Adventures in Gombe & Niger

By Rich Gardner February, 2008

Journal Entries:

Background 1: Motorcycles Through Dadiya Land 2: Meeting the Tera 3: North to Niger 4: Report by Daniel and Bitrus in Niger 5: Conclusion

1/15 Background

Greetings, Thank you for all your prayers for my trip to and Niger. This was the final Bible Translation / JESUS Film workshop for the 9 language translation teams in of northern Nigeria. I have been working with them along with a number of other translation consultants for the past three years.

It was important to tie up any loose ends now because I wouldn’t meet with them again except individually in their villages. Bitrus D. from the Izere Project and I spent time talking to each group to make sure they were ready for the Jesus Film and follow-up program in their villages. Each of the groups wants to be first, but it is up to the Jesus Film Project to decide who will be the first tribes to get the Jesus Film dubbed in their language. All of them will have it before the end of the 2008. The Bwaaza showed they were serious about it having raised 1,000,000 Naira ($7,800) for the task.

As the workshop was wrapping up, Bitrus and I headed out to visit the Dadiya people and then the Tera in our ongoing efforts to visit each language group in their areas. The following week I joined two of the other Izere Project team members (Bitrus A. and Daniel) and two people from New Life for All (Nuhu and Rev. Sambo) as we traveled to the country of Niger, north of Nigeria. These were exciting journeys, and we continue to be amazed and thankful as we see how the Lord is working. Following are the stories of our adventures.

2/15 Chapter 1: Motorcycles Through Dadiya Land

Bitrus and I went to visit the Dadiya language group together with one of the translators, Pastor Iliya, and the finance chairman of their committee. We had arranged to go with the expat translation advisor, but knowing that our trips were usually full of “surprises”, he decided to stay at Biliri and work with the other teams. We planned a two day trip since the Dadiya land is very vast. It covers parts of three States in Nigeria. We went by vehicle to the north side and visited a number of villages and churches there. Each time we would talk about the Jesus Film and follow up, and we would mark the site on our GPS to be used for making a map of the area for future reference. One thing we noticed that was different about the Dadiyas is that they fence their compounds using rocks. Usually Nigerians use corn stalks or cactus, but since there is an overabundance of stones in their area this is what they use.

We stopped by the chairman of the translation committees’ house in Bambam, but he was not around. His wife was there and she insisted we stay for “water” which can mean anything from water to a full meal. After a few minutes she brought out “pap”. It is a thick milky porridge, which was hot. After we ate we thanked her, and went on our way. We had a long way to go before dark. We started the circular drive around the mountain ranges to reach the south side of Dadiya land. We passed four language groups which have no scriptures in their language. About three quarters the way around we were in Dadiya land again. We marked many villages. At one village there was a pastors’ meeting so they invited us in to speak to them. I talked about our mission to visit Dadiya land, meet some of the people and get to know Dadiya land so we can plan better for showing the Jesus Film and have discipleship among their people. They were so happy with the news. After we went to the car they came out afterwards and gave us 900 Naira as a small token of their joy in our coming.

3/15 We proceeded to the villages near the mountains. It was almost dark now, and we met pastor Iliya’s family and father. I asked if his father was a Christian and he said, “No, he is an idol worshiper.” We went to the home we would stay at. I tried to set up a “bug hut”, but the wind was blowing too hard and it made the temperature very cold to us. So, I had to sleep inside with Bitrus and we prayed that there would be no malaria mosquitoes. I tried to take a cold water shower outside, but there was not much protection (except the dark). So all I did was try and get the Harmattan (Sand from the Sahara) out of my hair. During the night the wind ripped around us. Debris was falling so hard on the straw roof that it sounded like it was raining. There had been a traditional wedding that night so there was drumming all around us. There was a lot of noise also, and in the middle of the night villagers were calling inside our compound and Bitrus sent them away, but he couldn’t sleep the rest of the night being concerned for our safety.

The next morning we drove back around and through the land, right up to the mountains at a town called Suwa. There we hired two motorcycles to take us in between the two mountain ranges. There was no other way to get there except to walk. Pastor Iliya drove me, and the finance chairman drove Bitrus. It started out fine. The first part of the terrain belonged to the Peri people. They have no scriptures in their language. Their land was very rocky and a challenge to stay on the bike. When we finally reached Dadiya land it was more than an hour on the bikes. The harmattan dust was so thick that we could just barely see the high mountains on either side of us. We talked to numerous leaders and encouraged them that we plan to have both the gospel of Luke and Jesus Film in their languages. In the villages my visit caused such a stir that they insisted I talk to the head leaders and explain why a white man was visiting them. After we told them they were very happy and said we were welcome anywhere.

