ejike_omenazu@yahoo.com
(Nigerian Journalist)
He is a Nigerian from the Ndikelionwu town in Orumba North Local Government Area of Anambra State. For about five years now, Success Kanayo Uchime, a Missionary Apostle, left the shores of this country with his wife and four children. When they left, Uchime and his family had one thing in mind. That is, to do exploits for the creator, though not in their fatherland, but in far away Philippines, in the Far East or South East Asia.
Uchime, by the time he left for this assignment, was not new in missionary work. The journalist cum missionary told this writer in an online interaction that he and his wife, Ngozi, have been in active missionary work since 1994, with the lady being very supportive, especially in areas of providing health care and education to those they minister to.
(Apostle Kanayo & Ngozi ministering to the Badjao
tribal people in Dumaguete city, Philipines Pix by KMO-INTER 2010)
Uchime, while in Nigeria, worked as a rural missionary in a little community of people called Ejila Awori and specifically lived in one of the towns called Odan Abuja in Ogun State.
“In fact, we were there for over 10 years and the community opened up for the gospel as a result of our presence there. Prior to our going, there were no gospel churches in the whole of Ejila Awori (12 Awori) communities.
“We have some gospel churches there now and all of them came in through us. We faced a lot of challenges then and principal among them is funds,” Uchime stressed.
Of all areas one could go for missionary work, the Uchimes chose Far East and Philippines in particular. Why Far East? Why Philippines?
To this, he responded: “This is God’s call and we have to go where ever He wants us to go. It was not easy going at the first instance. “Philippines is an interesting place to be; it’s a typically Catholic nation and the only Christian nation with English background in the whole of Asia.
“Philippines is an open country for mission work out of other nations in Asia and what we intend to do here is to use it as a stepping stone to reach other Asian nations and even beyond”.
(Apostle Kanayo & Ngozi Uchime)
Since he moved into Philippines with his family, Uchime confessed that it has not been easy with them, but for God’s hands upon his family.
“And mind you, we’re coming from a context where the awareness for mission support is still developing. The Nigerian church is yet to come to terms with missions generally, both indigenous and foreign mission. To some, the era of mission has come and gone with the old apostles, therefore no need to commit resources to missions.
”Missionaries from other nations get their support from home, but ours is different. We’ve to look for support from abroad, which is not a healthy trend when it comes to foreign missions,” he stated.
(What a sacrifice - Apostle Kanayo Uchime
going to meet his converts in a bicycle Pix by KMO-INTER 2010)
He continued: “We are really facing a lot of challenges here as you know Philippines is also a developing nation like Nigeria, there’re not opportunities for tent-making works and that puts us in very dangerous position.But in any case we must keep moving by faith believing God to meet us at the very point of our needs”.
On his impressions on Filipinos, especially in the way they embrace the gospel, Uchime stated that because of the influence of Catholicism there, which is so profound, about 85 per cent of a population of about 98 people, so this makes gospel witnessing somehow difficult.
“But despite that, Filipino people are lovely people; they’re very accommodating and ready to share their things with you. They live a communal life, they are people centered, just as in Nigeria. In fact, if not for there light (brown) color, you may not be able to differential between them and Nigeria.”
“In fact, I still see Philippines as a fertile ground for the gospel; the true gospel is yet to penetrate so well in the country. Can you imagine a situation where the percentage of all evangelicals is still put at a low five per cent or thereabout? But the spirit of God is moving speedily in the entire country. There’s still very much to do.”
“I told someone sometimes that this is the time for African missionaries, especially Nigerians to invade Philippines and the entire Asia. And I believe that God is preparing army of Nigerian missionaries for this End-Time divine assignment.”
“God has blessed the Nigerian church so much so that it’s time for her to move to the frontiers of Asia to be involved in the harvest of souls. Believe you me, Asia is waiting to be harvested; despite all the victimization missionaries are going through here, especially among the closed nation of Asia found mostly in the Middle East regions.”
(Apostle Kanayo Uchime with some of his converts - Pix by KMO-INTER 2010)
Uchime stated that some missionaries face death penalty, through what they call blasphemy laws. The situation, he added, is so much in all the Far East countries, especially the Muslim nations. He stressed that almost over 80 per cent of the countries in the Far East are mainly Muslims and they are very antagonistic to the gospel message.
