The Awakening Nigerian Missions Movement

(unedited)
welcome to the mission matters
the mission matters is a partnership of
mission nexus
and 1615 missions coaching who have a
shared passion to mobilize god’s people
to be a part of his mission
the mission matters is hosted by matthew
ellison of 1615 missions coaching
and ted essler president of mission
nexus
make sure you like share and subscribe
so you don’t miss an episode
today features a conversation between
matthew ted
and a digbette alanine missionary and
leader with the nigerian evangelical
missions association
regarding the awakening challenges and
opportunities of the nigerian missions
movement
welcome once again to the mission
matters podcast i’m matthew ellison
and i’m joined by my good friend and
co-host ted estler ted greetings to you
brother
hey matthew good to see you good to be
on the podcast absolutely great to be
with you again
we always like to start off with
something light to get us going and i
was thinking about my favorite meal
so favorite meal as in the all-time
favorite meal you’ve eaten
not your favorite food but the favorite
meal i hope that’s what we’re talking
about here
yeah yep so i have to say thailand
summer of 94. spent all summer in
thailand i was a couple months in
bangkok a couple of months
in chiang mai and in chiang mai there
was a street vendor this old lady this
old thai woman
she had an oil drum that had been
converted to a wok
and she would make a noodle dish i don’t
want to call it pad thai that’s the
ubiquitous you know thai food that’s
around the country this was
far superior to the pad thai but when
she would set up
the line would build and it was guys in
suits
it was you know people who lived on the
streets everyone wanted her noodle dish
and it just stands out in my mind the
sights the sounds the smells
i was doing gospel ministry man that was
my
favorite meal how about you okay well
for me it’s always this is always an
easy question for me because
when we were first moving from croatia
into bosnia
as we were starting our new bosnian
ministry we drove down
and it was a time when the dayton peace
accord had just been signed
and bridges were blown up everywhere
temporary pontoon bridges as we went
down
and about halfway down we pulled over
here basically in the shadows of a huge
bomb valve factory
so my wife and i we had a nanny
and my co-worker gary levi
and we had two vehicles and we pulled
over together and we broke out the
peanut butter and jelly sandwiches
and i remember sitting there with my
kids all playing and hanging out there
and
it was just we were on the adventure
finally the thing we prayed for to come
to pass
it finally came to pass and that was the
best meal ever
very simple food but it was the setting
that made it
so today on the podcast we’re going to
have a day he’s going to introduce
himself in just a second but
ade is there a particular meal that
stands out in your mind that you had
that is the most memorable meal that you
can think of
thank you ted how are you i’m good
uh i think talking of a favorite meal
i think uh what easily comes to my mind
is the arabian meal i ate in the desert
of dubai wow
uh it says it’s an evening arabian meal
uh in an arabian setting you know we sat
around the mud and there are manners of
a
meal i mean mutton uh unleavened bread
with some spices and i tell you it was
fun
like you said the setting the company
was
something else for me i think it’s quite
a memorable meal
i’ve actually had and i will remember
for a long time to come
it’s probably not fair matthew to always
to ask that question with missionaries
on the call because you know you’re
going to get
answers from all around the world
well any can you start by telling us now
i’ve met ade through the nigerian
evangelical missions association which
we call nema
could you tell us who you are and what
you do with nema
well thank you my name is adigbite
olanyong
i’m a nigerian but my friends call me a
day
for short i’m a missionary
and i work with the nigeria evangelical
mission association
i serve as the head of the finance and
administration
of the network nema
the nigeria missions network the
collaboration of over 850
mission organizations in nigeria
committed to
taking the gospel across cultures both
among your rich people group in nigeria
and globally
and uh it’s a wonderful network
that is i mean involves church-based
mission organizations
for our church organizations youth
organizations and several others
taking the gospel to several places
around the world
at the last count neymar has
more than 15 000 missionaries
that are committed to the 850
agencies involved with neymar and uh
nema missionary nigerian missionaries
are found in 192 countries
