This was an 11 day trip to Lagos, Nigeria and Abidjan, Cote D’Ivoire (also known as Ivory Coast). I accompanied my good friend, Rod Conover, the founding pastor of the Shore Vineyard Church in Beachwood, New Jersey (now Shore Life Church meeting in Toms River New Jersey). Rod had been invited to speak on counseling at a pastors’ conference organized by his friends Ade and Bola Adedimeji who lead Burning Bush Ministries and about 30 churches in Africa and Europe. They asked him to bring an American friend who could teach about the prophetic – that was me. Rod and a group from his church, originally called Community Bible Fellowship, had visited Cote D’Ivoire 8 years earlier in what had been a life-changing event for many of their team.

Another friend of Rod’s invited us to come to Nigeria as part of our trip, and he would pay for us to go from Nigeria to Cote D’Ivoire. Pastor Ignatius Umunna, who had been a member of Ade and Bola’s church 8 years earlier, now leads Rescue Mission Church, centered in Lagos, the largest city in Nigeria.

Many of you remember that Darlene and I had been part of a team to go to another area of Nigeria 3 years earlier. I felt this would be another trip of destiny, since only three months earlier my mentor and former employer Randy Clark publicly prophesied that Darlene and I would be returning to Africa and many other countries, and that all that we had been waiting for would happen.

Lagos, Nigeria

Pastor Ignatius was hoping we would arrive in time to speak on Saturday night, because this was the end of an entire week of special anniversary services they were holding. Unfortunately our plane is late and the people had to go home because it’s not safe on the streets late at night. So when we arrive in Lagos 24 hours by the clock (18 real hours) after we started, we get to go to our hotel instead. By Nigerian standards, we have plush accommodations, including a private bath and room service.

We are picked up the next day for Sunday services by Ignatius’ assistant pastor Ugo. One of the amazing things is just driving in on the highway in Lagos – people everywhere. No real lanes and cars coming from every direction. Horns honking, smoke irritating the eyes, and crowded, haphazard buildings and junk wherever you looked. Endless open air markets, shacks for living, corrugated roofs, gasoline and charcoal smells, people walking and running across the street, beggars and merchants any place that a car slows down.

The church is on a dirt alley off a main road, and it’s made of corrugated steel. There is a miracle story about how they were able to afford to buy the building. We are ushered into an inner sanctum where pastors can relax. We come out for the worship which was quiet and kind of jazzy, surprising for Africans. Rod speaks from 1 John about fathers, young men, and children. Afterwards, I speak from a prophetic word I’ve been given in advance for this church and for Nigeria. The people approve. Then, we are given the privilege of praying for everyone in the church, which takes a long time. Rod and I both want to give a timely word to each person, but we are urged, “faster, faster.” After the service, we are taken out for an interesting meal of fish, chicken, and rice – quite spicy.

Later in the afternoon, we are taken to a gathering at a Lagos hotel, where a friend of Ignatius is holding a leadership seminar for Christians. We enter in the most embarrassing fashion possible – late, with the speaker stopping until we are seated – in the front row of course. The speaker is giving a good talk about how Christians should be wise in their investments. After he finishes, the convener of the seminar says he wants the “anointed American visitors” to share any words they have. Rod talks enthusiastically at the drop of a hat about the value of Christian entrepreneurship. When it’s my turn, I really don’t have anything to say, but I talk about the value of investing in short term missions to other countries because it helps both economies and both learn from one another. Our friend Ignatius has the final word, and we are amazed at his status – with what great respect he is treated.

We found out later from him that his church of several hundred, small by Lagos standards, is itself highly regarded. His worship team won an award normally given to much larger churches, and Rescue Mission Church is a gathering place for many pastors interested in prayer for the city. This is a well-regarded pastor in a city that has some of the largest churches in the world. God is truly using this very humble man.

The second day we go to the airport to buy tickets for Abidjan, and then we are taken out to lunch at a fancy place near the ocean, where we are treated to a tasty meal of grass cutter (which is some kind of groundhog) and snails – tasty if you have the tolerance for strange textures. In the late afternoon, we turn to the church to counsel and pray for whoever has needs. Pastor Ignatius introduces us to a very sophisticated questionnaire he uses for praying for deliverance based on dream interpretation. Apparently, due to witchcraft and idolatry, there are a wide variety of demonic dreams that people have, and God has given Ignatius revelation about what the dream symbols mean. We speak to and pray for a very wide variety of people and, even though they speak English, we often need help to make out what they are saying. We have a great time with Ignatius and Ugo and the other assistants and feel very good about what they are doing in this place.

Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast)

We have to get up the next day at 4:15 in the morning to catch the plane, but our friends have to get up even earlier to pick us up. We are sorry to leave them, and have an uneventful flight of about two hours, with one stop in Ghana, even though we are going 4 countries to the west. In Abidjan, which is also on the ocean, we are picked up by a team from Burning Bush Ministries, all of whom speak French. We are rushed through customs – evidently our friend Ade has some pull here.

Rod has been warning me that our accommodations probably won’t be very nice, but he turns out to be wrong because Ade and Bola have moved up in the world and now live in a very nice area near the airport., in a French style house. We each had a private room which we suspect was made possible by their girls rooming together. Rod also is amazed by how much better the city looks, smells, and feels compared to 8 years before, which Ade and Bola believe is because of how many more Christians there are now.

Ade and Bola are Nigerians, born Muslim, educated and converted in England, and who moved to Cote D’Ivoire about 16 years ago. They have 5 girls, one of whom is in Paris and one in Dallas. They both speak French and English, but the girls speak mostly French though they have learned English in school. The whole country speaks French since they became colonized by France, though they became independent, I believe, around 1960.

Ade took us to his church which is a very nice piece of property though in a fairly poor suburb of Abidjan called Comassie. They have a day school for children, a bible school for pastors and leaders, nice offices, and a 2,000 seat sanctuary which is roofed but open to the outside.

As Ade describes to us the conference we will be speaking at, I begin to get scared. As it turns out, Rod and I will be the main speakers – other planned speakers copped out. We will be speaking both during the day and at night. I wonder if I am up to this and imagine ways out like getting sick. My stomach starts to produce a lot of acid. I start to long for the day we will be heading home. However, I also know that I am supposed to be here and that I have a job to do. Therefore, I become focused and keep on offering the whole thing to God and ask for all the help that heaven can offer. I’ve already produced four teachings that I can use.

The three days of the conference are absolutely jam-packed. Each day I wake up early, praying and going over notes. Ade and Bola take us out to a hotel for breakfast, which is a nice treat. Order

your own omelets, plenty of delicious croissants and fresh fruit. We try to read the morning headlines in French. Once we arrive at the church, we are ushered into Ade’s office. He doesn’t unveil us until the congregation has already worshipped for half an hour. One of the assistants carries our bibles and notes and escorts us to the head honcho area.

When we speak, we use fairly short phrases, since we have to wait for the French translation. Sometimes, our translators don’t understand our jargon so we have to reword what we are saying. But even with jerkiness, communication seems to occur. On the first day of the conference, Rod speaks first and talks about the history and Biblical basis of counseling. I follow with a teaching about generational curses. This teaching is especially important in nations where the people are not far removed from idol worship, which is the case in most of Africa. I begin to get the sense that they are understanding and appreciating this teaching – it is hitting home.

At one point, I abandon my notes and just speak from the heart – probably the most anointed time in the teaching. At the end, Ade helps with each of our talks by giving his own talk at the end and emphasizing what he considered the most important points. It is really true that sheep know their shepherd’s voice best and so this is a positive thing.

Each morning both Rod and I speak, but we also have two guest lecturers, so the morning meetings extend into the early afternoon. The weather is hot and steamy and there are no breaks given. When I speak second, I find it is necessary to give them a stretch break and lead them sometimes to pray for a minute in tongues to refresh themselves. It is amazing to me how long people can go without water or going to the bathroom. I don’t really think that this is the best model, but this is not our conference.

When the talks are done for the day, after a brief time or refreshment in Ade’s air conditioned office, he takes us to visit his local churches. Over the three days we are able to visit four churches. My favorite is the one closest to the headquarters, in the ghetto section – that’s where I feel most at home. After we enter one of the churches and Ade introduces us to the pastors, Ade hands over the reins to us for whatever personal ministry we want to do. I am experienced at this and take the lead.

