Dear Friends of the Ministry, It is a thing of great joy to know each time that our Great God does answer prayers. The elections in Nigeria have come and gone and we have every reason to rejoice and to thank all of you who prayed earnestly for the success of the elections. All the threats to violence and disruption were taken away by the Lord and Nigeria has another four years under the present regime to improve and move on. We have another four years of open doors. Pray for the President, Olusegun Obasanjo. He has identified himself as a born again Christian and has indirectly opened the door for Christian activities in the country. Pray also for his cabinet members that they will subscribe to truth, integrity and honesty in their leadership. Pray that they will ascribe to the servant leadership modeled by Jesus Christ and His disciples. Summer 2003 Outreach: By the end of this month, I will be traveling to Nigeria for a summer missions. I leave Vancouver June 26, via London, England and arrive Abuja, Nigeria June 27, 2003. I will be back July 30, 2003. While in Nigeria I will oversee the clearing of the container of medical, educational and humanitarian supplies and equipment we recently shipped from Victoria, British Columbia. The estimated date for the container to arrive in Nigeria is June 26. I will be using most of the supplies for outreach during my stay in Nigeria. Majority of them will be distributed to our partners in Nigeria for their work. I will also spend time with our staff and directors in Kaduna, Kurmin Iya and Umuahia. It is becoming increasingly obvious to us that for us to move ahead in the ministry across Africa, we must mentor those that the Lord has brought our way to work with us. I need grace, wisdom and understanding in handling the management and ministerial duties while in Nigeria. We have been invited to have a week of Institute of Leadership Training for Pastors and Christian Workers in a city called Ibadan. I will also spend two or three days with the over 3000 widows that came to the Lord during our last visit and crusade in Ohafia. We are in the process of establishing a co-operative farm with them. A church in British Columbia has graciously provided us with a bag of sweet corn that will help us initiate the project. This summer we were privileged to share with and hosted some major international missions leaders’ from the United Kingdom, United States, Nigeria and Kenya. They were attending a conference on world missions sponsored by World Evangelical Alliance (WEA) Missions Commission. We were able to share views and insights on how to move forward in world evangelization. The Lord enabled me to redefine our vision and brought to focus our mandate to train African cross-cultural missionaries that will pioneer new churches among the unreached peoples groups across Africa, and also plant churches among African in Europe, Asia, North America and South America, and also to train efficient and effective servant leaders that will lead the church and the nations of Africa according to Christ’s examples. During the conference a dear friend of mine and my mentor in the Lord promised to purchase Bibles worth $2,000 (US) in the following languages; igbo, hausa, and yoruba, for distribution in Nigeria during summer 2003 outreach. Report from the Fields: Work among the Destitute Children and HIV/AIDS Orphans: In my last newsletter I indicated that we are in the process of establishing a two -tier program in Kenya and Nigeria. I stated that we are looking into a “Day Program/Drop-in-Care Centre where these children will be able to achieve their full potential through variety of spiritual, social, educational, recreational and vocational opportunities; and a “Foster Home” for the street/orphan children. I am glad to announce that we have made tremendous progress on this front. Mama Helena’s Children and Youth Drop in Center in Kayole Slum, Nairobi, Kenya: Our Kenyan brethren has made more progress than their Nigerian counterpart. We have already placed 20 children in foster homes in Nairobi and have over 50 more presently awaiting sponsorship. By mid August this year, we will commence the building of the Mama Helena’s Children and Youth Drop-in-Centre in Kayole slum in East Nairobi. Helena Peters is a 78 year old woman that has worked for many years among the poorest of the poor in East Africa. She has helped build and set up a library in Watsa, Congo, started a feeding program for street children in Kibora slum in Nairobi then in the past four years worked with a pastor in Kibera slums also in Nairobi to build an orphanage. Last year sister Helena joined us as volunteer missionary to assist in raising funds for our children projects in East Africa. Our Kenyan board of directors felt Helena should be honored by naming the new drop-in and Youth Centre after her. We need sponsors to contribute $50 to support one child for a month. Your $50 will help provide food, shelter, kindergarten education for children under the age of six and daycare while their foster parents acquire some rehabilitation skills within the city. Research Team in Nigeria: Our research team in Nigeria reports that the HIV/AIDS syndrome is associated with a very strong social stigma as such people loath to talk about it, let alone admitting that any of there family member died of the pandemic. In other to scale over this social huddles, our researchers carefully avoided mentioning HIV/AIDS, but have so packaged their survey to sound like they are looking for orphans or destitute children whose parents died within a space of one or two years ago of an unknown sickness that has prevailed for many years. This approach has given us open doors even in difficult communities. They are now able to collect data and pictures of the children that will be in our sponsorship program. We would covet your continuous prayers with regards to this project. If you would be interested in sponsoring one of these children, would you please Contact our office at 604-707-0222. More report from the fields: The team from Rosedale Baptist church in Winnipeg, that traveled on a short-term work to Gambu, Mambilla Plateau, Adamawa State, Nigeria are back. They reported of God’s mighty hand upon them. Our missionary team in Umuahia reported that 32 souls has been added to the kingdom of God through the film evangelism outreaches recently held in some rural areas around Abia State. Pray that these new souls would be descipled to walk in the foot prints of Jesus. New students has also enrolled in our Acquisition Centre. Continue to pray for our teaching staff for grace in working with these young people that do not know Jesus as their Lord and Saviour. Please continue to pray for our over 50 national workers and partners both in Nigeria and Kenya. They need God’s protection and provision, as they travel among the rural communities. Thank you! Please keep in touch. By: Paul Ndukwe (Rev.) Executive Director - Link International Ministries |
