Spirit of Revival Sweeps Across Nigeria

       One of the most exciting letters received in the twenty-nine history of the prayer seminar ministry is one dated July 31, 1989, from Panya Baba, president of  the Evangelical Church of West Africa (ECWA), reporting on what had been happening there since our November 1988 prayer seminars. Let’s let him speak for himself.

      Greetings from Nigeria in the wonderful name of the Lord Jesus. Since you left, some good things have happened. There has been a great development and ECWA has begun to feel the experience of revival as a result of your prayer seminar ministry and the work of the Holy Spirit. The ECWA Plateau DCC Executives who attended the your seminar together with Rev. Onesimus Sule, the pastor of ECWA Seminary, Jos, arranged a Pastors’ Seminar for the DCC with prayer as the emphasis. Many pastors were blessed as the Holy Spirit touched their hearts. There were a lot of confessions about their shortcomings, wrong doings, ill feelings to each other, unfaithfulness, and the sin of prayerlessness with a lack of prayer for themselves and their ministries. All the pastors returned back to their local churches with a new zeal and vision. Some even apologized to the members of their churches their past unfaithfulness in the Lord’s work, especially lack of honest prayer.

Two thousand  Spanish prayer seminar workbooks used in Peru

      Nearly 1,900 registered for the August 24—September 9 prayer seminars in Peru. All two thousand Spanish prayer seminar workbooks were used. For the first week, the seminars were in northern Peru. Several seminars were in Piuri, the largest city in the area. From there we traveled to Talara, Rio Saco Prison, La Union, Sullana and Paite, Then, by bus, we began the trek southward along the Pacific Ocean with seminars in Trujillo (Santa Dominguto and Porvenir), Chimbote, Paramonga-Baccaro, and Chincha. We traveled 1,450 miles on the ground and 8,090 by air.

SUMMARY: “Give account of your stewardship"

Prayer Seminars 16

        Professions of faith 200+

     Miles traveled 9,540

The coordination was excellent, thanks to Ted Cooper (South Carolina) and Pastor Vera (Piura). Travel was on time and the people were in place ready to begin at the scheduled hour. This was remarkable for so many seminars and made it possible to teach many pastors from a large number of churches.

Once again, the value of the prayer seminar workbook was documented. Two years ago, the emphasis on Peruvian seminars was on pastors. From time to time, reports were received that pastors were teaching their people Christian life principles they had learned. During our time in Paramonga, one of the leading pastors from Lima attended and shared that he had periodically traveled into the mountains to teach folks in the churches there what they had learned.  He was eager to have a supply of Spanish prayer seminar workbooks to continue his teaching ministry. Many pastors expressed an interest in having a supply of workbooks to teach in their churches and areas. The head of one of the denominations with which we worked plans to prepare a teaching edition and then bring  pastors and teachers together to prepare them to teach.

The Holy Spirit had His hand on each seminar bringing the Word of God alive via the voice of two interpreters who did a superb job—Israel in the Piura area and David for the rest of the country. There was group participation as everyone read together scriptures and other material from the workbook. There was individual involvement as folks stood to read. The teaching-learning techniques that have been so effective both in the United States and in other nations once again proved invaluable.

The international prayer seminar ministry is a faith ministry totally. Our practice has been simple—“trust God and tell the people.” Over the years, I have discovered that when one hundred become prayer and financial partners with us, the needs are met. In this case, seventy-four contributors provided the funds needed to meet the budget providing workbooks, transportation, and food/lodging.

Equipping Peruvian Believers

        Peru is a land of contrasts—tropical Amazon jungles along the river, snow-covered Andean mountains, dry desert. The population is 29,180,899. The Peruvians are a beautiful people. About half is of Quechua Indian origin. This large indigenous group has preserved not only the Quechua and Aymara langagues, Pbut also a traditional Roman Catholic presence mingled with a strong animistic component. While 96% of the population is listed as Christian, only a small percentage are evangelicals. The result is a prevailing spiritual darkness for most people. At the same time, it is obvious that God is at work with many turning to the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation.  The literacy rate is 94.5% for males and 82.1% for females. Life expectancy is 68.61 for males and 72.37 for females.

         There are many memorable expressions that I carry around in my mind from the prayer seminars around the world. One that came from the first seminars in Peru 2006 was one that I will never forget. Several pointed out that this was “the first venue in the country devoted exclusively to teaching the Word of God.”  This was not the first time that I had heard a similar expression. Testimonies from participants have often said that in their Christian lives they had never had an opportunity to have in-depth guidance in the basic areas of the Christian life. This one fact accents the heavy responsibility that we have in teaching God’s precious children.