July 17, 2003
FSM 322 CM/FM
Copyright © 1997 by The Family — 11/97
In Grapevine #23, #24, and #26 there was exciting news of our teams in Africa. After talking to representatives of the Africa teams who had come to the meetings in Europe, Peter said: "It was incredible to listen to the testimonies of those from Africa. The Lord has done so many miracles for them and He's using them mightily. They are brave pioneers who have launched out by faith to lands which desperately need the Gospel. Africa is such a ripe field, much of it English-speaking, and it's just waiting to receive the Words of David! Lord help us not to fail to bring it to them. I was greatly impressed with all of those that I talked with from Africa; they are doing a tremendous job!" (GV #26).
Two members of the team from Nigeria, Aaron and Oli (SGA), made a tape for Mama with some of the terrific testimonies Peter referred to. We thought you'd enjoy hearing them, and that it might give some of you who are praying about going to more fertile fields a burden for this very receptive and exciting - though difficult - continent! So, here they are!
--By Aaron and Oli (SGA)
We're going to share some testimonies of exciting things that have happened in Nigeria. About two weeks ago, we did another one of our medical projects (CTP). By now we've taken part in six medical projects in different parts of the country. We work with a group of Nigerian doctors who do one volunteer project every month or month and a half. We've been working very closely with them.
The head doctor is a very close friend of ours, and a dedicated Christian. He's grown a lot in the last year or so that we've known him. He's gone from doing projects once in a while to living by faith! He got very turned on by the Word and the Family sample. He has given up his private practice to become a full-time medical missionary. The Lord is doing incredible things for him and supplying his needs.
The most recent medical project we helped with was in a small town near Abuja, Nigeria's capital. [Lagos, Nigeria's largest city with a population of over 10 million, was the capital until 1991, when the seat of the government was transferred to newly-built Abuja (population 400,000).] We were doing a project there for a week, giving free medicine, etc. Besides their general practice, the 20 doctors performed 74 free surgeries; two ophthalmologists did another 13 eye operations; the dentist extracted over 70 teeth and did countless routine cleaning and filling procedures. We distributed over $120,000 worth of free medicine and supplies, and attended to a total of 3,000 patients. So, on the medical side, we were able to be a big help.
We Family members usually run the pharmacy and visit patients before and after their surgery, to pray for their operations and recoveries, and to pray with them to receive the Lord. Also, the doctors refer many patients to us for counsel and prayer.
So this time we were also able to do a lot of ministering to people, and counseling them. Often when there were people with various psychological problems—not serious mental problems but just things like anxiety, etc.—the doctors sent them to us. We'd take them aside in a small room, and counsel them and pray for them; a lot of them got saved.
We also went around to the wards to visit patients recovering from surgery or other medical treatment. We'd witness to them and pray for them, and quite a few of them also got saved. A few older folks who were near death got very sweetly saved.
There was one man in particular who had big physical problems. I had to help him with his personal hygiene, etc.
He's an old Muslim grandfather, and he was so sweet and appreciative of the help and attention we gave him. There wasn't much the doctors could do for him; I think he had advanced prostate cancer or something, which was a pretty sad situation. He'd been a Muslim all his life, very devout, but I offered to pray with him. I said that there was not much else I could give him, but I could give him Jesus, which is really the best thing. He said, "Well, if it's acceptable to God, which I believe it is, I'll say this prayer with you." So he got wonderfully saved.
Then I found out that the nurse who was translating for me was also a Muslim! The Lord used her; she was also very sweet. It was a very touching witness.
Reaching out through the CTP work
Another thing that was exciting about that project was that the Minister for the Federal Capital Territory came for a visit. He got very turned on and ended up inviting our whole team, including all the doctors and our whole group from the Family, over to his house. About halfway through the project we had an informal dinner, where some members of our team sat at the main table with him and talked to him and got to know him a bit.
Then on the last day of the project, they invited us over to their house for a big official thank-you dinner and reception type of thing, with about 300 guests—dignitaries, top people, businessmen. They also had reporters there and I believe it was briefly covered on television (I don't know for sure, because we left shortly after that).
During that last dinner, I (Oli) had the opportunity to get up and sing Saint Francis' Prayer to everyone, which was powerful, even though I had to sing it alone. People commented that they were very touched by the words of the song.
It was wonderful to be able to minister to this top man. He's also a very high-ranking general.
