SIM Nigeria

photo by Kószó József

Like dandelion seeds…you can’t stop them from spreading!

“When I worked in Liberia, I had the chance to disciple a Christian named Nelson Cyrus. After Liberia’s civil war started in 1989, Cyrus evacuated to Ghana. I didn’t see him again until 1999, when our family traveled to Ghana and visited the local Liberian refugee camp. Cyrus was still there, busy pastoring one of the refugee churches and discipling many Liberians in the camp. Those Liberians discipled others, and the effects spread beyond Cyrus’s church, beyond the refugee camp, and into the surrounding area. That’s how discipleship should work.”

Randy Wildman, SIM missionary now living in Jos, Nigeria, and working in the ECWA discipleship ministry, continues. “Imagine you disciple a man named Timothy for a year. At the end of the year, there are two of you. If you and Timothy each disciple another person the next year, there will be four. If the four of you each disciple one person then there will be eight of you… After 33 years, over eight and a half billion people will have been discipled… except that the world population is less than seven billion!

God used a stolen iPod to change someone's destiny forever. Let me explain...

Two weeks ago was my first time to spend the night with the kids at our orphanage in Gyero (20 minutes outside of Jos). Right before going to bed I realized my iPod had gone missing. After looking for it a long time, we concluded that it was stolen. With no way to search 60 kids at 10 o'clock at night, and thinking the culprit would sell it first thing the next day at the market, I was content with being iPodless.

So, you can image how surprised I was to got a call from one of the house parents the following day informing me they found the iPod on one of the kids. Unfortunately, the kid who took it was Simon, one the boys I had gone hiking with the previous day.

See the rest of the story in Justin's blog!

It was difficult spending three days in Minna, the capital of Niger state. The temperature in Jos fluctuates between 16 to 24 degrees Celcius and that in Minna settles within 28 to 40; it was not easy to cope. The National Evangelical Missionary Association, in conjunction with LCAN, put together a special Muslim evangelism training for pastors and church leaders. There was a unanimous consensus about the effectiveness of the seminar. “We are so blessed and we now know better how to approach our Muslim friends.”

On the 15^th of April, in Gwada, Niger state, where another training took place, a church and its bus was burnt down by Islamic militants. It took courage for us to still hold the training in Minna. Unfortunately, such is the situation when we do ministry.

Though it’s very tough for Muslims to become Christians, they are still turning to The Way. One of our trainees told us about a chief and his family in Niger state, who gave their lives to Christ because of the love the trainee showed them. The chief still goes to the mosque because of the fear of persecution but prays in the name of Jesus Christ.

For donations, contact SIM International Project No. 96406. In Nigeria, write a cheque to SIM indicating Life Challenge Africa at the back of the cheque.

Niger state covers an area of 76,363 square km (29,484 square miles). It has a population of 4 million (2005 estimate). Hausa is widely spoken but there are many other language groups also.

“The Nigerian Church is maturing,” Dr. George Janvier says excitedly. “When the early SIM missionaries came to Nigeria, they had to start with literacy classes. Then they set up secondary schools, Bible colleges, and finally, seminaries. The PhD program is the final link in the education chain. The Nigerian Church has a number of PhDs, but all of them were trained in the West.” Dr. Janvier teaches at Jos Evangelical Theological Seminary (JETS), which is the Nigerian seminary that SIM is most closely associated with.

Western education has excellent quality, but there is a high price tag attached. When Nigerians study in the West, they are exposed to Western teaching styles and issues. Nigerian Christians face different concerns than those from North America or Europe. Instead of studying postmodernism, homosexuality, bioethics, and the Iraq War, they need to learn to handle questions about polygamy, persecution, marriage, finance, corruption, and AIDS. Studying in the West is also inconvenient because of visas, finance, and family separation--students’ families often remain in Nigeria.

Kaum zu glauben, dass bereits ein ganzer Monat seit meinem letzten Eintrag vergangen ist. Du warst wirklich geduldig.

Herzlich willkommen in Gyero!
In diesem Dorf sind unsere Mädchen und die Knaben, die die Primarschule besuchen, zu Hause. Nach den Unruhen im Jahr 2001 konnten wir güngstig Land erwerben, da viele Bewohner aus dem Ort weggezogen sind. Über die Jahre konnte Dank Spenden Haus um Haus gebaut werden.

Read the whole article in Corinne's blog or here in an automated, rough translation to English.

“The spiritual decision I made this year in camp was not to steal, no fighting, and no lying. May God give me understanding and love to people, not to be bad to any people in this community.” –Jos ECWA Camp Youth Alive Camper

Two youths at ECWA Camp

As I read over this evaluation the other day, I could not help but wonder about the camper who wrote it. Was he involved in the recent Jos crisis? Did he have an opportunity to retaliate and involve himself in violence? Did he choose not to in the name of love and Christ-like humility? Has he been an agent of peace and comfort to those in his community now in the wake of the crisis? All of these questions started swirling around in my head and I started to have a new perspective of the situation we’re living in.

Like the rest of the Jos population, the events of late November 2008 set me back on my heels and made me take another look at the city and community I live in. As someone who has devoted her life towards working with youth, specifically, Nigerian youth, my heart ached when I heard that youths were the ones carrying out many of these atrocities.