across the world serving the lord and
laboring to establish the glory of god
across the nations of the world wow
so as you answer that question
uh you know you may have already
answered the question i’m going to ask
you now
but we had a guest on a few months ago
and he talked about how many
african countries are moving from
missions
fields to missions forces
and maybe you could give us an idea
about the potential
of the nigerian missions movement what
do you think it is
uh god is at work in nigeria africa
incidentally it will interest you to
know by
population africa is the most
christianized uh
continent the uh
largest population of christians
uh largest in on the african continent
as a today
and god is at work uh we are seeing
churches
uh coming up great and big congregation
church is coming up
i mean across africa especially in
nigeria
for example i think i i if i’m
not wrong the largest congregation of
christians
uh in the world are in nigeria
i think there are many congregations in
nigeria today
that about ten thousand fifty thousand i
think the largest church
auditorium in the world being a hundred
thousand seated
uh capacity auditorium is in nigeria so
there’s a
huge uh uh potential
in the nigerian church uh populated with
young people
that are purified and so passionate
and so willing to actually uh give
themselves fully to the lord
so i quite agree with you when you said
talk about the fact that
there is a huge movement and a huge uh
move of god
in the africa i mean in the church in
africa
especially in nigeria
do you think so our for taking the
uh agencies for example that are with
nema are they using
um a missionary agency model are they
using a business’s mission model
what’s the most common method of
missionary sending
in nigeria
yeah thank you very much uh
traditionally
i mean from where uh indigenous when
indigenous missions started in nigeria
uh it is the model of the missionary
sending
going by faith and to the glory of god
i can confirm that many
nigerian missionaries have gone out to
do great things
on the frontiers uh with little or
minimal support
but as time goes on i think the nigerian
missions is also developing
uh with uh current trends in global
missions
while we still have the traditional
model of mission agency sending
we now have an increased uh awareness
and uh buy-in from mainline universal
churches
sending i mean missionaries and also we
also have several nigerian missionaries
across the world that are using business
as models i mean business as missions
in fact there are a lot of young
nigerians
in different parts of the world that are
making a difference for the lord
shining the light of the gospel as
businessmen
or professionals in different uh fields
across the world
so we have all the models present i mean
among nigerian missionaries
uh basically what we do is these when we
plan to engage
a community or a nation we try to like
look at
which of the model is best that can be
i mean adopted and we go for that
yeah i’d be curious just one more
follow-up on
questions related to that do you have
any idea of the so you talked about 15
000 missionaries
um how many of those are staying inside
nigeria
in reaching unreached people groups in
nigeria and how many are going
outside of nigeria uh
thank you yeah i’m happy that you are
aware of
the vision 5015 of the nigerian
church it’s a vision that has been on
for 15 years now in fact this year makes
it
15 years of
more than 40 million evangelicals in
nigeria
which are the greats have been asset for
the gospel
the vision is to mobilize 50
000 of those evangelicals
and among those 50 000 to
send 15 000 to raise
uh support and send 15 000 of those
to 34 highly islamic uh
dominated countries in the world
starting from northern nigeria
to the north africa horn of africa
arab peninsula and the jerusalem
neighborhood what i can conveniently
tell you is this
that at least of that are
i can conveniently tell you that we have
four thousand
nine missionaries that are responsible
i mentioned now that is also
to say i mean that is also to say that
there are several other missionaries
that are not the nigerian mission
network
under nema that are just i mean gone to
those countries
either as professionals as businessmen
and are doing great
i mean in those places well from our
record and in our network
i can report to you that we have 4 000
ninja missionaries
of the 15 000 uh nigerian i mean of the
under the network of nema that are
working in those uh
region awesome ade
maybe you could share with our viewing
and listening audience some of the
challenges are facing the
nigerian missions movement as these
people are raised up
what are some of the obstacles that
they’re facing
thank you in spite of the