I ask the pastor to speak forth his vision for the church, and then we pray for the vision, and speak into it as the Lord gave us prophetic vision. Rod has an amazing ability to see someone’s personality profile – so he speaks into the pastors’ personal lives. He also tends to pick up on how pastors’ wives are doing when he meets them. Rod and I find we each make one another more effective. This results in some powerful ministry times when we visit the churches, similar to the ministry that Darlene and I had in our previous trip to Nigeria and in many places in the Midwest during our time in St Louis.

After a brief time of rest back at Ade and Bola’s house in the air conditioned comfort of our rooms, we are driven back to the church for evening services, 6 – 8:30 PM. This is exciting because we get to experience rush hour traffic in Abidjan. Not that different from New Jersey except there are seldom marked lanes. Ade is expert at inventing his own lanes and in navigating through corridors crowded with cars, and large carts drawn by people, and thousand of merchants and other pedestrians. There are police at almost every corner with automatic weapons in their hands. It’s not unusual for our car to be stopped, but Ade always seems to know someone the policeman knows, and we are quickly off again.

Rod speaks the first night, and I speak the second night. We have worked it out that whoever speaks, the other will guide the ministry time. The first night worked well as Rod spoke the same message he had in Lagos from 1 John 2 about old men, young men, and children. I have people come forward who needed to experience the love of a father. I also deliver 6 words of knowledge the Lord had given me earlier, including some very specific ones – two short men who are ready to give their life to the Lord, two women who experience a strange weakness the same time each day, a man with a growth on the back of his neck, and a man with his left foot turned inward. I’m amazed as people respond and come for prayer for each of these words.

After we get back to the house following the evening service, we are served dinner – around 9:30 in the evening. But Bola and her helpers make great meals. Salad and fish, chicken, or beef, fried plantains, yams or cassava, and fresh fruit. The only trouble is – we go to bed not long after a large meal that’s plenty spicy.

The second day, I speak about the prophetic, focusing on how the whole body of the church is to work together to receive the word of the Lord (one of the primary messages of 1 Corinthians 12-14). I begin the teaching with a prophecy about how the Lord will expand this conference in future years and I end with a public prophecy to both Ade and Bola. I tell them that he is a builder and will be used to knit together West Africa. I tell her that she is an uprooter – one that God uses to tear down things that stand against God and that the Lord will use her in many different countries. For a short while there is the spirit of prophecy in the room, and several prophecies come forth.

Rod in turn speaks about models of counseling with a special focus on the 12-step model, of which the pastors in Cote D’Ivoire had no experience at all. After this, a man speaks about the media and the Gospel. In the afternoon, we visit two churches, which is great but we really get overtired. After too short a rest, we return for the evening meeting. The worship is somewhat off because there is no keyboard player. I speak a message I have given previously at Christ Church, “Come All Who Are Thirsty.” I invite the Holy Spirit to come and He does come, but the people are not used to receiving in silence. I begin to lose my focus out of fatigue, and turn the meeting over to Rod, but since I haven’t made it clear what I expect to happen, he isn’t sure either. Ade comes to our rescue and wraps up the meeting after explaining the value of silence.

This evening meeting becomes the low point for me, and over dinner I feel pressured by Ade and Bola’s conflicting suggestions to me about what I need to do in my remaining talks. Rod comes to my room after to make sure I’m doing OK. As a result, I decide it is important for me to stand up better for myself. I have to make it clear to everyone that I’m not a carbon copy of some TV prophets and evangelist and all I can do is what God shows me, I let go of the sense of a sub-par performance this time fairly quickly because I know we still have another day of the conference and I have to be ready.

The third day of the conference turns out the best in many respects. Rod actually combines two of his messages, both of which are very powerful – one on how he does counseling (everyone should hear this) and the second on personality types. The latter was quite challenging since for the Myers-Briggs he had to use different words and letters to represent the personality dimensions for some of the types, but this was worked out beforehand and is provided to the people in the French translated notes. One of the highlights is after everyone has figured out what they think is their personality type. Rod asks everyone of one particular type come forward. He points out that everyone in front has the same body type. As he describes their personality, it is clear that he is largely correct – it is very convincing.

