Nigeria . . . Home Again! Tuesday, December 2
By Don Schneider, at home

Here are a few of my random thoughts about Nigeria

1. PEOPLE. Lots of them. When we got off the plain in the Lagos,
Nigeria, airport, we saw a sign that said "Nigeria . . . 120 million
people . . . 370 languages." Most of the languages I've never heard
about before. Of the languages used by our dozen translators, I had
only heard of one of them. Of course, most of the translators were
speaking to people outside of Nigeria. Only three were for people
inside the country. How will they all hear the gospel? I don't know.
I have no idea how God will deal with that, but I do know that the
satellite meetings are being used by God to talk to a lot of people all
at once. We received word from some locations with the satellite system
where only a few hundred were watching, but at other places thousands
were watching.

2. PERSPECTIVES. You analyze your own perspectives more in this
atmosphere. I was visiting with the doctors that came to the meetings
from our Adventist hospital that is three hours north of Aba. I asked
them about their experiences. One of them told me, "You think nothing
of buying a tie for $20.00 in the U.S., but here I realize that I am
short of medicines, and just another $20.00 would buy medicine to cure a
sick baby." So much of what we have in America, we do not really need.
Marti and I have done our best to support our two children with their
education, but now we are finished with that job. We left a small
amount of money in Nigeria to help a few students with the money to pay
for some of their tests to advance to the next level.

3. HOT WATER. It isn't as necessary as I once thought. It took a
week and a half before we had any of it in our hotel room. We made it.
It's not as big of a deal as you think.

4. MORE ON HOT WATER. I found that you don't really need it for
oatmeal either. I had brought some packs of instant oatmeal with me. I
found that it makes a wonderful meal - - breakfast, lunch or supper, and
you don't need hot water either. We didn't have any way of heating the
water. We had been buying water, so I just used some of that water at
room temperature, and it is wonderful. I really enjoyed the feast
while I was studying my sermon. Phil Draper did find out about how to
heat things. He had a small iron, and found it was great for making
toast. He would iron on one side for a while, and then on the other
side, and when he was finished, he pronounced it toast.

5. IT ISN'T NECESSARY TO HAVE WHAT YOU WANT. Several of us started
several days with breakfast at the hotel. The first day I ordered
pancakes, but they told me that it would take extra time for that. (I'm
glad I didn't insist, because the fast meal took a hour sometimes.) I
ordered scrambled eggs, beans, toast bread with marmalade, and savory
potatoes with a Fanta. That was my standard order. It never came even
once exactly like I ordered it. But I found that you don't need it as
you order it, and you can still eat it. At first we wondered if the
restaurant had same-day service, but we later learned how to get the
order faster. The beans were really good. Some of the guys ate fresh
fruit, and some got oatmeal. One meal I just ordered toast and jelly,
but they ran out of jelly, and it took several days to get more. They
had difficulty understanding us, but we got to be friends with the
waitresses, and they would ask us about the meetings, and we would pray
for them.

6. TIME MAY NOT BE AS IMPORTANT AS I HAVE THOUGHT IT WAS. I still
haven't gotten used to this one yet. Everything takes more time than
you might think. I told someone at our daily meeting, "I'll run to the
room, and get something, and be back in a few minutes." Well, first,
when you leave the room, you discover that outside it is hot, and you
don't feel like hurrying. Then you go to the room, and there is no key.
When you leave the room, you leave it at the desk so the maid can clean
the room, so I run to the office, but they do not have it because the
maid has it. I go in search for the maid. Apparently she is on her
lunch break, so I go in the other building calling for Geraldine with
the orange coat. She appears, and I ask for the key. She says she will
get it, and goes off to another part of the hotel where she has left
some of her things. I am about to go berserk, but she is not, nor is
the guard, nor anyone else at the hotel. I can get pretty up tight when
Marti is 45 seconds late for our trip from home to the office. I guess
that while it is important to be on time, it may not be the life and
death matter as I once thought.

7. LITTLE DEBBIE HONEY BUNS. In the suitcase they get smashed. They
look like small pancakes. This does not mean that they should be thrown
away. Just keep them a week, and any American in the group will be
willing to give you $5.00 for one of them . . . only you don't sell
them, because they are worth way more than that to you. I kept mine,
and put myself on a rationing plan, and on the last Sabbath I was still
able to celebrate with one of those one- quarter- of- an- inch thick
buns. Wow, it was good!

8. TAXES. Taxes are wonderful! Marti visited the destitutes. They
are people who have not means of support. They often did not have
children, and now they are old and no one cares for them. There are no
nursing homes, no Social Security. Just beg for a little food until you
die. Dr. Frank feeds a lot of them, and he has built homes -- homes that
do not have a lot of square feet -- but homes just the same -- they
might be a big as 8 feet by 8 feet. There are thousands of people like
this who need help. It is pitiful. Taxes are wonderful!

9. DILLARDS. There are none, and you don't need them either.

10. STOP LIGHTS. I didn't see one in the whole country. No stop signs
either.

11. HORN. Most needed part of the car. It gets used the most. When
I told our driver that I didn't know for sure if the horn on my car
works or not, because I only use it once a year or so, he was
incredulous.

12. THE MAN OF GOD WILL SPEAK. That is how I was introduced. It was
a humbling experience. When I stood on the steps to the stage each
evening and listened to that introduction, I prayed, "Oh, God, may it
be so!"

13. THE MAN OF GOD WILL PRAY. That announcement was made for the next
night. They said the man of God will pray for those of you who need
children, or who need jobs, or who are having trouble with your
marriage. When the next night came, the announcement was made, and it
almost sounded like thunder as the people came rushing forward to be
blessed. I am overcome with the thought that they wanted me to pray for
them so much, and they expected a miracle. Even now it brings tears to
my eyes to think that they came expecting God to hear my prayers.

