ABA, NIGERIA and the trip home Sunday, November 30
By Marti Schneider

On Saturday night, Luka Daniel told us to be at the front of the hotel
at 6:00 a.m. to load the vehicles, so that we could leave for the
airport. We were up until 1:00 a.m. settling up finances with Benny
Moore and the hotel, looking with Dr. Frank at letters requesting
financial assistance from young people who wanted help going to school,
sorting our stuff and packing our suitcases, etc. So our 5:00 a.m.
alarm came really early! But we were ready on time!

We were the first ones to arrive at the parking lot after Luka Daniel.
No drivers or vehicles were in sight. The first arrived within 10-15
minutes, the second a few minutes later. Someone had been left at the
other hotel. Should we go after him? Finally, at 6:30 someone said,
“You'd better get on the road if you are going to make the 8
o'clock flight in Port Harcourt.” So the goods were stashed into the
vehicles, people were divvied up into the seats, and we started across
town. There was a surprising number of cars for this time of morning on
Sunday . . . a small traffic jam or two, and finally . . . we were
on the open road. We were really amazed to see the four-lane divided
highway with median between two lanes . . . just like home . . .
except cars were going both directions on both sides of the median.

We looked at our watches and wondered if we'd make it. As we drove
into Port Harcourt we had five minutes before departure time. We
reconciled ourselves to the idea of taking a later plane. As we drove
up to the airport, the bags were quickly set out and pushed into the
terminal on carts. The whole little ticket area went into action with
people examining tickets, placing baggage tags on the luggage (including
the large basket in which the Adaelu's had given us
the goodies). We were told to go immediately through security, never
mind getting the stubs for our luggage. So we cleared security and
began to run for the plane sitting on the Tarmac. The engines were
revving. Someone came up and took my carry-on bag from me to stow in
the baggage compartment and I headed up the steps with Don close behind.
Row 4 A & B . . . and we were in! Unbelievable!

Pastor and Mrs. Luka Daniel were committed to taking care of us until
we were safely inside the terminal in Lagos for our departure on
Lufthansa for Frankfurt, but we arrived in Lagos in the morning and our
flight was not until midnight. So they rented rooms, for them and for
us, at the Stop-Over Hotel which is on the airport grounds. They said,
“Go into the restaurant when you get hungry, but just rest until 7:00
p.m. So there we were by 9:30 a.m. in the hotel. We both slept, not
realizing just how tired we really were. It was wonderful – air
conditioned cold.

More naps just happened after lunch. But you remember that we were
kicked out of the Enyembi Stadium in Aba after Friday night for a Sunday
championship playoff. We found out that the game would be televised at
4:00 p.m. We saw "our" football team win against Egypt for the first
game of the playoffs. Yea! We could see "our" stadium and feel close
to Aba still.

After MORE naps yet, we headed for the airport. There Pastor and Mrs.
Joseph Ola, Nigeria Union President, along with Pastor and Mrs. Luka
Daniel, bid us farewell at the terminal door. Pastor Ola told us that
the baptisms had taken place until about that time (7:00 p.m.) on
Sabbath evening, and that the running total stands at 9,850 for Eastern
Nigeria. This includes baptisms for the pre-campaign and the satellite
campaign as well as all of the outlying campaigns. If I understood him
correctly, it does not include the downlink sites in other parts of
Nigeria or Africa. We'll find out later how it all shakes out. I like
to remember that those are not numbers, those are people. They are, Dr.
Vincent, and Emmanuel Obasi and his sister Mercy, and her daughter, and
Chimezie Onyenwere . . . and Isaac . . . and Cynthia, a young girl that
we are helping get into the university (baptized just two days before we
met her), and Chico that we are helping get back into school for her
last year of secondary school . . . she was thrown out of her home when
she became an Adventist . . . all people . . . . all 9,000 plus . . . .
they are people!

We went to the gate and found the King's Heralds, Phil Draper, and
Benny Moore. Also at the gate was a gentleman from Colorado Springs who
had spoken over the weekend to about 100 African mission leaders. He
got pulled into the conversation. Then a woman sat down next to me,
trying to read a book. She finally looked up and I apologized for
disturbing her reading. She said, “No, I've been listening,” and
she started asking questions about our experience. The quartet sang,
“Good News, Chariot’s a-Coming.” They sang right there in the
airport.

Two went on KLM. The quartet and we traveled back on the same flight
as far as Frankfurt.

What memories! Let's do it again!

