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.

PRODUCING DISCIPLERS

The men in the pictures are pastors that I have been helping to become producers of reproducers (disciplers).

This is the goal of The ECWA Discipleship Ministry Team for the people we meet with each week. The reason we focus on this is that we believe that a true disciple isn't one that just learns to love God but he also learns to love his neighbor, just as Jesus spoke about in Matt. 22:37-40. Loving your neighbor involves sharing the gospel with unbelievers and helping believers to become disciplers also. If we only emphasize the verticle relationship with God without the horizontal relationship with our neighbor, I think Jesus would say we are leaving something out. This is the essence of what Jesus said to the lawyer, when He was asked, "what is the greatest commandment"?

This is why in churches around the world Christians are not bearing the fruit that God desires for them to bear. How are things in your church? We certainly see this in the church in Nigeria. Because of this churches spiritually are many miles wide but only an inch deep. They are filled each Sunday with babes in Christ but not true disciples.

It is the desire of the ECWA Discipleship Ministry Unit to see this change. The key is to teach people what it means to be a true disciple of Jesus. Jesus said in John 15:8 "This is to my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples." A true disciple will be fruitful in his own spiritual life and in the lives of others as he helps them learn how to follow Jesus.

How long does it take to produce disciples who reproduce disciplers? It is not something that will be accomplised in a few months or by a one week long conference, as is often thought. But rather it takes one or more years of discipling and equipping someone so they can reach that point of being an effective discipler. It involves establishing a close interpersonal relationship with them.

Here is an example of what I am talking about. In the mid 90s I spent four years discipling a young man. During that time he began to disciple others. Today he is pastoring a church of about 800 people and he is producing disciplers who in turn are busy discipling others in their church.

Maybe you've been reading this and wondering if you are a true disciple. If not, maybe you can find a discipler (your pastor or a mature believer) and ask them to disciple you. Make sure it is someone you see making disciples.

Any comment or interaction will be most welcomed.