huge and enormous potential of the
nigerian church
and the nigerian mission first uh we are
not without our challenges
uh in recent times
we have had to face the challenge of
recruitment
uh that may not be unconnected to
probably the state of the church in
nigeria
uh more and more uh young people we are
having it
more challenging to actually have them
uh be conscripted
into the mission force but in spite of
that efforts are being made to
deliberately reach out
to the young people another challenge
we are facing in the nigeria mission
force is charity of security
as a result of the bokwaram insurgents
and violent attacks on christian
communities
since the beginning of boko haram we
have
unfortunately lost many missionaries
many have had to pull out from
that region and another
growing violent challenge you are having
is
the challenge of x-men uh
attacking christian communities and
missionaries
since the beginning of the year we have
had to grapple with a lot of challenge
of kidnapping of missionaries
the challenge of our
attacking missionaries at the base one
of our uh leading uh
uh mission leaders was attacked
i mean a few months ago at his base in
the mission field where he was working
and i mean it was so fertile but
we changed uh it was spared so these are
some of the challenges we are confronted
with
uh in the uh missions uh movement in
nigeria
so so currently the boko haram
is growing in influence
is it i know that the government’s
trying to stop it what’s the current
status
uh the boko haram situation in india is
dicey
at one time the government will tell us
that has been brought under control
at other times we see uh
we hear the stories of boko overrunning
communities
unfortunately we have had to lose quite
a number of our missionaries and
church leaders to the surgeons
faithfully earlier this year uh a
church leader in the northeast region
where
bokoram is uh us great influence was
kidnapped
and he was i mean slaughtered alive
i mean under the full clear of camera i
mean with the pokhara insurgent
uh uh uh i mean carrying out that
heinous
cry i mean terrible thing well the joy
of it is this
i mean the opportunity given to the
leader to actually address i mean uh
i mean to give an address he he he
preached to the
uh insurgents and i mean spoke
uh very courageously before that
happened
government is making effort but
unfortunately i guess the challenge of
poverty
and poorest border is making bokoram to
be very challenging
to be uh controlled in nigeria
you know boko haram has now merged with
the islamic state
in west africa so they have a black
network
across west africa and of course the
uh crisis in libya has also released a
lot of
militia into the region and many of them
have a good
uh cover uh in northeast nigeria
so i mean it’s a very serious challenge
many of the places where we are
missionaries
we have had opportunity to actually
minister in the past i mean
christians could not even go there again
topless of sharing the gospel
because they are all taken over by
fukuala
so ade as we hear about the
opportunities but also some incredible
challenges
how might u.s and canadian churches come
alongside
and assist the nigerian missions
movement in a way that’s a blessing
and and not a hindrance thank you very
much
before i respond to that i also want to
uh
mention the fact that uh in spite of the
challenges
god is at work in nigeria misha movement
especially in nigeria and beyond uh it
will interest you to know that
in spite of the challenge of the kobe 19
uh
we have made great stride in the nigeria
mission movements
uh the northeast where gokuram is
concentrated god has given us
a very great in-road there is a state in
the northeast that is uh by the name
biology state
that stayed with the highest number of
on rich people group
in nigeria and through our efforts were
able to identify those
people group and to the glory of god i
mean a lot of missionaries
have been moved into a number of those
enriched people group i mean during the
pandemic and
i mean this year and also there is one
of the
unengaged enrich people group for many
years had not been engaged
by the tribe i mean a tribe in
northeastern syria also
were able to actually mobilize and send
missionaries uh to that uh
particular tribe now responding to a
question
on how the american and canadian mission
movement
can and be of help to nigeria
an african nigerian missionary is a
passionate
uh i mean aggressive
with a condo spirit missionary willing
to go anywhere for the lord but i think
uh
we still need some uh assistance in
issues of
training and equipping i think training
for missionaries will go a
long way to help our effectiveness in
nigeria and i think that’s one of the
areas
uh that the nigerian the american
