8/11/2019 Baughman Don Marianne 1968 Nigeria
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The Christian Mission, V61.< 12, No.
4,
April
1968
Page 7
WEST AFR ICA
CHRISTIAN
MISSION
- NIGERIA
The
Wes t
A f r ic a Ch r i s ti a n Miss ion
was
incorporated in 1955
and
now
includes the
Donald Baughmans , the Walter Smithis in
Nigeria; the
Edgar
Nichols
and Kent
Taylors
in Ghana.
Four phases
of
our
wor^c include
the
Search
The Sc ri p tu r es r ad io b roadcas t,
begun by the Gospel Broadcasting
Mission
in
1961; the
training
of najtional nvarigelists; the
establishment of local congr^gatipns; a medi
cal p rogram. . ^ / . ;
We endeavor to
hdp
anyone
who comes
to u s
in
i l l hea l th
and
o ft en t ak e them to
a
nearby European
doctor
who diagnoses and
treats the
patient.
NEEDS
We
are
in urgent
need
of
a
doctor
or
nurse
to carry
on the medical work;
one
who could
visit
local villages
as
the
people have
no funds
for travel
even
if
they
could
find
transporta
t i on .
We need a mo to r bike
fo r
Franc i s Olo run -
femi, our traveling evangelist. The one he
was using (which we had purchased second
hand) recently
gave
up
the
ghost.
We
l e a s e
ou r 9 .9 a cr es
o f
land f rom
the
Olotta of Otta and 450 is needed for the en
suing five years of th e lease.
We
always can use Bible school papers,
especially children's
picture
papers,
and
complete flannelgraph stories.
It
is not
easy
to assess the value
of
a
himdred years of Chris ti an
effort.
It
is true
that
there
are
nearly
as many churches as
there are schools,
and
on
Simdays t he bush
paths
around
the villages
are
lively with
people
making their
way
to
church.
Each
section also
h a s i t s own
na t ive
min i s t e r s .
In
so m e so ci
et ies the pastoral work has been almost en
tirely
handed
over
to
the
African clergy and
lay workers.
To judge
from
appearances,
Christianity
is
firmly established.
However,
how
d eep t he fa ith has sunk
int o t he
minds and hearts
of the
people, how
s tr ic t a r e
i t s
s an c ti on s i n
the i r l ives ,
i t i s
hard
to
tell .
It
is quite certain that
many
of
the
old
fetishes
and beliefs
st i l l
have
power
to d raw the
people
back, in
desire,
imagina-
0^ tion and in fear, to the ju-ju houses and the
fetish groves.
The symbols of their old
gods,
Shango, Elegbara,
Obatala are
linked
in
the
minds
of many with the cross
and
the cruci
f i x .
The
impact
of
th e
Westhas a lready
meant
t he inev it ab le destruct ion-of the
tribal
system,
a
system
at
once social
and
religious.
When
that had been dqstroyei, a
vacupm
was left
which had to fee filled. As the Afr ican by na
ture is
an
es^entiaUy religious person,
one
to
whom
the
supernatural is
as
real
as th e
natural,
that
yacuum could npt be adequately
filled by an abstractjphilosbphy. Somewhere
in al l that welter qf
crp^s purposes
and con
flicting
currents
in which he
is
nowtossedi
there must
stand a god
or gods. Islam
could
be the answer; and in m^y parts of Southern
Nigeria,
as
in the north, that. faith does seem
to satisfy the
Africanlis
needs. But, for some
reason
or other, I^lam cannot conquer the
people of
the
Niger River'.
Hope;
as
an anchor
is the
only
firni
stand that a Nigerian Christian
today
can lean
upon
The
coimti^;
is at war The Ibo leaders
of the
Eastern region
of
Nigeria have seceded
f rom the republ ic and
call themselves Biafra.
The federal army,a in hopes
of keeping
Nigeria
one,
are
battling to
bring
the
rebel
forces
into
subjection.
Much
of the
fighting is going on
in
the
rivers
area among people who want no part of
the secession and certainly
do
not
want to
fight
their brothers.
Persecution
is
the
lo t
of this
group
of people;
for if they aid the
fed
eral
troops, the
Ibos
will
put th em to dea th ,
if they
a id the
Ibos,
they will
die by the hand
of
the federals. The
hope of
eternal life
is
their only salvation.
In the r iv e rs a r ea we
had
four churches
before the
war.
One
let ter
from an evange
list
who managed
to
send his
message
across
into Calabar
to
be
mailed,
begs
for
more
prayers
that we will t rust in God.
He
urges
us to
pray for his people that they place more
confidence in Christ and His message and
not
waver;
he
closes
asking
for
more
con
secrated hear ts . He
d oe s n ot ask for
money
or
food. He
asks
only for more consecrated
hearts. He is
endeavoring
to
feed
th e people
th e
Bread
of Life. Pray for the Christians
in this
area,
especial ly Bro. Lawrence,
and
for a ll Chr is t ians all over Nigeria.
The heartache of watching brother
hate
brother,
of seeing
desperate needs that
can
not
be f il led, of knowing of the emptiness in
th e
lives
of
so
many
people
should
encourage
(continued on next page)
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Page 8
The Christian Mission, Vol. 12,
No. 4,
April 968
West Africa
Nigeria
(continued f rom prev ious
page)
us
to watch
and pray constantly
lest
we
be
tempted, and spur each of
us
on to seek con
s tant ly for those who know not the
Christ
and
tell
them
of
the
glorious hope that
lies
only
wi th Him
Over the
whole of
Nigeria
as
the
20th
century goes
forward , the wri ting
is clear;
the need
is for a God. If
Chr is t iani ty fails
to
sa ti sfy that
need, th en
the Moloch of Com
munism may
rise up for
the
people s adoration
and
destruction. Or perhaps we
may
see the
return of th e Long
JiiJu,
Ibonokpabi, coming
from
her hiding
place
in the
guise
of a national
goddess with
a
political
axe in
her
hand,
and
speaking with the brazen tongue of demagogy.
By the r esponse of the common
people
to such
an appar it io n, w ill b e measured the
success
o r
fa i lure
o f
the
Chr i s ti a n m i s s ion
Don
and
Marianne Baughman
Box
46
Otta,
Nigeria,
Africa
Forwarding Agent:
Mrs.
Carol Scarbrough
243
Mizel l
Duncanville, Texas
75116
