NIGERIA ADVENTURE 2012
Week 1
Faith Challenge: How Four Sets of
Parents Passed the Test, On Their Knees
The exciting
opportunity to minister again in Nigeria was preceded by a wonderful family Christmas
celebration with three of our daughters, two sons-in-law, two
great-grandparents, and best of all, three grandchildren! We talked, laughed, ate and prayed,
especially for Nigeria, security and the parents of the college age Nigeria
Team members. As you may have heard, on
Christmas Day in Jos and other cities in Nigeria, bombs we exploded injuring
and killing people, all the work of radical M*s. This group is causing fear and anxiety
throughout Nigeria and Jos has been a focal point because of its strategic
location and heavy concentration of Christians and Christian ministries.
Well, when
the parents of the younger team members heard this news, alarms went off, as
they would for any good parent of a 19 or 20 year old female Bible college
student. We have four of the finest
Christian Moody Bible Institute Spokane students who fit that description. So on Monday, December 26th, the day before
we were all to fly, I had chats with each set of parents. I described the situation and answered their
questions as best I could, promised to do my best to keep their children out of
harm's way (the attacks to this point have not been aimed at missionaries and
Westerners) and then prayed with them.
They each came back with a firm affirmation of their trust in the Lord
and His work in the lives of their daughters and gave their blessing and sent
their daughters, despite the dangers. I
can't tell you how blessed and encouraged I am by their faith, which I am
already seeing being rewarded as their daughters grow into women of faith and in
cross-cultural understanding through the experiences of our first week in
Nigeria. I am certain there are four
sets of parents who are daily on their knees for our Team!
Opening the Red Sea, or How United
Airlines Made a Way Across the Pond
Four of us
(Ginny Klett, Laura Dailey, Anna Chernik and I) were scheduled to fly from
Portland to meet the other team member in Newark, NJ for our onward journey to
Frankfurt and Abuja, capital of Nigeria.
Well, God had another routing in mind and United Airlines cooperated,
thankfully! After having a bit of a
disappointing debate with the agent in Portland who charged us for our second
pieces (full of materials for the Nigerian SIM missionaries and not done on
international flights) we arrived safely in Chicago, our stopover on the way to
Newark. We arrived at the gate to
discover our flight had been delayed for one hour due to the severe windy and
rainy weather in the NYC area. No
problem, we could still make our connection with the Lufthansa flight to
Frankfurt. Well, about a half hour later
we heard the unwanted news that the delay would be an additional hour and a
half, meaning we would not make the connection!
Well, my years of air travel experience (beginning with my first United cross-country
flight in 1954) helped me hatch a plan which I sensed was God opening the Red
Sea for us. I literally ran to the
United Service Desk and got in the short line before being waved forward by
agent, Tiffany Cartier, who would become my hero and for whom I am planning to
write a glowing appreciation/commendation letter. I asked her to attempt to book us on the
Lufthansa flight headed to Frankfurt directly from Chicago (two gates down from
our Newark gate). She mentioned the
problem of transferring luggage but soon became our advocate (she wants to
become a lawyer, interestingly enough).
We stuck up a quick friendship as she went into action calling
Lufthansa, the baggage department, checking our reservations and working to
make it happen. It took almost an hour
but thankfully we all got boarding passes for the flight and I joyfully
returned to the other three praying Team members with the good news!
While our travel
crisis was being resolved, another was playing out in high drama in New
Jersey. Moriah Hall and her Mom, Terry,
were making a snail's pace journey on the interstates and turnpikes from Philly
to Newark due to multiple accidents along the way, attributable to the
weather. Whereas they had planned to be
at the airport a good two hours before the scheduled departure time at 6:10 pm
they were still driving and making a few wrong turns at 5:30! At 5:40 Moriah dashed up to the Lufthansa
desk to plead her case. Denied at first,
she finally convinced the agents that she had to be on that plane and the Red
Sea parted, including a special pass to get through security. As the flight was boarding she showed up, and
Aaron Coski (who had arrived from Anchorage), Megan Johnson (who had arrived
from Los Angeles) and Grace Fragmeni, who had driven from western New Jersey, were
amazed to see her. As the plane pulled
away from the gate, Moriah was on board, less her luggage. The wet tarmac was only a mirage because the
God of Exodus had made a way on dry ground for a young woman whose doubts had
turned to joyful praise to the same wonder working God who parts seas in the
21st Century as easily as He did in the 15th BC and whose parents' faith and
confidence in the will of God for their daughter had just skyrocketed with hers.