An earlier medical project
Altogether we've done six medical projects in different parts of the country. During (CRO) Lisa's visit about a month and a half ago, we worked on one in the eastern regions of the country, way down in the jungle. The Lord did incredible miracles there!
Joshua provisioned the use of a four-wheel drive jeep from an oil company for the week-long operation. We had a team of 13 doctors, along with Lisa, Josh, Aaron and myself (Oli) from our Home in Lagos, and some others from the Port Harcourt team. Most of our work involved packing medicines for the patients and running the pharmacy.
The Lord opened up some special avenues for us to minister to the patients. We were able to go in to see patients before and after their surgery, to pray for them and pray with them to receive the Lord. Also, after the doctors saw people in their consultation rooms, they would send many of them to us for counsel and prayer—people who had problems that couldn't be taken care of by the doctors. The doctors really appreciated that we had answers for these folks.
For example, one time there were four girls from very poor backgrounds who had become prostitutes at young ages in order to provide for their parents and brothers and sisters. All four had gotten pregnant time and again, and each time they induced abortions. The gynecologist said that some of the methods they had used were pretty rough. After doing all he could for them medically, the doctor sent these girls to us.
They had prayed to receive Jesus when they were younger, but in their minds—and no one had ever told them differently—they were now beyond the reach of God's love and mercy. They were sure there was no hope for them of going to Heaven.
We assured them that God still really loved them and that He was ready, willing and able to forgive them for their mistakes. That really set the girls free! Each one of them changed dramatically, right before our very eyes, just from showing them love, praying for them, and comforting them with the knowledge that they were forgiven and had everlasting Salvation.
We also did informal shows for as many as 500 people who were waiting to see the doctors. That little team included a translator, along with myself, Joshua and a catacomber, Benny, who we've been close to for some time.
One night, for example, we asked a Nigerian woman to open our little program by singing some Nigerian tribal Christian songs, which are very sweet, repeating the same words over and over. Then, through the translator, we read the tract "The Prince and the Magical Power" out loud to the people waiting, and prayed with them. They just flipped! Hundreds got saved.
We had beautiful experiences with some of the people who had just received medical help from the doctors. They'd come to us, get on their knees, and ask us to pray with them to receive Jesus. They were so thankful! They saw such a practical side of Christianity, in that we were giving them this help for free, and that moved them to want to receive the Lord. It was very, very special.
The Lord's setup for our move to Lagos
Another very exciting testimony is about how we got our house in Lagos. For two years we lived in Jos (pop. 200,000), which is in the north of the country (in a very scenic region with a pleasant climate). A few of us were getting strong checks that it was the Lord's will to move to Lagos. So we put the Lord on the spot and said, "Well, Lord, if You want us to move to that horrible, rough city, You will have to do it in a very special way." We said, "Jesus, You just have to do it in two weeks if You want us to move there. That's it!"
We went down to Lagos, and within a week and a day, through a friend of ours, we met a very special woman who was trying to rent her house. She's a very sweet Christian lady who received a prophecy about seven years ago, when they were just starting to build the house, that someday missionaries were going to live in her house—white missionaries!
She couldn't imagine how that would ever come to pass, but when we walked through the door, she heard that we were looking for a place to live, and then realized that her house met our requirements exactly, she flipped! She knew it was the Lord—totally His setup!
She's a very sweet lady. Her husband had been the pastor of a church and died six or seven months ago in an airplane crash. She basically wanted a new life; she was moving to England; and we were the answer to her prayers by taking over her house. She rented us her house for two years, for practically nothing. That freed us from a very heavy load.
To help you appreciate what a miracle that was, normally rents in good sections of Lagos are daunting—comparable to living in downtown London. We felt the Lord had shown us to move there, but in the physical we didn't see how we could do it. At first we had been a little discouraged when looking for a place, as it seemed like we'd have to raise such ridiculously huge amounts of money, and we knew that money like that could go for more important things than just paying the rent. When we met her, it was such an answer to prayer!
Most rents in Lagos for a standard house like the one the Lord supplied through this lady are at least a thousand dollars a month. When we met her she said, "Okay, give me a day to pray about it and get back to you on a price." When she came back she said, "Okay, the Lord showed me $6,000 for two years."
So we thought, "Wow, that's very reasonable!" We were quite excited.
Electricity was a problem. The only power is supplied by a generator in the house. When we found out that it actually belonged to the company that her late husband had worked for, and that the company was going to remove it, we told her honestly that for us, with all the kids, it would be tough to live there with no electricity.