and the canadian movement can actually
be of help
equipping also i have had opportunity of
being part of the
uh session the online sessions of
mission exos
and i tell you i’ve been tremendously
blessed and i believe there’s a lot
we can learn from your hand to actually
help
uh strengthen what we do here in nigeria
fantastic well ada i want you to know
that we do
pray for you we do think about what’s
going on nigeria i personally feel like
nigeria is
going to be one of the most important
countries uh for
global missions in the years and decades
ahead so it’s very exciting especially
with the demographic changes in
africa and so really want to thank you
and for what nema is doing there
thank you ted we really appreciate it
and i tell you
uh we need all the prayers so i just
also mentioned that uh uh prayer is
actually our primary and number one need
have been i mean beyond any other need
uh god is at work in nigeria in spite of
the challenge
we believe with your prayers and
encouragement we shall surely i may take
our place
in his will thank you very much is so
happy
to hear that you are praying for us okay
so before you go
could we get a good prayer request from
you that our listeners can be praying
for
thank you please pray for encouragement
for
nigeria missionaries the
the pandemic has actually uh
impacted upon the nigerian mission
movements
uh many are discouraged in fact in the
course
of the pandemic we have had to like
take some initiative to mobilize some
resources
to uh mitigate the economic impact
for frontline missionaries and because
of the
downturn in economy and some other
challenges uh there
seems to be a general discouragement of
the land among the mission movements
so we need your prayers for god to
encourage us
to fortune and not be discouraged and
also
would like you to pray for uh the
security challenge
uh in nigeria the quran challenge
and the uh uh fulani i mean the hashman
challenge
is i mean sergeant uh in nigeria
many missionaries have had to flee uh
their base their station because of such
attacks
several others have had to actually pay
the ultimate price
because of uh the the the challenge the
the violent attack on our basis so we
need your prayers
in these two key areas and also for
great vision i mean french vision
and strength from one eye even as we
make effort
to play a role in god’s global agenda
so i’m thinking of a verse that paul
shared in second corinthians
um may the grace of god abound to you
so that in all things at all times
having all that you need you may abound
in every good work
and so for our viewers and listeners let
that be your prayer amen
god’s grace would abound that in the
midst of this trying time
and a time of opportunity as you said a
day that god’s grace would overflow
and that the work of the gospel would
abound in and through the nigerian
church that’s going to be our prayer
amen hey thank you man you’ve been a
blessing
today thanks for being with us
ted you’re going to say something i’m
just going to say thanks for being with
us
yeah likewise thank you brother you’re
an encouragement
so ted this is thank you so much yes
brother
this is the time in the show to talk
about something you like ted
so what’s on the list today okay well
this is something i have a feeling some
of our listeners know about but i’m
always amazed
when i find particularly people in the
missions community that are not aware of
it and it’s prayercast prayercast.com
it is a website and a service
in which they create high quality videos
that are about praying the prayers are
always said by indigenous people
and they for example we’ve been talking
about nigeria today
and you can go to prayercast.com you can
look up the nation of nigeria
and they have a very powerful prayer
that you can use
to pray for the nation of nigeria
there’s an
islamic series out there that’s
incredible there’s numerous special
topics the most recently posted coveted
video
i just found to be just another stunning
example that just
inspires me to pray so i just want to
mention prayercast
as something i really like
and i second that it’s a great resource
so please take advantage of it folks
again ah day thank you ted great to be
with you we’ll see you next time folks
all right thank you very much i wonder
what
thank ted for the privilege thanks much
youtube
i quite appreciate this bye
bye before you go would you visit our
sponsors websites
there you’ll find a wealth of
interesting and challenging information
about the state of the great commission
it’s 1615.org
and missionnexus.org if you enjoyed
today’s episode
like share and subscribe so you don’t
miss one
the mission matters is presented through
a partnership of 1615 missions coaching
and mission nexus