FW: Pray for Nigeria

Dear Prayer Partners,

 

I ask that you rejoice with us over the birth of LucPhilip Stephen Bahago to the parents of Stephen & Eglah, our National Director. Stephen took Eglah for a general checkup yesterday afternoon as the baby was past due. During the course of the examination the Doctor became concerned for the baby and scheduled an immediate operation to deliver. It was after 11pm that both mother and baby were out of the operating theater. I am asking that you would pray for recuperation, rest and strength for Eglah as well as LucPhilip to grow strong and healthy.

 

After leaving the hospital this morning I was confronted by a National Labor protest that has asked all workers in Nigeria to go on strike in objection to the federal governments increase in the price of fuel. We have been enduring the scarcity of fuel for some time now as a result of problems with the governments subsidy of fuel and the lack of foreign exchange in dollars to purchase it. Pray that these protest across the country remain peaceful and that labor and the Government can quickly come to a mutually beneficial conclusion.  

 

On top of the fuel situation the power generation for the Nation has dropped to 1,400MW for the whole country leaving us with no electricity for the last few days and not good prospects for seeing any in the near future. Inflation is now over 13% and is really hurting the working class that already struggles to make ends meet. Pray for the nation of Nigeria to look to the Lord for rescue from the increasing troubles that we are facing.   

 

This weekend, Lord willing, we will have our last Evangelism outing for the season in the village of Tunkus, Plateau State. Pray that the rains or the many other troubles that we face will not prevent us from going out on this last Evangelism outing for the season. Also  pray that all that is going on will not affect the visit of our previous director, Peter Verkaik, who is visiting Nigeria for several day.

 

Thanks for your faithful Prayers.

Bob

 

 

FW: Nigerian Update

GOOOOOD MORNING FROM NIGREIA,

 

Rejoice with us as we woke up this morning and had electricity at full current, after 5 days without. I was also able to get our water situation straightened around so we have running water again, after 3 days without; a new pump, some plumbing work and lots of running around on sat. Saturday also brought some relief as I was also able to get 10 gallons of fuel after only 2 hrs. wait for a little less than $6/gallon.

 

Our Ministry trip last week was incredible, yet not totally what we had expected.  As I had asked for prayer to do the Lords will and not our own, it was immediately answered when we arrived at Bachi, Riyom local gov. Plateau St. We had planned to set up and do our typical evening evangelism program, but because of security issues outdoors and evening activates could not be allowed. This community has been attacked several times in the last 2 years, resulting in Loss of life and property. We prefer to not hold programs inside churches as it tends to limit it to whatever denominations building we use. However, God had different plans for all of it. COCIN, ECWA, Anglican & Catholic Pastors, leaders and members all came together under one roof. The Hands of Mercy Ministry did an incredible job of teaching how to make: dish  soap, shampoo, room freshener, disinfectant cleaner and a perfumed vaseline. After teaching the skill each individual that registered  to learn received some of the product they had watched and  were educated on how to make. Any of these products can become a home industry for these people as the closest shops are at least half an hour by car. There was also a full day of medical tests and free medications, seeing hundreds of individuals that may have never seen a Doctor.

 

Our Work was to do Discipleship training as well as something specific for the youth.  In our Discipleship training we broke everyone up in to groups of 8 individuals with a leader. We would teach for half hour to forty-five minutes then have 20-30 minutes of group discussion that they would be required to teach others. We used a discipleship series from Word of Life called “Where Do I Go From Here?”  We were able to get through the first 6 lessons and left behind 3 additional books with 6 lessons each. Those that received the books had to commit to teach the remaining lessons and be willing to be accountable and committed, which we will follow up on. All This went incredibly well and really provoked the community to think how they were each now going to try to teach someone else. Our time with the youth was focused on Who they are in Christ to try and help them wade through some of the confusion they face in this day and age. One of the group leaders said “I have had a great desire to be discipled and grow but had no idea where to begin, your teaching has really helped and now I must go out and let others know”. Another individual said “I now realize I must live in such a way that others can see that I am following Christ so they can follow my example”.            

 

The attached pictures shows what I can-not fully describe.

 

God Bless each of you and thanks for your support

Bob DeVoe

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FW: Prayer request from Nigeria

Dear Prayer Partners,

 

I have been allowing the tyranny of the urgent to rule my time as of late, and believe lack of prayer is only contributing. I took a breath after helping to load the bus this morning and decided I was not doing anything else until this prayer request went out. A team from Lagos “Hands of Mercy” as well as some of our volunteers are headed out this morning for an evangelism, discipleship & skills acquisitions program here in Plateau. Will give more details once back. Between vehicle repairs, fuel scarcity & no light there have been a lot of challenges just trying to get ready to go.

 

Please pray for safety for the 14 of us going and that we will do the Lord’s will and not our own. That the vehicle and equipment will give us no problems. That those in this community that we are going to minister are open and receptive to the Holy Spirits prompting.

 

Thanks

Bob DeVoe

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Nigerian Prayer Update

Dear Prayer Partners,

With Thanksgiving on everyone’s mind I wanted to send out an update of some of the things we have to be thankful for as well as some prayer requests.

Our Evangelism outing at the beginning of the month on the 6^th to the 8^th of November, in Yashi, Southern Plateau State was amazing. There was over 650 individuals that we were able to share the gospel with. 61 of them trusted Christ, 7 received assurance of their salvation and 3 rededicated their lives to Jesus Christ.  

We continue to be so grateful for our many volunteers and had an incredible time with them last Saturday. We brought together almost 40 Bible school students that help us with Bible Clubs and over 20 individuals that help us with Evangelism outings. We broke up into small groups and shared about our Quiet times, had a time of testimony and enjoyed food, fun and Fellowship.

Last Nov. we visited the village of Lu-Tinghen where we saw many trust Christ, but their remained a serious problem with alcohol and a lack of education. We challenged the village chief and elders to work towards correcting this situation and offered to help with one bundle of roofing. Over the last year the Church had to be enlarged to accommodate the many new believers and the School building has been completed by the community. The local Government provided chairs for the school and the National Youth Service Core is providing teachers. You cannot even imagine how excited I am to go visit them next Thursday and celebrate with them all that God is doing in their village.  

We had asked for prayer for the funds and printing of the Gospels of John for a 21 day challenge that we hoped to reach thousands of individuals with. Although we hoped to begin this before the year ended God has answered your prayers and the funds came through and the printing is under way. Please do continue to pray for the 8 cities in 6 different states where we will provide training to volunteers to challenge Nigerians with the Word of God.    

We are putting the finishing touches on a camp that will hold Jan 3-6 in Southern Kaduna, with counselors training Dec 6-7. We are anticipating 300 campers with evangelistic evening programs open to the smaller villages around. We are so thankful for all of the amazing opportunities God gives to us here in Nigeria.

Meredith’s mom’s health continued to deteriorate last week and on Thursday she passed away after a prolonged and courageous battle with cancer. We originally planned for Meredith to try and visit her during Christmas break, but later changed plans and made arrangements for Mere to travel on the 22^nd of Nov. Meredith, thankfully, arrived safely  in the US and I Lord willing I will join her in CT on the 9^th of December for a few weeks. A memorial service has tentatively been scheduled for the 11^th of Dec.     

Please continue to pray for strength, wisdom & perseverance in all that we do to serve our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Bob & Meredith DeVoe

Nigeria