FAMILY WORSHIP IN A CHIEFS HOME. Malam Gwamna, M.B.E., Chief of Kagoro in Northern Nigeria, conducts fam ily worship in his own home. A member of the General Council of the Association of Evangelical Churches of West Africa, the indigenous Church of the Sudan Interior Mission, he has served on the Northern Region Privy Council, and is k a high respected Nigerian leader.
The vision of Nigeria’smissionary force to strength en the young church in meeting the challenge was typified by one couple returning to West Africa for their third term. “We can’t let our national brethren down in this critical moment,” said the Rev. and Mrs. John J. Bergen, graduates (1945) of the Bible Institute of Los Angeles, who have served under the Sudan Interior Mission in Nigeria since 1950. “ It has been our privi lege to help in building up the church through medical and educational ministries, by literature distribution, and by direct preaching. It is an important time to show our Christians that we are fully behind them in prayer and in training leaders to carry on these min istries. We wouldn’t want to miss the unprecedented opportunities of this hour in Africa’s emerging states.”
Nigeria’s stable political atmosphere gives promise of a period of opportunity for church growth following Independence. Christian leaders are aware, however, that forces such as encroaching materialism and re surgent paganism are threats which the Church must face. Coupled writh these is the virility of Muslim mis sionary expansion. Facing all this, national Christians are calling on missions to redouble their efforts in training them to meet the challenge of Independent Nigeria. “We are just like a needle in the ocean,” the Gen eral Council of the S.I.M.’s indigenous church body wrote the Mission Field Council recently. “ There are still places where the Gospel has not yet been told. We also need teachers in Bible schools and other institu- tions, as well as doctors and nurses. We still need you.”
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NOVEMBER, 1960
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