(Extract - Chapter Four of Journey into the Dark Nations : Autobiography of Andrew Abah)
It is difficult to precisely tell the exact date Grace Foundation Inland Missions came into existence but the circumstances that surrounded its birth and the year it was founded cannot be forgotten easily. First, in one of our many outreaches, some friends with whom I had related with for many years decided to go into more interior and remote jungles to preach the gospel to the people. We were persuaded by the reasoning of Oswald J. Smith who argued that it was not logical for some to hear the gospel over and over whereas others are not opportuned to hear the gospel even once. We then choose four locations for our mission adventure for that period. They were Ebala, Akre, Enumadu and Irim, all in Benue State of Nigeria. These places were not accessible by vehicles at that time, not even commercial vehicles could dare it. We trekked very long distances, climbing hills and descending valleys to get there.
Entering Real Dark Jungles
We preached at four locations from house to house. We also organized open air crusades and the evangelistic campaigns were very fruitful many persons came out to surrender their lives to Christ and the sick came out to be prayed for. We were all very young and energetic, Dr. Agnes Okpe (nee Igoche) was a college girl then, she is now a Lecturer in Kaduna State Polytechnic. Dr. Joel Onu was a student at the Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria then. He is now a Lecturer at the same University. Rose Ameh was a student at the Benue State Polytechnic, she is now in Liberia after working in one of the oil companies in Kano for several years. Preaching especially in the jungle was our passion. The results were always very exciting. We did it with little or no resources. The grace of God was always very strong and the team work was unparalleled.
All the places we preached were really challenging but one of the villages stood out. That was Irim. Most of the inhabitants were dwarfs. Some of the dwarfs, including men had protruded stomach as if pregnant with twins, some had sores that had lasted for seven years and above. The situation of the people was an eyesore. One girl seemed to standout there. She was very beautiful and well structured. I beckoned on her to come so we could chat. Unfortunately, she responded with sign language. She was deaf and dumb. I was deeply touched. I then asked why all of them were so highly deformed in the village. They claimed the village was known for witchcrafts and that the more number of witches or wizards torments, determined their pride in the society.
The Seed that led to Grace Foundation Inland Missions
I wept as I asked the Lord why He permitted the people such power to be able to torment His creatures in that manner. I heard God tell me very clearly that He was not to be blamed but the church. The church was designed by God to be the light but this light has been hoarded so much that many communities, tribes and nations are still in gross darkness after over 2000years that the price for their redemption has been paid. While places with light are being flooded with more light, darkness is growing thicker in the dark places of the earth and the Prince of darkness have field day carrying out his ministry: 'The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy…'(John 10:10). It was at this point that the Holy Spirit made Psalm 74: 20 clearer in my spirit: 'Have respect unto the covenant: for the dark places of the earth are full of the habitations of cruelty' (Ps 74:20).
In a lay man's language, God is a covenant keeper. He will continue to wait for the light to dispel darkness. Until this is done, the cruelty will continue. He has made provision for the light. You and I are the light that will dispel this darkness. His words: "You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. (Matt 5:14-16).
The need was very clear. Civilization, money and social infrastructure could not checkmate this darkness. Only the light could do it. At this point, I offered myself. At this point I had been born again, I had served in various leadership positions and ministry but nothing else could quench the thirst to dispel darkness. The seed to extend God's grace to these people grew stronger and stronger. It was clear where I was heading to in life as I made commitments to God I was going to spend the rest of my life to take the light of the gospel to the dark places of the earth. The thought of how to go about this task constantly gripped my heart.
In 1988, the Kamberi mission work started via a research while I was the Evangelical Secretary of the Kwara Christian Corpers Fellowship (KCCF). In 1989 we pressed further with series of short term outreaches using the KCCF platform. The Kamberi field located in the thick forest of Borgu Local Government Area just like Irim had the same features of the dark places of the earth. As we rounded up the service year, we made effort to convince the incoming KCCF leadership to continue with the work but sadly, they declined because the place was carved out of Kwara State of Nigeria and merged with Niger State.
My friend and colleague, Habila Musa made contact with the Calvary Ministry, an indigenous mission outfit in Nigeria to take over and continue with the work just like we handed over the Christian Fellowship Centre I started at Aiona in 1984/1985 to Christian Life Evangelical Ministry. They also declined. We cannot allow the work among the Kamberis to stop prematurely. We must also continue with our outreaches in the jungles of Ebala, Akre, Enumadu and Irim. The extension of the Christian Fellowship Centres at the boarder villages of Enugu and Benue state anchored by my colleague, Michael Agada had not been handed over to any ministry. Instead, we had gotten more missionaries like Magreth Daniel, Gabriel Itodo, Pius Eje, Janet Julius and others. Most of them were teachers and were paid by the government. Magreth and Gabriel were supported by our first financial partner, Dr. Malobi Ogboli.
