Posts tagged evangelism

Life Update 2020 (3)

Hey guys!!

I’ve been skeptical about publishing a new blog post because I feel some set of eyes boring into me. Since my result was released, in some quarters, almost everything I do has been analysed in terms of my result. I tweet a scripture passage and wham, someone thinks it has to do with my result somehow. Lol.

It doesn’t.

So if you’re reading my blog because you’re inquisitive about my life, relax please. Life is simple. My blog is part of my introvert expression not an extrovert expression, so I don’t necessarily write what you expect me to write, nor when you expect me to.

If we’re on the same page, we can progress. I’m happy to write to you for one reason:

Somebody special told me to.

Mister Lover

Here’s a snippet of some of the text messages we exchanged yesterday.

Mister: Hello fried fish, I hope you have a blog plan for tomorrow.

Debby: Haha. I don’t o. Someone is drowning. Help

Mister: Do life update. Write about you and your Mister. About what it feels like to have someone who cannot help himself but love you and express it. And about God’s love. Lol. Even me I know that is personal. Second idea is to share on a recent message that has gingered your heart. Maybe from the evangelism and mission secretaries meeting.

Idea 1: He said I should write about what it feels like to have someone who cannot help but love you and express it. I want to, but as the cliche goes, I don’t know where to start.

By the way, don’t be bothered about his calling me fried fish, or barbequed moimoi in some instances. We can’t have it all. ?

So Mister lover is my supporter. Complete supporter. While people congratulate me for my excellent result at the law school, mister was the one who fasted for me the entire week I wrote the Bar exams. I had to eat because I needed the glucose for the mental tasks in the exam hall. Mister was the one who chose to fast and continue praying for me.

One of the things I told him early on after I said Yes, was that he began to gain grounds in my heart when he began to come close to my dad on the subject of praying for me.

My parents pray for me selflessly. I think in particular, that my dad is my most fervent prayer warrior in the whole world. That gives me the spring in my steps.

Mister lover (amidst other things) covered considerable grounds in my heart by starting to pray for me. Deep, continuous and selfless prayers.

Test: When last did you pray for me?

Yep. I’ve come to understand that true, sacrificial love often reveals itself in prayers. There’s a passion in your spirit for that person which can only be channeled through prayer. It’s too deep to be completely uttered superficially. The welfare of that person consumes your mind.

I’m humbled by God to have that. To be a possessor of that kind of love.

Despite starting out by saying I don’t have what to where to start, I think I just told you one secret of my confidence. Selfless prayer warriors.

So if you’re yet to pick your special somebody, use the above checklist for them. Does his(her) love for you manifest in the things that count the most? And don’t listen to the people who tell you not everything is spiritual. They don’t understand. Lol. We’re not looking for a religious and pious cloak, but everything IS spiritual. There’s a kind of guy(lady) who can’t “break your heart” because of the Spirit controlling him. Get that guy/lady.

I love you mister. I always will.


http://www.tkpradio.org/I’ve been at a conference this weekend. It started on thursday evening. It’s been power-packed. I think a couple of people have their Christian diet very limited. There’s an all-round diet you should have from your local church. It should involve a regular dose of your biblical call to evangelize, sanctification and holiness, true faith etc. The work of missions has never been for “full-time” missionaries only. You don’t get to out-source the work. Jesus instructed YOU to make disciples of all nations. Based on Acts 1:8, you start at your Jerusalem (those around you), Judea, Samaria and the uttermost ends of the earth. You can connect with The Kingdom Projects, a missionary organization labouring to connect Christians with methods of carrying out the great commission through their secular jobs. The conference continues today and you can listen in through www.tkpradio.org or connect on YouTube or Facebook or Zoom.

Another tid-bit I’ll like to share with you is this –

God is more interested in who you’re becoming than in what (activity) you do. His expectation is that we conform to the image of his son whether things work out our way or not.

If your life isn’t moving at the pace you think it should, what are you learning in the midst of it? For me, Watchman Nee has been a good teacher this season. I just moved on to another book of his:

What are you reading? And what do you think about all the issues I raised above? Pray tell.

