The Lausanne Cape Town 2010 Connection
My wife and I had been perceiving that our time in Lagos, Nigeria is up, and that God is moving us to another dimension of ministry. We therefore began to surrender our all afresh, praying, asking for where He would want us to serve in the world wide harvest. It was with this burden I attended the Third Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization: Cape Town 2010. This burden caused me to visit the prayer tower at the Congress, seeking intercessors to join me in prayer to God for direction. In my search for direction I remember interacting with delegates from a couple of African nations, listening for a ‘Macedonian call.’
During the Congress, Ademola Olatunji, a friend serving as missionary in Mozambique and who was unable to attend the Congress, invited me by a phone call to visit the nation. Ademola sent a gift to me at CT2010 through Jose Francisco Madeira, a Mozambican church leader who attended the Congress. That was my first meeting with Pastor Madeira.
I visited Mozambique in February speaking with church and mission leaders, including Madeira, listening to God for direction. Before this visit, I sought counsel and connected with several leaders, including Revd Gideon Para-Mallam, my leader during some part of student days in the NIFES (Nigeria Fellowship of Evangelical Students), and now the leader of IFES EPSA, (English, Portuguese and Spanish speaking Africa) region, who was also till recently the Lausanne International Deputy Director for our region. Mozambique being a Portuguese speaking nation falls under his area of leadership. Revd Para-Mallam connected me with ABEMO, the expression of IFES in Mozambique. This is opening a door of ministry to a section of the youth of Mozambique.
After the February visit, the burden for Mozambique gripped my heart. My wife and I began to prepare to go to serve the church through making disciples of church leaders, leadership training, and other ways. While we were praying over this, it was impressed in our hearts that Mozambique needs prayers – The United Prayer of the World Wide Church! I was deeply impressed with the understanding that the spiritual darkness in this nation literally needs the joint prayers of Christians all over the world to lift it. This necessitated a second visit to Mozambique in July. During this visit, the burden of praying for Mozambique was shared with national church leaders. They embraced the vision, declared 2012, Global Year of United Prayer for Mozambique. They also set up a national steering committee headed by indigenous church leaders to lead the nation through the Year of Prayer. It is interesting that Pastor Jose Madeira was appointed the president of this national steering committee.
It was important to set up an International Board of Advisers for the Year of Prayer for Mozambique; again we approached Revd Gideon Para-Mallam and he gladly consented to play this role along with other leaders.
The connection that commenced at CT2010 has blossomed into a friendship. I visited Madeira’s home during my trip to Mozambique and he also spent a week in our home in Lagos after the recent MANI Consultation in Abuja. This friendship is yielding results. Mozambican church leaders are happy to have my wife and I join them in their country to mobilize the nation and the global church to pray for their land all through 2012. Therefore, Flora and I will leave Nigeria on Monday, 10 October 2011, to relocate to Maputo, Mozambique’s capital to live among the people and serve the national church.
How God works! May His kingdom come and His will be done on earth as it is in heaven.