Ogbomosho, Nigeria

Ogbomosho, Nigeria

If anyone wants to get to know West Africa at its most typical, then they should visit the city of Ogbomosho in the Nigerian province of Oyo. Aside from a couple of churches, the town hall and a few mosques, there are hardly any tall buildings. Everywhere you look, you see tiny, simply-roofed homes stretching for kilometres in every direction, dusty streets, brightly-coloured markets, little shops and manufacturers, and open cooking fires … And yet, there are well over one million people living in this city and the surrounding areas.

Unlike Calabar, this city has a positive spiritual inheritance. It was founded over 350 years ago as an outpost of a kingdom that belonged to the Yoruba tribe. At the beginning of the 19th century, it withstood a massive onslaught from the Muslim Fulani tribes, and having successfully resisted them, the town grew quickly from the refugees that found shelter there. After the Muslim invasion had been thwarted, the first real Christian missionaries came to the area in 1855. They founded the first school there in the same year. From this foundation, the entire modern school system there arose, including a theological seminary (Baptist) and a technical university. The president of the theological seminary said once in his greeting address at a CfaN “Great Gospel Campaign”; “When I look out over this incredible crowd of people here at this campaign, I know there is hope for Nigeria!” And a pastor elaborated, “The unique thing about the CfaN campaigns is that they bring all the different denominations of a region together in unity, and that hundreds of churches and congregations who did almost nothing together before that, keep nurturing their fellowship when the campaign is long since over.”

The last CfaN campaign in this region took place in October 2010. By the leading of the Holy Spirit, we know that this is the time to return and build our platform here again. The cities of West Africa grow at an astonishing rate, and within one decade, a city like Ogbomosho grows by another hundred thousand people. The children from that time are now youths and young adults whose turn it is now to make a personal decision to follow Jesus. We are certain that the Lord will stir this city with a fresh move of God, and light a burning fire once again in the hearts of believers.

Africa shall be saved!

Ogbomosho is in the southwestern state of Oyo, Nigeria and some 80 miles north of Lagos. Founded in the mid-17th century, it remained a minor outpost of the Yoruba Oyo empire until the beginning of the Muslim Fulani conquests of Oyo in the early 19th century. By surviving the Fulani onslaught, the walled town attracted many Oyo refugees and became one of the largest Yoruba settlements. Ogbomosho has about 257 surrounding villages and emerging towns which amalgamated to the rulership of Soun.

Ogbomosho is also home to the three institutions of higher learning, and the Bowen University Teaching Hospital Ogbomosho (BUTH) a first-class Christian Teaching Hospital marked by excellence and godliness for the training of doctors and other medical professionals founded in in 1907!

People

Most of the adults seem to spend their time living outside their houses, with their children playing around them among the goats and chickens that frequently try to “play with the traffic” that hurtles along the rather dilapidated roads. Now one of the nation’s largest urban centres, Ogbomosho is inhabited mainly by Yoruba farmers, traders, and artisans. The town is justifiably proud of its university, and also the impressive Medical Training Centre, hospital, schools and Theological Seminary.

Land and Climate

Ogbomosho lies on the plateau of Yorubaland (elevation 1,200 feet [366 m]) in an area of savanna and farmland and at the intersection of roads from Oyo, Ilorin, Oshogbo, and Ikoyi. The warmest time of year is generally early to mid-March with highs of 97F (36°C) and lows rarely dropping below 78°F (25.6°C) at night.

Economy

Yams, cassava (manioc), corn (maize), and sorghum are grown for export to the cacao-producing areas of Yorubaland to the south; teak is also exported, and tobacco is cultivated for the cigarette factory at Ibadan, 58 miles (93 km) south-southeast. Locally grown cotton is used for weaving aso oke, the traditional Yoruba cloth; Ogbomosho weavers also make sanyan, a cloth woven from silk brought from Ilorin (32 miles northeast). The indigo dyeing of the cloth is performed exclusively by women.