PostScript:

Babyyyyy my Sunshine. The way I was smiling as I read your blog, my cheeks would have reddened. Wow! I love you sweetheart! I woke up this morning with a freshness in my spirit and I prayed for you more than in the recent past. Then I saw your post. I will continue and increase in praying for you by God’s grace. You’re the best, Debby.

This morning’s text message. Haha

Love and light,

Debby.

IVCU 2018 Village Outreach; My perspective in a summary.

Hello everyone. Quite a number of times, I’ve been asked about my silence over here. My mind has been here but my daily actions haven’t aligned so I couldn’t blog. I apologize.
But by my statistics, I see you keep coming to read and you encourage my heart. ??
I’m back. Where do I start from?
What I really want to do is give you a little gist of one of the events I’ve had in the period I’ve been away.
I guess I’ve never stated it explicitly on here, even though I’ve done so indirectly a number of times: I’m a 500 level Law student of the University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria and I worship at a campus fellowship known as Ibadan varsity Christian Union -NIFES.
My fellowship is under both the auspices of Christian union and NIFES(Nigerian fellowship of evangelical students).
We are very evangelical.

We embarked on a village outreach recently. The village where we had our camp base was called Jarija. We’ve visited the surrounding villages in that location for our outreaches for quite sometime.
Village outreach take off is always on a Thursday and we stay there till Sunday.
Thursday found me at House no 12, Kurunmi road. It’s a residential area for university senior staff, and this one belongs to one of our patrons in fellowship. A number of us were there cooking; mainly sorting out, and frying the fishes to be used for the entire outreach, cooking dinner for that evening + other basics. Someone told me of how the abundance of fish we sorted and cooked, triggered his memory of the Jesus(documentary) film where the portrayal of two fishes becoming an abundance for all was shown. I know right.
Here’s a photo grid of pictures from that thursday:

Everyone had a scheduled take-off time for the village, as printed. Mine was 2:30pm and so at that time, I took off for the chapel within school. At the chapel, myself and the others for my time slot got seated in a bus, the bus was loaded with extra bags of water and we took off.
I led the prayer as the bus took off. I had a book with me which I intended to read the whole journey. However, I couldn’t stop praying once I had started. ? I kept praying on my own.
P.S: why do people always sleep when travelling, even for short trips? I don’t get it. Virtually everyone on the bus slept.
We got to the base, Jarija, circa 4:16pm. We met a team praying on ground, as is always the case every year. We joined and then we prayed, prayed and prayed. And still we prayed. Later in the late evening, we stopped to rest for a while. Before long, we gathered again, and prayed and prayed. That’s the way thursdays go in the village – pray it through.
The final buses were yet to arrive from school. Eventually, the bus bringing our dinner arrived really late, I didn’t take note of the time but I guess it was around 12am already. We ate white rice and stew, then had a camp briefing carried out by the Evangelism secretary and off to sleep.