I speak about team ministry and I had intended to give them the Vineyard ministry model, but I quickly decide to adapt my message because Rod has necessarily spoken long and there is another speaker after me. After talking about where the Bible emphasizes team ministry, I speak about my experience with healing rooms, and challenge the pastors to start healing rooms in the market places of their towns. I then had those come forward who felt called to start healing rooms and we pray for them. The last speaker of the afternoon is a friend of Ade’s who communicates extremely well. I admire how well he grabs hold of the pastors and makes personal contact with them. It is a message he borrows from Rick Warren in the US, but it wakes the pastors up, and they really get it.

That night nobody really wants to preach but Rod is willing and prepares for it. At this point, I’ve given all I’ve got (I think) and ask for time off. Even so, during the worship, Ade asks me to give anything the Lord shows me after Rod speaks. I begin then to tune in and all at once I feel the Lord drops into my spirit that we were in a situation like Daniel 10. I have to digress for a moment to tell you that we were in Cote D’Ivoire at a critical time. They had been at risk for civil war between the Muslim north and the Christian south, to the point where first the French and then the UN had to intervene, first in 2002. They were now waiting for an independent panel led by the president of Nigeria to appoint a prime minister acceptable to everyone, who in turn will prepare the way for a new presidential election.

I had felt all week that our visit to the country was intended to have an effect on the situation somehow through prayer. At this point in the worship, I feel the Lord was saying that our worship would prepare the way for the angel of Cote D’Ivoire to make his way to help the nation. There is a war over Africa in the heavens and in particular over Cote D’Ivoire and it is the responsibility of the Christians to fight through worship to help make a way for the forces of heaven.

I give this prophecy, and Ade leads us deeper into praise and worship, which lasts over two hours. At one point, Rod and I are both dancing up at the front, and then everyone begins to dance to the African rhythms. Joy is unleashed. There are even people coming in off the streets to see what’s up. We get out a large Ivorian flag and wave it from the stage. I love it! Except we go on too long and there isn’t time for the word that Rod prepared. I’m afraid that it’s my fault, but Rod is not upset with me, for which I’m grateful. By the way, within two weeks, a prime minister was appointed and President Gbagbo’s term as president was extended.

The conference is over and it has been good but quite tiring – I guess they are supposed to be, because I used to be tired just attending one. On Saturday, now quite relaxed, we go shopping in the markets to buy presents for loved ones. We also go out for ice cream and Ade and Bola take us on a ride down the coast to a site they hope to build a church. The sea shore is quite lovely. They also take us to a ritzy area of Abidjan where they are in the process of renting a house that they will turn into a church. While we are there the gardener/caretaker comes in, a Muslim man. Rod starts to tell us what personality type he believes the man is. I tell him to talk to the man, and Bola translates. The man nods yes, these things are true about him. Then Rod says something about whether the man knows God in his life. The man tells us we must be talking about Jesus, who he says has been visiting him in his dreams, standing at the foot of his bed! Bola immediately leads him to receive the Lord and Ade prays a powerful prayer over him. This is a tremendous blessing to experience.

On Sunday, our last day, Ade has given us African shirts that are quite lovely. I wear one of them to church. Rod goes to speak at the church pastored by the man who had spoken the Rick Warren type message to the pastors. Rod had a wonderful time, feeling that this church is very Vineyard like. He tells them their church is the church of the future. At Burning Bush, I’m allowed to give the congregation my observations and conclusions about my time there. I thank them for their kindness and emphasize the need to use the weapons of prayer and love to change hearts. Ade preaches a stirring message about our receiving favor from the Lord. His presentation is so energetic that his suit jacket and shirt are completely soaked through – no wonder he never gains weight.

We have one more great meal cooked by Bola, and then they take us to the airport. I realize I have had a great time but I am more than ready to leave and return to my wife, my home, my bed, and my church. Praise the Lord! Even the long plane ride doesn’t bother me. We return to our wives and Rod’s daughter Cynthi and we get to spend a meal time telling them our stories and catching up on events back home.

Postscript

Our friend Pastor Ignatius Umunna and Rescue Mission Church continue to bless Lagos Nigeria, and they have now built a large orphanage in the city. Bishop Ade and Prophetess Bola continue to bring God’s word and kingdom to Cote d’Ivoire and many other nations. Ivory Coast went through a second civil war in 2010-11, which greatly affected Burning Bush Ministries, and Ade and Bola for a time left the country, but have since returned. My friend, pastor Rod Conover, has gone to be with the Lord, but is well remembered by all who knew him.