NO, WE HAVE NOT GONE BANANAS YET

Are we going bananas yet? No, but in a few weeks we should be enjoying these bananas and many more like them. Our backyard has about 15 bunches growing right now and when they rippen we will be feasting on them for awhile.


We are also enjoying feasting on the Word of God. The past two months have been very good for that as well as opportunities to share the gospel. We have gotten use to doing a lot more traveling just to get around the Abuja Zone. Jos city was easy to live in in many ways but Abuja is proving to be a big challenge in terms of travel.

We also have been making some good contacts. Judy has met some other expat ladies and they are even starting a study together. They are doing a study by John Piper called, 'Don't Waste Your Life'. I, Chuck, have also had the opportunity to share the gospel with some of the new contacts I have made. I have 3 men that I am meeting with now and several others I am following up. This past Thursday I was talking to one person and when asked, "What would you tell another person if they asked you how they can become a real Christian?", they said, "start doing what God says". A typical answer here. In continuing to probe they never mentioned anything about Jesus and being forgiven through Him. This is the problem we face here. Many claim to be Christians but are only religious, never fully understanding the gospel.

Of course not all claim to be Christian. Many follow aother religion and we are praying for open doors to share the love and forgiveness of Christ with them, especially during this time of the year when they are seeking and looking for forgiveness by another way and not "THE WAY".

The ECWA Leadership/Discipleship Conferences for Kaduna and Abuja Zones are just a few weeks away. Registration is going on in both places. We are expecting about 500 pastors, elders and other leaders in each location. Dave Dawson will be arriving at the end of this month and will be with us until mid October. I am anticipating that there will be lots of follow up to do after the Abuja conference. The theme of the conferences is "THE ROLE OF CHURCH LEADERSHIP IN THE BIBLICAL MODEL OF DISCIPLESHIP".

WELCOME TO ABUJA

The group of people you see are the elders and their wives of our home church in Jos. They gave us a send-forth to Abuja. They were very encouraging as we told them we were going to the land of the giants and needed their prayers. The youth fellowship of the church remembered that statement and gave us a painting that said “Farewell to the Land of the Giants”. It had a ship sailing away in the horizon. The Nigerian culture is very good at making sure they say goodbyes properly. They made us feel appreciated for the years we were members of the church and the different ways we served there.

In the other pictures you get a glimpse of our new home in Abuja, Nigeria. The first house is the house we are living in, and it has two bedrooms in which people stay if needed. There is another house that is on the compound. It has four rooms that people stay in while in Abuja.

The past three weeks were busy ones. The work getting ready to move on July 14th was a lot but the Lord provided strength and besides what we sent earlier we managed to get everything in the vehicles on the 14th and made it to Abuja without any difficulty. The two weeks since arriving here have been very busy. I think Judy did about five loads of washing everyday to get everything clean, after sitting for 6 months through our dusty season. We first thought it would take us until August 1st to get set up but we actually ready this past Thursday, July 26th. We are thankful to the Lord for strength to get the many things done by then.

I have also been busy contacting people in Abuja. The ECWA Abuja Zone has a committee that is planning the Pastors/leaders Discipleship Conference, October 8-12, 2007. I got to meet with the chairman and some other members of the committee to let them know that I am now in Abuja and would be willing to help them with whatever I can. The committee is planning to meet August 2nd and they invited me to join them. They are expecting over a thousand people to be in attendance. A lot of plans still need to be made.
I also got to meet a pastor that has a real passion for making disciples. I actually knew him from before. He attended the first Equipping The Saints Conference I held in Jos in 1993. He has been applying the principles he learned since then. God has enabled him to see several generations of disciples raised up at the churches he has been at over the years. I was really encouraged by my meeting with him. We will be getting together regularly in the future.

The Tree Trimmers

The Thursday before Easter Weekend a crew of tree-trimmers arrived on our compound to take down two trees and to trim eight others. Most of the trees were not difficult but there was one tree that presented a challenge for them. The tree had been left for a long time without being trimmed. It had grown very tall and big at the top.


Tree-trimmers here don't have all the modern equipment we find used back home. Here all they have is a chain saw, machetes and ropes. Most of the limbs are chopped off by the machetes. When I was home I could hardly stand to watch as they would climb high up the tree and start cutting the limbs off (sometimes very big ones). See the challenging tree? Needless to say our yard looked like a jungle for a while. But because people use wood here for cooking, our workers on the compound will make good use of it and it will quickly disappear from our compound.


Trimming of these trees reminded me of how we grow as Christians. God sometimes has to come along and do some trimming on us. It is easy to have some things grow as part of our lives that aren't pleasing to God. John 15:1&2 says "I am the true vine and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful." Even though pruning is hard we should want God to prune us because of our desire to bear more fruit for his glory. Here are some of the piles of wood that were trimmed off of the trees. These reminded me of how many things the Lord has trimmed from my life and that there is still more trimming needed.


As the trimming was finished we were thankful that no one was injured and that the work was accomplished. We are looking forward to the trees growing back to be even more beautiful than they were before.