That the
sovereign Lord was at work in all these circumstances was evidenced not only in
our being able to get on the planes to Frankfurt. As I was finding my assigned seat, as my
custom is, I asked the Lord to put someone whom I could share Him with in my
row. The guy on the window was a
friendly German but before we could get acquainted a 35 year old Turkish woman
studying for a PhD in psychology sat down between us. Ranu and I would have one of the most
interesting conversations for the next 3 hours. This lovely, sharp agnostic M*
with a Green Card (allowing her to live and work in the US) proved to be a
challenging but open person with whom my best apologetic reasoning and knowledge
of Islm was demanded as we pursued topic after topic, always coming back to my
insistence on the exclusivity of truth and the uniqueness of Jesus and biblical
revelation. She listened, thought,
responded and challenged me and vice versa but always with a cordial spirit.
A deep respect
developed between us and she began to trust me with details of her personal
life. Turns out she has been married for
eight years to a man she loves but who is struggling with his identity and life
purpose. Her desire for children has
been denied as a result and she had sent him back to Turkey to try to find
himself, in hopes of salvaging the marriage which in her mind may not make it
as she pursues her purpose in life. I
listened as a father of four daughters her age and promised to pray for her as she
was headed to Turkey to meet her husband for the first time in four
months. In fact, she allowed me to pray
for our meal when it was served.
There is one
more anecdote before I continue which gives insight into this Ranu's thinking
and illustrates to me that she may not be far from the Kingdom. She spoke of the idea in her mind of how the
will and sovereignty of God intersects with the individual choices we
make. She spoke of the seed put in the
ground by our parents which becomes the tree of our lives. We have no choice of parents but as we grow
we put out branches and have decisions to make that determine in which
direction our branches extend, up toward the light or down toward the
darkness. She saw herself and her life
in that analogy and I suggested to her that the sovereign Maker of her tree had
put our trees together for these hours for a purpose. She could not argue that and as we concluded
our discussion, I gave her my contact info and suggested she read The Case for Christ by Lee Strobel if
she is willing to consider more carefully the claims of Christ. Would you pray for Ranu and her marriage? Pray that the Lord reminds her to by the book
or better yet pursue Jesus in the Bible.
Miraculous Meeting and Tebowing in the
Maze of Rhein-Mein Airport
The story of
this trip just gets better. Arriving in
Frankfurt, the Portland-Chicago four were wondering how we would meet the
Newark four. Thanks to tail winds our
flight across the Atlantic arrived 45 minutes early, shortly before 7am Frankfurt
time. The agents at the Lufthansa Desk
were helpful, telling us the gate at which the Newark flight would be arriving
in 15 minutes. I was anxious to know
what had become of Moriah and explained my need for information on her,
assuming they had rebooked her for a later flight. They could not share that information with us
so we headed out through the maze that is Frankfurt Rhein-Mein Airport. After a short train ride and a walk down a
corridor which was at least a quarter mile long, we came to a security check
point and learned that only departing passengers could enter. Inquiring where arriving passengers passed we
were told to head back through the long corridor to a passport control station.
By now it was the scheduled time for the arrival of the flight and we were
still not sure where or whether we would meet our team. I was hoofing it and my faithful team of four
was faithfully following, wondering if it was worth it! Well, at the passport control we were
directed up a flight of stairs, met a couple who could hardly speak English, the
first fruits of the Newark flight and finally found the place where our
teammates would pass! Sure enough in
about 5 minutes here they come, Moriah's smiling face included! Well, just before they arrived, I had told
the Portland gals that if Moriah was with them, I would "Tebow"
(prayer on one knee in a public setting) right there. So I kept my promise and we all embraced,
letting out a shout of joy. God was going
before and behind this motley crew of 21st Century pilgrims of faith.
There was one
more member to connect with, Christian Rothchild, who had started in Houston
and had a very close connection in Frankfurt in order to make the ongoing
flight to Nigeria. Well, the Lord came
through again and sure enough, when we arrived at the gate for the flight to
Abuja, Christian came running up, testifying to the rapid passage he
experienced through security enabling him to make the flight and meet us. The Team was all together and full of
excitement, though two members would experience sickness and in Grace's case,
pretty serious effects. But again the
Lord divided the Red Sea and right across the aisle on the Abuja bound flight
were three unoccupied seats in a row.
The attendant had compassion on us and instructed us to use the space,
allowing Grace to sleep lying down for the entire flight and to feel much
better at the end of the flight.
Welcome Home to Nigeria!
We arrived safely at Abuja after an
instrument landing through the thick brown haze of
Harmattan dust which had blown in from
the Sahara Desert. It was thicker than I
had
seen it in Abuja which is farther
south than Jos and farther from the Sahara.
Passage
through Immigration got a little dicey
when one man asked for a copy of the letter of
invitation which we had sent with each
of our visa applications but which I had failed to
include with all the documents I had
packed for the trip. Thankfully the
"ogar" or boss
was kindly disposed to pass us through
and we secured the needed stamps in our
passports and entrance into the
country.
