Our Long Journey to Kwarhi, Adamawa State

GLOBAL VOICES

EYN (Church of the Brethren Nigeria) Pastors Conference 2020 in Mubi in Northeast Nigeria (10—15 February 2020)

Luka Vandi Uti is the managing director and CEO of Africa Christian Textbooks (ACTS). Because he works and travels throughout Nigeria, he faces life-threatening dangers often. He has been to training workshops and conferences of Media Associates International. The Board of Missions gave a special gift to ACTS for the publishing efforts and outreach described in this article.

After praying and trusting God for safety, my team and I decided as planned to travel to the Northeast, a fearful part of Nigeria where every minute of safety is appreciated because anything can happen.

By 6 a.m. we departed to Jos Plateau, trusting God for the 10- to 12-hour journey ahead of us, a longer route to Mubi (Kwarhi precisely) in Adamawa State where the headquarters of EYN (Church of the Brethren Nigeria) is situated. This used to be a seven-hour journey through the Biu-Mubi road, a shorter route we no longer take because of the insurgence in that area.

This Biu-Mubi road is “Kururuwanka banza,” which literally translates into English a “Your shouting amounts to nothing.” This route has a link to Sambisa Forest where several famous people, including the Emir of Gwoza, were killed. Gwoza is in Borno State, which was headquarters of Boko Haram before the Nigerian military pushed them back into the Sambisa Forest.

With the help of God, we arrived at the headquarters of EYN before 6 p.m., overjoyed and grateful to Him for such a smooth and safe journey. Throughout the years, ACTS has lost more than ten bus, car and truck engines on this road, and so we found this to be a big success and blessing to have reached our destination without issues.

The bus and we passengers arrived first, while the truck took two days to reach the conference in Kwarhi, Adamawa State. We were very happy to see that everything went as planned. The bus and truck were packed with books, tracts, Bibles and flyers for the usual work of distribution among the population. We were able to distribute our targeted books and tracts to ministers and sold some books to them.

The second success was the turnout of clergy. More than 900 ordained clergy attended the conference. We had anticipated 1,300, but some people couldn’t travel because of security changes in their areas. We cannot say the exact number but were told that some roads were closed down because of recent attacks by the Yaran Malam (the preferred, so-called dignified name of Boko Haram, since it dangerous to call them “Boko Haram” directly to their faces).

We did a brief meeting with the leadership to strategize on how to reach every minister, including those unable to attend.

We started with a successful meeting with the leadership who gave us assurance of their support, to bring about a coordinated and symbiotic relationship between ACTS and the pastors. The secretary of the minister’s council, Rev. Bukar Lallai, accepted the role of distributing the relevant items to the ministers. The conference started with worship on 11 February 2020. The President of EYN Church, Rev. Joel Billi, welcomed all members and an encouraging sermon was preached from the visiting speaker Brother Dondo Lorlamen, from Calvary Ministries (CAPRO) in Jos. Throughout the conference, the speaker encouraged the ministers to “fear the Lord and serve him with all faithfulness” (his Scripture from Joshua 24:14), despite the threats and the destruction of lives and properties. The leadership also encouraged conference participants to stand firm. The meeting’s atmosphere grew tense when people heard how the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) Chairman, Rev. Lawan Andimi, was murdered by Boko Haram. As ministers were trying to bear the full story of how their fellow minister was killed, another ten ministers came forward with sad stories of how they narrowly escaped. Each had a heart-breaking story to tell.

The first one told how his church was set ablaze, seven members murdered and over twelve women and children taken away; another described his being alive as a miracle of God because his area was attacked and several people were killed, and houses and churches were burned down. The stories continued until the last pastor stood and described how his house was burnt down with his four children in it. The whole conference became a place of mourning and prayers. This drove the conference to give all it could to assist the 10 ministers, just to get their lives started again. It was an anxious and heart-melting session.

Another disturbing moment came when the conference learned that more than 30 persons were burnt alive at the gate of Maiduguri City by Boko Haram after the military closed the gate on them. Since EYN (Church of Brethren) is the leading church in Borno State, it became necessary to pray as we headed back to the station with mixed feelings.

Despite the fear and sad moments at the conference, there were many things to celebrate:

1. We witnessed a successful conference to the glory of God.

2. ACTS reached more than nine hundred ministers with literature and evangelism tools. We were able to give each pastor “Christianity and Islam” and other tools for the ministerial work. This sparked jubilation among ministers. They appreciated this gesture greatly.

3. The leadership celebrated the efforts of ACTS over the years of providing relevant literature, which made a huge difference among ministers and members in depressed situations, for they saw ACTS as a beacon of hope to them (EYN) and beyond.

4. ACTS received lots of feedback on the distribution last April of tracts and Bibles among ministers and members. They were given the ESV Global Study Bible, Every Christian a Witness and revival movement materials.

5. We thank God for the successful sales and outreach to seminaries existing in the Northeast by our marketing team after the conference.

6. Praise for answered prayer for the safe journeys for all the ministers - though one of the Maiduguri-bound cars had an accident, the minister came out of it safely without injury. The Maiduguri Road has more than five major entrances into Borno, but with only one or two accessible through the help of the military.

7. ACTS (i.e. all staff that attended the conference) received many calls from ministers expressing their gratitude for the literature given to them at the conference.

8. The confidence and boldness seen in the eyes of the ministers is worth thanking God for and the worthy stories of many Muslims turning to Christ as Saviour without fear.

PRAYERS NEEDED

1. Pray for the church EYN and other churches in the northeast.

2. Pray for the church facing daily death and destruction.

3. Pray for the ministers to stand firm and encourage members not to give up. The conference for both members and ministers is in the spring. We expect close to 2,000 people to be in attendance. We want to reach this population, God helping us.)

4. Pray for supporters and helpers to make things easier for ACTS to achieve her dreams of publishing and reaching the needy.

5. Pray for courage and safety for our staff as they travel about, despite danger.

6. Pray for the vehicles to function as any breakdown can be very costly (and dangerous) on these roads.

7. Pray for effective use of literature that has been distributed.

8. Pray for peace in Nigeria.

9. Pray for the leadership of Nigeria.