4/15 About three hours in on the bikes we were running out of gas and wondering if we were going to make it back. The people with us wanted us to go to all the villages, but we said we needed to get back and that we would mark them on a drawn map. This was OK to them and we started the long trip back. The path was very sandy. It was like a beach in some parts. This made it very difficult to steer the motorcycle and we nearly fell on our side a few times. Bitrus had a greater difficulty. About an hour in the brakes on their motorcycle broke. On flat terrain it wasn’t much of a problem, but when they went downhill they both had to jump off and hold the bike back. Then they would aim the bike at a small boulder to stop it. The good thing was we made it back to Suwa safely and with enough gas after an exhausting 5+ hour trip. As we were making our way back to Kufai before nightfall we passed a place on the road that the Dadiya people with us pointed at. They said that there was hot natural water there, but that some parts were hot, a part was warm, and a part was cold. The hot part was so hot it would melt your skin. It had been like that for years and people drink the water. I asked them if it had a bitter taste to it, thinking it might have sulfur in it from volcanic activity. They said no. They also said fish swim in all areas. I wished I had time to stop, but we had to get back by dark and Bitrus and I were sore from the hours on the back of the motorcycles.

At one village the people were so happy that they gave us a sack of peanuts. They were not like American peanuts but quite good. This is a common crop in Africa known as “ground nuts”. We made it back to Kufai about 5:30 which was about 30 minutes before dark.

5/15 Chapter 2: Meeting the Tera

The next day we arranged for a meeting with all the pastors for another language group called the Tera in Zambuk. The group already has the Jesus Film in their own language. They showed it around in their villages a while back, but after initial success in having people decide to follow Jesus, virtually no one has continued on in the faith, perhaps because there was no follow-up. Bitrus and I met with 42 Tera pastors on January 28th and presented the follow up program to them for two hours. They asked questions and in the end expressed a commitment to start the follow up program in their group. They are 90% Muslim and have special challenges because of that. We agreed to have all the pastors trained from May 5-9th of this year pending available finances. They said they would have 72 pastors trained. I mentioned to Bitrus that we need to include a specialist in Muslim care in the teaching and he agreed to give one full day to Rev. Danamaria to teach the Tera pastors how to take care of Muslim new believers.

As I was preparing to leave Kufai and say good-bye to all the language group translation teams on Wednesday, they wanted me to address them all. So I got up and told all the groups that I enjoyed visiting them and seeing their homelands—even though when I visited Bwaaza last year the canoe leaked all the way across the river; and this time Pastor Illiya was praying he wasn’t going to kill the white man on the back of the motorcycle; and Hamisu’s daughter cried when she saw me because she never saw a white person before. They all laughed, but I said I really enjoyed the hospitality in all their homes and look forward to visiting them again and bringing the Jesus Film to them and discipling the new believers. I told pastor Iliya to tell his dad, who is an ATR (African Traditional Religion) that I would be praying for him. So I was sad in leaving them, but said I would see them someday in their villages again.

I left for Jos on Wednesday praying that the Izere Project car would take me the 4 hours to Jos. It sounded fine and worked well. As I started the drive I was dreading the long road trip and

6/15 started to get grieved at it and decided I would pray during the trip. So at many of the Muslim villages I passed I just prayed for that village and asked God to bring his Word there and that people there would worship him and not Allah. I was really convinced that some of the Nigerian church has given up on Muslims becoming Christians, and I don’t think it is fair to do so. Why let this generation go to Satan in all eternity? Rather, let God open their hearts and let them receive the truth and worship Jesus in these villages.

On Thursday, I visited a missionary named Peter and talked about his organization, ECWA Cinema, showing the Film in the Gombe area. We have so many hundreds of villages to show it in, in so many languages. that we are going to need some help. He agreed to work with me on that. I talked to him about possible medical outreaches, but he said no one is really doing that anymore. It is really a lost ministry. Medical outreaches can really help villagers and reinforce the loving nature of Christianity.

7/15 Chapter 3: North to Niger

On Friday morning I started our long journey to the country of Niger with Bitrus A., Daniel, Nuhu, and Rev. Sambo. I needed to visit Niger for two reasons: to check up on the results of the conference on Evangelism which the Izere Project helped sponsor last year (after the conference 1,000+ trained evangelists from Nigeria went to Niger and shared the gospel), and to do research for my doctorate which is on evangelism with and without follow up. I asked Daniel to write a report on the trip from his Nigerian perspective and will send that out later. We began our journey by traveling to the border through Kaduna, Kano, and Katsina States. Katsina is a moderate Muslim state which allows Christianity there. The former governor is now President of Nigeria.

