Benin City, Edo, Nigeria
Osas was at our hotel with his car by 9:40 this morning to
take us around the city for some visits. He has an older Volkswagen station
wagon, that has most definitely seen better days, but it runs, and by careful
coaxing he is able to guide it down the streets in the direction he wants it to
go. He hasn’t had it above perhaps 35 or 40 mph with me in the car, and that
would appear to be about the safety limit of this old vehicle! But he very
willingly brings it around to serve, and we have to virtually twist his arm to
get him to pull into a petrol station so we can fill his gas tank!
Meeting the members has been a unique pleasure. Yesterday
Roderick Smart told me how he first came in contact with the Church through
some literature he received in the early 1970’s, but he did nothing with it
until sometime in the early 2000’s. At that time he wrote to both the British
and South African offices from the addresses that were in the old literature.
Somehow, that letter found its way to our own Cecil
Maranville, who wrote a response.
But in another strange twist, Mr. Smart told
us he had just opened a post office box, but had not as yet given that address
to anyone. A week or so after opening the box, the letter from Mr. Maranville
arrived. He was amazed, and didn’t know how that letter found its way to his
new PO Box! Clearly God had a hand in it, and he was eventually baptized
somewhere around 7 or 8 years ago, and is still a faithful member to this day!
This morning one of our visits was with Mrs. Beatrice Iyamu,
who is almost entirely blind and VERY hard of hearing. But her mind is sharp,
and once she understands your question she will go back in her mind many years,
giving you dates and details with great certainty!
In 1962 she moved to London, England, where she lived until
1967. It was there that she first heard “The World Tomorrow” radio program over
Radio Luxemburg. I’ve heard and read numerous times about the use of Radio
Luxemburg by Mr. Armstrong many years ago in the early days of the Radio Church
of God, later called the Worldwide Church of God.
But to my knowledge she is
the first person I’ve met who heard and was drawn by the program over that
station so many years ago!
She was not baptized until after she returned to Nigeria.
She was baptized in 1977, and very proudly and emphatically told us she kept
her first Passover in the spring of 1978, so she has kept 39 Passovers, and has
not missed a single one! And she is proudly looking forward to this coming
spring when she will keep her 40th Passover! Her zeal, enthusiasm
and sharp memory are both encouraging and inspiring!
We also began baptism counseling with a young woman who has
been attending Sabbath services for a couple of years, and is married to one of
the young men in the congregation. While I’ve counseled and baptized many
people over the years, this is a new experience for me in Africa. In Ghana we
have resident pastors who take care of the people. Due to the language barrier,
I typically do not conduct the counseling or the baptisms themselves. But in
Nigeria we do not currently have a resident pastor or elder, so they are stuck
with me! We talked for over an hour, and I left her with some foundational
elements of faith and belief to consider, study and pray about, then contact me
when she is ready to discuss them further.
When she does, I’ll make
arrangements for us to visit again when I return to Nigeria.
After the visits Osas dropped us off back at our hotel for a
couple of hours. It had been raining when we stopped for the last two visits,
so I was a bit damp. We are in part of the rainy season here, so many of the
potholes are filled with water. When one gets off the main roads in the city,
they go from paved – or at least an attempt at paving, to dirt/sand/mud this
time of year. Osas’ small Volkswagen is front wheel drive, which is helpful,
but some of the mud and water looked pretty deep!
At one point on the way back rather than to straight through
a rather large puddle (looked bigger than the car) he turned to the right.
Unfortunately there were just as big of puddle this way too. So before we
entered the water, he stopped, opened the hood and unplugged the electric radiator
fans. He knew we could splash water up into the engine compartment, and he didn’t
want to short out the motors for those fans. As we went through I kept watching
the bottom of my door to see if water was starting to come in, but none ever
did! I do think it is a good thing there are no holes in the floorboards of his
car or we likely would have taken on water! Once past that, he pulled over to
plug the fans back in and we were on our way. Just another day in Benin City!
I was able to get a little work done, and also received a
call from a pastor in the US so we could discuss a couple of needed items
before it was time to go. Osas came shortly after his intended time to take us
to the hall they rent for Sabbath services. The Bible study was scheduled to
begin at 4:30 pm, but I don’t believe we arrived until shortly after that. I
had some conversation downstairs and on the way up, and I didn’t make my way up
to the room until nearly 5:00. But we were able to start shortly after that.
After some introductory comments, and an update on our
efforts to secure a place for the Feast this year, I gave a Bible study on zeal
for our calling. God is certainly zealous for His plan (Zechariah 8:1-5), and
He wants us to be zealous for the calling He has so generously given us. We
looked at some of the things in life that are real zeal-killers, and then looked
at what we can do to combat them from what Paul wrote in Romans 12:10-13. We
took each of those elements (rejoicing in hope, patient in trial, urgent in
prayer) and looked at what we can each take home and do today to rekindle the fire
and zeal we should have for our calling and the Plan of God. I hope it connected.
After more fellowship, and a shorter visit in a side room of
the hall, Osas took us back to our hotel where Cody, Bobbi and I met in the
restaurant for dinner a few minutes later. We do have one more shorter visit
scheduled in the morning, and then we have to go to the airport here in Benin
City for a short hop back to Lagos. We hope to have a visit with a member
family in Lagos, perhaps over lunch, before we proceed on to our gates and fly
out to begin our trip back to the US tomorrow evening.
Jason Hyde
2017-08-23
Hello Mr. Clark. I have been enjoying each update from your trip. Thank you for sharing your journey with us.
Emily Stoner
2017-08-23
I have been loving your travel blog and trip through Africa. Praying for continued safety. Love to see the brethren over there and their zeal for the truth.
Andrea West
2017-08-23
I have enjoyed and appreciated reading your blog. Thank you for writing it. I think you may be interested to know that Roger also heard the World Tomorrow broadcast for the first time on Radio Luxemburg. This was in 1960 when he was serving in the US Air Force on a remote RAF base in England. Roger applied for Ambassador College and got an early out of the Air Force to come to college in 1961. Mrs. Lyamu and Roger share hearing Mr. Armstrong for the first time over Radio Luxemburg.
CB Johnson - Austin
2017-08-23
Great to follow your travels. Much to appreciate in the God blessed countries of Israelite descendants. Your postings provide good insight; enabling more effective prayer for our brethren's challenges.Safe travels. TKS!