On February 8th, Rich will leave for Nigeria, and Peter will pick him up from the airport to take him to Jos. The week in Nigeria will be packed! Not only will Rich and Peter will work to get the updated follow-up materials translated into Hausa and English and formatted with the new artwork, but they are going to set the follow-up materials in a program where they can more easily print the materials into even more languages!
The next Saturday, Rich, Peter, Rick, and the team of Nigerian speakers will travel to Ikom, Nigeria, close to the border of Cameroon. There is a real danger of kidnapping for Rich and Rick particularly here, so please pray for their safety! The next day the Cameroonians will meet them at the border and pick them up for a 6 hour trip to Belo, where there will be 1,000 church leaders, evangelists, and members from two Baptist denominations who are assembling to learn about the “True Gospel”. Rich will lead larger plenary sessions, and Peter will lead small groups of trainees in the follow-up lessons.
The next week, the FFICM Nigeria team will divide into two groups and will teach follow-up in two separate locations, in two shifts at each location! The first location is the hospital in Mbengo, Cameroon, where there are 200 nurses, doctors, and support staff who are eager to be trained to reach the sick and dying at their hospital! The second location also has 200 people waiting to be trained.
After this, Rich travels back to the airport in the capital, Yaunde, and flies to Addis Abbaba, in Ethiopia, where he will meet with Eyasu, Eskendir, and a couple of translators to help them translate and format the materials into all three of the major languages in Ethiopia; Oromo, Tigre, and Amharic!
Rich will also travel a couple of hours outside of Addis to a village where there is a church comprised entirely of addicts, where there were recently 31 more people baptized.
There is also a little nine-year-old boy (the son of the first converts in the church) who needs prayer–he is suffering from paralysis related to demon possession. Please pray for Rich and those who will pray for this boy, and for his freedom in Jesus’ name.
On this trip, we pray that God will bless our team with safety, strengthen and encourage our brothers and sisters who work night and day for the sake of Christ, and guide each one of us with wisdom and with the Holy Spirit’s power, as we pray and reach out to those who are without Jesus in this world!
