Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Monday, May 30, 2011
Saturday, May 28, 2011
Friday, May 27, 2011
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
Monday, May 16, 2011
Saturday, May 14, 2011
Thursday, May 5, 2011
Nigerian Missionary Facing the Challenge of Church Planting in the Philippines
By Ejikeme Omenazu
When he left the shores of Nigeria few years ago, with his wife and their four children, he had one major objective. That is to help push the gospel further, especially in the frontiers of South East Asia. Thus, he pitched his tent at Philippines. Having established a foothold in that country, especially around Dumaguete City, where they are domiciled, today, Apostle Kanayo Success Uchime and his wife, Ngozi, are now pioneering a church in that country; to help groom the souls they are winning for Jesus Christ, the Lord.
As he told this writer in an online interview, the name of our church is God’s Presence Fellowship, which is a ministry under their registered mission agency, Kingdom Missions Outreach International Inc, which is registered with the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) of the Philippines.
(The Nigerian missionary couple Apostle Kanayo & Ngozi Uchime)
He informed that they decided to be involved in this pioneering work in the Philippines because they believe that the nation has not got enough churches to match the growing rate of Catholicism and population also. He is thankful to God because of the churches that had been planted there already, both by the indigenous and foreign efforts, and theirs is to complement what have been on ground already.
Uchime who has spent most of his ministerial life as a missionary stressed: “Philippines, a country located in the Southeast Asia, like most other nations in Asia, is still a harvest field. Mind you the country is located among the 10/40 Window nations, identified by missionaries as the needy countries in the world”.
On his church planting effort in that country, he said although some other Nigerians are known to have pioneered churches and ministries in foreign land, what matters much is the motivation for the work. “The questions that should be asked are: What do I have in mind in planting this church and where am I planting the church? This is very important, because to some, if you’ve not planted a church, may be in America or Europe, your ministry has not started, not minding if those locations are ‘needy’ areas.
“Some are motivated or driven by finance and the need to expand there ‘territory’ or ‘government’, and this is the simple truth if we can tell ourselves the truth. Our challenge is simply this: Let those people who rush to U.S or Europe, rush to Asia! Apostle Paul went to Macedonia because he was prompted by the Holy Spirit as a result of the mission need in that nation. Left to the apostle Paul as a human being he would not have gone. “You may ask, how do I know that? This is so because his face was already headed to Asia, because the scriptures say: ‘They (Paul and his team) were forbidden by the Holy Spirit to preach in the word in Asia,” (Acts 16:6). Read the proceeding verses, you’ll find out they were also forbidden to go to Bithynia and it was at this very point that the vision for Macedonia came to the apostle. So, ours is motivated by the need of the hour and that’s the very heart of missions – reaching the vast number of the unreached people groups.”
(Ngozi ministering to the Badjao ribal people)
Explaining why God’s Presence Fellowship commenced Sunday services so soon, Uchime said that what happened was that they started off on Sunday evenings, but later being led by the Holy Spirit, they commenced the morning service by first week of January this year. But he thanked God for the progress recorded so far.
“We must accept that planting a church in the Philippines is so challenging. As I’ve said earlier, there is a domineering presence of Catholicism here and that alone, among many others, is a big challenge to church planting.
On the future of the church since the major denomination in that country is Catholicism,
The Apostle was very optimistic. He maintained that it only takes a lot of patience and courage to plant and grow a church there, “but as for taking root, the church is doing that already and it is budding and one day it must grow. As I said earlier Catholicism has been identified as one of the big challenges, but we should not dwell on that. We must be able to surmount that challenge by God’s special grace”.
Bearing in mind the financial challenges his ministry is facing since his ministry is on a self-effort mission and has no agency backing it, he was full of hope about the future of the church not minding that most of their flock now are the poor and needy of that nation.
Expatiating, he said: “It takes a lot of patience. We’ve started teaching the people the principles of seed sowing and it’s making a whole lot of sense to them. But that does not mean we still do not need money for the pioneer work, more so when you’re ministering to a peculiar people like ours – the Badjao tribal people, noted as the poorest of the poor in the Philippines”.
