Victor
So have been doing “Evangelism” in the evening around the neighborhood where our pastors church is. Here in Nigeria, at least for us that looks like walking up and down the streets handing out tracks with our church’s address on the back. We like to spend time actually talking to people and getting to know a little of there story and praying with them if we can. But often we are on a bit of a forced march to cover the number of streets they would like us to before it gets dark.
We have sort of adopted a little bit of a leapfrog technique that gets us a little more time to talk to each person and keeps pastor busy giving directions to the church. The other day Will was talking to a guy named Victor and waved us all over as we were “leaping” by him to the next shop. So we stopped and headed over as Will introduced us to Victor. He was having some problems in his knee and asked if we could pray for healing. We did and he thanked us and we went on our way. Nothing to write home about and we continued on evangelizing down the street.
A few days later me and Haley were shopping at the market trying to find some vegetables or something other than sketchy meat or peppers to go with our yams, rice, past and other assorted carbohydrates. And Victor spots us from across the street and comes over. We ask him where we can find some curry powder and if he thinks there will be any Irish potatoes at this market. He helps us find curry powder and follows us around the market helping us out and making sure we don’t get over charged for anything. He tells us that he wanted to come to church on Sunday but he couldn’t find it. So we tell him we will be going home that we if he would like to come along we could point it out.
After we point out the church I remember that we had prayed for his knee and asked him how it was doing. He said that it felt way better and he has been able to get around without any problems since we had prayed for him. And that was why he had wanted to come to church on Sunday was that he was going to share a testimony of he knee being healed. He said that he would come that night to our prayer service.
As the prayer service started we were a little disappointed as there were only about two people there other than our team and its always a little frustrating when you go through the effort of preparing a message and your team out numbers the people that are there. We went ahead and got started about 25 minutes late or five minutes early Africa time depending on how how you look at it. And a few more church members came and not long after so did Victor. He shared with everybody about his leg being healed. After the service we talked with him some more and found out that his mom and dad had died in a car accident. And he has been raising his little brother and sister ever since. On top of all that he has lost his job as a generator mechanic. And has been unable to find new work. So we prayed some more for him and left saying that we would see each other on Sunday.
Tonight we were out doing inviting people to church and I saw to a couple of guys in front of a barber shop that looked young and like they might be a bit unreceptive but those are my favorite so I went over and introduced my self and talked a little about what we are doing here. Before long one of the guys asked me if I knew Victor and I said we had met him a couple of blocks away on another street. He proceeded to tell me that he was Victors brother. And that Victor had been telling him all about us and the church. And he said that he would come on Sunday with his brother.
So I would like to ask all of you to be in prayer for Victor and his family. I don’t know exactly where he is at with the Lord yet. It seems like he grew up in the church but never really made it his own. Just be praying that he would come on Sunday and be receptive to what the Lord has for him. I have a feeling that he may be are part of the shift that the Lord wants to bring to the church in Nigeria. And that is why his life has been under attack.
