Thank you so much for praying for me. As I stated in my last letter, I had the opportunity to go to Nigeria in May. For the first time, I was asked to preach and teach in two soul-winning and leadership conferences. Missionary Mark Holmes has a National Leadership and Soul-Winning Conference each year in Abuja, which is where his church is located. Abuja is also the capitol of Nigeria. I was able to preach in two churches on the Sunday before the conference started. During the conference I preached or taught 11 times. We had a great crowd, and many pastors attended. It was a blessing to get reacquainted with Brother Mike Cox, who also was preaching and teaching in this conference. I was able to present the Teaching All Nations college program during the conference. This is a program designed to help pastors train their people for the ministry. This picture shows a good sample of the crowd at Truth Baptist Church while I was teaching.
After taking a day off, all of us—Dr. Cox, Brother Holmes, his son Brian, and I—flew down to the city of Calabar, where we preached and taught in a regional leadership and soul-winning conference. This was the first time the Independent Baptist Church had hosted this type of conference. They did a great job throughout the whole conference, and the congregation was very faithful in attending the services. In fact, one night there were 624 persons in attendance. To the right is a picture of the crowd. The last picture was taken outside the church with a group from another church. I was able to teach and preach another 11 times and presented the TAN college program.
The goal of these conferences is to challenge the pastors to multiply their ministries by sending out men to start churches all over Nigeria. A total of 34 pastors attended the conferences, and close to 40 churches were represented at the conferences. We are praying the pastors will take the challenge of starting churches.
During my time in the U.S., I was able to visit many churches and preach in others. While preaching in a conference, I received a call regarding a young man I knew. This young man was battling things in his life and finally tried to commit suicide. I visited this man three times while he was in the hospital, each time trying to win him to Christ. On my third visit, he was finally awake enough so I could, with confidence, give him the Gospel, knowing he was understanding what I was saying. How glad I was when he finally called upon the Saviour for salvation!
In just a few weeks, I will be going to Toronto for a Bible conference put on by Missionary Brian Johnston. When that is done, Linda and I will travel to Ireland to oversee a church while the missionary and his family are on furlough. Your prayers for safety, strength, and God’s power will be greatly appreciated.
Missionary Evangelist James Belisle