(With some Badjao brethren in Dumaguete city)
On whether he has been getting support to ensure the survival of the church, he was emphatic that their support level has been very low. He stated that they have done a lot to improve on it but to no avail. But he is hopeful that one day the Lord will answer their prayers. “This is the reason why we’re making this clarion call to all well-meaning Christian donors to come to our rescue. Our major predicament here is that the nationals are always looking up to us for money, being foreigners as they have this believe that every foreigner has money, irrespective of where he/she comes from. They always assume we’re black Americans and as such came with thousands of Dollars!
“Then back home, our friends in Nigeria feel we’re abroad and as such we’re to send money home for our family. So we’re caught in between two serious tensions. That’s our major predicament as African missionaries in foreign land. In fact it only takes the intervention of God for one to make headway in missions here, but then we’ll keep moving on believing Him who sent us that He alone will make all provisions available!” he added.
On the extent of assistance his ministry has been getting from agencies and partners to ensure his success in Philippines, Uchime thanked God for few individuals and organizations in Nigeria that have been sending support to them on regular basis. But the question is: To what extent will those little contributions go considering the magnitude of the work they are facing in the Philippines? Missions, he noted, is a big enterprise and as such requires big support and the Nigerian churches are just getting that message, which is something to thank God for. He stressed that it was Oswald J. Smith that said that no amount of money is too small for missions and no amount is too big! Not until churches and agencies in Nigeria arise to the occasion, foreign mission work – global evangelization will continue to be elusive.
“We must awake to the occasion now and forget this sense of always looking up to America or Europe when it comes to mission sponsorship or support. I believe that God has blessed the Nigerian Church, the prosperity we’ve been clamoring for is now in the church and the only problem is how we will appropriate that prosperity. Again you imagine a situation where a pastor of a big church in Nigeria was asking us if we’ve been able to establish contacts in America in order to ensure that regular support comes for our work. “It’s very disheartening to note that, and the question is: Why is it only America that must sponsor mission project? Why must all of us be looking up to American as if God is only blessing them? If we concede, ok, let us be depending on them, but I still believe it’s a bad trend.
(The missionary family)
Apart from the church, they have been ministering to the tribal peoples in the Philippines, who could be regarded as the rural dwellers and most churches do not deem it fit to reach out to those category of people; hence they form a focus for the Uchimes there.
He also disclosed that they have just started a ministry to kids, doing what is called Bible story telling to children who, he stressed, are also neglected by the mainline churches. They are also involved in seminary teaching, seminars and workshops. They go about teaching the word of God wherever the Lord opens doors for them.
Since Uchime is there with his family, their basic needs have to be paramount. On this, he said: “Yes, this is also very important in that when a missionary’s children’s school expenses are not taken care of it’s always a very serious burden for that missionary. In America or Europe, for example, this is not a serious problem for their missionaries. But for Nigerian or other African missionaries, this is still a very big challenge because of the fact that mission enterprise has not developed like theirs. Over there the awareness for missions is there, and as such missionary’s kids are well taken care of. “We’re calling on well-meaning mission donors and other philanthropists to come up and adopt our children for sponsorship, two of them now are already in the university and you know how hard it’s to train someone in the university. Even I, I’ve to go back to school to improve myself and also reposition myself for the future ministry – am at present taking a Masters course in English language in a state university here and this is by no means very challenging to say the least,” he stated.
How can Nigerians wishing to send their financial support to their ministry get in touch with them? To the question, he replied: “It’s very simple; someone can reach us through our ministry website (http://www.kmointer.webs.com/) or through our facebook site (http://www.facebook.com/successkuchime).”
On the impact Nigerians are making in Philippines in particular and Asia in general as far as the gospel is concerned, Uchime stressed that as far as the gospel or mission work is concerned, Nigerians are making waves, but he was quick add that the only challenge is still mission support. He maintained that over 80 percent of Nigerian missionaries in Philippines came on their own. In other words, they are not sponsored by any church or organization, and are what you may refer to as independent missionaries. This trend, he added, is not healthy for foreign mission work especially. He maintains that it is the responsibility of the church to send out missionaries to the mission field. But he lamented that in Nigeria, the case is very different, because Nigerian churches still erroneously feel that missions is not ‘lucrative’ and as such there is no need to invest in such an ‘nonlucrative’ ministry venture.
