In this series, those involved with CLC foreign missions profile one aspect of our overseas endeavors.
When the generator ran out of gas at our home, it was dark. We used candles a lot in Nigeria, as well as kerosene lamps. Abraham Lincoln had nothing on us studying by candlelight. There were neither street lights nor security lights at homes. Darkness was pitch black except for the moon. I am still amazed at how people in the village walked around at night on the paths in the dark with snakes around. They had to have had great eyesight. At times there was some electricity from the national grid, but not much and usually not for long.
Sometimes we would hear a baby bawling from a nearby hut, or a child crying because he had had a boil lanced, or had been swatted for his misdeeds. Otherwise, it settled down to a soothing silence. There were frogs of course because we were in the tropical bush. And they would be croaking away, literally hundreds of them. And then all of a sudden they would stop. It was amazing how they would stop as if by the command of a leader. They would not slow down and there would not be a couple who croaked after the others stopped. They all ceased, all of a sudden.
We might hear a man named Ekong going along the road at night. He suffered from mental illness and would be talking to himself in a low growling voice. Sometimes his voice was raised when he was upset about something or arguing with himself. One day he came into the Bible Institute building when our son Karl and Jane, Pastor Essien’s youngest daughter, were playing there and scared them. Pastor Essien just shooed him away. He meant no harm, and added color to village life. He eventually died. When I served in Lemmon, South Dakota there was a man named Gordon, well-known around town, who likewise suffered from mental illness. I had the opportunity to visit and witness with Gordon in his one-room shack. I regret that I did not get to do that with Ekong..
For some time there was a tree in the compound which bloomed at night. It was called the Queen of the Night; it was a sweet, compelling fragrance that wafted all around. This was a good reminder of how the Gospel blooms in this world’s dark night and spreads its fragrance everywhere.
There was another tree in the compound that one had to be careful of. It was a cashew nut tree. Up in its branches the ants made nests and bored into the branches. The juice that fell, a mixture of the sap and whatever the ants added, was like a mild acid. Some of this, which I thought at first was dew, fell on my arm one day, and the sores that resulted would not heal until I got some local medicine. Other things that I tried just did not heal the sores. It was not wise to walk out under this tree in the dark, and it was a big tree with overhanging branches. This is a good reminder that there are dangers in this dark world that we should avoid at all costs. As only that special local medicine could heal, we want to remember that it is alone the Gospel that heals. Man’s dreamed-up answers don’t heal, only God’s real answer of Christ in the dark world, dead on the cross, and alive from the dark tomb.
Of course, the dark night also gave cover to sin being carried out. Men love darkness rather than light, for then their evil can then be masked: drunkenness, adultery, robbery.
In a hut not far from us Ndua and his family lived. He was one of our institute students. A man came into his hut and argued over a broom. Ndua told him to get out, but the man then used a machete on Ndua, nearly severing his hand. Pastor Godwin got a motorcycle and took Ndua to the hospital at Etinan in the dark of night, with Ndua falling from the cycle a couple times, weak from the loss of blood. Men love darkness. We need to be those light bearers to carry the forgiving love of Christ into this world’s darkness. Ndua graduated from our Bible Institute, served as one of our pastors, and has since gone to be with the Lord. The suffering we endure in this life is not to be compared with the eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison that we will have with Christ in heaven.
has served as a foreign missionary in Africa, India, and elsewhere. Though officially retired, he continues to be active in the synod’s mission endeavors.