We weren't sure what to do and felt that maybe it meant that the house was not the one the Lord had for us. Maybe the Lord was closing the door. But she came back to us after praying about it further and took a step of faith. When we first met her, she had said, "I would rent you the house for free, but I'm moving to England and I need a little bit of money to rent a small flat there so that I can have somewhere to stay."
But when she came back after this thing with the generator, she took quite a step of faith and said, "Look, you guys just buy the generator for me and that'll cover your two years rent."
For us it was a Godsend; it was just the answer we needed. We then went to the company that owned the generator and witnessed to the management a bit. They ended up giving us a thousand dollars' discount on the generator, so our rent turned out to be just under $5,000 for two years.
More about the Lord's miraculous supply in Nigeria
A lot of people think that they have to have so much home support for a field like Africa. It is a blessing and it helps, but you don't have to have it to live there. It's not a requirement, and not having it shouldn't hold anybody back.
Actually, to be honest with you, in Nigeria we've had some of the most exciting provisioning and fund-raising adventures of our lives. The Lord supplies much more than we could've ever imagined, from friends, contacts, and people we met for the first time! Everything that we've needed, the Lord has supplied—top quality furniture, dining room sets, refrigerators, stand-up freezers, washing machines, dryers, stoves—brand new equipment!
For so many of our friends—especially businessmen, people who are quite wealthy by local standards, a lot of our Lebanese friends and expatriates—it's quite a testimony, just the standard of the house we live in and the furniture we have. They know we live by faith, they know that we're not making money like they are, and it's incredible how the Lord supplies for us. It's such an obvious testimony of the Lord's supply and care in a country like Nigeria.
It hasn't always been easy; we've had our ups and downs. When we lived in Jos, which is a small town, doing a lot of provisioning was difficult. And to transport things all the way from Lagos (1,200 kilometers away) was not so practical. So for our first year in Nigeria, the 15 of us sat around a very small table with six stools. We had an old oven and every time the girls would do baking they had to jam the door shut with a flip flop or tie a rope around it! Actually, that was pretty good, because it was a step up from when we first got to Nigeria and we just had a camping stove!
So the Lord brought us through step by step, with us having very little at first and Him trusting us with what we had. Then the more we put Him first and witnessed and went out and won souls and prayed things in, the Lord just blessed us with more.
How much He's been supplying through provisioning was another fulfillment of the Lord's vision for us to move to Lagos. It was an untapped source before, because we didn't concentrate on it so much. Since moving to Lagos, we've knocked on doors and the response has been incredible. For us it's been such a treat!
For example, in Jos we never could afford cheese for all of us. We would get it for the mommies and we'd all watch them eat it and lust after it. But in Lagos, the Lord has raised up a wonderful contact, a company that gives us a huge block of cheddar cheese every month. We were happy and we did without things like that, but it's so sweet how the Lord has now supplied them abundantly.
Our tools are hard to get into the country, and because we don't have very many, we have to get them out sparingly—the videos specifically. The way it has worked out is that sometimes we give out videos at schools, in large sets, which has been very fruitful.
It's been quite exciting how a lot of people here at the meetings (in Western Europe) have been asking us what the outreach is like. It's kind of a tough question to answer because a lot of the outreach has been personal witnessing, and then a lot of the way the Lord supplies financially has been through referrals. It's not been like going shop to shop; actually we've never gone shop to shop.
The major portion of our finances comes as donations for our CTP, or for medical projects sponsored by dedicated Christians or people who want to support missionaries who are &&&really out there witnessing. So we basically get our support from those two avenues, but it all boils down to answers to our desperate prayers. When we've needed things, we've prayed for them. Then we ask the Lord what to do and He tells us, and we go do it, and it works out.
That's been the biggest key for our team—that we spend a lot of time listening to the Lord on major decisions. I wouldn't say every day, but we're doing better, we're trying.
Financially, it's not always a bed of roses. Oftentimes we get to the end of the month and our new budget's about to start, and we don't have a penny. But the Lord's always been so faithful, especially when we've gone out witnessing. It's been really encouraging to see.
Some months, He tests us the whole month as He lets the funds just trickle in. Then right before shopping day we'll get a donation that will cover the shopping.
Out on "the road"
Another exciting part of our work is going on the road. Since we lived in Jos for two years, we spent most of our time on the road with teams out for a week to two weeks at a time. For us, going on the road means flying in airplanes. It means hitchhiking to the airport and talking to the pilot about Jesus and then flying.