“Not until Nigerian churches grow to that level of investing in world missions, finishing the remaining task of world evangelization as left behind by our Master Commissioner, Jesus Christ, will continue to suffer. Again, I’ll add that Nigerian missionaries are very rugged and inexpensive to maintain compared to Western missionaries, who in most cases are not able to take the many risks in missions that we Nigerian/Africans are used to taking. In actual fact if it cost a Western missionary $500 to live in a mission field for a month, for instance, give a two Nigerian just half of that they will go extra mile with joy and fulfillment.
“The challenge of the Nigerian/African missionary is finance – we do not have the same level-playing ground with our contemporaries in America/Europe and given the equal treatment, I’ll assure you that we’ll excel. Why, because Nigeria is already a training ground for most of us – no electricity, tap water, no very conducive environment like incessant wars and unending violence etc. and God has used all these to make us develop a very turf skin.”
On his message for Nigerians at home, he said: “My message is always very simple, let the churches in Nigeria wake up to their responsibility of supporting missionaries irrespective of whether they’re of the same denomination or not. Although I must concede that the Nigerian church is trying when compared to what we’re experiencing here, but they need to go the extra mile.
“The veil of denominationalism that is covering Nigerian churches must be removed forthwith, let them start to see missions project as “our project” and that is the only remedy if the Nigerian church must contribute towards the finishing of the remaining task as instructed by our Master Jesus. Again, I’ll like the Nigerian church to pay attention to the issue of praying for missions and missionaries especially those in the foreign missions – as prayer is the principal key to unlocking challenges in missions.
“The starting point is prayer, as the Bible says where your treasure is there your heart is, it’s when you start praying that the Holy Spirit will start to impress in your heart the need to go the extra mile to give. We should be reminded that the deep burden to give to mission work will usually come out of a deep sense of prayer burden!”
Ejikeme Omenazu is a Nigerian journalist and is based in Nigeria. To contact him, write: ejike_omenazu@yahoo.com
When he left the shores of Nigeria few years ago, with his wife and their four children, he had one major objective. That is to help push the gospel further, especially in the frontiers of South East Asia. Thus, he pitched his tent at Philippines. Having established a foothold in that country, especially around Dumaguete City, where they are domiciled, today, Apostle Kanayo Success Uchime and his wife, Ngozi, are now pioneering a church in that country; to help groom the souls they are winning for Jesus Christ, the Lord.
As he told this writer in an online interview, the name of our church is God’s Presence Fellowship, which is a ministry under their registered mission agency, Kingdom Missions Outreach International Inc, which is registered with the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) of the Philippines.
(The Nigerian missionary couple Apostle Kanayo & Ngozi Uchime)
Uchime who has spent most of his ministerial life as a missionary stressed: “Philippines, a country located in the Southeast Asia, like most other nations in Asia, is still a harvest field. Mind you the country is located among the 10/40 Window nations, identified by missionaries as the needy countries in the world”.
On his church planting effort in that country, he said although some other Nigerians are known to have pioneered churches and ministries in foreign land, what matters much is the motivation for the work. “The questions that should be asked are: What do I have in mind in planting this church and where am I planting the church? This is very important, because to some, if you’ve not planted a church, may be in America or Europe, your ministry has not started, not minding if those locations are ‘needy’ areas.
