I arrived in Nigeria last week for the installation of Isaac Adigun as the new West and Central Africa (WECA) District Superintendent. The event took place this past Sunday, December 12, during the morning devotional service at the Anthony Village headquarters church in Lagos.

The service began with a children’s program featuring music, a skit titled “Solomon, the Anointed King,” and a formal welcome to me, Brother Isaac, and his wife Stella. In the skit, the children portrayed Solomon asking for wisdom and receiving in addition, riches, honor, and long life.

After the children left the tabernacle singing “In the Old Time Way,” the service continued with the orchestra playing “Hymn of Joy” and then the choir singing “Mighty Jehovah.” The announcements were given by Gabriel (G.K.) Ajayi who has served as WECA District Superintendent since May. As he concluded, I took the opportunity to thank him for his leadership these past several months and for his willingness to serve.

Following the announcements, a brief exhortation was given outlining the Biblical criteria for filling a leadership position. It emphasized that a leader must have a victorious testimony and also be called by God. As it had previously been determined that Brother Isaac meets both of these criteria, he was formally installed. The board members, Brother G.K., and I gathered around him, laid hands on him, and prayed for God’s wisdom and guidance, health and strength, and grace to lead.

Afterward, Brother Isaac thanked the congregation for their prayers and support, and shared some of his testimony. His full testimony, along with Sister Stella’s was published in the September 2001 edition of the Higher Way magazine under the title “Joy in the Journey” and can be read here. An excerpt from that article is as follows:

Isaac: . . . I was raised in Nigeria in a nominal Christian home where I followed my parents to church and Sunday school regularly, but this did not fill the vacuum in my heart. I cannot recollect hearing anything during those years about the importance of being born again. [Later, while attending a technical school, a group from the Apostolic Faith Church visited and told how to be born again.] I determined not to go back to my room until I received this wonderful experience that I had just heard about. So I went to the back of an empty classroom and prayed. All my sins came to mind, and I confessed everything. Then I felt that my sins had been forgiven. Warm joy flooded my soul. I got up saying to myself, “Am I the same Isaac?” There was a witness in my heart that my sins had been forgiven, and I was so happy! My life was changed.

Stella: God called me in a wonderful way. He must have looked down from Heaven and seen that I was longing for Him but did not know how to find Him, so He came to me and taught me how to pray. I started confessing my sins and saying how sorry I was, with tears rolling down my face. The next day I woke up a different person, but I could not fully understand what had happened.

Then I said a simple prayer, “Please God, send someone to explain what has happened to me!” God answered by sending a man from the Apostolic Faith Church who gave me his testimony.

The service continued with wonderful music and a Christmas message taken from Matthew 2:11-12, the instruction given to the Magi to return to their own country by a different route. The focus was on the fact that God calls sinners to come as they are, but doesn’t leave them in that condition; He makes a change in their hearts and lives. A good time of prayer followed the service.

I have enjoyed my time in Nigeria with the saints here, and expect to return home shortly.