This exercising of our faith and putting it into practice has really changed us. It's made us expect God to do a whole lot more in every aspect of our work. Living by faith has been the lifeblood of our work, because it's so exciting to see God do so much to win souls.
For example, when we did the medical project in Abuja, two of the YAs went there early to help get things set up. I was supposed to join them at the beginning of the project, so I went to the airport by faith. The chairman of one of the airlines is a contact. After he met Joshua, he told his people that whenever they see us, they should help us and basically put us on the plane for free.
So I was hoping to catch the plane from that company. I got there and the people from the airline put me in one of their cars, drove me out to the tarmac trying to make it to the plane before it took off. We pulled up and just as the guy hit the brakes and the car came to a standstill, the stairway to the plane was raised. I missed the plane by a split second.
At first I was a bit discouraged, so I walked back down the tarmac and was praying about what to do next. I knew the Lord wanted me to go on this project; there was no doubt about that. Then I saw two foreigners standing next to a little plane. I asked a mechanic nearby who they were, and he said he thought they were going to Abuja.
So I went up to them and it turned out that one of them was Austrian, the owner of a company, and he also owned this little private propeller plane. He was flying to Abuja; he's a pilot as well, so he told me, "Okay! I'm just waiting for somebody and as soon as they come, we'll go. You're welcome to fly with me."
I was very encouraged. It was a really neat experience to fly in this little plane. The person we were waiting for never showed up, and the pilot invited me to sit in the co-pilot's seat next to him.
The Lord's actually had the team in the air quite a bit, and some of the most exciting testimonies are when the pilots let Josh or one of us, Oli or myself (Aaron), into the cockpit and we're able to witness to the pilots on commercial flights. A few times they've even made that a condition. They've said, "We'll carry you for free as long as you sit in the cockpit with us and give us a Bible study or tell us more about the Endtime, or something about Jesus."
Very close friends
Another super exciting thing that's been a very special blessing—one that I don't think any of us have ever experienced before—has been having such close friends. Because we have had no other Homes to fellowship with, it's caused us to get a lot closer to our friends, people that we've won to the Lord, people that we've been feeding, people we've invited to our house. Actually, some are very wealthy businessmen who have become very close friends that we can depend on for things we need.
If one of us would need to travel abroad right away, quite a few of our friends would pay the ticket immediately. These kings and friends of ours treat the YAs as if they're their own children. It's been a very special thing just to have such close friends who will go the extra mile and who we're able to feed.
We have one Lebanese friend that we met about six or seven months ago who is a Druze. Druze are an Islamic sect that believes in reincarnation. It's exclusive; you can't just become a Druze. It's kind of hard to figure out, but they believe a bit in reincarnation, and supposedly they're allowed to worship in either a mosque or a synagogue or a church. It's quite interesting.
When we met him, he invited our whole team of 15 over for dinner. We sang for him at his house and then he came over to our house. We didn't heavily witness to him at all, until about the fifth meeting that we had with him. One of the folks in our Home went to his house and he got saved and was really turned on. We had a few documentary videos that we shared with him on angels and life after death, which he flipped out about. He's coming closer with every meeting that we have with him.
Getting saved made a real big change in him. Everybody from our team that went to see him or visit him after he got saved commented on how much more receptive he was. He is a very respected, wealthy businessman.
He's introduced us to a lot of top people, and it's not just a casual introduction but he really sells us. He's sold on us and he tells his friends how much he admires us.
He's also been a real blessing in paying for the registration of our local association in Nigeria and helping us get our visas. He's had his top lawyer working on our case, getting our visas, seeing our registration through. He's getting us what is basically a residency permit, which will make our visa situation much better than it has been. It will enable us to travel more freely to nearby countries.
Pioneering new ways to organize our Home
We're doing something a little differently than we're used to, and that's in the structure in our Home. We've tried a lot of different things, because some people would like to have things more organized with more of a schedule. Others like it looser, so there's a lot of give and take, and sometimes it's not so smooth. But basically, we've been learning to work together and trying to be Spirit-led, and the key has been hearing from the Lord together.
We definitely have a united vision in the Home to reach the field. There's a lot of excitement and opportunities for people to exercise their personal initiative, which has been a key factor in everybody feeling fulfilled and happy and inspired about the work. The Lord brought about a lot of the fruitfulness of our team through that.
Also, we've taken time for things as they come up. If we are in disunity at all or if there are problems, which there are sometimes, we just stop everything and talk about them as a team.
