FOCUS ON THE FULANI WORD OF Life Nigeria March - June 2007
Dear Friends and Family,
Greetings from rainy Jos, Nigeria! We have been drenched by tons of rain so far, which is unusual this early. Our heavy rains usually don’t come until July and August. But, the farmers are happy, so we are too. Evangelism results Since the rains have come early this year, it has hindered our outside evangelism outreaches. But we are happy to report these results to you: March 16-18 in Kirim/Fadan Attakar ~ 1,230 in attendance 356 salvation decisions April 27-29 in Zawan/Bisichi ~ 2230 in attendance 229 salvation decisions As you can see, our salvation decisions weren’t very high in these villages. It seems like the devil really has a hold on these people but God was still at work in many lives. Nigeria has a new president The elections are over and we now have a new President. His name is Umaru Yar’Adua and he is a Muslim. It is our prayer that this will not cause havoc in the country and that life will improve. Of course, we have no idea of the future but our Nigerian friends seem to like President Yar’Adua and feel that he will improve things in Nigeria. We realize that, ultimately, it is God Almighty that puts people into power. His will shall be done. Daniel 2:21 says “And He changeth the times and the seasons: He removeth kings, and setteth up kings…” – we believe that and trust God’s wisdom in all that He does for both the USA and Nigeria. Barry and Deborah in the states We just got word that Barry and Deborah are going to be parents! Congratulations to them! The baby is due in December. They have been in the United States for many months now and are learning so much about Word of Life Clubs, camps and the worldwide ministry in general. Barry and Deborah attended the “Missionary in Training” school at Word of Life in June. We thank the Lord that they were officially accepted as Word of Life missionaries to Nigeria. Now they will be able to raise support and, Lord willing, return to Nigeria very soon. Born again to a Living hope Let me tell you that Satan did not want this program to come to Nigeria! The team of 5 from Argentina was denied their visas to enter into Nigeria! But, with God’s help, they were allowed to enter into the country and train our staff. It took 2 days of running around and speaking to Immigration officials but, in the end, GOD WON! The 5 young people that came were named Alejandro Nuesch, Dan Nuesch, Marcelo Carrizo, Andrea Nuesch and Valeria Matos. They were such a blessing to us! They were here from March 25th until April 2nd. Our Nigerian team hated to see them leave. We were able to accomplish so much during those 9 days together. We held two performances – the first on March 31st and the second on April 1st. Our numbers weren’t great but it was a good start. Between the two nights, there were 528 people that attended the performance and 78 of them made salvation decisions. We are having rehearsals every Thursday at our home, to keep the drama fresh in their minds. We also had several performances right here in Jos! We have held many performances, so they are too numerous to list out separately. On June 18th through June 27th, the team went on their first tour to Suleja, which is near the capital city of Abuja. They performed 12 times and had some wonderful results! Between the twelve performances, the team presented the gospel to 7,753 young people and adults and there were 2,212 salvation decisions. Many Muslims accepted Christ during the tour and the team was very excited about that! Praise the Lord for all He accomplished in Suleja last month! Sorry to throw so many numbers at you. To sum it all up, between March 31st and June 27th, our Born Again Nigeria team presented the Gospel to 10,995 young people and the Lord saved 3,361 of them! Praise the Lord for His goodness! We thank the Lord for all He’s done to make this new ministry happen! We trust the Lord for many more souls to be saved through this drama. Thank you for praying and giving so that this new ministry tool could become a reality in Nigeria! We have a new staff member that joined our team to coordinate the performances for Born Again to a Living Hope. His name is Emmanuel Akuegbuonwu (we call him Emma Aku) and his wife’s name is Lydia. They are faithful members of our church and also attend our Couples Fellowship every Monday night in our home. Visitors from the USA
We were so happy that Dave and Trudy Robertson came to visit us for 8 days from June 24th to July 2nd. They are the Word of Life Regional Representatives for Africa. They are our good friends, so we made sure to have lots of fun together while they were with us! During their visit, we held our first Word of Life Nigeria Staff Conference. With all of our staff and their children, we had 40 people at our house for meals! That was quite a task but Bette managed quite well with some help from Jummai, the DeVoe’s house girl. She cooked meals that both the Nigerians and Americans would like, since we had to keep both cultures happy. Dave and I both spoke twice during the conference. It was a great time of spiritual refreshment, fellowship and fun! We had some great outings at the Jos Museum and the Jos Wildlife Park. Growth in Bible Clubs
Bob DeVoe has done a tremendous job, along with Stephen Bahago, in starting Bible Clubs in Kaduna State. This is a predominately Muslim state, so this is a great accomplishment. They have started many new clubs there. We praise the Lord for the progress that has been made in Bible Clubs this year! We currently are running 48 clubs, which keeps the guys very busy! A new development
As I mentioned in our last prayer letter, we have moved into a new rental house. There is a guest house next to the property which we are not currently renting. We would like to buy the 2 properties that our Christian landlord has offered to sell to Word of Life. When Dave and Trudy were staying with us, we discussed this option with them and asked for their advice. They agreed that we should purchase these properties for a Ministry Center as well as our residence. We hold Couples Fellowship every week at our house – last week we hosted 83 people! That ministry has really grown because of this larger house. We also hold the “Born Again” rehearsals at our house every week. During rehearsals we usually host about 25 people. In the future, we would like to host teams from the USA at our home. Presently we can’t do that because all of our bedrooms are full! You may not know that we have 3 Nigerian young ladies living with us. So the guest house would really help for outside teams. That house has 3 bedrooms, 2 baths and a kitchen. In fact, Nehemiah Network is planning to send a medical team to Nigeria next year! The price that we’ve negotiated to buy these 2 houses and the acre of land that surrounds it is $170,000 (15% below market value). Nigeria is a developing country and property values have doubled in the last 6 years. It sounds like a large amount but we are getting 2 houses for that price. If we don’t make a move now, the price will continue to rise or someone else will buy it and we’ll have to move. In Eph. 3:20 & 21 it says, “Now unto Him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, unto Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus…” Please pray about helping us to purchase this important Ministry Center. Word of Life has set up a special project account for us. It is called “Nigeria Ministry Center” account. Thank you in advance for your financial help to buy this important piece of property for the Lord’s use and glory! In His Service, Peter and Bette Verkaik Acts 20:24
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