After much prayer, I felt the leading of the Holy Spirit to have a broader organized platform that will harness our past and existing labour that had not yet been handed over to any organization and to use it as a lunching pad to invade as many more dark places of the earth as the Lord enables us. In October 1989, I met in Jos with some of the members of the team we were working with to ratify the structure. We called it Grace Foundation. It was in the process of registering the organization with the Corporate Affairs Commission we discovered the name was no longer available that we changed it to Grace Foundation Inland Missions(GFIM).
We spent the first year praying to God for a clearer blue print on how to progress with the assignment. A team of between seven to twelve persons began meeting on a weekly basis in my house to pray for our team on the mission field. We travelled from time to time to the mission field to strengthen the converts and the labourers. In 1990, we called for a National Prayer Conference (NPC) that brought together all our team members from across Nigeria. We took time to pray for the nations, for world missions and for the future of GFIM. At the end of the conference, we met to formalize the leadership structure during which Agnes Okpe, Joel Onu, Sunday Ayegba, Yinka Laoye and I became the first set of Executive Council.
After five years, the list was reviewed to include Samson Amedu and Lucy Abah. In the process of registering GFIM with the Corporate Affairs Commission, the status of the Executive Council was changed to Members of the Board of Trustees. With time, members of this Board began to grow in many ways and their schedules became very tight such that they were not as available as they use to be. Some of them became Pastors in their local assemblies. Others became Managers in their places of work. In responding to this reality, a governing council was appointed to work hand in hand with the Board of Trustees. Some of the Board members who are resident in Jos and those whose schedule still allows for consistent involvement in the work like Yinka Laoye, Lucy Abah and myself are members of both the Council and the Trustees. We also brought in new members who have shown consistency in the ministry like Joke Eyitayo (Nee Ositelu) and later replaced by her husband Samuel Gboyega Eyitayo and National Directors of GFIM in various countries as well as Chairmen of the Governing Councils of countries where we work and Michael Agada who was the regional leader of the work among the boarder villages of Enugu/Benue State and much later Fred Adigun.
Fresh Breath on the Work
With GFIM in place, work continued in earnest in all the places where we were working. We studied patterns of Jesus missionary endeavours and Matthew 4:13-16 particularly struck our minds:
'Leaving Nazareth, he went and lived in Capernaum, which was by the lake in the area of Zebulun and Naphtali— 14 to fulfill what was said through the prophet Isaiah: 15 "Land of Zebulun and land of Naphtali, the way to the sea, along the Jordan,Galilee of the Gentiles— 16 the people living in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned."
We knew that if we were to go far in the work, there was the need for missionaries to dwell among the unreached people. Jesus left Nazareth to live among the people. He was not shuttling. As good as short term missions is, if there are no missionaries on the ground to harness their fruits, it turns out to be a futile effort.
In May 1991, we deployed our first Resident Missionary couple, Samuel and Anna Abrakson to Kamberi field. Two years later we deployed a single missionary, Monica Ogwuche (Nee Omale) to the same field. Before then, we were only shuttling on short term missions. In the first three years of resuming on the field, they planted seven churches in very deep remote jungles. The first sets of converts were completely unlearned. They were thought how to read and write by the missionaries. They were thought the Bible and trained locally to pastor the new churches and they performed very well.
The Kamberi field has so many other unreached people groups including the Dukawas, Hausa, Fulanis, Larus, etc. We therefore concentrated our effort on the place for a field while, sending more missionaries to work among the various people groups.
From Kamberi to Dirawa
At the AD 2000 and Beyond Movement Unreached People's Consultation at Abuja in 1995, research reports were submitted and list of many tribal groups in Northern Nigeria with their profiles were made available to mission leaders present. It was very staggering to see as many as 78 chronic unreached people groups with no known Christian. Most of them were not engaged at the time by any mission agency. We were encouraged to adopt as many as we could. The Dirawas were said to be located in Bauchi state of Nigeria. This sounded close to us in Jos where we have our base. We adopted it and began to pray for labourers and more information on how to engage them.