 Hhhhhhhbvh wait, my unit – prayerband, – had a brief meeting where we were counselled to join the entire prayer chain for the night.
We always have a prayer chain during the outreach. Everyone has an hour prayer slot when they’re woken up at night to pray. That way there’s always a group praying all night till dawn. You can always stay for more than your time slot. As prayer band members we were adviced to stay the whole night praying. Erhm, however, after my duly assigned chain of 12-1am, I strolled back to the hostel like a cartoon character, and there I slept.
The next morning, the camp commandants were at it. It was an experience with these commandants. I’ve been in village outreaches before and had commandants but these ones were indefatigable ?. They wore neon coloured orange vests over their clothes. You wouldn’t imagine how annoying their shouts could get in the mornings but I appreciate their dedication to the work( I’m just being polite). Its exhausting having so much noise around you for the most of the day, and a greater amount of it when you’re just waking up!
I had my personal devotion, then we gathered for general devotion. There was time for us to fetch water and have our bathe – all these, under strict time slot accompanied with loud claps, bells and shouts from these commandants. *Sighs*
We had an exhaustive in-house bible study time. Then we ate our brunch.
Each person falls into an axis as per the norm. We had three axes (OBV, a blog reader pointed out the plural of axis to me; Axes not Axises); A, B, C.
Each axis had about four or five villages underneath it. I was allocated Ladele village but for friday, I was among the group that stayed back to pray through out – remember, prayer band member? We prayed till Axis A members got back from the house-to-house evangelism in the early evening.
The camp base was in Axis A. The format goes thus: after house-to-house evangelism in the villages, the villagers are told about the crusade to hold in a chosen village for each axis. So of the four or five villages in axis B, Omu-Aran was chosen, of the five in C, Akindele was chosen. Ofcourse for A, our camp base, Jarija, was chosen.
At the time we prayer band members paused praying briefly, we quickly broke our fast then gathered to pray again for the crusade about to start.
I soon left the prayers to join those organizing the village children. P.S Flashback – Thursday night after I arrived and we had that mini break inbetween the long hours of prayer, I sat outside with a book (I’m the fresh air + book type of girl). I beckoned to one of the village girls and she came to stay with me. That gave a host of them boldness to draw near me too. But I kept mute mostly because I was a little tired, and more because my yoruba was all over the place. These children spoke expert yoruba, I heard them clearly. I was a little skeptical about speaking the yoruba I tend to speak. I never went to a church where interpretation was made from English to yoruba language so when it comes to words like redemption, repentance, other bible words and general lingua flow, I always stutter. I can however speak household yoruba.
Last year’s outreach, I was going to ask a woman which religion she believed in. Religion in yoruba is ‘Esin’. My people, lo and behold, I asked which ‘aisan’ she worshipped. ‘Aisan’ means illness. That did it. It just did it. Yourubas can be very superstitious. How do I go about explaining that error. Did I mean her harm?
now you get my reluctance to speak yoruba in the face of the expert yoruba these children threw about.

So back to Friday when I joined those organizing the children, I made sure I played the firm aunty’s role. I was telling them I won’t tolerate any noise at all, I made them shout and repeat the memory verses I taught them etc. All theses were done with what we’ll call “bold face*“. When it came to teaching the word though, I gallantly left it to the better yoruba speakers. And yes, I taught them some beautiful songs, I hope they still remember.
The pictures below aren’t capturing even half of them.

P.p.p.s: The children were not as gentle as they appear in the pictures. Take my word for it!
After we were through with teaching the children and giving them gift packs, we helped at the crusade ground where the preaching was going on. We prayed with the villagers that accepted Christ, prayed for their specific needs, and jotted down their address details for follow-up. After that, those from the other axes began to arrive having done same where they were. We had dinner. Then prayer chain began all over.
This night, I couldn’t walk to my hostel like a cartoon character after my 12-1 am prayer chain slot. Why? We prayer and members were no longer adviced to stay all through, but mandated to stay the whole prayer chain so I did. ??. It was amazing. We however had continuous rain showers. Not drizzle. Rain that drenched and soaked us. Rain that caused me to shiver. The involuntary shake shake shiver. But still we prayed prayed inspite of the shake shake shivers.
Saturday went pretty much the same way with routine. By 5pm, the children we had at hand were more in number. The commandants’ claps got louder still, their voices louder. It was almost incredulous.
One thing I always look forward to in our village outreaches is the bible study. We always have lots of time to study under the open heavens. It was a beautiful time again. The only issue was that we had an abundance of sunlight. I mean abundance. Guys, I had sunburn. I’m still recovering from that sunburn(well…, I’ve done really well over these two weeks now). Sunburn so evident, it has been the subject of discussion for almost everyone who’s seen me since then. Like I laughed it off with a friend, the bible doesn’t promise beautiful faces for those who preach, it’s beautiful feet (Isaiah 52:7). But wait, Daniel 12: 3 says those who turn many to righteous shall shine like stars forever more. ?
Another notable fact: on Saturday, I went for house-to-house evangelism and the prayer band members who did so on Friday were the ones who then stayed back to pray all through the day.
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Saturday night, after the crusades in each axis, and everyone had arrived, each axis leader gave a report on the souls won, challenges faced etc. Then we had thanksgiving praises to God for all the souls that had been won. We danced till day break.
We woke up and had devotion time. Then thorough cleanup of the environment began. We cleared the kitchen equipments, cleared out our hostels which happened to be the primary school for the villagers. I spent time picking charcoal from the ground and underneath my fingernails looked very blessed with black coal.
Then, the photo gallery sessions began, as people filed out of the village in different batches.
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I doubt I did justice to the experience in this narration, but this is an attempt to encourage someone else who is otherwise very skeptical every time they hear of a village outreach. It is beautiful to serve. And no, no witches will eat your head off if you’re in Christ Jesus.
Added point: It’s a great time doing what Jesus did while he was here on earth. Try it.
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Urhm, even though they won’t read this, this post is dedicated to those whose names are still carved in my heart from the village experience. To: Idris, Smart, Aminat, Iya wasiu and that loud woman whose husband has packed out. I’m praying for you.
Ivcu 2018 village outreach: Glad tidings of great joy.
Ever been on a village outreach? What was your experience?
*Bold face means false bravado.

