This was my sixth trip to Nigeria … and each visit gets better. The Lord is knitting my heart with so many people in Africa and I truly feel at home there despite the traffic, power outages and fuel shortages. I traveled with an awesome team of men who are passionate about serving the Nigerian church. Three of the guys who went with me, Anthony, Gennady and Bill, are from churches where I have ministered in recent years—and the fourth man, Al, sent his wife to Nigeria with me two years ago. Everyone was blessed and challenged. We gave of ourselves but we also received a lot of spiritual impartation from the Nigerians. We also stayed safe and healthy and really enjoyed being together.

** The trip began in Lagos where I preached at two churches on Sunday. The first was Foundation of Truth Assembly pastored by Yomi Kasali. This man was a young leader in the Foursquare denomination until he founded his own independent church a few years ago. He and his wife (who is a top executive in an oil company) are modeling a new approach to ministry and seeing incredible success. I was able to present a biblical message about women’s empowerment –a topic that is rarely preached in Nigeria. I also prophesied over Yomi and his wife about their calling to assemble a Nehemiah generation that will rebuild Nigeria’s ruined cities. Yomi told me later that the word brought deep encouragement and confirmation to him.

** We then rushed to a second congregation, Grace Family Church, where I spoke at two services. This dynamic church is led by Yinka and Deola Ojo. I preached a message called “A Prophetic Vision for Africa’s Future.” I challenged the people to expect God to do the impossible in their nation. He wants to bring an end to the corruption, dictatorship, injustice and poverty that has ravanged the land. Yinka told me that he was so encouraged by this message that he plans to develop a series of sermons over the next several weeks based on my five points. My heart was knit with Yinka and I look forward to working with him in the future.

** Our journey to Port Harcourt was not easy because the city’s airport has been closed for repairs. We had to fly to Owerri and then take a three-hour cab ride to the conference. You cannot imagine how funny we looked: All five of us were stuffed into a small Volvo with 14 suitcases in the trunk, four guys sitting in the back seat and three carry-on bags stacked in Al’s lap in the front seat. I complained in my heart at first about the inconvenience but soon we were all laughing—especially when we bumped over huge craters in the road. Praise God our cab driver was a Christian and he took good care of us.

** It was great to be with Rev. Mosy Madugba and my dear friends who work with him at the Global PrayerQuake conference. About 7,000 people attended the week-long event. I preached on Tuesday and shared an extended version of the message about Africa’s future. I also taught two times in the afternoon ministry school. My session was for the college and youth leaders. I taught on leadership development and mentoring and we had time for personal interaction. Anthony, Gennady and Bill also were able to speak to the group and build relationships with the young leaders while Al spoke in a different session. We also had a time to pray over each of them, and several people were baptized in the Holy Spirit.

** One highlight occurred in the main session when I called five Nigerian leaders to the stage. I asked them to sit in chairs and then my team knelt in front of them and laid hands on their feet. This was a prophetic act to show that God is turning Africans from missionary receivers to missionary senders. We also wanted to show that we as Westerners now need the Africans to come to our nations. This was a great blessing to the people.

** On our last day at the conference, Mosy called all the delegates from French-speaking nations to the front so they could receive prayer. Then he asked me to lead the congregation in praying for them. This really stirred my heart because I have had a burden for some time to get my books translated into French. I felt the fire of God when I began to prophesy about how the revival in these African countries will impact the nation of France in the days ahead. The men and women from Cameroon, Cote D’Ivoire, Senegal and other nations knelt for a long time as the conference speakers laid hands on them. I am convinced we will begin to see significant breakthroughs in the Francophone countries.

** The more time I spend in ministry the more I realize that Christianity is about relationships. Preaching is great, and miracles are wonderful, but when all is said and done I know that New Testament ministry is about teamwork and discipleship. The brothers and sisters in Nigeria have access to plenty of preaching, and they see great miracles regularly. But what they desperately need is hands-on, personal discipleship that produces maturity. I have built some great relationships in Nigeria and these were strengthened on this trip, especially with leaders of the college ministry: Godson, Kelechi and Miracle. What I am doing there is a long-term project and I will be going back regularly.

** Another relationship I have made in Port Harcourt is with Pauly and Eunice Enujuba. Eunice is a dynamic woman pastor who was really inspired when I first brought the message of biblical women’s empowerment to the conference four years ago. Today her church is growing and she has launched a new ministry called Women of Substance, which is designed to challenge Christian businesswomen and female church leaders to effect social change in Nigeria. Please pray that Eunice’s work will flourish and that many key women will unite to transform their nation. I plan to do a conference with her when I return to Port Harcourt.

** I was very blessed to be able to mentor my 21-year-old Russian friend, Gennady, throughout this trip. He is so passionate for God and he learned so much being with the rest of the team. And on the last night of the conference in Port Harcourt, a Nigerian evangelist who bases his ministry in Italy called Gennady out of the audience and prophesied over him in front of the whole crowd. He told him that God has anointed him to take the gospel to his people and that he will impact many. It was worth the whole trip to see how Gennady was set on fire during his first mission trip outside the United States. He was marked for God and will never be the same.

During the trip we also:

… met with Bishop David Oyedopo and toured his church, Winner’s Chapel, which is the largest church building in the world (50,000 seats). He found out that I was in the country and invited us to have some time with him on our last day in Lagos.

… attended a prayer meeting in Lagos where more than 700 area pastors came together to pray for Nigeria. (I’ll be writing about this in Charisma).

… spent time with some great leaders from Lagos: Ladi Thompson, a pastor who is helping the persecuted Christians of Northern Nigeria; Tony Rapu; Tunde Bakare; and Jackson Ekwugun, my best friend in Nigeria who is editor of Lifeway magazine. Jackson selflessly hosted us the entire time we were in Lagos.

… worked to plan the first Apostolic Women Arising event in Nigeria. We will hold this in Lagos in March 2008. We will secure a venue that holds 1,000 people so we can have maximum impact but also provide quality mentoring. It is easy to get a crowd in Nigeria … but at this conference we want to attract women (and men too) who are leaders or who have definite leadership potential. I know the event will change the nation. If you are interested in being part of a prayer team for this event please let me know—I expect to take a large group for prayer support.

I praise God for everything he did with us in Nigeria and I am eternally grateful to you for your prayers and support.