Located in West Africa, Nigeria is hot all year round and has just two seasons: wet and dry. Although it may not be an ideal vacation spot, the climate does not keep First Mandeville from ministering to the people of Nigeria.
Mandeville – Located in West Africa, Nigeria is hot all year round and has just two seasons: wet and dry. Although it may not be an ideal vacation spot, the climate does not keep First Mandeville from ministering to the people of Nigeria.
On May 24, four men from First Mandeville, including Pastor Ken Schroeder, left for a two-week trip to Nigeria.
This is the eighth time the church has sent a mission team there.
Under the guidance of IMB missionaries Clint and Harriet Bowman, First Mandeville has adopted the Zari, an unreached people group where less than 2 percent of the population knows Christ.
“We’ve linked up with the Bowmans and they showed us around the country, and since November of 2006 we’ve been taking trips each year,” Schroeder said.
First Mandeville has helped to start two churches in Nigeria and also employs two native pastors, Haggai Moses and Betrus “Peter” Agwom. These pastors currently have two churches each, and are starting others.
“Our goal is to encourage the churches out there [in Nigeria],” Schroeder said. “Our church family prays and we provide financial support for the pastors.”
Many of the Zari people are Muslim; most others participate in tribal worship. Although most already worship some form of a god, Schroeder said they are receptive to the gospel and are still looking for the truth.
Like most countries in Africa, visitors from the United States are well received.
“They have a great interest in anything from the U.S.,” Schroeder said. “They just come to look at us and hear anything we have to say.”
On his current trip, Schroeder and the other men plan to walk around the villages and pass out Christian literature, engage the people in conversation and train and encourage the pastors.
Realizing that prayer is a vital part of missions, First Mandeville prays weekly for the people of Nigeria. They have also created an Acts 1:8 budget where 3 percent of undesignated funds helps to support the work in Nigeria and the people who God calls from First Mandeville to go on short-term missions to that nation.
Part of the money First Mandeville sends goes to educate the two pastors at the Nigerian Baptist Pastors School in Jos, Nigeria, established with the help of what today is known as the International Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention.
“We’ve seen such a difference in the people since the first time we went to visit,” Schroeder said. “We went to a place with no believers and now there are two churches with pastors who have a greater depth in the Lord.”
Although it takes a bit of sacrifice from the people of First Mandeville to minister to the Zari people, the pastor said, they have seen the effects that it has made on the Kingdom of God.
One Zari lady in particular was deeply affected by the people of First Mandeville, Schroeder said. She told us, ‘The reason I believe is because you are willing to come so far and sleep on our ground.’”
No sacrifice is to large when it comes to reaching people for Christ, Schroeder said.
“I just want everyone to know that there are so many people groups that are unreached,” Schroeder said. “Every person matters.”