At the border two pastors from Niger met Nuhu, who is the head of New Life for All (NLFA). These men are the head of NLFA in Niger and the area coordinator. They helped us go through immigration and customs on both sides of the border.

Somewhere around the border the landscape began to change. The ground was bare except for some trees and a few bushes. The grassland of Nigeria was gone. About 10 miles into Niger the dirt on the ground was gone and sand covered the dirt. Nuhu wanted me to visit a “Bible School” so we got off the tarred road onto the sand road and went for about 20 minutes inside. There was a place with a few houses and a classroom. As we arrived everyone came out. There were about 40 students there and only 4 teachers. The students and families didn’t have much to live on and some others had to drop out. The students sometimes would go to Nigeria and seek financial help because Niger has few Christians to help in evangelism work. The students were determined to stay and reach out to their home country.

8/15

We left for the guesthouse. It was about 45 minutes away past Maradi, the financial capital of Niger. We stayed at the Assemblies of God guesthouse. I had a room and a desk. All the “facilities” were in outside rooms and just had a cement floor with a hole in the middle for shower water to go down or bathroom. It was a step up from our village life in Dadiya land so I was thankful.

The next day we started out trying to meet with those who made decisions for the Lord during the 1,000 person outreach. The Niger leaders led the way and we went to the first village where one person, Sani, had received Christ when the evangelist came. He was the only Christian in the village. All the men came out to see what was going on, and when they heard from us they sent for Sani who was nearby. When he came he showed us his hand which was bandaged. He unwrapped it and showed us his swollen and infected thumb. As he went off to be interviewed by Daniel, I talked with the leadership with me and said that I had Doxycyclene with me for malaria prevention. I said I would like him to take it since there are no clinics around. So I gave them the pills and hoped I wouldn’t get malaria, but knew that he needed some antibiotics and this was all I had.

As we waited for Sani to be interviewed, which I insisted to be away from all of us so he could answer freely, all the men of the village were just sitting around (about 30 of them, all Muslim). I asked the leader from Niger if we could share the gospel with them and he talked to the people in the language and they said yes. So he spent 25 minutes sharing the gospel and inviting them to receive Christ. They said they would think about it because they are a community. Actually this was an amazing event. In Nigeria, Muslims would never agree to hear the gospel, and then if you did, they would insult you and possibly threaten you -- and in some states arrest you. But here the people were open to listening. The Nigerians with me were astounded at the openness. As Sani finished the interview, I asked that we all gather around him and pray for him for healing and encouragement. All the villagers saw us (so please remember Sani in your prayers also).

9/15 Example of one of the interview Questionnaires

Note: I have ten of the interview Questionnaires with me and am scanning them. They are very moving. If you would like to see them let me know and I will share them with you.

Next we went to another village and met a pastor in his house. There was no building yet, and only two families that comprised the church. He said they had 4 people who received Christ during the outreach and he went to call them. I decided to leave Daniel and Bitrus there to interview them and the rest of us would go back and get a small 4- wheel drive Corolla. We could not get to any village away from the road with the big van because of the sand.

So we went back to Maradi and picked up the secretary’s car, got some fuel, and headed back. When we picked up some speed (35 mph) the whole front end began to shake tremendously. He said he didn’t know what the problem was, but he just had to manage like that. I thought we had a flat, but it wasn’t that. It would calm down after slowing down a bit. I just prayed that we would get back to Maradi by dark because I wouldn’t want to have this vehicle lose its front end on the main road with fast-moving vehicles. I didn’t mind if it fell off in the sandy villages, but not on the main road. So I wrapped the seat belt around me since the buckle didn’t work and prayed that we would make it safely home after visiting the villages.

10/15 We picked up Daniel and Bitrus and went to the inner village. As we went along we noticed cattle pulling carts with people in them. We asked about it and they said it was like taxis. They paid the people with the cart to take them to the village. It was too sandy for reliable motorcycle trips so this was the only mode of transportation available. They had a few camels, but they were mostly used for carrying loads and not people. I think further toward the Sahara they used camels more for people. We traveled on to a different village. There were many people in it and they gathered around as we stopped to visit. Unfortunately the pastor who visits the village wasn’t there and our car couldn’t even make it back to his village because of the nature of the sand. One motorcyclist volunteered (with pay) to go to the village and bring the pastor back.

Many children had gathered around and how I wish we had brought someone with Child Evangelism skills with us because we had a long wait till the pastor returned. In the meantime, those with me shared the gospel to those all around us. They listened carefully, which again was amazing to the Nigerians. Such openness was exciting.

When the pastor returned he took Daniel and Bitrus to the new believers so they could be interviewed. I went back to the car acting like a magnet to draw people away. Although the people don’t know English because Niger is French speaking, they understand the very well, of which I know a little.

