BIRTH OF NOUVEAU: A GIFT FROM GOD
God gave us an open vision. I was washed ashore to what I presumed to be a European coastland. However, on the shore was the building the Lord gave us. in Victoria Island, Lagos. In front of it was a large number of children from different countries and of different races; all playing and running around. Then the vision rolled away.
Fast forward to 7 years later, God told me to establish a crèche in the building he gave us in Victoria Island, Lagos. But after having done so, the venture flopped. For years, we had few clients and the expenditure far exceeded the income.
But 3 years later, two Indian ladies came to see us. They claimed to be teachers at Kiran’s Playgroup; the oldest multinational crèche in Lagos which, strategically, was only ten minutes’ drive from ours. Their crèche was closing down. The proprietor was retiring and going back to England after 32 years. Having looked around for an alternative location, they proposed that all the children and staff of their crèche should be transferred into ours free of charge; lock, stock and barrel.
That is how God gave us the inheritance of the oldest multinational crèche in Lagos.
On the day of the arrival of the new children and staff, I came to my crèche could not believe my eyes. In front of me was the vision the Lord had given me ten years earlier. There were all these children from all over the world (over 70 of them), running and playing around in our playground. The only difference was that it was not in a European city, as I had presumed. It was here in Lagos.
That is how Nouveau Crèche and Playschool was born. Nevertheless, it is inter-denominational and not exclusively Christian. Over the years, we have had children from China, Croatia, Egypt, Germany, Ghana, India, Italy, Lebanon, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Turkey, and Zimbabwe, among others.
In 2014, Nouveau Primary School was added to Nouveau Crèche and Playschool.
(Femi Aribisala)