“Some are motivated or driven by finance and the need to expand there ‘territory’ or ‘government’, and this is the simple truth if we can tell ourselves the truth. Our challenge is simply this: Let those people who rush to U.S or Europe, rush to Asia! Apostle Paul went to Macedonia because he was prompted by the Holy Spirit as a result of the mission need in that nation. Left to the apostle Paul as a human being he would not have gone. “You may ask, how do I know that? This is so because his face was already headed to Asia, because the scriptures say: ‘They (Paul and his team) were forbidden by the Holy Spirit to preach in the word in Asia,” (Acts 16:6). Read the proceeding verses, you’ll find out they were also forbidden to go to Bithynia and it was at this very point that the vision for Macedonia came to the apostle. So, ours is motivated by the need of the hour and that’s the very heart of missions – reaching the vast number of the unreached people groups.”
(Ngozi ministering to the Badjao ribal people)
Explaining why God’s Presence Fellowship commenced Sunday services so soon, Uchime said that what happened was that they started off on Sunday evenings, but later being led by the Holy Spirit, they commenced the morning service by first week of January this year. But he thanked God for the progress recorded so far.
“We must accept that planting a church in the Philippines is so challenging. As I’ve said earlier, there is a domineering presence of Catholicism here and that alone, among many others, is a big challenge to church planting.
On the future of the church since the major denomination in that country is Catholicism,
The Apostle was very optimistic. He maintained that it only takes a lot of patience and courage to plant and grow a church there, “but as for taking root, the church is doing that already and it is budding and one day it must grow. As I said earlier Catholicism has been identified as one of the big challenges, but we should not dwell on that. We must be able to surmount that challenge by God’s special grace”.
Bearing in mind the financial challenges his ministry is facing since his ministry is on a self-effort mission and has no agency backing it, he was full of hope about the future of the church not minding that most of their flock now are the poor and needy of that nation.
Expatiating, he said: “It takes a lot of patience. We’ve started teaching the people the principles of seed sowing and it’s making a whole lot of sense to them. But that does not mean we still do not need money for the pioneer work, more so when you’re ministering to a peculiar people like ours – the Badjao tribal people, noted as the poorest of the poor in the Philippines”.
(With some Badjao brethren in Dumaguete city)
On whether he has been getting support to ensure the survival of the church, he was emphatic that their support level has been very low. He stated that they have done a lot to improve on it but to no avail. But he is hopeful that one day the Lord will answer their prayers. “This is the reason why we’re making this clarion call to all well-meaning Christian donors to come to our rescue. Our major predicament here is that the nationals are always looking up to us for money, being foreigners as they have this believe that every foreigner has money, irrespective of where he/she comes from. They always assume we’re black Americans and as such came with thousands of Dollars!
“Then back home, our friends in Nigeria feel we’re abroad and as such we’re to send money home for our family. So we’re caught in between two serious tensions. That’s our major predicament as African missionaries in foreign land. In fact it only takes the intervention of God for one to make headway in missions here, but then we’ll keep moving on believing Him who sent us that He alone will make all provisions available!” he added.
On the extent of assistance his ministry has been getting from agencies and partners to ensure his success in Philippines, Uchime thanked God for few individuals and organizations in Nigeria that have been sending support to them on regular basis. But the question is: To what extent will those little contributions go considering the magnitude of the work they are facing in the Philippines? Missions, he noted, is a big enterprise and as such requires big support and the Nigerian churches are just getting that message, which is something to thank God for. He stressed that it was Oswald J. Smith that said that no amount of money is too small for missions and no amount is too big! Not until churches and agencies in Nigeria arise to the occasion, foreign mission work – global evangelization will continue to be elusive.
“We must awake to the occasion now and forget this sense of always looking up to America or Europe when it comes to mission sponsorship or support. I believe that God has blessed the Nigerian Church, the prosperity we’ve been clamoring for is now in the church and the only problem is how we will appropriate that prosperity. Again you imagine a situation where a pastor of a big church in Nigeria was asking us if we’ve been able to establish contacts in America in order to ensure that regular support comes for our work. “It’s very disheartening to note that, and the question is: Why is it only America that must sponsor mission project? Why must all of us be looking up to American as if God is only blessing them? If we concede, ok, let us be depending on them, but I still believe it’s a bad trend.
(The missionary family)
Apart from the church, they have been ministering to the tribal peoples in the Philippines, who could be regarded as the rural dwellers and most churches do not deem it fit to reach out to those category of people; hence they form a focus for the Uchimes there.