Although the craft of wood carving has declined, the town is known for its early wood artifacts and for its unique koso drums. Ogbomosho serves as a staging point and market for cattle, and it has a government livestock station. The town also has a shoe and rubber factory. Local trade is primarily in staple crops, palm oil, kola nuts, beans, fruits, and cotton.

If ever we needed your help in praying, it’s now!

Please pray with us for: 

• the technical team: setting up the stage, sound system, generators, speakers, light masts, etc.
• that the giant LED Screens will function well and enable more people to not just hear, but see what God is doing
• protection from all attacks (including spiritual) and technical breakdowns
• good weather: no rain or strong wind, no extreme heat or dust, no weather that prevents people from attending the meetings
• many hundreds of thousands of real, life-changing conversions
• bountiful healing to follow the preaching of the Word, confirming the truth of the Gospel
• effective and engaging follow-up, quickly integrating new Christians into strong churches in their areas
• and please pray urgently for the release of the necessary financial resources.

Dear Mission Partners,

These are exciting and historic days we are living in! I really believe we are on the threshold of something unprecedented. Please keep reading to the end – there is a very special story I want you to hear.

Tonight, our very first meeting here in Ogbomosho, Nigeria was massive. From the platform, the crowds stretched as far as the eye could see. The platform is at the bottom of a sloping hill and, in times past, everyone on the other side of that hill would have been unable to see. But now, with our massive screens (that you’ve helped us to obtain), tens of thousands – maybe hundreds of thousands more – will be able to see and hear the Gospel this week!

Also, something brand new has happened in this Gospel campaign. As part of our “Decade of Double Harvest” initiative, for about 10 days prior to the campaign, we sent out a team of evangelists (Paul Maurer and Quentin Harrup) into the surrounding villages to conduct mini-campaigns. If you look at the attached pictures you will see our mobile campaign truck that carried the meetings easily from village to village.

Before the campaign had even begun, thousands had already heard the Gospel, many had been saved and healed! This is a prototype that I envision will soon involve dozens of similar trucks and hundreds (maybe thousands) of evangelists helping us to reap the harvest in season and out! These will both contribute to the big campaign and multiply the harvest.

Tonight, many thousands responded to the simple Gospel message. What a joy it was for me to lead tens of thousands in the arms of Jesus. Afterwards, as I prayed for the sick, miracles took place all over the massive field. The last one is my favourite.

Many testified of various kinds of pain vanishing from their bodies. A woman, partially blind for 10-years said her vision became perfect. A woman whose legs were paralysed for 12-years suddenly was healed to the point that she could literally leap into the air as she demonstrated on the platform.

Another woman whose body was bent over sideways at the waist, suddenly straightened up perfectly. A boy whose arm had been severely injured in a construction accident (with a massive scar remaining) had not been able to use his arm for years. Tonight, it was completely restored and had full range of motion.

There are several others as well, but one that I wanted to emphasise:

A woman came forward weeping profusely. She explained that she was a Muslim who had years earlier been demon possessed. In addition, her body had been racked with inexplicable pain, including sharp pains on her side. The night before the campaign (in one of the mini-campaign in the village) Quentin Harrup (one of the young evangelists here in training) preached his very first Gospel message and this woman received Christ and was subsequently healed!

Tonight, as I was praying, she was delivered from those demons and completely set free. She testified tonight on the platform that she was both delivered and converted – publicly testifying, with tears, that she is now a Christian! I asked Quentin to come up and she identified him as the one that had led her to Christ.

This was not only the first evangelistic message he had preached, but her healing was the first he had ever witnessed in his own ministry. What a precious moment (see the attached picture).

This is part of the “Decade of Double Harvest” initiative. I believe God is going to send hundreds of young men and women like Quentin who will be raised up as evangelists and this decade will be the beginning of an evangelistic movement that will continue until Jesus comes.

There is so much more to tell you, but please know that God is moving here in wonderful ways – that your prayers and support are paying eternal dividends. Thank you – and please continue to pray for us.

Yours in the Harvest,

Evangelist Daniel Kolenda
and the whole CfaN Team

Pictures by O. Volyk