We don't really have private teamwork meetings. In fact, since we're a small Home, two months ago we voted to have the entire Home on the teamwork! For the last two and a half years all our meetings were pretty much in the open. If we were going to decide anything, or talk about anything, even shepherding points, we got together. We discussed it together, we prayed about it together, and it's grown our team up.
It's helped the YAs, knowing that they have something to share and that they need to flex their responsibility muscles. I don't know if it's the best, and I don't know if we'll continue like that, but it's worked so far and it's been very fruitful, so that's why we're doing it.
I think that's been a big part of our success, too - the fact that we're willing to throw anything out the door that doesn't work, and we often do. We try to be very flexible.
An example of being led of the Lord
An example of how we've learned to be flexible is a situation that arose recently with Jonna, a close friend. He asked if he could take Katrina (a YA) to Abuja, the capital, to introduce her to a prominent Lebanese businessman who has high political connections. They were going to stay at this man's house, and Jonna's friends were inviting Jonna and one more person to come.
So with that thrown in our laps, most people would think, "No way! We can't do something like that! How can we send this 19-year-old girl with this man up to this place?" That's what we thought at first, too, but we've really learned to just throw away all preconceived ideas, and really hear from the Lord about it.
When we did, the Lord said that she'd be safe and He gave specific promises that He was in it, saying that He had actually arranged the whole thing! He had some instructions for her about how to handle it and what kind of things to share. The Lord told us to write a little note to Jonna, complimenting him on being a good father figure for her. Then the Lord just did the whole thing and it was a total victory.
Not only that, the Lord was able to help others make progress while they were on the trip. It was neat, because the wife of the man that Jonna wanted to introduce us to happened to be visiting from Lebanon. Katrina was able to get very close to her and give her quite a heavy witness. She showed her a video we have about angels and the "Life After Life" documentary, and this woman was really turned on because she had had a few experiences like that herself. She was very hungry for it.
So that's basically how we run the Home. I think also most of the people in the Home are very headstrong and they all want to do different things, so we give and take. We make opportunities available for people to do what they want to do in serving the Lord.
One of the things we really encourage in the Home is personal initiative. If people have a promising idea, we get behind it. Even if we don't agree with it or if we're not so sure right away it's the best thing to do, we try our best to make it into something that we can back. (Editor's note: It helps to hear from the Lord about it too, first, to save your time on something that won't work out or isn't His will!)
More on hearing from the Lord about our projects
Before we went and helped on the medical project a month and a half ago, we got together as a Home and we heard from the Lord about what our job was there. The Lord told us in prophecy that He wanted us to not only take care of the people that would come for treatment, but also to help the doctors learn to convey His love to their patients. They were experts in their profession, but were used to analyzing situations in a very medical way and didn't have much experience in connecting heart-to-heart. That was our job—to teach them.
Each morning we led the doctors in a Bible study on a different aspect of love, discussed practical applications, and prayed together for His blessing on the day. And every evening the doctors would come and tell us what a big difference the Word they had read that morning had made in their day. Holding a patient's hand, communicating love and reassurance with their eyes, and showing genuine concern went further than the medicine they administered, they said.
Another situation involves a good friend who's been close to us for the last two years. He is a banker who has been thrown into jail, accused of embezzlement. He's a very sweet man who's been very helpful to us. We believe he didn't do it, but nevertheless, he's in jail.
We had a whole prophecy session for him, and heard from the Lord, and the Lord spoke so sweetly to him and his wife about the situation and how the Lord is the One that put him there, even though he didn't do it. The Lord, in His love, is giving him special time alone with Him and in the Word and in prayer. It was a gift from God.
We gave the prophecies to him and his wife, and it moved the mountains away and brought real peace to their hearts. It turned a very troubled situation into a very special one.
The blessings for our children
One of my (Oli) main burdens or main excitements about going to the field, was to let the kids [Oli and Marie, both SGAs, have 5 kids, with #6 on the way!] have an opportunity to be able to pour out in a field that's receptive, where people appreciate their witness. It's wonderful and so inspiring to see the kids growing in the area of personal witnessing.
A few months back, I went with Katrina and my two oldest daughters (ages four and five) to a calling office to make a few phone calls. While we were trying to get through, which takes time, we turned around and saw that the girls were going around the place giving out tracts to everybody and winning souls. They had won a couple of souls on their own initiative; nobody was telling them to go and witness.