He also disclosed that they have just started a ministry to kids, doing what is called Bible story telling to children who, he stressed, are also neglected by the mainline churches. They are also involved in seminary teaching, seminars and workshops. They go about teaching the word of God wherever the Lord opens doors for them.
Since Uchime is there with his family, their basic needs have to be paramount. On this, he said: “Yes, this is also very important in that when a missionary’s children’s school expenses are not taken care of it’s always a very serious burden for that missionary. In America or Europe, for example, this is not a serious problem for their missionaries. But for Nigerian or other African missionaries, this is still a very big challenge because of the fact that mission enterprise has not developed like theirs. Over there the awareness for missions is there, and as such missionary’s kids are well taken care of. “We’re calling on well-meaning mission donors and other philanthropists to come up and adopt our children for sponsorship, two of them now are already in the university and you know how hard it’s to train someone in the university. Even I, I’ve to go back to school to improve myself and also reposition myself for the future ministry – am at present taking a Masters course in English language in a state university here and this is by no means very challenging to say the least,” he stated.
How can Nigerians wishing to send their financial support to their ministry get in touch with them? To the question, he replied: “It’s very simple; someone can reach us through our ministry website (http://www.kmointer.webs.com/) or through our facebook site (http://www.facebook.com/successkuchime).”
On the impact Nigerians are making in Philippines in particular and Asia in general as far as the gospel is concerned, Uchime stressed that as far as the gospel or mission work is concerned, Nigerians are making waves, but he was quick add that the only challenge is still mission support. He maintained that over 80 percent of Nigerian missionaries in Philippines came on their own. In other words, they are not sponsored by any church or organization, and are what you may refer to as independent missionaries. This trend, he added, is not healthy for foreign mission work especially. He maintains that it is the responsibility of the church to send out missionaries to the mission field. But he lamented that in Nigeria, the case is very different, because Nigerian churches still erroneously feel that missions is not ‘lucrative’ and as such there is no need to invest in such an ‘nonlucrative’ ministry venture.
“Not until Nigerian churches grow to that level of investing in world missions, finishing the remaining task of world evangelization as left behind by our Master Commissioner, Jesus Christ, will continue to suffer. Again, I’ll add that Nigerian missionaries are very rugged and inexpensive to maintain compared to Western missionaries, who in most cases are not able to take the many risks in missions that we Nigerian/Africans are used to taking. In actual fact if it cost a Western missionary $500 to live in a mission field for a month, for instance, give a two Nigerian just half of that they will go extra mile with joy and fulfillment.
“The challenge of the Nigerian/African missionary is finance – we do not have the same level-playing ground with our contemporaries in America/Europe and given the equal treatment, I’ll assure you that we’ll excel. Why, because Nigeria is already a training ground for most of us – no electricity, tap water, no very conducive environment like incessant wars and unending violence etc. and God has used all these to make us develop a very turf skin.”
On his message for Nigerians at home, he said: “My message is always very simple, let the churches in Nigeria wake up to their responsibility of supporting missionaries irrespective of whether they’re of the same denomination or not. Although I must concede that the Nigerian church is trying when compared to what we’re experiencing here, but they need to go the extra mile.
“The veil of denominationalism that is covering Nigerian churches must be removed forthwith, let them start to see missions project as “our project” and that is the only remedy if the Nigerian church must contribute towards the finishing of the remaining task as instructed by our Master Jesus. Again, I’ll like the Nigerian church to pay attention to the issue of praying for missions and missionaries especially those in the foreign missions – as prayer is the principal key to unlocking challenges in missions.
“The starting point is prayer, as the Bible says where your treasure is there your heart is, it’s when you start praying that the Holy Spirit will start to impress in your heart the need to go the extra mile to give. We should be reminded that the deep burden to give to mission work will usually come out of a deep sense of prayer burden!”
Ejikeme Omenazu is a Nigerian journalist and is based in Nigeria. To contact him, write: ejike_omenazu@yahoo.com
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)