20 March 2013
The
dateline on this update is significant to our family for it is the day we moved
into our new house! The ten-month
process of building a home that we could own in Abuja has been trying, yet we
have been aided along the way with skilled men within our membership, generous
offerings of supporting churches, and invaluable help from our sending
church. Our seminary students and some
volunteer church members helped us to get all our belongings from the rental
house in a single day, and several from Truth Baptist Church have blessed us
with housewarming gifts.
The
first two months of this year were also momentous as on the 8th of
January we welcomed thirteen new students to our seminary, including the first
four female students. Two of the ladies
are members of our church, and the two from other cities are living in a
separate quarters on our property and helping my wife in the house when they
are not in classes. The seminary also
has the following new teachers: Missionary Pastor Israel Thompsons, a dear
friend who has preached with me in our pastors’ conference and has the only
monthly publication amongst our independent Baptists in Nigeria, and Bro.
Adewale Adesina, who is interning with us upon recommendation of his pastor and
is a graduate of the only other full-time college in our movement.
In
the middle of February, we welcomed back a young evangelist from the U.S. who,
in late 2011, had helped one of our graduates to start a church in a
neighboring state. This time he returned
to purchase land for the church and lay down plans for an auditorium. The weekend before moving into our house, I
traveled down to meet our visitor in Ugba, Benue State, to conduct the
ordination for Pastor Victor Acka at New Hope Baptist Church [with me in the video above]. I had the adventure of baptizing several in
the Benue River after the service, and we also took some time to conduct an
outreach service in Bro. Acka’s home village near Ugba, where he hopes to start
a church in the near future. Please join
with us to continue praying for our church plants all throughout Nigeria and
also for the school that is helping to equip another group of men for further
church planting.
Below
is a video that was used by Bro. Pete Cavanaugh, the "young
evangelist" referenced above, to raise the funds for the property and
future building in Ugba. (Note: we do realize there are other New Testament
churches throughout Nigeria and in Benue State; however, it is significant that
New Hope was the first independent Baptist church, that we know of, which was
started in the state.)
No comments:
Post a Comment