NIGERIA ADVENTURE 2012
Week 3
Learning, Networking and
Engaging in Ministry
Teaching/Learning
One of the
great blessings of leading a team like this is the opportunity to debrief them
after each day, so full of new sites, sounds, smells and cultural learning as
they process what missionary life and cross-cultural ministry are like in shoe
leather, not just in the lecture halls and classrooms at Moody Spokane. This team is sharp and ask the tough
questions, showing their keenness to learn and that they are seeing things with
new glasses. Serious questions about
cultural values, religious persecution and suffering, African view of
missionaries, differing missionary approaches to ministry, missionary call,
etc. have been raised and chewed on in the very context of observing and
experiencing them. What a perfect
teaching context!
Would you
join me in praying that God would use this experience not only to broaden the
understanding and appreciation of God, his world and missions in the mind and
heart of each team member, but also be pleased to call some of them to career
cross-cultural service.
Networking
Monday,
January 9th, proved to be a classic opportunity for networking, a most
important part of Kingdom ministry, whether at home or abroad. My colleague and friend, Ralph Sauers,
veteran SIM missionary in Niger, now working in the Recruitment Department at SIM
USA HQs, led a team of two other men from his local church, Steelecreek Church
in Charlotte, NC, to Nigeria to survey the possibilities of a strategic church
planting effort in the home village of Ben, a Nigerian from Imo State, now a
vital member of Steelecreek, who has a passion for reaching his people. As a church, represented by Wes, Missions
Pastor and members, Ralph and Ben, realized that partnering with EMS (Evangelical Missionary
Society of ECWA, the SIM related church denomination) would be a crucial
Kingdom minded strategy and so they came to Jos to meet with the Director of
EMS, my friend, Rev. Stephen Baba. We
invited Ralph and his team to meet and share with our team. We shared our testimonies and heard more
about them. Here is Ralph's rehearsing
of how we were able to have a role in this example of networking leading to
potential partnerships in the reaching of people and the growth of the Kingdom
"We had lunch with Rick and his team. What a wonderful blessing to hear the
testimonies of those students and to hear of their tremendous passion for
serving Christ. After lunch, our team
met with Rick to get his counsel about the church planting opportunity in Ben’s
villages. Rick has rich experience
serving the Lord in Nigeria and in the U partnering churches in the US in
mission. The interaction with Rick
helped clarify the important questions and issues we need to address. We’re coming into this situation as learners,
not having a clue as to what the best culturally appropriate way to proceed
might be.
Part way through the meeting with Rick, God brought Brother Titus
Turaki, who came to meet with Rick about the Romans Project Pastors Conference
to be held on Friday. But the Lord had
him come to meet us! Titus is an
Evangelical Missionary Society missionary who faithfully served the Lord as a
pioneer evangelist and church planter.
Now, Titus heads up the training of all new EMS missionaries. Wow!
The next two hours walked us through an inside look at EMS and how the
organization works. In addition, we got
to hear firsthand of the great sacrifice EMS missionaries make to serve the
Lord in this country. It is widely known
that to be an EMS missionary is to accept a life of hardship, deprivation, and
in some cases, martyrdom to serve Christ.
That meeting with Rick and Titus was indispensible for the meeting
God arranged today with Brother Stephen Panya Baba, the Executive Director of
EMS. As the three of us shared our
hearts, visions, dreams and questions about the church planting endeavor in
Ben’s villages, Brother Stephen came alive with excitement."
What a joy to be in Nigeria when these men were needing counsel
and to network them with Rev. Turaki, a former student of mine who is Romans
Project Coordinator in Nigeria.
Ministering
On Tuesday, January 10th and Wednesday, January 11th our team jumped
right into some exciting ministry opportunities with City Ministries (CM),
headed by my friend Peter Fretheim. We
traveled out of Jos about 10 miles on a rough road to a town called Gyero where
CM ministers to orphans who have been rescued from various hopeless and abusive
situations. We met their leader/caregivers
(some of whom were ophans just like them), their school (with beautifully
painted classrooms done by a short termer in 2010), and witnessed their
irrepressible joy. We all gathered in a
meeting room to sing, share testimonies and have snacks which we brought for
them. We were so blessed by their enthusiastic
singing and quoting of memory verses and their faces were irresistible subjects
for my camera snaps (Nigerian English for picture taking).
The next day we headed downtown Jos to the Gidan Bege (House of
Hope) ministry hub and were smothered with loving hugs and entertained by the happy
kids who are fed and taught life skills there.
The young Nigerian leaders of the outreach ministry showed us around and
we met with the chaplain who prayed for our outreach ministry about to be
embarked on.
We went to the large Jos Prison and after proper screening were
permitted into the large courtyard populated by hundreds of prisoners, male and
female milling around in small groups.
Under their curious stares, we were ushered into a meeting hall being
set up for our program. Eventually about
100 prisoners came in and sat down on the plastic chairs or peered in the
windows. Soon the beat of drums led into
some enthusiastic music led by an a sharp, 30-something death row inmate who
had recently had his sentence commuted to life in prison. He later gave his testimony and though he
claims innocence of the crime, has overcome bitterness and is now a leader of
the Christian ministry going on periodically.
Our team came through with special music (our gals blended
beautifully as they sang "Nothing
But the Blood" and "Amazing Grace" acapella) and powerful
testimonies (these gals are fearless) and Aaron preached a meaningful message
from the Word (he is really adept at contextualizing his messages for the
audience, whatever culture).
