NIGERIA REPORT - JANUARY 28 - MARCH 7, 2003
John Roy Bohlen
Preparation: I have a reason for telling you this story, which I will tell you in a moment. When we planned this trip, Karen and I had no money. We were obedient to God and planned the trip anyway. Elijah had no money for himself. Each of us left our wife with thousands of dollars in bills, (for which the Lord has been providing). I called Elijah when he was leaving for the airport, three days before me. I said, “Elijah, be honest with me, tell me how much money you have in your pocket?!” He said, “Oh, about 3 or 4 dollars!” In other words, Elijah was leaving for the airport for Nigeria, to travel to Europe, then to Nigeria, with needs for food, gas, car repair, an all of that, with 3 or 4 dollars!!! I quickly called some of my friends, and told them of Elijah’s predicament, as I could not drive down in time to meet him, nor had we any money of our own to give. One of our mutual Christian friends responded by saying, “Oh, 3 or 4 dollars should be enough.” Two of our friends decided to sacrificially give out of their need. Deanna Lee and her husband just missed Elijah, the other, Chuck Dodge, with Judy’s agreement, met Elijah at the airport with $85 dollars. Elijah said that “Chuck was like an angel from God!” Elijah gave $20 of the $85 to his wife and boarded the plane, to prepare for my coming in Nigeria.
I myself followed 3 days later with $600 in my pocket that was to cover hotel, water, feeding, transportation, giving to the Nigerians, missions, and all that is needed for 5 weeks within the country. Many of the expenses are equal to that of the United States. For example, the hotel costs, themselves can easily amount to $30 or more per night. There is a reason why I am telling you all of this. The Israelites were in a similar situation in the Wilderness, and in need of encouragement. I am trying to help you to see that God, in His love and wisdom, sometimes allows, sometimes causes us to be in situations of total, total, total dependence upon Him, utterly and totally at His mercy. He does not seem to feel obligated to apologize nor explain to us His reasons for allowing or causing us to be hideously hopeless, and horribly helpless, without His hope and help. You and I are completely dependent upon God for our every heart-beat, our every breath, our every coherent thought, our every pain-free moment, our every ounce of strength, our every moment spent in God, the ability to stand, or sit, or walk or coordinate, or hear or feel or think or move or see, or taste or eat or drink. Every one of us are totally, totally, totally, totally, totally, totally, utterly, completely, and absolutely, totally dependent upon Him for every split second of life and sanity and decent behavior. Some of you think that you go to work and earn a living. The strength and even the willingness to do that comes to you as a gift from God. Some of you may think that you have always worked for every thing that you have. The truth is, that none of us has anything that we did not receive from God. His Word also declares in Ephesians 2:8,9 that every one of us deserves only an eternity in hell, and nothing better. Any thing more than this is ours because God looked and does look down upon us and He took pity, and He had mercy. Amen.
WHY DO WE GO?
Because God tells us to go: Mt. 24:14, 28:18-20.
Because it is not right that people here twice when there are those who have not heard once.
Because the people are hungry to learn and they are willing to change.
Lagos: 1st 1 1/2 weeks; Akure: second week; Elesha: 3rd week:
Abeokuta: 4th week; Lagos: 5th week; Trip home:
Here are some of the items we taught on and talked about:
Female Circumcision: Question: “Is there anyone here that can give me any Scripture that even remotely suggests that we should circumcise young ladies?” Silence. This horrible, demonic, devilish, dastardly, dirty, diabolical, practice continues widely to this very day! It involves the cutting away and stealing of genital nerves and tissues that give pleasure to a wife in her marriage so that she will not be immoral. This demonic practice that continues until this very hour, even among Christians, horribly fails to accomplish its purpose, because the source of desire in humans is their heart and their hormones, produced by the ovaries.
Body Stewardship: Question: “What would you think of me if I took a $50,000 Mercedes Benz, you had given me to evangelize the villages, and, instead of putting fuel in the fuel tank, went to the swamp and put toilet water in the fuel tank?” The people shout, “Madness!”, “Lunacy!” I say, “We do worse than this, when we put white sugar, white flour, and white rice into our bodies!” Diabetes has reached epidemic proportions in Africa, and is almost always a death sentence.
