people had already come to minister to them so we reached out to the junior school students.
We spoke to the students about God’s love and gave them the material we took with us which were, jotters, pens and rulers.
It was a beautiful experience.
THE GAMBIA
Venue: Busumbala Village, Brikama. The Gambia
Volunteers: Oluwatosin, Adedolapo, Grace, Amelia, Jamie, Ernersha, and Alison.
We visited Busumbala Village, Brikama, The Gambia to Leave Prints On Hearts and it is still one amazing event that will forever remain in memory.
It was almost frustrating when we missed our way while going to the village, but the whole experience afterward eventually overshadowed that.
On getting to the ‘venue’, it was just an empty field, with a not-so-good-looking tent that we already arranged with someone a day prior. Now, the plan was to get the villagers to that exact venue, since we couldn’t visit each house.
It looked impossible at first because Busumbala is a very big village with what I’ll call ‘scattered settlements’. The houses weren’t close together like Yuna village, where we visited last year. But what else could we do? We set out anyway, to see how far we could go and how many houses we’d be able to touch.
Thankfully, we had two native speakers among us. One decided to speak Wolof (the common language), and the other decided to speak Mandika, for those who might not understand Wolof. We were in the village anyway.
There were already a few children at the venue, so we decided to play an easy evangelism trick. Catch the children first, convince them and the rest, they say, is history. We explained to the children what we came to do, so they gladly scattered abroad to call others from far and near.
The children really helped because even at some point, before we told some people the whole gist, they were already telling us how they had heard already and would be there. By the time we were returning back to the venue, we had a small crowd trailing behind. It was amazing. On getting to the venue, there were even more people.
People started trooping in, in numbers. There were so many people than we expected, most of which were children.
We taught the children a few songs in the local dialect and in English. We played and danced together too. Then, decided to share the things we brought.
While some of us went out to call the villagers together, some other volunteers remained at the spot to take care of the goodies we brought and distribute the foodstuff into packs.
Sharing the foodstuff, clothing items, books and other items weren’t as easy as we thought. At a point, we really needed more hands, but just had to make do with what we had.
At the end of it all, we can say that no single person left that place empty handed. We wish we had more and would have done more, but the villagers were sure glad they could go home with some packages. Clothes, shoes, books, candies and foodstuff were a great deal to them.
And oh, we take the gospel everywhere we go. There were new converts on that day, as we ensured that we shared the word before distributing any item. They needed to know who made it possible for us to be there and doing the things we did.
Every single person in the team sure felt so good about the outreach.
We eventually took some snacks while we waited for one of our vehicles to come pick us. We also used that time to climb cashew trees and plucked as many cashews as we could. Since we were at a place called “the cashew place” anyway. We weren’t taking chances. Lol
Lists of new converts were turned over to the church in that area. And we hope to go back one of these days to check on them.
So help us God. Amen.
That’s all about the report in each location. Thank you so much for supporting us towards this outreach. We love and appreciate you.
Are there any ways you think we can get better? Do not hesitate to share with us in the comments below or send an e-mail to teensmeetonline@gmail.com. We look forward to hearing from you.
See you next year at Leaving Prints On Hearts 3.0! With the help of God, and you amazing people, we hope to reach out to more locations and touch even many more hearts.
If you’ll like to join us, simply click here and follow the guideline.
God bless you!
Teens Meet Outreach 
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