It was mainly Lisa, my oldest, who is five years old, who was the bolder one praying with people. After they had won a couple of souls, we observed them for a few minutes. Juliana, who is four years old, was saying, "Oh, I think I can do it. I really want to do it. Can you help me, Lisa?"
Lisa is a sweet big sister; she's very motherly, and she said, "Okay, I'll help you. Go to that lady and give her a tract and say, 'This is for you.'"
So Julie goes and does that. Then after she does that, she looks at Lisa and says, "What do I say now?"
So Lisa says, "Well, ask her if she wants to have Jesus in her heart."
So then Julie smiled, like, "Now I know what to say," turned back around to the lady, and went blank! She turned back to Lisa and said, "What was it I was supposed to say?" Finally she prayed with the lady. It was precious to see the kids enjoying soul-winning, and wanting to do it, and taking so much initiative.
The receptivity of the Nigerians
We print our own posters, using provisioned paper and provisioned printers. The posters are so far-reaching; it seems the field just can't absorb enough of them! We get a lot of mail responses from posters that were passed from one person to another person to another person.
We have a mail ministry with over 300 people that we try to get a mailing to every two weeks. It varies: Sometimes it's every three, and a few times it's been every month, but we're trying to do it every two weeks. We send them Mountain Streams, Treasures sections and Good Thots sections.
It's incredibly exciting to see how much the Word travels. We've gone to cities that we've never been to before, and we'll find a Mountain Streams that we sent to somebody on the other side of the country—photocopies of it on somebody's desk. We find out that many of our friends and mail ministry contacts are photocopying dozens and dozens of the Mountain Streams, or whatever we give them, and distributing them to all their friends across the country. The place is like a sponge; you just can't give out enough Word!
In Nigeria people pass bribes a lot. Police will stop you and they'll want something. Everybody wants something. Well, it's a great time to give a poster! We've had so many responses to the posters where the police will say, "Oh, this is much better than money."
Another thing about the receptivity there, compared to other fields that I've personally been in, is that you can give people a lot more meaty Word right away. They're very hungry to just jump right in; you don't have to just give them a few Good Thots stories and then slowly build up to something more meaty. Oftentimes we'll carry Mountain Streams with us so that we can give those to people we meet when we're witnessing. People are so hungry for the Word.
Living in Africa
Here are a few specifics regarding the cost of living in Africa. Countries vary. For the first two years in Nigeria, we lived in Jos, where our first house was a three-bedroom house that we paid about 50,000 Nira for, which is less than $700 for a whole year! And then the second house, which was nicer than the first, had about seven rooms, seven bathrooms, a three-car garage, and a nice compound. We paid 200,000 Nira, which is about $2,700 for a year. So as you can see things can be extremely cheap.
Vegetables and fruits are cheap, and provisioning is virtually untouched. In fact, in provisioning, everything that we've put our hand to has just blossomed. The only reason we don't have more is we just end up not having the time to go out and do it. The Lord has supplied miraculously through provisioning.
We don't have a lot of home support. We have different ones who send gifts, and they're always a real blessing and we're super thankful for them, but we don't have a well-established home support base. But it's been amazing how much the Lord supplies from the field alone, and how many possibilities there are. As we've simply obeyed and gone out witnessing and done the job, we've seen how easy the Lord's made it and how faithfully He has supplied.
In our place we have a 65 kilowatt generator that provides our electricity, as electricity in Nigeria is not so stable. We prayed for a container for the diesel fuel so that we wouldn't have to get it drum by drum, and the Lord raised up a friend of ours to build us a 10,000-liter tank, worth about $3,000. He gave it to us for free.
The neat thing about the guy who built this container is that at the time he was not doing so well financially. He hadn't had any jobs for a long time, and although he owns part of the company, he's not the full owner of it. I think it's his dad's company. We talked to him on the phone and gave him the measurements, and he went ahead by faith and built the container and delivered it to the house. Then the YAs met him at a restaurant about a week later, and he had gotten three contracts that week!
We live pretty well on a budget of $2,000 dollars a month; that takes care of everything.
Witnessing to people of various religions
In the north there are Muslim strongholds. We can't go on the streets to reach the Muslims in those cities, but we go to the businessmen and witness to them. We've got a lot of very close friends, and one-on-one personal witnessing goes really well.