He however maintained that in the Philippines, “the situation is not the same. The case is quite different. Remember, as I said, they’re 85 per cent Catholics and as such a very tolerant to the gospel spread, not that there’s no persecution here and there. It’s just the extent and manner of persecution is the question here”.
Since their arrival in that country, the Uchimes are known to have been doing a lot of exploits among the Badjao people of Philippines. Giving a brief lowdown on their efforts there and successes recorded so far, he noted that the Badjao tribal people, as they are called, are one of the unreached peoples group in the Philippines.
He explained that they are similar to the Fulani people in Nigeria and parts of Africa, in the sense that they are nomads as they move from one place to the other.
Uchime said: “In actual fact, in the Philippines they’re called the NPAs, meaning ‘no permanent address.’ He also said the Badjao people are one of the poorest there and Moslems by religion, thereby making gospel witnessing among them very challenging.
“They are also called the sea gypsies as they live in the seas being fishermen by trade, although there fishing is a subsistence type of fishing and this is because of the poverty life that’s prevalent among the people.
(Apostle Kanayo Uchime, with two of his Badjao converts - Pix by KMO-INTER 2010)
“Our goal is to plant what in missions is referred to an indigenous church – that is a church fully owned and run by the indigenous people. And this has not been so easy for us as these people keep moving from one place to the other, especially to the city centers where they go to beg for money. “Work among them requires a lot of funding which is not in our disposal, bearing in mind the country where we came from. And that is the reason why we are appealing to the Nigerian church to come to our aid. We recently launched an appeal online asking for at least 100 dedicated and faithful missions supporters that can afford to be giving us a monthly donation of at least $25”. He informed that his ministry intends to properly launch this fund in Nigeria by March 2011 to seek for faithful and dedicated partners to support their works.
On other works he and his team are involved in Philippines, Uchime said they have been involved in training through workshops and also give encouragement to the Filipino church, through preaching engagements in churches.
In addition, Uchime, a missionary cum journalist, said he is also involved in writing and publishing of articles in some local media and online too.
(Apostle Kanayo sharing the gospel with kids in the Philippines - Pix by KMO-INTER 2010)
He maintained that as a missionary one must be mobile, as mobility is an essence of missionary endeavor. As he put it, “One cannot be stagnated. In fact from here, as I said earlier, we’re going to be launching to other regions beyond, to China, a lot of things are happening in that atheistic nation where communism is at the centre stage. And as mentioned, even Thailand, where Buddhism dominates. In fact, there is a lot of work to be done in this side of the globe, only that one is being constrained as a result of very low funding”.
On his challenges since he and his family moved to that country, Uchime has this to say: “As I said earlier, and I say it again, funding is the major challenge to African missionaries. We have all it takes to be compared to Western missionaries, but funding is the greatest challenge we face here in Asia.
“Well, we may identify other challenges like language barriers, as we have to learn native languages in order to be very effective and, adjusting to the kind of food they eat here isn’t so easy.”
“But all in all, God is helping us to surmount these challenges and what is more, with the prayers of God’s people, we’ll do great exploits as prayer is paramount in missionary enterprises.
Apostle Kanayo with his entire family & some Filipinos - Pix by KMO-INTER 2010)
On his plans for the future, Uchime said that he and his team, and his support staff would continue to move to where the Lord wants them to be. He said in mission, “there’s no retiring, but we refire”. According to him, there are so many lands to traverse, as the Lord would give them the grace.
He said: “The fields are really ripe for harvest, as the Bible puts it, and we must be ready to be part of the world harvest of souls, for our Lord’s coming back soon”.
In areas of collaboration and support, he disclosed that he networks with churches in Nigeria and few others in other places. But he lamented that “the level of support from home is very discouraging because of lack of awareness on the part of the Nigerian church of what mission work is all about.”
(Apostle Kanayo Uchime & the entire family during their training
at the South East Asia Mission Teams, Philippines in 2008 - Pix by KMO-INTER 2008)
“I need to mention this irony; most people in Nigeria do not realize we still need fund to continue in our work, some even ask us to send them money believing we are abroad and as such we must have money to send home. And again, the people here are asking us to bring money believing we are foreigners that came to their country with a lot of money. To know more about the mission work of the Uchimes and how you can donate to their work, please click here: http://kmointer.webs.com/giveyourdonatio
