Nigeria Trip August 2017 Report
By Chad Wagner
On July 29, we left the USA for Nigeria, West Africa. The team consisted of Anna Crossno (my oldest daughter and senior Bible student at Crowley’s Ridge College, Paragould, AR), Austin Plyley (senior Bible student at Crowley’s Ridge College, Paragould, AR), Lydia Schake (Richmond, MO), and myself. We flew to Lagos, Nigeria and was met by Biodun Owalabi, President of West Nigeria Christian College. He took us to a Baptist hostel where we stayed the night and then flew on to Uyo, on DanaAir, the following day. There, we were picked up by the NCBC leadership team consisting of Goodnews Peter and his team.
After settling in at Nigerian Christian Bible College (NCBC), we were able to take a look around and see the current condition of the school and grounds. Bessie Udo, a preacher’s wife who has cooked for me (and others!) before had a meal prepared for us. Throughout the week, she cooked good meals which were just fine. The guest house has had little damage to the structure. However, some of the electrical plugs were not working as well as some of the plumbing. They had attempted repairs before our arrival but were not able to get them all done. The guest house had no appliances that were permanently stationed there. The house had recently undergone some window screen repair for our coming.
Electricity is an issue, of course, as the entire campus (in fact, the whole neighborhood) has been disconnected from the national electric grid. During the lectureship, the school borrowed 3 or 4 small generators for use around the campus. The main generator had been vandalized while the school was shut down and several vital parts taken – so that gen was useless. In order to have water, we had to borrow a generator to run the water pump to fill the water tanks. All in all, NCBC was/can be quite a comfortable place but infrastructure is an issue which will need to be addressed.
There were around 6,000 people who daily attended the lectureship. There were 97 baptisms, according to the official count, during the week. It was quite an experience for me. In some ways, it was also like a county fair with booths, shops, etc. It was truly an encouraging time to be at NCBC! I have attached a report from NCBC regarding the lectureship.
On Saturday, we did some tourist shopping, visited the home of Monday John Akpakpan, among other things. On Sunday, we went to the church of Christ in Uyo. It is a church of over 1,000 Christians. Also, while there, we experienced one of the most moving and memorable Lord’s Supper experiences when the body of Christ there began to hum different hymns during the Lord’s Supper. Quite an experience! Also, a great blessing occurred in that we could pick up my luggage from the airport – which was a mere week late!
On Monday, we departed NCBC for WNCC, again on DanaAir. All of the luggage successfully made it to Lagos. We made it to WNCC late in the evening due to some car issues.
Tuesday kicked off the lectureship at the school where we had around one to two thousand people each day. We also had two baptisms. While there were not as many attendants at the lectureship at WNCC, over half of them were youth from Lagos. This was truly encouraging as it shows that youth are very interested in the lectureship and the Gospel. Our entire team either spoke or took part in some aspect of the lectureship. It was also an encouraging time for all.
One of the great things on this trip was the pictures that were taken on the trip. You can view the pictures here: https://goo.gl/photos/Y5VoHEXCmM9vpTVY8
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