When witnessing to Muslims up in the north, we don't talk about what we don't agree on, such as Jesus being the Son of God, etc., but we just share testimonies of living by faith and how the Lord supplies. Time after time, these Muslim people say, "You're a good Muslim!" Then after that they'll say, "None of those things are happening in my life. Can you pray for me so that I can have miracles like that?" It's really special.
One of the exciting things about Nigeria is that you have the jungles in the south, and those types of people, and then in the north you have people dressed like Lawrence of Arabia walking out of the desert with camels.You have such variety; it makes for very exciting witnessing.
Another exciting group of people to witness to in Nigeria are the traditional religionists who are into JuJu, or voodoo. JuJu is the local name for it. You'll see them all over the streets, and just down from our house is the local voodoo doctor. Many of the Muslims, the Catholics, or the Christians go to the voodoo doctors asking for wealth, for help with relationship problems, or different things like that. We've had a lot of exciting experiences where we've rescued people from that kind of stuff.
Fun and blessings!
The Lord does a lot of fun things for us and gives us nice vacations in Nigeria. We work really hard and we need a rest once in a while. Once or twice a year, the hotels in the capital put us up for a week at a time for free—our entire team. Also there's a special game reserve up in the north with hot springs and animals and safari and the whole bit, and we regularly take our whole team up there on the road and spend a week there. There are also beautiful beaches nearby.
Just recently the Lord raised up a meat contact. Another good friend of ours has a chicken farm that supplies chicken to the big oil companies. He fills our freezers full regularly.
Another super exciting testimony is how we travel from Nigeria to other countries. A while ago, Mike and I met the owner of one of the biggest cargo companies around. It flies all over Africa and the Middle East from England and Belgium. We explained our work to him and he got saved. His son had died in a plane crash last year and he's a broken man.
He's very precious, and he was touched by our work. He said he'd like to help us by flying us places in his cargo planes, any time we need to go anywhere. His planes go everywhere, so that has been a big help and lots of fun.
The sheep shine!
In many places in Nigeria there's no running water, no electricity and no trash pick-ups. There's nothing like that. It makes Lagos a very, very rough place to live. It's quite a mess—really the System at its worst. But in that darkness, the sheep shine so much brighter. It turns out that people appreciate what we do all the more, because they know we're there to help the country. There are so many people who are only there to take things from the country.
It's such a blessing to be in a country where people actually appreciate the fact that you're there being a missionary and trying to help. On the plane the other day, on our way up to this meeting in Europe, we met two men from the east of Nigeria and we started talking. I mentioned that we're there as missionaries, and they said things like, "Wow! I didn't know there were people like you still around!" He said something to the effect that he didn't know they were still worthy of having people like us out there. He was quite amazed to meet missionaries.
On the same plane I sat next to two prostitutes going from Lagos to Port Harcourt. They were both totally disillusioned with Christianity, the way they'd seen it in Lagos. They both got saved at 25,000 feet; it was neat.
When we landed and were getting ready to get on the cargo plane that we flew here on, we had to go through immigrations. Two of the immigration officers came and started talking to us. They found out we were missionaries, and one of them opened up his heart and said, "My wife and I don't have any children. We would like to have children."
We said, "We'll pray for you right now." He was so touched, so flipped out. It was so neat to have an immigration officer asking us to pray. We laid hands on him right there and prayed for him, and he walked away just flipped, knowing that God was going to answer his prayer.
Another time, Katrina and I were hitchhiking in Lagos and a 19-year-old Muslim boy picked us up. We started witnessing to him and he immediately got defensive and said, "I don't believe Jesus is the Son of God, or that He died on the cross."
We said, "Oh, we know that. But you believe He's a pretty important guy, don't you?"
He said, "Of course! I couldn't be a Muslim unless I believed in Jesus. Of course, He's a very important person." We just started to bring out all the things we agreed on and started sharing testimonies, and he opened his heart.
He said, "A lot of Christians have talked to me about Jesus, but you're the first people who have not tried to shove your program on me, and you're the first people who didn't put down what I believe. I'd like to pray and ask Jesus into my heart right now." And he prayed and got saved with us right there.
Here are a few little facts to close with: Four out of ten Blacks in the world are Nigerian. Nigeria is the most populated Black country in the world. After India and America, it has the largest English-speaking population in the world.
We really love you and are so thankful for all you do!
Excerpts of Lisa's Letters about Her Visit to Africa
Seeing and experiencing Nigeria, and Kenya too, I found that the reports on the corruption, the mess, countries falling apart, the poverty, etc., were all true. The Family there is very aware of this and experience it daily, and maybe that is why they are so needed.