God connected us to a Pastor in Bauchi who was familiar with the people, we took advantage of that connection to visit the people. The situation of the people was so pathetic. None of the people had known the Lord. Few Christian organization had made efforts to reach them but they were very resistant to the gospel. We delegated two missionaries to live amongst them. They still did not want to relate with the missionaries. This was our first experience of working among such a very unyielding tribe. The missionaries used all the strategies they knew. They taught their children how to read and write. They organized adult literacy classes but the people were still adamant. We concentrated on praying for the land and looked out for their felt need.
We later discovered that they trekked several kilometers to grind their grains and we felt they needed a grinding machine, which could compel them to come close to us. We prayed about it and began to trust God for the fund. At last, the Mission Supporters League (MSL) offered to buy the grinding engine for us. There was great celebration, when the engine was installed, the people began coming around not only to grind their grains but to spend time talking with us. A bridge was built and the grinding machine was the bridge. At this point, they agreed to release some of their children to come over to the mission house to learn. Salisu Chiroma was one of the young boys. He became the first convert from the tribe. Today, a few more persons have come to embrace the Lordship of Jesus from the tribe. Salisu has completed his High school and is warming up for tertiary education.
At the point God began to grant us favour before the people. However, the Muslims also began to show interest in winning the people over to Islam. One night they came in with large stock of bundles of zinc, clothes, money and several other materials. They invited the people, distributed the items and told them to embrace Islam. To our greatest surprise, many of them agreed and from that night they became Muslims. It was difficult reaching them as animists but it is now much more difficult reaching them as Muslims and syncretics. Our missionaries laboring among them, Bulus Inlaya and Rabo Yakubu have refused to give up. We are praying that one day the power of God will come over them and they will massively turn to the Lord.
One particular plague on the field is snake. They are all over the place. Two years after the work began; our missionary was uncomfortable with movements on the roof at night, she pointed her touch on the roof and discovered it was a snake. She and her colleague were both female missionaries and could not even attempt to pursue or kill the snake that night. They however, moved to the next room to sleep. The following morning, they woke up to see another snake on the bed beside them. We thank God they were not bitten by the snake.
From Dir to Bum
As the work continued to crawl in Dir, we felt the need to extend the gospel to other unreached people groups. We moved in to the Zullawa people groups in Bum. Josephine Oumorou(Nee Idoko) had just completed her mission training and was not comfortable with duplicating efforts. She wanted to go to a place where no church had ever existed. She wanted the people of Bum to also have the opportunity of hearing the gospel and congregating together for the first time to worship their Creator.
Unlike Dir, she was welcomed into the land and given a hut to live in, as she began evangelizing and there was no much of resistance. Many of them surrendered their lives to the Lord and the first church was built. We have seen over and over that no matter how thick the darkness is, a candle light makes a whole lot of difference. The Zullawas did not only surrender their lives to Christ but they were discipled. Many were taught how to read and write and many others were raised to take the gospel to other unreached people groups in the state.
After the first phase of the pioneered work, Sunday Musa was drafted in. Musa plays music before God called him to missions. On resuming work on the field he found many young boys and girls who had embraced Christ through the ministry of Josephine. With his musical skills, he impacted them positively. The Zullawa youths are waxing stronger and stronger in the Lord today spreading the gospel to many other places through music. The Men and the Women Fellowship are also growing and helping to strengthen the work in other areas of the land.
A new church has been planted at Zull and it is strategically located beside Tasha-Durumi, a community that is largely dominated by Muslims from the Hausa and Fulani people, as well as foreigners from Niger Republic. The work is currently making progress under the leadership of Ladi Ekpa.
From Bum to Bolu
After laboring to plant the first church in Bum, Josephine Oumarou pulled out to the Bolu people group located at the back of the Zaranda Mountain. She and Issa Malaki started the work among the Bolu people. Unlike the Zullawa work, they met stiff resistance at Bolu. The territorial powers were determined to halt every effort geared towards tampering with their belief in their idol gods and satanic culture. First, they were not allowed to live in the village, the man who gave them a portion of his house to live in was thoroughly persecuted, the roofs of the huts offered to them were leaking profusely such that they needed buckets each time it was raining, when we had money to build, the villagers conspired not to give us land to build etc. It took us a long time to persuade the village head to give us land to build a house.
Reaching the villagers was initially very difficult. Just like she did at Bum, she took time to learn the culture and language of the people and the people began to see her as an insider. When she got married, her husband was transferred to join her on the field while Issa Maliki was moved to Niger Republic to pioneer the Gobirawa work. Together with her husband, God began to grant them favour with the village head and the men. Some of the men began to respond to the gospel but the women were adamant.