Because we were a visiting missionary team we were given special
permission by the Deputy Controller of the prison to hold services, even though
we had not followed normal protocol by writing a formal request to hold such
services. I had the chance to thank him
personally, culturally appropriate protocol, and he took the opportunity to
inform me of the biggest problem he has, namely getting enough water for the
prison population. He lamented the fact
that he needs about $250 equivalent to connect with the city water source and
has to bring in water tankers at about $50 each on a regular basis, a financial
burden. The clear implication was that
since he gave us an opportunity to hold our program and we are clearly people
of means, we should help him with his problem.
The fact that the head of a major national prison (where a former head
of state was once held during one of the previous military regimes) has to ask
a visiting missionary for help is indicative of the state of things in Nigeria
as a whole. Assuming he was not planning
to pocket the money (problem of corruption at all levels), it is obvious that
vital human services and security functions are lacking adequate resourcing
(hence the current security challenges related to the religious tensions and
the just ended national strike over federal fuel subsidy cuts).
All that said, we believe the Lord used our team to impact the
lives of those prisoners and we went away thankful and joyful that the Lord had
brought us here for ministry opportunities like this.
We took a special lunch break and enjoyed our first meal of
pounded yam with egusi soup and red stew prepared by Esther Wilson whom I
mentioned in my November trip report.
She was our house help when we lived in Jos and became like a member of
our family and vice versa. We had the
honor of naming her son, Jonathan, who is a special young man to us. The yam she prepared was wonderful and we all
thoroughly enjoyed the meal and fellowship.
While eating, Esther's daughter with her new baby came to greet us.
Our afternoon
assignment was an opportunity to mingle with nationals at the market in Bukuru
(5 miles from Jos), pass out tracts and share Christ in "cold turkey"
evangelism. You need to understand that
sharing Christ is very easy in such a setting.
People want the tracts and take it a serious thing that the white people
showed up to pass them out. Talking
about God or referring to Him are part of almost every conversation
The next day we arrived at GB and joined with the outreach staff
and walked around the corner to two nearby brothels to share Christ with some
of the neediest women in a society where the plight of women is often tragic and women's rights are
meager, though improving, especially within the context of the Church and
Christian homes informed by the teaching of the Word of God. Our team again stood tall as Anna gave a
stirring testimony in one and Moriah
gave a powerful sermon in the other. I
cannot tell you how proud I am of these young women whose messages spoke
directly to the tragedy of the lives and hopeless AIDS filled future of these
women caught up in the evil sex trade in Nigeria that reaches around the
world. You parents who are reading,
should join me in pride but more importantly in thanksgiving to God for the
character, commitment and of your daughters whom God is molding into powerful
servants who delivered a caring articulate message of love and truth, as they
boldly reached out to some of the neediest people in the world scourged by the
sex trade pandemic of the 21st Century.
On Friday, despite
the national strike and fuel costs that had more than doubled, 128 pastors and
church workers arrived by car, van, taxi, and motorcycle for the Romans Project
Pastors Conference held at the ECWA Headquarters Conference Center. Of this
number, 90 had completed the reading of Romans and writing it by hand in a
notebook. What a joy it was to hand them their MP3 players after
seeing their enthusiastic response to the daylong teaching on Romans for Africa
and the challenge to study for and preach expositional sermons. Our team helped register and stayed for the morning sessions. Aaron did a masterful job connecting with the
pastors when he taught the session on
How to Study the Bible to Preach Expository
Sermons.
Knowing that four of our team have birthdays in January and February and
that another four would be leaving for home the next day, we decided to
have a big party on Saturday night. It
started with a fabulous meal of pork chops, mashed potatoes and gravy, sweet
potatoes with orange sauce, green beans and carrots and salad prepared by our friend a veteran
missionary, Rev. Harvey Stromme. Only
someone who has lived and cooked in Nigeria knows how amazing a feat it is to pull together such a
scrumptious meal here. We and our
invited guests were joined by 44 other
SIMers for the special meal which we all thoroughly enjoyed. Harvey surprised us with homemade birthday
cake with candles and all.
We then moved
back to our hostel to continue the party with some Nigerian friends, including
our team driver, Daniel and his girlfriend for another cake and fun.
Our last day
together as a team of nine was Sunday and
included a trip down the road off the Jos Plateau to Kagoro where we enjoyed seeing another CM
Care Center. We were again barraged with
loving hugs before heading to the church where kids snuggled up to us during
the 3 hour service. Our team had a
chance to introduce ourselves and then Laura and Ginny shared their testimonies before the congregation of
about 300.
At about 1:30
the SIM driver arrived and after prayer
we bid farewell to 5/9ths of our team who headed to Abuja for their flights
home to the joy of family and friends.
Anna, Grace, Moriah, Megan and I
continue the ministry in strategic CM ministries around Jos. The gals are proving champions in every way
as they learn more of what ministry in Africa is all about. On Wednesday I ledi another Roman Project
Pastors Conference in a town named Manchok, about 40 miles from Jos and 20
pastors attended including three of my
former students at Jos Seminary who are now the leaders of the District Church
Council in the area.
Thanks for
praying for us that we finish this
amazing experience well. Here is the
schedule for our last week:
Thursday and
Friday, Jan. 19-20: Anna and Moriah at Gidan Bege, Grace and Megan at Gyero
Orphanage
Saturday,
Jan. 21: Gals to Prayer Mountain and
Rick to Pastors Conference in Bauchi; Girls have party for Hillcrest
kids
Sunday, Jan. 22:
Church in Jos and dinner at home of Indian friend whom Carol discipled
Monday, Jan.
23: Same as 1/19-20
Tuesday-Wednesday,
Jan. 24-25: Rick teaching at Jos Seminary.
Girls to attend chapel
Thursday,
Jan. 26: Drive to Abuja and fly
overnight to Frankfurt
Friday, Jan.
27: Arrive in Spokane and Portland
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