14. I DON'T LIKE THE STEPS TO THE STAGE. Someone asked me if
everything was okay. I told them it all was except I didn't like the
steps to the stage. When they wanted to know why I said it was because
when I finished a sermon at night, I felt a big relief, but it lasted
only until my feet hit the steps to leave the stage, and then I was
behind for the next night already. I didn't see or do anything other
than study at the motel, and preach at the stadium.

15. TOLL ROADS ARE NOT ALL EQUAL. We paid to be on a toll road. It
had two lanes, and a center median, and then another two lanes . . . but
cars were going both directions on both sides, and if the water got too
deep in a pothole on one side, most of the traffic shifted to the other
side.

16. MIRACLES. This is one of the biggest things. In the U.S., if
your car breaks down, you take it to the shop, buy new parts, or buy a
new car, and pray a little (maybe) while you make the deal. In Nigeria,
you go for a miracle first on everything. One night soon after we
arrived someone said they wanted me to pray because they didn't feel
good, and I looked around for the doctor. He wasn't close, and I'm glad
now, because now I know that the first thing you do is pray. The clouds
came, and it looked like rain. That meant we had better be praying. It
was a real downpour. The pastors came running and started praying. The
program went on. The generator kept running, and they brought a small
shelter for me to stand under, and the camera crew got wet while they
kept as much rain as possible off the cameras, but we kept going.

17. GENERATORS. I've heard about them, but I have never needed one
before. We don't have one at our house and have felt no need for one.
In Nigeria, they are common. The electricity went off a dozen times or
so a day at the hotel. It usually didn't stay off long. They would
start the generator, and the lights would come back on, and then you
could re-start the air conditioner. It needed to be re-set each time
the electricity went off. The generators at the stadium were brought in
for our meetings. Warren Judd told me that the man that brought them
said neither of them were good enough for the job we had for them. The
guys tried to use them every other day. We were supposed to get a new
one, but we never got it. The only way it all worked is because of a
miracle. I believe that God held His hand over them. On the night of
the biggest storm, we started a few minutes late, but other than that it
worked. Sometimes one of them would slow down, and the cameras would
get all weird, and the guys from Adventist Media Productions would run
out there, and change to the other one, or do some adjusting, and we'd
have a good picture again. Just expect a miracle. Pray first. So just
get busy praying. Life is like that in
Nigeria.

18. MIRACLES. For me, too. God made it possible for me to preach
while I had a kidney stone. It started giving me trouble after the
program started. I didn't want to tell anyone, but I was afraid that I
might not be able to finish the sermon. When Marti got finished with
her part, I told her about my problem, and had them put the pulpit on
the stage just in case I needed to hold on to it. Marti got the quartet
ready to sing just in case they were needed. Bob Folkenberg ran to the
motel to get his tie, but I was already preaching, and was able to
complete the sermon with no pain, but during my closing prayer I began
to really hurt. We went to the motel, and I was about to scream in
pain, but I asked for a miracle. God gave it to me. I asked Him for a
few minutes relief until we could get the doctor, or until I would know
what to do next. The pain subsided. It has not come back. The doctor
from the Adventist hospital came. He was not an Adventist, but was the
medical director of our hospital. On the first Sabbath when we had
baptisms, he was in the group. He became a special friend. I had
another miracle with my voice. I was talking too loud. We were outside
in the stadium, and I realized that I was getting hoarse. But God
performed a miracle, and my voice got better each day, even though I
preached twice on Thursday night. There were miracles on all sides of
us. On the night when I had the first major call, the people came
forward requesting baptism. After the call was done, I went to the back
room to cry. I saw a miracle. One man said, I want to be totally
converted, and there will be no turning back. I want that for me too.

19. LIZARDS. They don't hurt you at all. They are in a hurry. The
ones with the orange heads and orange tails were about a foot long, and
were really in a hurry. They were all over the grounds at the hotel.
The ones with the green heads were shorter, and would let you get a look
at them, and the ones that I saw in our room were actually only about 6
inches long, and were not sociable at all. In fact they were interested
in hiding quickly. I wonder if any of them hid in my suitcase. I hope
not because I don't know how to declare them to the customs official.
Would they be considered a gift? a pet? surely not food.

20. CALLS. It is still true. The more times you ask for a decision,
the more people you will lead to a decision. The stadium was not going
to be available to us for the final Saturday night as we had planned.
The soccer team was going to play. So to complete the series for the
sites viewing by satellite, I preached a double header on Thursday. The
second service was recorded, and played on Saturday night. I made a
call even though there were only a few people at the arena, but the call
was for the satellite audience. After we were finished, there were
several decisions for baptism even though I thought we didn't have an
audience. Always make a call of some kind if you are preaching. A
sermon without a call is not a sermon at all, it is a lecture.

21. SERMONS. I really believe what I've been preaching. It is a
privilege to go through the Adventist doctrines. This is a wonderful
message

22. GOD MUST CRY. When he looks down on this world, He must cry.
There is so much suffering. The destitutes, the sick, the man that some
of our group saw that was being killed. We think he had been stealing,
but it hurts God just the same. There were so many people in the street
that it would take us at least half an hour to drive the 1 km. from the
hotel to the arena. Jesus wants to come again. Surely it will be soon.


23. SO MUCH. I have been given so much. God has given me the
opportunity to have a passport, something many people in Nigeria would
like to have. He has given me an Adventist education. I realize that
the one that receives much will be required to give much. "Dear Lord,
please help me to give everything back to you and your cause. In Jesus
name. Amen."