The challenge grew stronger when the women threatened to live their home and marry other men because of the faith of their husband's. The unmarried ones also had the challenges of getting wives because the women considered it betrayal from their husbands to live their idols to worship God Almighty.
Entering Real Dark Jungles
We preached at four locations from house to house. We also organized open air crusades and the evangelistic campaigns were very fruitful many persons came out to surrender their lives to Christ and the sick came out to be prayed for. We were all very young and energetic, Dr. Agnes Okpe (nee Igoche) was a college girl then, she is now a Lecturer in Kaduna State Polytechnic. Dr. Joel Onu was a student at the Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria then. He is now a Lecturer at the same University. Rose Ameh was a student at the Benue State Polytechnic, she is now in Liberia after working in one of the oil companies in Kano for several years. Preaching especially in the jungle was our passion. The results were always very exciting. We did it with little or no resources. The grace of God was always very strong and the team work was unparalleled.
All the places we preached were really challenging but one of the villages stood out. That was Irim. Most of the inhabitants were dwarfs. Some of the dwarfs, including men had protruded stomach as if pregnant with twins, some had sores that had lasted for seven years and above. The situation of the people was an eyesore. One girl seemed to standout there. She was very beautiful and well structured. I beckoned on her to come so we could chat. Unfortunately, she responded with sign language. She was deaf and dumb. I was deeply touched. I then asked why all of them were so highly deformed in the village. They claimed the village was known for witchcrafts and that the more number of witches or wizards torments, determined their pride in the society.
The Seed that led to Grace Foundation Inland Missions
I wept as I asked the Lord why He permitted the people such power to be able to torment His creatures in that manner. I heard God tell me very clearly that He was not to be blamed but the church. The church was designed by God to be the light but this light has been hoarded so much that many communities, tribes and nations are still in gross darkness after over 2000years that the price for their redemption has been paid. While places with light are being flooded with more light, darkness is growing thicker in the dark places of the earth and the Prince of darkness have field day carrying out his ministry: 'The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy…'(John 10:10). It was at this point that the Holy Spirit made Psalm 74: 20 clearer in my spirit: 'Have respect unto the covenant: for the dark places of the earth are full of the habitations of cruelty' (Ps 74:20).
In a lay man's language, God is a covenant keeper. He will continue to wait for the light to dispel darkness. Until this is done, the cruelty will continue. He has made provision for the light. You and I are the light that will dispel this darkness. His words: "You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. (Matt 5:14-16).
The need was very clear. Civilization, money and social infrastructure could not checkmate this darkness. Only the light could do it. At this point, I offered myself. At this point I had been born again, I had served in various leadership positions and ministry but nothing else could quench the thirst to dispel darkness. The seed to extend God's grace to these people grew stronger and stronger. It was clear where I was heading to in life as I made commitments to God I was going to spend the rest of my life to take the light of the gospel to the dark places of the earth. The thought of how to go about this task constantly gripped my heart.
In 1988, the Kamberi mission work started via a research while I was the Evangelical Secretary of the Kwara Christian Corpers Fellowship (KCCF). In 1989 we pressed further with series of short term outreaches using the KCCF platform. The Kamberi field located in the thick forest of Borgu Local Government Area just like Irim had the same features of the dark places of the earth. As we rounded up the service year, we made effort to convince the incoming KCCF leadership to continue with the work but sadly, they declined because the place was carved out of Kwara State of Nigeria and merged with Niger State.
My friend and colleague, Habila Musa made contact with the Calvary Ministry, an indigenous mission outfit in Nigeria to take over and continue with the work just like we handed over the Christian Fellowship Centre I started at Aiona in 1984/1985 to Christian Life Evangelical Ministry. They also declined. We cannot allow the work among the Kamberis to stop prematurely. We must also continue with our outreaches in the jungles of Ebala, Akre, Enumadu and Irim. The extension of the Christian Fellowship Centres at the boarder villages of Enugu and Benue state anchored by my colleague, Michael Agada had not been handed over to any ministry. Instead, we had gotten more missionaries like Magreth Daniel, Gabriel Itodo, Pius Eje, Janet Julius and others. Most of them were teachers and were paid by the government. Magreth and Gabriel were supported by our first financial partner, Dr. Malobi Ogboli.