As we sought our luggage, two of our
team received written notification that a total of 3
pieces of luggage had not arrived. One was Moriah which we already knew about
but
the other was Ginny Klett. Well, things got a bit confusing when Ginny
insisted her
checked luggage had arrived and was right
next to her but Anna complained that
neither of her pieces had shown
up The mystery was quickly solved when
we realized
that the agent in Portland had put
Ginny's tags on Anna's luggage in the rush of
checking in together. Thankfully the luggage arrived the next day
and was delivered to
Jos without any further
complications. The sharing of clothes,
etc., only lasted a day
and a night!
After an easy sail through customs(an
answer to prayer), we were met by Audu, the
SIM driver who had come to take us to
Jos. Since it was dusk, the first stop
however
was a fast food place Christian knew
about which features shwarmas (sliced lamb on
pita bread). We took our first meal in the van to the
Baptist Guesthouse in Abuja,
managed by our SIM colleagues, Chuck
and Judy Brod, who welcomed us as we
arrived. After a good night's sleep and a great
breakfast, we were off for Jos, arriving at
Crescent Hill Baptist Hostel by 2 pm,
followed by and official welcome and a helpful
orientation to Jos by one of the SIM
missionary wives. Finally after two days and a night
in planes and airports, we were able
to sleep in a horizontal position and sleep we did!
Christmas
Party Time: Jos Style
The next three days, Thursday-Saturday
were planned to be an initial orientation and
exposure to ministries in and around
Jos, particularly ministries associated with City
Ministries with whom we will be
working after the SIM Conference. What a
challenge
and blessing they were to all of
us! It has taken us debriefings every
night and a whole
day today (January 2) to process all
we experienced and learned.
On Friday our plan was to throw three
New Year's parties at some of the ministry sites
where we will be working. Our first stop was the Transition House where
young men
who have been rescued from living on
the streets are being transitioned into normal life,
being parented, discipled and trained
for life in an loving environment where they have
experienced rebirth in every way. Superstitious ideas had caused relatives of
both
Ibrahim (Abraham) and Shadrach to attempt
to kill them due to events in their families
they had nothing to do with. They now have hope (the original ministry is
called "House
of Hope") and a future (Jeremiah
29:11), one planning on being a pastor and the other
an engineer. What a joy for our team to sing testimony
songs like "Nothing But the
Blood" and "Our God is
Greater" with these young men who know the reality like few of
us and then to celebrate together over
minerals (soda pop) , cookies and candy we had
brought for them.
We then experienced the practical
ministry of the Wheel Chair Workshop and met the
amazing man who leads the ministry,
Ayuba Gufwan, crippled by polio from birth.
His
workshop produces wheelchairs for the
benefit of polio victims (Nigeria leads the world
in this incurable but preventable
disease). We hear his story, saw the
workshop and the
process involved in making the
wheelchairs (which now includes making prostheses)
and share a meal with the crew. You can learn more about this ministry at
www.wheelchairsfornigeria.org.
Our last party of the day was at the
Widows Ministry, another place where marginalized
people in the society get their life
back through the efforts of missionaries working in
City Ministries. These lovely women whose husband died might
have lost everything
but for the seamstress skills they
have been able to develop and using the sewing
machines are able to support
themselves and their children. They
heard we were
coming and had prepared lunch for us
so we had our second lunch, this time delicious
jollef rice and then again heard
testimonies of the grace of God in their lives and our
team sang for them. Then things really got rowdy, in a good
Christian celebrating way!
They got their instruments and we all
began to sing and dance around the table,
celebrating all we had together in
Jesus and his love and grace.
Miracles like this are happening in
Jos, the city which has become known for religious
violence, because God's people are
incarnating the love of Jesus. What a
privilege to
be among them!
Prayer
Mountains and More Miracles
On Saturday, New Year's Eve Day, we
headed out through the Muslim section of town
where there have been violent skirmishes
on to the road leading to Bauchi. After
a
number of police and military
checkpoints we turned on to a dusty road and within in a
minute were driving onto the most
beautiful Eden in the making I have seen in Nigeria.
We were greeted by Rev. and Mrs. Sung
Lee, SIM missionaries from South Korea.
I
have known them for some time and have
found them to be some of the most godly
people of faith and prayer
anywhere. This site is known as the
Rihzah EMS
(Evangelical Missionary Society)
Training Center, a project they launched about 7 years
ago with a meager amount of money and
a bushel full of faith in the leadership of God.
