Poured Out

Here are some pictures of the last two weeks.  First, let’s take a look at Nigeria:

The front few rows of the workshop.

Preaching on the Saturday morning.

Can you spot me?

18 hours later . . . home to snow!

Doesn’t normally snow this late in the year.

Joel in his new shoes!

Here’s a sign I discovered on the door to our back garden (click on it to enlarge it).  Turns out the girls had set up shop and were trying to peddle the meager contents of our yard.

The shopkeepers with their stock of wares!

And the shop security guard (actually it’s Joel – worthy of another picture!)

Tonight I am speaking at Cannon Court in Fetcham – just less than half an hour from here.  I was there last night too.  Then Monday I need to get a lot done before leaving for the ship on Tuesday.  I am hoping to find someone who can take me to the airport on Tuesday morning.  But that is not the only prayer request for Tuesday.  Heathrow’s new Terminal 5 has had a controversial first few days with all sorts of complications and cancellations.  Apparently 87% of flights will go on Tuesday, but the majority of the cancellations are short-haul flights (like mine to Hamburg, Germany).  I only just realised that I am flying from Terminal 5.  Please pray that my flight will not be affected and that I will be able to get to the ship, with my bags as well!  I’ll give a schedule for my speaking in the next day or so.   Thanks.

Here are some prayer requests that flow out of GoFest last week.

* Pray for those who committed themselves to missions.  This was and is a very serious commitment.  The expectation was clearly that they would move into the northern states of Nigeria or North Africa.  Northern Nigerian states are under Shari’a law and so the cost could well be total for them as they follow through.  Please pray for faith, courage, boldness and wisdom to serve God in these very difficult places.

* Pray for the organizers of the event and Christian leaders in Nigeria.  Last week they were able to face up to some hurts and divisions that exist.  Pray for bitterness to be dealt with and for unity to grow among those that influence the students and the believers in the country.  As in most places I visit, disunity among believers is a real challenge and hindrance to the work of the church.

* Pray for the church in Nigeria.  One returning missionary spoke of the massive change in the country as prosperity teaching has really taken hold.  Pray for clarity and balance since this teaching can be so harmful to the work of the gospel.  Pray for those who preach to preach the Word accurately.

* Pray for Lagos specifically.  Such a sprawling mass of people, yet potentially so influential in Africa because of numbers alone.

* Pray for Nigerian Christians.  They are bold and full of vision.  These are good things.  But pray for humility so that they might have a voice outside their own borders.  Pray for servant-hearted leadership and a willingness to work together (it is always easier to form a new ministry and be the president of it, than it is to work alongside those already doing the same ministry).

* Pray for Nigerian’s overseas.  Many of the larger churches in London and other places are Nigerian churches.  Pray that they will increase passion for reaching out to other races as well as Nigerians.

* Pray for the individuals I spoke with.  The young man with a passion to mobilize people for missions.  The young man with a growng ministry, but a desire to study at the seminary there so he can be better equipped for teaching and preaching.  The young lady with deep pain from her past that is struggling to address the bitterness issues left by those scars.  I could go on, but this gives a brief sense.

* Pray for those without access to the medicine that got me through the conference.  A cheap medicine meant that for me a stomach ailment was not great inconvenience, yet for many across Africa it remains a great killer.

We are very grateful tonight because the Lord has provided a place for us to stay during the two months we will be in Oregon.  A couple from our sending church has offered us their rental house.  It will be perfect for us and its in a perfect location!  We are so grateful to have this aspect of our trip arranged.  Please keep praying for the multitude of smaller tasks we need to do in the next three weeks before we go.  For those of you who don’t know, we’ll be flying to Los Angeles, California on April 16th.  We’ll spend 2 weeks there before going on to Oregon.  The main purpose of this trip is to reconnect with our prayer and financial supporters, including our sending church in Oregon.  Peter will be doing a lot of speaking as well.

A prayer request: Please pray specifically for Christianity Explored tomorrow night.  It is the last meeting of the course.  I think the subject matter will be more personal and a challenge will be given as to where people are in their relationship with God.  Please pray for Samantha, Sharon, John, Esme, Julee and Kym. Pray for God’s Spirit to move and His love to be poured out in their hearts.  Pray also for Samantha and I as we discuss the home study tomorrow afternoon.

A practical request: Does anyone (local to us here!) have a spare large duffel bag we could use for our trip to the U.S.A?  We are looking for the kind without the stiff bottom.  We’d like to be able to roll them up inside other pieces of luggage since we will come back with more than we take!  Also, we want to avoid using suitcases since we’ll need to fit all our luggage inside a people carrier (mini van) which we will rent in California during our 2 weeks there.  Duffel bags squish into small spaces more easily than suitcases!