King’s Greatest Secret! Question: “What did Jesus take of ours with Him to the Cross?” Less than 1 in 10,000 Christians, both in Nigeria and in the United States, answer out of Rom.6:6, Gal.2:20 or Col.3:3,4.
The Throne Room Mentality: Question: “Where are you, right now?” Very few have a Col.1:20-2:1-6, Ps. 16 or 91 Throne-Room mentality.
The Heart of God: Question: How big is the Heart of God? In Genesis 6:6, the NIV says that “The Heart of God was filllllllllled with pain!!!!!!” and that “It repented Yahweh the LORD that He had made man on the earth, and it grieved Him at His heart.” (KJV) What we do and say and how we live DOES make God sad, mad or glad, Zeph.3:17.
The Gospel of the Kingdom: Questions:
“What is the Kingdom of God?
“When is ‘The End’ going to come?” (Mt.24:14)
“What is the Name of the King of the Kingdom?” (Yahweh, Yahshua)
“How important is the Kingdom of God on your list of priorities?”
“If you were to die and go to the Judgement Seat of Christ, what kind of grade, score, mark, evaluation, judgement would you receive?”
“Is it possible to be perfect or to live without sinning?” “If not, why?” “If so, how?” (The answer to this question is: “Yes, and No.”, then it is necessary to define the word “perfect”.) Mt.5:48, 1 Jn 1:9, 2Cor 2:14,15
PROTECTION: We must have passed through close to 150 road blocks. God gave us such favour that we were never once searched, nor asked to leave our vehicle. Most of the time we were waved through without more than slowing down. God protected us from militant Muslims, from armed robbers, carjackers, political activists or nasty insects. Instead of anti-American sentiment, I was treated with the deepest of respect, and given a hero’s treatment everywhere I went. Complete strangers bowed to me. I gave a Kingdom bow to them in return, acknowledging that they were equal to and superior to me. I sometimes polished their shoes, to convey to them the idea that in the Kingdom of God, we become the servant of all.
PROVISION: “Is Yahweh able to provide a table in the Wilderness?”
Ps 78:14 “Then He led them with the cloud by day, and all the night with a light of fire. 15 He split the rocks in the wilderness, and gave them abundant drink like the ocean depths. 16 He brought forth streams also from the rock, and caused waters to run down like rivers - - 19 Then they spoke against God; they said, ‘Can God prepare a table in the wilderness?’ 20 Behold, He struck the rock, so that waters gushed out, and streams were overflowing; ‘can He give bread also?’ ‘Will He provide meat for His people?’ 21-22 Therefore Yahweh heard and was full of wrath, and a fire was kindled against Jacob, and anger also mounted against Israel; because they did not believe in God, and did not trust in His salvation. 23-24 Yet He commanded the clouds above, and opened the doors of heaven; and He rained down manna upon them to eat, and gave them food from heaven. 25 Man did eat the bread of angels; He sent them food in abundance.” (NAS)
In Nigeria, in Africa, one does not want to plan to be sick. The health services are woefully lacking. One day, with three weeks to go until my scheduled return home, my left foot was swollen too much, it became red and began hurting. The next day the pain and redness had spread to my upper ankle. The next day the pain, swelling and redness moved up toward my knee. I developed a headache, a tooth ache, I was weak and shaky, light headed, slight nausea. I did not know what to do. I prayed and said to the Heavenly Father, “Papa Yahweh, unless You come to help me, I can return home in shame and embarrassment, with the testimony that You could not keep me well in a strange land. It is up to You. Without You, I am helpless. The next day I was totally healed from every symptom, and stayed healthy to this day.
Singing: I wrote 14 Yoruba melodies to Ps.16; Ps.91; Mt. 5:48; Mt.6:33; Mt. 7:21; Mt.24:13,14; Rom.6:6; Rom 6:11; Eph 2:4; 1 Cor.15:57; 2 Cor 9:8; 2 Cor.3:18; Gal.2:20; I Jn 4:17.
THANK YOU!!!
Thank you for all of the giving and praying that you have done. I prayed through our phone list, taking time with each name, each church.