Marti

P. S. I will include a story of two who were baptized . . . a father
and a son. He is the man I took a picture of at the first Sabbath
baptism . . . the old man who was dripping wet in his red boxers and
ribbed undershirt, walking with a cane. We told the pastors that we
would like to meet them and learn their story. So they both came to the
hotel one day and I wrote their story as they told
me.

The father is Onuoha Nichson Ajuonuma. He was the first child born to
a couple who had long awaited a baby. His name means “God's peace, we
are happy.” The son is David Chinedu Onuoha. He lives in Aba, but
his father lives in an outlying village. The father heard on the radio
about the “Visions for Victory” Satellite Campaign and told his son.
Then the father came to Aba to stay with his son so that he could
attend. They came the first night and never missed except for two
nights after they had had a car accident.

David told us the following story:

As a child I was always favored by the gods, no matter what I did. But
one day I became sick. The hospital could not make me well. After
trying various treatments, my mother took me to a native doctor. My
sickness stopped. Naturally I began to believe in those ways. (This
would be the ju-ju witch doctor.)

As I was growing up, I was no long favored as before. I began to think
the native doctor had bewitched me, that I was no more clean as I had
felt when I was prayerful and attending church. So I began to look for
a living church.

A particular minister was often on the television, so I went to visit
him. He would be quoting from the Bible, so I believed his church to be
the living church. I told him about the hard times I was experiencing,
and he prayed for me. He asked in which church I worshiped. I told him
I attended the Catholic church. After that prayer he invited me to come
into fellowship with them and to Bible study. But if I were to go to
Bible study I would have to change my business. He asked me to make
time for God, since God had made time for me. I agreed . . . and I
began to attend three times a week. As I heard the Word of God,
business started coming back. Things became normal.

After some time my mother sent for me. I went to her in the village.
She asked me to sit beside her on a chair and said that she wanted to
give me some motherly advise. She said that God brought me into this
world through her, and she will not be happy leaving this world without
showing me the way to God's way. She started preaching the Word of God
to me. I was surprised!
ather parts of Nigeria
She said I should stop going to native doctors, but I began to quarrel
with her. I told her that is the way I was cured of an incurable
sickness. Moreover, it was my mother who took me to the native doctor
the first time. She agreed that she had taken me to the native doctor,
but now she had found out that that was the wrong place; so she asked me
to come out of that place and follow God's Word to enable God to use
me.

I told her where I fellowship now in the town . . . . that my pastor
prayed for me and had asked me to promise God that I will work for Him,
and do all His will through all the days of my life, and that God should
help me to get through.

My mother said, If what I was telling is the truth, that I should cut
down the trees planted by the native doctor and destroy the calabash
clay pot that the native doctor had buried by the trees. I did so,
because I believed them to be in contact with the native doctors. When
I cut the trees and dug out the pots, mother was singing praises . . .
dancing around the compound and praising God.

Mother said we should pray together, and we did. She told me two
things: First, that when I go back to town I should not go to any
native doctor again in my life. She said, always go to church and
worship God. That is the only way to live!

Secondly, she said, When you come back next time and you don't see me,
don't worry. I have fulfilled my mission.

I asked, Why are you talking like this? But she said that I wouldn't
understand.

When I left, she gave me a bye-bye. And seven days later after I was
returned from the village to town she died. I decided to always live
for God. My mother gave me the gift to know Christ two years ago.

I'm asking God to bless me in business so that I can have money to buy
land to build houses for beggars so they will have a place to live.

When I heard the preaching and teaching of Pastor Don Schneider at the
stadium, I believed more and decided to be baptized. Since the day I
was baptized, I have seen the members of the Adventist Church at the
crusade ground. They are very kind people, neatly dressed . . . God's
own people. God be with me and give me strength to do this work.

On the day I was baptized, I returned on the bus to the stadium. I saw
my landlord of the place of my business, who is an Adventist. He was
surprised to see me, and asked, What are you doing here? I told him that
I had been baptized an Adventist. He came and embraced me and shouted,
Hallelujah! After two days he wrote to me saying that he had written off
one full year of rent for 2004 (N24,000 or $60). He is welcoming me to
the Adventist family. I thank God for him. We are just now coming back
from his house where we went to tell him thank you. I believe that with
God we can do all things.

Thank you, Pastor and Mrs. Don Schneider, for preaching things that
have touched my heart and made me to believe that Saturday is the true
Sabbath day for Christians to worship. Thank you! and thank You, God!