Nigeria is a very important country.  As the most populated country on the continent, 1 in 7 Africans live in Nigeria.  Lagos is a sprawling city with a huge population – unofficial but realistic estimates suggest 1 in 6 Nigerians live in Lagos (something like 15-17 million).  Just outside Lagos is a place called Redemption Camp.  I tend to be low key in my reaction to things I see, but this place is mind-boggling.  Owned by the largest denomination in Nigeria, Redemption Camp is like a city in itself.  I saw three banks, a university, a high school, hundreds of houses built by church members on plots of land given to them by the church.  The pastor’s mansion is palatial, and the “reclaiming” of forested land seems to be incessant.  At the centre is the church structure.  I measured the capacity of the part we occupied then multiplied it out to full capacity – 490,000!  Apparently they get over half a million every month for the all night prayer meeting.  But that is not big enough.  Just behind it they are constructing a new structure, this one much bigger, stretching out 2km along one side.  They claim, with some support, to have hosted the largest gathering of humanity there last year – 2.3 million!

GoFest08 never intended to fill the place.  High levels of anointing and breakthrough prayer, healing and blessing meetings may attract massive crowds, but world missions events tend not to.  Disappointingly the 8-10 thousand hoped for did not materialize.  Roughly a thousand came together, and during the days I started to hear of the tensions and issues between student ministries.  It’s a sad reality that wherever the church is, division seems to be near at hand.  Hopefully the open dialogue and honest sharing of the leaders during the days of GoFest will help to heal some of the issues that are present.  I was impressed that they were willing to talk openly – I know of many cultures where sweeping issues under the rug is the preferred approach!

My input from the front consisted of four sessions.  The first two were workshop sessions.  I had a good sized group of about 80 attend both days.  I mistakenly assumed that the same title on two days meant that they would be able to select two of the many workshops being held at the same time.  I discovered as I stood up to move to my group on day two that this would be the same group!  Missions work is a lot about flexibility!  Still, I hope the session was helpful as we reviewed the ten issues to consider in relation to successfully handling God’s calling on our lives as young people.  My goal was to help equip fervent students so that they will be able to make it into their later years, still pressing on for Christ.  On the second day we focused in on two key areas that have to be thought through carefully – mentoring relationships and sexual purity.

On Saturday and Sunday I shared in plenary sessions (to everyone).  This went well, and received positive feedback, despite the stomach issues that hit me on Friday.  I really enjoyed the food in Nigeria, but obviously something reacted because by Saturday morning I was relying totally on prayer and Loperamide (Imodium) to get me through!  Thankfully it worked out and I was able to preach without needing to run off the platform at any point (which was good because there was nowhere to run in that part of the camp!)  Sunday morning I was put on 2 hours earlier than planned, with just ten minutes warning, but at least I knew it would be the same crowd!

These events are not just about speaking to crowds.  They are also a lot about one-on-one conversations.  Sharing with a brother who is considering going to seminary, but also has a ministry that could take up all his time.  Listening to someone share about the pain of abuse and the agony of carrying that bitterness.  Encouraging a young man with a passion for missions mobilization.  There is a tendency in some places to get a passion for something and start your own ministry (it’s both attractive and easier to be a leader than a follower!)  Hopefully these conversations were strategic.  I also enjoyed interacting with other speakers – all involved in very strategic ministries around Nigeria and worldwide.

Next time I’ll share some prayer requests that flow out of this event in Nigeria.  Thank you for praying for my involvement, let’s pray on together for God to work in and through this significant Christian population in the months and years ahead.

I will write about the ministry tomorrow, but I should mention my health since Melanie did.  Thanks for praying.  My back was uncomfortable the first days, but then as I got hit by the stomach issues, I spent less time sitting in sessions and so had less back problems (trade one for the other!)  My foot injury is a weird one – hurt it a month ago wearing the wrong shoes on a day with lots of walking, and it is still bothering me.  Today it was painful with all the walking between trains, etc.  Please pray for it to resolve so I can get more active again.  The stomach thing was obviously something I ate, or a constitutional reaction to what I was eating (although I quite enjoyed much of the Nigerian cuisine from a taste perspective).  It wasn’t a miserable illness at all, but inconvenient and eventually draining in an energy sense (although extreme humidity in high temperatures does that too!)  The humbling reality is that diahhroea is the greatest killer sickness in the world, but for the wealthy with easy access to Loperamide (Imodium), it is seldom more than an inconvenience.  How often do we escape death by the grace of God and the timing or location of our existence?  Hopefully familiar food and diet will restore equilibrium within now that I’m home!

