Back home

It's great to be back home at TCNN although it did take a few days to get back into the swing of life in Nigeria with no electricity, supermarkets or decent roads.
Since I returned we've had the Mission Africa retreat in Miango.  It was humbling to meet Rufus and Iris Ogbonna who've been serving in the south of Nigeria for over thirty years.  Iris was actually a nursery nurse with Fraser's mother in Glasgow fifty-three years ago.  They'd been friends but had lost touch until we joined Mission Africa so it was amazing that Fraser could set up a meeting on skype for them.
Paul Bailie our chief executive and Norman MacAuley, his minister from Belfast came over for the week of the retreat.  Norman provided some most welcome teaching focussed on Jesus.  Jesus didn't come just to show us God's love (although it was God's love that sent him) but he had the specific purpose of saving his people, not "from" anything but to enable us to be cleansed, our sins paid for and ourselves made holy enough to enter the presence of God.  Such an act of grace "demands my soul, my life, my all".
Paul and Norman were staying in Jos for most of their short visit and I had the privilege of accompanying them to see Rev Dr Obed Dashan, General Secretary of COCIN, the denomination which provides us with the visa to remain in Nigeria.  Many COCIN congregations in the north have been attacked with many Christians killed.  The COCIN officials have the hard task of deciding whether to withdraw their staff or encourage them to stay and show Christ's love to those murdering their friends and relations.  As Dr Dashan said, he tells his pastors to stay and not get involved in the fighting but what would he do if armed men broke into his house or church intent on killing anyone they could find?  We pray for God's protection on them all, for wisdom and the courage to love.