It was getting late so after encouraging the pastor and interviewing the people, we left and they asked us to stop at the ruler of the area’s house and greet him since he had encouraged the pastor. We entered into his house. He was a Muslim. The Niger people explained to him our purpose and he was very happy with our coming. He said he would like to have churches in all of his area, and he turned to the pastor with us and said I want you to build a church in your village. This was amazing to everyone. I thanked him for all his encouragement and prayed that

11/15 God would bless him and give him wisdom in his ruling. Outside we gave him a Bible and shared the gospel with him and he thanked us. The door is wide open.

On the way back, the Niger leader of NLFA pointed out to our right and said there are 315 villages there with no Christian witness. And they are open to the gospel. Their Islam is soft; they go more to the traditional animist shrines than to mosque. We all felt burdened for them because the ruler said we are free to plant churches anywhere, but there aren’t enough workers and people willing to suffer in this environment to take the gospel there. So prayers are needed. The next morning we ate breakfast and I talked with all the leaders about praying that we could help in some way during this time when the door is open. The needs are there in Nigeria and we can’t turn our back on that, but let us bring before God this need and the timing and prayerfully consider what can be done for Niger now.

As we left rejoicing together and praying for the work, the owner of the guesthouse said he wasn’t going to charge us for staying there; we are in the gospel ministry together. We just gave him money to cover the light and water, and I decided we would give the money which we would have spent on that night’s lodging to the few pastors in those villages. So Nuhu was happy and gave the money to the Niger leader.

12/15 Chapter 4: Report by Daniel and Bitrus on Trip to Niger

We left Maradi to visit the villages to meet with the new converts who came to Christ during the visits of New Life for All. Our first point of call was B. village where we met with a pastor/missionary who shared his experience and the effort he is making in the area. He said there are no converts yet in B., but he took us to Z.K. village where we interviewed a convert, a young man named Sani. The chairman of NLFA Niger chapter and the Christian Education Director of ECWA General Church Council did proclaim the gospel to a gathering of Muslim adults. None prayed to receive Christ but they listened politely. We then moved to T.K. village where we also proclaimed the gospel to Muslim adults. They said they will think about it. We left to C. village but did not meet the pastor.

In A.K. village, we interviewed four people. One Samu, a 26 year old, said he did receive Christ but he decided to go back to Islam due to pressure and persecution. He said he did not receive much encouragement from Christian brethren. He said he is overwhelmed with physical need. That was a hindrance to the young man. The three other people seemed very committed to their new faith. One followed us to Jos to visit a COCIN reverend. They told us that they want their Pastor to be encouraged and that there are many who want to be Christians but for fear of ridicule and rejection. A tent of worship has been erected in that village with two families of 14 people as worshippers.

After this, Rich along with the Chairman of NLFA Niger Chapter, C.E. Director of ECWA and the driver left for Maradi to exchange the vehicle that would convey us to other areas while we two waited at A.K. village. They came back and we went to R.D. village where we interviewed five people. The pastor was not there but they went and brought him from his village. He shared his experience and we prayed with him and the people and committed them to God’s care. It was getting dark, so we left back to Maradi.

Observations 1. The people we visited in all the villages are 99.9% Muslims but are very receptive and open for the gospel. 2. They are not hostile like what is happening in Nigeria. 3. Near total absence of a standing church in the villages.

13/15 4. We were informed that in one area there are more than 314 villages that have no single church and no single effort by any Christian organization or church. 5. Poverty, ignorance and disease can be a big hindrance to the gospel. 6. Confrontational evangelism does not yield desired results. 7. Resident pastors/missionaries are under-supported. The support of those in the villages is short. 8. Proper recording and handover of names of converts and documents was not done by previous leaders.

Recommendations 1. The scope of work should be narrowed for more effective results. 2. The field is wide; a particular village should be adopted and supported sufficiently so that it will serve as a model and beacon of light to surrounding villages. 3. There is the need for effective follow-up and discipleship in the villages. A plan on follow-up and discipleship should be implemented. 4. Felt and pressing needs of the people should be identified so it is possible to come up with strategies of meeting them. 5. We should come up with strategies for relational evangelism. 6. The church in Nigeria should come to terms with the reality that they are the one responsible for evangelism of Niger Republic!

Bitrus & Daniel 2/2/2008, At Maradi – Niger Republic

14/15 Conclusion

Please continue to pray for the work in Nigeria and Niger that God would send the workers and resources to help in this time of openness for the gospel in both countries. Our desire is to be able to assist the believers in both countries gain access to the Bible in their heart languages, and to assure that training and materials are available as they mature in their faith and continue to reach out to others with the gospel.

Thanks for your faithfulness in supporting the work. Rich Gardner

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