I got home today 24 hours ahead of schedule to the surprise of the family!  At 6pm last night I was saying goodbye to the organizer’s of the event in hot Nigeria (trying to keep my t-shirt from sticking to me and getting soaked with sweat).  18 hours later (after a couple of hours of sleep), I was having a snowball fight in the back garden with my family!  There was no reason for me to stay in Nigeria until tonight, so I was able to get my ticket changed and moved up by a day.  The drive from “Redemption Camp” to the airport (which used to be known as the world’s most dangerous airport – in terms of likelihood of robbery), was exciting.  Lagos is an incredible place.  Officially only 5 million, but realistic estimate is more like 17 million, and most of them seemed to be trying to get in front of our car.  Imagine a three lane road densely packed with aggressively driven, horn-honking vehicles, about six cars side by side trying to squeeze into any gap, driving at speed and missing each other by less than an inch.  It was incredible, and no surprise to see a nice gold mercedes get severely damaged by a bus directly in front of us.  We made it to the airport, I checked in and eventually flew out just before midnight.  It was fun to interact with all the officials in the airport – many wishing me a Happy Easter, all apparently showing allegiance to one of the big four English football teams, and some trying to get a “tip” for no legitimate reason.  Connected in Paris after only a couple of hours of sleep, if that, on the longer first flight.  Got into freezing London and travelled home by train to enjoy the day with the Meads.

Thanks for praying for last week, I will write a report in the next day or two so that you can know more about the situation in Nigeria.  It was a worthwhile trip on various levels, but I’m too tired to explain coherently now.

A report on the Meads: the children are in bed, 3 asleep, one having a tough night. Mom is nearly asleep as she writes . . . oh yes, resurrection cookies are in the oven. (The girls thought maybe we’d find an angel in front of the oven in the morning or wondered if I put some special ingredient in to make the cookies disappear! They are getting the idea that the tomb was empty!) Peter is in his room in Nigeria, his digestive system is a bit challenged at the moment. He made it through his sermon this morning without tummy problems, but only barely. Please pray for his stomach to settle down (not much chance humanly speaking since he will keep eating the same things that have caused it) and for strength as he is starting to feel really weak since he is so emptied out. He preaches for the last time tomorrow a.m. to the whole group.

I got a text from Peter this afternoon about the seminar he taught today.  I think there were about 80 people there.  Here is his text to me, “Second seminar, same title as first one. I found out one minute before it began that it would be the same people again! 80 minute seminar, same subject, same people . . . one minute to prepare.  I love missions!”  I texted him back and asked him how in the world he handled it, besides praying like crazy.  He said he just reviewed and went a bit deeper.  Wow.  He has tummy issues at the moment so he was glad to get through the seminar without having to run off the stage to the toilet.  Common problem when visiting Africa, but no fun.  Please keep praying for him.

It’s officially Easter weekend now. What a wonderful holiday – I love it! We are taking the day off “school” tomorrow for Good Friday. I plan on reading the kids some Easter related stories I printed off the interent and we will go through our “resurrection eggs” which tell the story of Easter with little objects inside each plastic egg. We’ll do some Easter crafts too hopefully, sometime over the weekend. Then in the evening our neighbour is coming over for dinner. Saturday we may go out with some friends (if it’s not snowing, as it is forecast to do!) and in the evening we are going to make “resurrection cookies.” I heard about the idea last year, but AFTER Easter. So we are eager to try them. Each ingredient symbolizes a part of the Easter story. You put them in the oven Saturday night and on Easter morning, the cookies are “empty,” just like Jesus’ tomb! I will report on Sunday on how they turn out! (If you want to try making them, just google “resurrection cookies” for the instructions) Oh, on Sunday, the girls and I plan to watch Treasures of the Snow on dvd (could be a fitting weekend to do it, ha!). I just finished reading the book out loud to them today – what a beautiful story! If you have not read it, I highly recommend it. The girls know its a good one if Mom cries at the end!

A few more things to report . . . I haven’t heard any news from Peter today. I will report when I do hear something. A piece of good news is that I do NOT have to renew Aliyah’s passport. Thank you Lord for that one! And Christianity Explored (part 7 of an 8 week course at church) went extremely well tonight. Keep praying for hearts to be changed, especially for my friend Sam – that she will keep on growing in her understanding of Jesus’ love for her.

Thanks for praying!