A rainy day in Ekpoma

There is no summer, winter, autumn and spring in Nigeria:only a dry season and a rainy season. The climate is more or less constantthroughout the year.  August was part ofthe rainy season. It rained so much that some roads turned into rivers. Thereis no drainage and sewage pipes in Benin City so the water just gathersmomentum until it becomes impassable. In order to get to a destination you haveto take other routes through back roads.

On Sunday morning, very early, Bishop Mon Igbinosa fetchedme with his 4X4 to take me to Ekpoma. That is where he lives and pastors thechurch he founded 12 years ago. He was a drug dealer before he was saved. Afterhis conversion he lived in Bishop Benson Idahosa’s home for a year. BensonIdahosa was probable the most influential Pentecostal preacher of his time.African pastors believe in taking people into their homes to train them firsthand.

They have a large acreage of land on which they built a3000-seater auditorium and a home with 11 bedrooms in order to accommodateseveral people.

I preached about John chapter 9, one of the first chaptersin the bible that opened up to me as far as third dimensional living isconcerned. I spoke about 6 results that confirmed Jesus as the Light of theWorld.

1. The problem of a dualistic mindset in the disciples was exposed
2. The divine potential in the problem was revealed
3. The power of God was released due to obedience
4. The proof of signs and wonders was given
5. The persecution that opposes the truth was experienced
6. The life style of faith was introduced to the one who received the miracle

Psalm 146:8 says, The Lord opens the eyes of the blind.

In his office Bishop Mon has picture of Benson Idahosa withan old man who presented him to S. J. Elton, a missionary from England, who inturn introduced him to Gordon Lindsay from Christ for the Nations institute inDallas, Texas. Lindsay opened the doors for Idahosa to all the InternationalMinisters who began to support his work in Nigeria financially and helped himreach 120 nations in his short life time. He died in his 50’s after buildingmany churches, a university and a whole township around the church. He was thefirst Nigerian preacher to do such things. Today it is common that there arepreachers in Nigeria with churches of over 100 000 members each.

I spoke to Benson Idahosa on the phone when we were still inAustralia in 1985 but never had the privilege to meet him before he passedaway.

When I finished preaching, Bishop Mon addressed thecongregation, ‘I have never seen these things in John 9 before! Have you? Ithink we must get Apostle Andre to come and teach us for a whole week. He mustcome and go, come and go to Nigeria!’ They agreed.

A few years ago Bishop Mon chaired one of Reinhard Bonnke’sevangelistic crusades in their region. He told what the budget was and how oneman paid for it all. It sounds unbelievable!

The great crowd at an evangelistic crusade makes it veryimpressive; whereas apostolic work often goes unnoticed because of itsfoundational nature. I often find myself preaching in the rural areas torelatively small crowds, but the reformation is happening in the mind-sets ofthose who hear the message. We need both evangelistic and apostolic work tocontinue in order to perfect the saints, to equip them for the work of theministry and to bring them to unity of the faith in order to reveal the fullmeasure of the stature of Christ.

What I am, Paul wrote, I am by the grace of God – none of usreally deserve to ‘be’ anything!