Love,
Debby

Casual Catch up

Hello people.
How are you on this side? I’m well. I couldn’t put up a post last week because I was on an easter outreach at Benin republic. Read about it here.
I could’ve roamed my sim card, but there’s no use browsing at all during an outreach. Let’s focus on winning souls for Christ.
I had earlier tried to schedule a post but it didn’t work out.
I’m on my way right now to another outreach. This one is a medical outreach which holds once a month. It’s a return trip.
How have I been? Very well.
You? I’ll love to hear in the comment section.
Nothing much for today, this is only a casual blog post chat.
A life well lived as someone said isn’t just one that fulfils purpose but one that leads others to fulfil purpose.
One thing I know is when you are fulfilling your own purpose, you’re in a sense leading others to fulfil their purposes. There’s so much distraction today and when we find that one person dogged in their vision, we are motivated to keep to ours too.
In other words, be the best verion of yourself that you can be. Shine that light.
P.s: This is one of my shortest blog posts ever(I really don’t know why I often write epistles). Which should lead you to reading previous blog posts that you’ve missed by scrolling through the categories at the top of the page.
Warmest regards,
Debby.

Bodija – Moniya


He looks into her purse as she opens it to bring out her transport fare. He sees about four thousand naira,all neatly lined up by the side of the purse.
She holds the thirty naira she has just pulled out, in her hand, and draws her shopping basket nearer to herself. The shopping basket is made of the same straw material used for mats. Inside the basket, he sees eggs, plantain, grinded pepper on the surface.
“excuse me please. Will he pass in front of UI to get to Moniya?”
It’s the last micro second before it becomes obvious he was distracted, when he catches what she said.
” yes” he croakes. He had not expected her to talk to him. This happens to him all the time; responding in unplanned situations, but responding in a voice not much distinct from that of a frog. He is self-conscious.
She still sits uncomfortably in the bus, very upright. In her defence she is apparently the only one of her social class in there.
It is a small and crowded bus plying the route of bodija market to Moniya in Ibadan.
Theirs is the last row in the bus. He sits at the extreme left, she follows and then there is a Fulani man by her right, followed by an Alhaja.
Others in the bus are significantly older and poorer.
The small phone in Ire’s pocket vibrates and makes him jerk his leg suddenly. He pulls out the phone to see it is a beep from his younger brother
“flasher of life” he mumbles under his breath and remembers he has to hurry up his activities to be in church later in the afternoon. He hisses.
Mo ki gbo gbo yin ninu oko yii kaaro l’oruko Oluwa
He is stunned. It’s the UI student speaking.
o se pataki ki onikaluku wa ye igbe aye wa wo nitori  pe. .. “
Her Yoruba is faulty, that should be excuse number 1. They’re also fast approaching UI gate, excuse number 2. By reason of logic there is no reason for her to preach but then she is preaching.
She is.
When the bus gets to park in front of UI, she rushes to complete a faulty statement, then wedges her way out of the bus after paying her fare.
The Alhaja with the yellow scarf at the extreme right hisses after she leaves but Ire knows the Alhaja couldn’t have hissed while the girl was in the bus. There was something compelling about her unjustified courage that made her message worth listening to.
When Ire gets home later that morning with the items he bought at bodija market, he knows he has a motivation to go to church.
He needs what the girl with the shopping basket and purse lined with one thousand naira notes has: the shameless courage fueled by her God.