Ten people from five different United States churches checked into a British Airways flight to Nigeria via London.

Our group was comprised of pastors, doctors, nurses and even two lawyers. Seven of the ten spent their time between Kaduna and Kateri, where a medical center has been established, funded by Trinity Episcopal Church in Tariffville, Connecticut.

Three of us, including two of us from St. Peter's Episcopal Church in South Windsor, Connecticut, and one from Trinity traveled another three and one half hours north to Gusau, the capital of Zamfara State. There we met with Bishop John Danbinta to explore building a primary/secondary school in Gusau.

Read on for more about the trip . . . 

We all met on Friday morning (the 13th) at Logan in Boston. Some of the group were already in Boston, and others were driven to Boston very early Friday morning. Our flight involved two legs, one from Boston to London, Heathrow, and the second from Heathrow to Abuja, the federal capital of Nigeria. Each leg of the flight was over 6 hours, with about a two-hour layover in Heathrow. The remainder of our journey was by auto, first two hours to Kaduna, and then for three of us an additional three and one half hours further northwest to Gusau.

There were ten of us on this trip, two from St. Peters Episcopal Church in South Windsor, three from Trinity Episcopal Church in Tariffville, and the remaining four from different parishes, including one from Texas. Our group is quite diverse, and we all took an immediate liking to each other when we met over the course of several months prior to the trip to discuss logistics. Our total travel time from Boston to Abuja was approximately 15 hours, including the layover in London.

Click the photos below to read about some of our daily activities.