A brother in Kenya shared with me that he read an article stating that Nigeria is considered the most corrupt country in the world, and second comes India, and third, Kenya. I found many similarities between Nigeria and Kenya. Although it seems Kenya is favored in the Western press as being safer and more organized, this condition is really only skin deep and the situation is kept in check by brute force to prevent damage to the tourist industry, which is one of the country's main sources of income.
Nigeria should technically be a much richer country, with all the natural resources they have: oil, natural gas, minerals, semi-precious stones, and even some diamonds. But this certainly is not benefiting the average man or the country much. The infrastructure is breaking down more and more, and is in fact quite pitiful. It just breaks your heart, and you can't remain indifferent.
The situation is also very humbling for the Nigerians and the Kenyans. They would say things like, "We wish you had come 10 or 15 years ago, because you would have seen a very different country and a very different people. We're so sorry that you have to see us in such a mess, so degraded." They are naturally very concerned about their country and the injustices; it's such a desperate time for these people.
I was told that in Nigeria, Christians come together regularly and sometimes have all-night vigils, praying for their country and people and for the Lord to intervene and do something to change things. Well, after having visited, I believe that is maybe one reason why the Lord has sent His children there—in answer to these prayers—and that He is ready to stand up for the poor and oppressed and do something about their situation.
The Lord spoke to all of us when we got together to hear from Him about Africa. He also spoke to me on several occasions personally about it, because I was so burdened and desperate to hear from Him. I will include pertinent parts of the prophecies here.
(Prophecy, Jesus speaking:) "Rivers and streams and waters of life you have from your father to give to this war-torn continent, this suffering and exploited people that I gave My life for. It hurts Me to see them trodden down, forsaken, used or misused by the exploiters. Woe to them [the exploiters] for their wickedness! Woe to them for their lack of love and concern and caring and sharing! For it would have been better that a millstone was hung around their necks, than to have stumbled one of these, My little ones."
"You can play a part in helping them tune in to the spirit of this, My New Day; to learn to have active, working faith; to teach them to change the world one heart at a time; to plug in to the miracle-working power of My Spirit that can change things for them. Behold, I have seen their tears, I have heard their prayers, and I will heal them. I will come in unto them and make My abode with them and be their King, their Priest, their Mediator. I will lead them into all truth, back to the simplicity of My Gospel, back to the simplicity of faith, back to a personal, loving, hot relationship with Me, stripped of all these dirty outer garments that mean nothing and that they now in pride are clutching unto.
"I want to wash them clean by the waters of My Words, so pour it out in abundance. I will make a way; I will supply so that you can pour it out in abundance . And it will be a joy to your heart to see the receptivity, the hunger, the thirst and the fruits of these seeds being sown on good ground, which will bring forth 40-, 50-, 60-, 70-, 80-, 90-, 100-fold in this life and for eternity.
"For I look not as man looks. I look upon the heart and I have many people in this city and in this nation, and I want to do mighty things."
"Pray in simplicity and truth; pray according to the moving of My Spirit. Pray when you see the news. Pray when you read articles, when you hear stories — commit it all to Me! Pray for My children. Pray for their eyes to be opened to true religion, to My love for them and the eternal values. Pray for them to have light in darkness, hope and faith in their despair. Pray for My called-out ones to have courage and faith to say yes, when I call them to give their lives for the brethren. Pray for a revival, a renewal, for the Words of David to ignite and spread like a forest fire!
"Like the savanna is ablaze during dry seasons, so can My Words catch and set afire the dry, needy plains of this continent and spread with the speed of lightning, to purge, to purify, to cleanse, and to make room for My tender shoots.
"And I will send My rain, I will send My butterflies, My flowers, meat to the hungry, beauty and peace and a paradise to those who will receive. It will be a marvel to the nations, a creation of My love, if they will but receive and obey. And prayer can do mighty things in helping to make all this come to pass.
"So be not weary in well-doing, for in due season you shall reap if you faint not. Labor in prayer. Learn from Me as you pray and take up this commission, and I will not fail. I will teach you and I will guide you and instruct you. Your prayers will be pleasing in My eyes, a wonderful incense in My nostrils, a delight to My soul — your heart of prayer towards Me for others, for these poor and downtrodden, for the underdogs. For I see them and I have respect unto the lowly, to the lowly life, for they are My creation, My creation of love." (End of excerpts of prophecies.)
(End)