Here today and gone tomorrow – electricity that is.

A good supply of electricity is often not available here. Like week before last we had three days when it was off ninety percent of the time. When this happens we have to phone (if the phone is working) or send someone to the local power supply office to report the outage. Many times when you phone they will tell you that it has been reported and they are working on it. Then you wait to see what happens. If it doesn’t come back soon, you phone them again. Finally in desperation you drive over to their office and see them face to face but still that is no guarantee that you will get your lights on any time soon.

After those few days it finally got fixed and now for several days we have had power almost constantly. So we thank God for that. We are thankful that we have a compound generator to use when this happens and are able to keep fridges and freezers cold. Many of our friends do not have an alternative and have to buy food stuff on a daily basis.

Another big problem with not having electricity, besides trying to keep your freezer from defrosting, is thaat we have a phone intercom security system that runs on a battery that has to be charged. So when the electricity is off for a long time, we end up with no alarm. Why is this important? Two week ago armed robbers went to one missionary’s compound. They roughed them up to the extent that the woman had a slight concussion. They stole their car and took a number of things from their house. The security is a siren that is set off by the phones. If set off it will alert everyone around that something is happening and supposedly scare off the burglars. The police will be called and hopefully come to our rescue. We share these things not to complain but to give you a glimpse of what life is like here at times. We often do have to remind ourselves that we are not here because of the comforts of life but to share with people that in Jesus we have a wonderful Savior.

Be careful what you ask for.
I thought of this after what happened two weeks ago. Judy and I had been praying for the Lord to open a door for her to disciple women. Then we talked and prayed with Deborah Dadang about it and she shared her heart for Pastors’wives. The Lord led us to talk to the Jos District Church Council (DCC) Chairman and Secretary. From that talk we were invited to a meeting for about seventy pastors and their wives. Judy and Deborah challenged the wives to take the opportunity to be discipled by getting into a group with them. We all hoped for at least enough ladies that would enable Judy and Deborah to start meeting with a small group. Instead what they got were forty-six wives indicating their interest. So instead of one small group, each of them have three groups with six to nine ladies in each group. I also had another twelve pastors who expressed interest in being discipled. This reminded us of Ephesians 3:20 that says, ´Now glory be to God! By his mighty power at work within us, he is able to accomplish infinitely more than we would ever dare to ask or hope.’ New Living Translation.


DOES PRAYER MAKE A DIFFERENCE?
Someone wrote recently something they read from Philip Yancey’s book, “Prayer, Does It Make Any Difference? It was a story of an SIM graveyard here in Nigeria. It has about 70 gravesites in it. Each grave is a testimony of the sacrifices that missionaries have made in coming to Nigeria for over a century. Out of the over 60 graves around half are children. Through prayer each one comes filling the Call of God upon their lives. Did their prayers, commitments and sacrifices make a difference? Over a century later the SIM related church, The Evangelical Church of West Africa, has over five million people worshipping in its churches every Sunday. Do you think they have made a difference?