After much prayer, I felt the leading of the Holy Spirit to have a broader organized platform that will harness our past and existing labour that had not yet been handed over to any organization and to use it as a lunching pad to invade as many more dark places of the earth as the Lord enables us. In October 1989, I met in Jos with some of the members of the team we were working with to ratify the structure. We called it Grace Foundation. It was in the process of registering the organization with the Corporate Affairs Commission we discovered the name was no longer available that we changed it to Grace Foundation Inland Missions(GFIM).
We spent the first year praying to God for a clearer blue print on how to progress with the assignment. A team of between seven to twelve persons began meeting on a weekly basis in my house to pray for our team on the mission field. We travelled from time to time to the mission field to strengthen the converts and the labourers. In 1990, we called for a National Prayer Conference (NPC) that brought together all our team members from across Nigeria. We took time to pray for the nations, for world missions and for the future of GFIM. At the end of the conference, we met to formalize the leadership structure during which Agnes Okpe, Joel Onu, Sunday Ayegba, Yinka Laoye and I became the first set of Executive Council.
After five years, the list was reviewed to include Samson Amedu and Lucy Abah. In the process of registering GFIM with the Corporate Affairs Commission, the status of the Executive Council was changed to Members of the Board of Trustees. With time, members of this Board began to grow in many ways and their schedules became very tight such that they were not as available as they use to be. Some of them became Pastors in their local assemblies. Others became Managers in their places of work. In responding to this reality, a governing council was appointed to work hand in hand with the Board of Trustees. Some of the Board members who are resident in Jos and those whose schedule still allows for consistent involvement in the work like Yinka Laoye, Lucy Abah and myself are members of both the Council and the Trustees. We also brought in new members who have shown consistency in the ministry like Joke Eyitayo (Nee Ositelu) and later replaced by her husband Samuel Gboyega Eyitayo and National Directors of GFIM in various countries as well as Chairmen of the Governing Councils of countries where we work and Michael Agada who was the regional leader of the work among the boarder villages of Enugu/Benue State and much later Fred Adigun.
Fresh Breath on the Work
With GFIM in place, work continued in earnest in all the places where we were working. We studied patterns of Jesus missionary endeavours and Matthew 4:13-16 particularly struck our minds:
'Leaving Nazareth, he went and lived in Capernaum, which was by the lake in the area of Zebulun and Naphtali— 14 to fulfill what was said through the prophet Isaiah: 15 "Land of Zebulun and land of Naphtali, the way to the sea, along the Jordan,Galilee of the Gentiles— 16 the people living in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned."
We knew that if we were to go far in the work, there was the need for missionaries to dwell among the unreached people. Jesus left Nazareth to live among the people. He was not shuttling. As good as short term missions is, if there are no missionaries on the ground to harness their fruits, it turns out to be a futile effort.
In May 1991, we deployed our first Resident Missionary couple, Samuel and Anna Abrakson to Kamberi field. Two years later we deployed a single missionary, Monica Ogwuche (Nee Omale) to the same field. Before then, we were only shuttling on short term missions. In the first three years of resuming on the field, they planted seven churches in very deep remote jungles. The first sets of converts were completely unlearned. They were thought how to read and write by the missionaries. They were thought the Bible and trained locally to pastor the new churches and they performed very well.
The Kamberi field has so many other unreached people groups including the Dukawas, Hausa, Fulanis, Larus, etc. We therefore concentrated our effort on the place for a field while, sending more missionaries to work among the various people groups.
From Kamberi to Dirawa
At the AD 2000 and Beyond Movement Unreached People's Consultation at Abuja in 1995, research reports were submitted and list of many tribal groups in Northern Nigeria with their profiles were made available to mission leaders present. It was very staggering to see as many as 78 chronic unreached people groups with no known Christian. Most of them were not engaged at the time by any mission agency. We were encouraged to adopt as many as we could. The Dirawas were said to be located in Bauchi state of Nigeria. This sounded close to us in Jos where we have our base. We adopted it and began to pray for labourers and more information on how to engage them.
God connected us to a Pastor in Bauchi who was familiar with the people, we took advantage of that connection to visit the people. The situation of the people was so pathetic. None of the people had known the Lord. Few Christian organization had made efforts to reach them but they were very resistant to the gospel. We delegated two missionaries to live amongst them. They still did not want to relate with the missionaries. This was our first experience of working among such a very unyielding tribe. The missionaries used all the strategies they knew. They taught their children how to read and write. They organized adult literacy classes but the people were still adamant. We concentrated on praying for the land and looked out for their felt need.
