Holding Fast for God and Countryby Pastor Jared Decker

It was so hard to say goodbye on Sunday evening to the people at Truth Baptist Church, and it was even harder to say goodbye to the Holmes on Monday evening. I am glad to be coming home, but I can’t help but leave a piece of my heart in Nigeria. Thankfully, I will be able to retrieve it again next year!

I do have to say that I lived on the wild side in the last few hours of Monday. I rode on an Okada (O-kaw-da, a motorcycle usually piled with three to four people on it…but in my case just the driver and me)…and I survived! I met a couple of Nigerians in the Abuja airport, and they don’t even ride okadas because of the danger. The drivers don’t pay any attention at all. When I got on, I leaned forward and told the driver “Don’t kill me!”. Bro. Holmes says that whenever it is absolutely necessary to ride an okada, he will always ask the man if he has a family. If he answers no, he will tell him to find an okada driver with a family so that they both have a reason to come home tonight.

I flew out of Abuja, Nigeria to Kano, Nigeria. From there, we flew to Amsterdam where I am writing from. The airport here is absolutely amazing. It is like an entire mall inside the airport. And, PRAISE THE LORD!, I am drinking my first cup of REAL coffee in two weeks! I also got to take my first hot shower in two weeks here at the airport. I LOVE AMSTERDAM!

I have a five hour layover here and will head to Atlanta directly from Amsterdam. I then have another five hour layover in Atlanta…not near as excited about that one as this one! Then I take a plane to Montgomery…and then HOME! Can’t wait to see everyone on Wednesday night. I will be giving a presentation of the missions trip on Sunday night. So I encourage everyone to be back and faithful for the evening service.

More to come…

In the service of the KING,

Pastor Jared Decker

Before I begin to tell everyone about how SMITE went, I want to give a wonderful update on the teenage Muslim girl I told you about in the last post. Bro. McGuffee told me that she was wearing a full burka on the day she got saved, but the next day, she came without any burka at all. That may not mean much to us, but for her it was a sign of rejection of the Muslim faith. Praise the Lord!

I personally had an outstanding experience at my club. It was just down the road from Bro. Holmes work at Truth Baptist Church, so that gave us the opportunity to invite the children and their families to church. What a different world it is over here though. On Thursday, our attendance went down from 88 the previous day to 60. The reason…there was power, and the children had the rare opportunity to watch television. However, on the last day of club we had 107 children and parents attending. They were everywhere. PRAISE GOD! One of the greatest blessings of Friday was that the Muslim mother, Mary, who got saved on Monday, was at club. She really had a different countenance on her face…she had JOY! She told me that she plans on coming to church on Sunday and wishes to bring another woman with her.

Now on to SMITE…

We had a great time in the classes over the five day period of SMITE camp. The delegates listened so intensely and asked very thought filled questions. You could really tell that they wanted to learn to do their best when they go to Bible Clubs. Many of the delegates had started weekly clubs in villages around their areas after last year’s SMITE, and each night Bro. Holmes would have one of them give a testimony about what God has been doing throughout the year. There was even a church started last year as a result of one of the Bible Clubs. Amen!

And they actually study!!!

The services have all been amazing. Bro. McGuffee, Peter Cavanaugh, and I have been rotating preaching. There have been two preachers each night with some wonderful singing in the congregation as well as many special songs from the church groups.

The delegates have been so receptive, and the invitations have been remarkable. Many of the delegates gave testimonies in the invitation of the Friday night service. Some said they had been called to Missions, some to renew a fire for souls, and some to setup a permanent Bible Club in an area God had burdened their heart about. Many of the testimonies included the delegates saying that they were Soulwinners, but they had not been concerned about their families’ salvation as they should. Praise the Lord for the work He has done this year.

It is always sad to see the end of SMITE come every year, but so much more so when I know that I literally will not see ANY of these folks for a year. God has given me the opportunity to make some very close friendships in the very short time that I have been in Nigeria, and I hope that those relationships will be a gateway for me to be a help to each and every one of them. I will be preaching in Truth Baptist Church in NyaNya on Sunday morning and Faith Baptist Church of Masaka on Sunday evening. So, I have a little more time to see some of the folks. I don’t fly out of Nigeria until 9:20pm on Monday, and I am looking forward to going to one of the national markets before I leave (as opposed to the tourist market). Thank you for all those who have prayed for me and the work here in Nigeria. Those prayers have been felt just in the fact that it is rainy season, but not one of the Bible clubs got rained on. God is Faithful!

To my church, I love you all and can’t wait to be with you again. But I must confess that there will be a part of me that stays behind in Nigeria.

More to come…

In the service of the KING,

Pastor Jared Decker

Like I said in my last post, we started SMITE on Monday. The students have been wonderful listeners and are very eager to learn. It is
amazing how enthusiastic every student is when doing anything in the club. In America, we have to drag teens out of their shell or pride to get them to do the simplest task in a club. However, in Nigeria they all want to help, and they put everything they have into it every time.

The Bible college students have been doing the Demonstration of a Bible club every day for the camp, and with the exception of some tweaking
here and there, they are doing an amazing job. When we hold SMITE in Louisiana every year, we choose only people who have been at SMITE for 4 years or more and are usually graduates or are graduating that year. Even then, some of them could not hold a candle to how well these students have been performing in their demo. Oh…did I mention that this is only the second year that they have even been introduced to the concepts of teaching like this. I think it has something to do with the “want-to and get-to” factor.

I have really enjoyed teaching every day. I am teaching all of the classes for level 1. We have three classes per day and then a demo. After the demo, we break for lunch and study time, followed by clubs at 2:30. The preaching services have been great and the altar calls have been even
better. I don’t remember the last time I saw an altar call where more people were at the altar than in the pews…by far. I am preaching tonight and Friday night, and I will also be preaching in two different churches on Sunday.

Please continue to pray that God will work. Bro. McGuffee and I are praying that this week God will call some Nigerian’s to be missionaries to areas in Africa that no American (much less a white person) would be allowed to enter. Pray that they will set their country on fire with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Bro. McGuffee and I both have had an amazing blessing on top of it all this week. On Monday at my club, none of the children raised the hand for salvation in the invitation, but a mother a the back did. I went to her afterward and spoke to her about why she raised her hand. She said “I need to ask Jesus to forgive my sins”. She prayed and got saved! And to top it all off, I found out she was a Muslim. Praise God. Today Bro. McGuffee had a teenage Muslim girl in full burka accept Christ as her Saviour. When they spoke to her afterward, she said “I got saved, and I am proud”. God has blessed us beyond our wildest dreams already…and it is only Wednesday! Amen!!!

More to come…

In the service of the KING,

Pastor Jared Decker

I have to make this post quick. We started SMITE yesterday, and it has been wonderful. The delegates are all so eager to learn and enthusiastic in their application of it all. The clubs have been going well too. So far, after two days, we have seen over 700 in clubs with over 300 saved. Praise the LORD! Below you will see a picture of me teaching my level 1 classes, a group of the children at the church with me, and a picture of the club that I am leading.

By the way…the children at my club are learning that the white doesn’t rub off…though they have tried hard. I believe that I am the first white person that many of the little children in the club have ever seen up close and especially ever touched. In fact, one boy went running away on the first day shouting, “I touched him three times!” It’s awesome.

More to come…

In the service of the KING,

Pastor Jared Decker