Rev. Lee has worked in training
Nigerian missionaries and believing that they also
needed a place for spiritual
refreshment. He built one in the
Kaltungo area (which I had
visited some years ago) and now this
second location had been secured and
developed. From a rocky barren piece of mountain and a
dirty stream has now come a
place of perpetual beauty with roses
and all matter of other beautiful flowers, vegetation,
pine trees, someday to be a forest for
quiet prayer walks. Besides the meeting
hall and
dorm, a chapel is being but the
outstanding feature are two screened in prayer houses
perched on the side of the mountain
overlooking the retreat site and facing north toward
the states of Nigeria with millions of
M*s who are boldly prayed for each day. We
heard the amazing stories of how the
discovery of water on the site has been a blessing
to both the Christian and M* villages
nearby. The result has been the building
of
trust between these communities in an
area where religious bloodshed had occurred.
Both communities now share the
blessing of the water and during the recent religious
riots a few kilometers away brought
them together to mutually and cooperative protect
this Christian Training Center.
After a picnic lunch we climbed up the
mountain and met a pastor who had been
praying for most of a week, staying in
the prayer house 24/7. We were totally
motivated
to pray by all that we had heard and
experienced and so for the next hour we did just
that and as a team really met with the
Lord on the Prayer Mountain.
A side note for you who read our
Prayer Letters and know about our involvement in the
Ambaricho Prayer and MIssion Movement will be interested to know that an
Ethiopian
Pastor has visited this site. The prayer mountain movement continues to
grow around
the world and again it is a privilege
to witness and participate in it!
WARNINGS
FROM THE PULPIT, DANCING IN THE STREETS
New Years Day
dawned cool (high 60's) bright and beautiful here on teh Jos Plateau. Some of the Team had been so motivated by the
challenge to pray, they decided to get up before dawn when the muzzein begins
his plaintiff cry on the loud speakers calling M*s to prayer before the sun
comes up, exhorting them that prayer is better than sleep. (To say the least I
am so pleased and proud of this Team for their spiritual initiatives even
before we begin our ministry this week.)
The Team was
headed to an English speaking Nigerian ECWA (SIM related church in Nigeria)
Church nearby but I was fighting a severe cold so I stayed home to sleep. They were impacted by the message by the
pastor which emphasized the need for caution and the need to be cautious
because of possible problems. Thankfully
nothing happened but experiencing the
daily realities and powerful faith of these Christian people living in the context
of religious persecution and insecurity is giving the Team a new perspective on
being a Christian in a hostile world.
Peter's exhortation to a pilgrim Christianity that lives and longs for
the lasting world of our heavenly home takes on new meaning.
Sunday
afternoon we drove for an hour to the town where the SIM Spiritual Life
Conference will be held for their annual New Year's Celebration featuring
cultural dancing. As honored guests we
were seated next to the Chief and accorded special privileges including a meal
and being videoed for the TV news! From
considering the cost of persecution to almost rock star status in the space of
3 hours illustrates the many and often conflicting roles and realities of life
as a white missionary in Africa. The
Team continues to process each of these pieces of cultural information with
maturity and wisdom.
MEETING NEW FRIENDS AND MY NIGERIAN FAMILY
On Monday the
day was devoted to getting ready for the week of ministry coming this
week. Clothes were washed, journals
updated, notes rehearsed and additional sleep indulged in. In the afternoon we took a stroll over to the
SIM Apollo Crescent Compound to visit
and had time with Peter and Miriam Fretheim (City Ministries Director) and Phil
and Janne Andrew (SIM Nigeria Director).
In the evening we invited some Baptist missionaries working with a major
unreached Muslim tribe in NE Nigeria to
share their life story and ministry with us.
Their passion and humility impressed us and the danger they face as they
decide when to go back challenged us.
They had left about 10 days ago because of threats and incidents in
their area but were undaunted in their commitment to continue their work. At the end of the time we prayed for them and
blessed them, something this team is very good at doing.
The biggest
surprise of the day came when my Nigerian son in the faith, Rev. Dan Luke came
over for a visit with his family and announced that Ruth is pregnant with
twins! I am so excited! I will have twin Nigerian grandchildren in
July! I introduced them to the Team and
shared some gifts and basked in this news!
WAYS TO PARTNER WITH US AND PRAY FOR
US DURING WEEK TWO
Our blog: hiseternaleyes.blogspot.com
Our schedule:
January 3rd travel
to Miango (20 miles from Jos and one hour drive) for the SIM Spiritual Life
Conference through Sunday, January 8th.
January 4th
most of us will join in on a 15 mile hike reenacting the coming of the gospel
to Miango and the Irigwe tribe 100 years ago (1912).
Please
bombard the Throne of Grace with the following needs for our Team:
·
Wisdom,
strength and Spirit filling for the task of ministering to the SIM missionaries
and children.
·
Continued
protection for Christians in Nigeria, for the SIM SLC and for our Team. Pray
for Daniel our driver.
·
Continued
Team unity.
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