We later discovered that they trekked several kilometers to grind their grains and we felt they needed a grinding machine, which could compel them to come close to us. We prayed about it and began to trust God for the fund. At last, the Mission Supporters League (MSL) offered to buy the grinding engine for us. There was great celebration, when the engine was installed, the people began coming around not only to grind their grains but to spend time talking with us. A bridge was built and the grinding machine was the bridge. At this point, they agreed to release some of their children to come over to the mission house to learn. Salisu Chiroma was one of the young boys. He became the first convert from the tribe. Today, a few more persons have come to embrace the Lordship of Jesus from the tribe. Salisu has completed his High school and is warming up for tertiary education.
At the point God began to grant us favour before the people. However, the Muslims also began to show interest in winning the people over to Islam. One night they came in with large stock of bundles of zinc, clothes, money and several other materials. They invited the people, distributed the items and told them to embrace Islam. To our greatest surprise, many of them agreed and from that night they became Muslims. It was difficult reaching them as animists but it is now much more difficult reaching them as Muslims and syncretics. Our missionaries laboring among them, Bulus Inlaya and Rabo Yakubu have refused to give up. We are praying that one day the power of God will come over them and they will massively turn to the Lord.
One particular plague on the field is snake. They are all over the place. Two years after the work began; our missionary was uncomfortable with movements on the roof at night, she pointed her touch on the roof and discovered it was a snake. She and her colleague were both female missionaries and could not even attempt to pursue or kill the snake that night. They however, moved to the next room to sleep. The following morning, they woke up to see another snake on the bed beside them. We thank God they were not bitten by the snake.
From Dir to Bum
As the work continued to crawl in Dir, we felt the need to extend the gospel to other unreached people groups. We moved in to the Zullawa people groups in Bum. Josephine Oumorou(Nee Idoko) had just completed her mission training and was not comfortable with duplicating efforts. She wanted to go to a place where no church had ever existed. She wanted the people of Bum to also have the opportunity of hearing the gospel and congregating together for the first time to worship their Creator.
Unlike Dir, she was welcomed into the land and given a hut to live in, as she began evangelizing and there was no much of resistance. Many of them surrendered their lives to the Lord and the first church was built. We have seen over and over that no matter how thick the darkness is, a candle light makes a whole lot of difference. The Zullawas did not only surrender their lives to Christ but they were discipled. Many were taught how to read and write and many others were raised to take the gospel to other unreached people groups in the state.
After the first phase of the pioneered work, Sunday Musa was drafted in. Musa plays music before God called him to missions. On resuming work on the field he found many young boys and girls who had embraced Christ through the ministry of Josephine. With his musical skills, he impacted them positively. The Zullawa youths are waxing stronger and stronger in the Lord today spreading the gospel to many other places through music. The Men and the Women Fellowship are also growing and helping to strengthen the work in other areas of the land.
A new church has been planted at Zull and it is strategically located beside Tasha-Durumi, a community that is largely dominated by Muslims from the Hausa and Fulani people, as well as foreigners from Niger Republic. The work is currently making progress under the leadership of Ladi Ekpa.
From Bum to Bolu
After laboring to plant the first church in Bum, Josephine Oumarou pulled out to the Bolu people group located at the back of the Zaranda Mountain. She and Issa Malaki started the work among the Bolu people. Unlike the Zullawa work, they met stiff resistance at Bolu. The territorial powers were determined to halt every effort geared towards tampering with their belief in their idol gods and satanic culture. First, they were not allowed to live in the village, the man who gave them a portion of his house to live in was thoroughly persecuted, the roofs of the huts offered to them were leaking profusely such that they needed buckets each time it was raining, when we had money to build, the villagers conspired not to give us land to build etc. It took us a long time to persuade the village head to give us land to build a house.
Reaching the villagers was initially very difficult. Just like she did at Bum, she took time to learn the culture and language of the people and the people began to see her as an insider. When she got married, her husband was transferred to join her on the field while Issa Maliki was moved to Niger Republic to pioneer the Gobirawa work. Together with her husband, God began to grant them favour with the village head and the men. Some of the men began to respond to the gospel but the women were adamant.
The challenge grew stronger when the women threatened to live their home and marry other men because of the faith of their husband's. The unmarried ones also had the challenges of getting wives because the women considered it betrayal from their husbands to live their idols to worship God Almighty.
1 comment:
Quiet challenging and inspiring. Truely God does show Himself faithful anytime His children take a step of obedience
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