St. Stephen's Lutheran Church sign
I am no longer anywhere near Efa. On Tuesday I finished whatever business I could in Efa and on Wednessday flew to Lagos. Pastor Essien Michael picked me up from the airport and rode with me down to Badagry. Badagry is west of Lagos settling snug against the border of Benin. We slept that night at the hotel and proceeded to seek out Pastor Eric and the church the following morning.
The church itself is apparently so close to the border with Benin that every time we returned from the church to the hotel, a distance of maybe two miles, we would pass through a customs checkpoint. The customs officers, however, apparently knew we were not coming from Benin and would let us pass through.
On Thursday Pastor Essien Michael and I meet with Pastor Eric as well as the president of the church in Badagry. We talked for a while about the church, its troubles and triumphs and plans. One difficulty is that the church sits far from the village of Efa where the Bible Institute is, the home of most of the men who train there, and the native language of Efic is spoken. Here the native tongue is Yoruba. A language strange not only to my ears but more importantly to Pastor Eric’s as well. Pastor Essien in Lagos does not have as much difficulty since the people in the city are generally better educated and more at home with English. Meanwhile Eric perseveres with the Lord’ s grace. After this Pastor Eric, Essien, and myself spent a little time in an impromptu pastoral study club. Pastor Eric and Essien each shared a recent sermon which we all then were able to discuss and learn from.
The plan was for me to stay here in Badagry and visit this church also on Sunday, when I would get to meet the congregation. To that end I awoke, went over my sermon, dressed for church and went out to wait for the taxi that had promised to come and pick me up. When he still was not there at nine twenty, I called his cell phone.
“Yes,” he said, “I am coming at nine on Sunday, tomorrow!” – Opps – it is so easy to lose track of the days here.
When I actually made it to the service on the right day, it was a beautiful sunny day, and the church with incomplete walls made a very pleasant place to worship as long as there is no wind or rain and you can sit in some shade, which was the case today. The service also was very heartening to me, as it was all in English and when I preached I did not need an interpreter. The liturgy was page five and the hymns were all from the Lutheran Hymnal. Although the African’s seemed to largely ignore the melody that was printed and either made up their own or had leaned different tunes from elsewhere. This made it difficult for me to sing with but at least I understood the words.
Today I fly to Ghana to meet with Pastor Gideon then on to Togo to Pastor Kossi and the Pastoral Conference that is planned there. I was told that there is a McDonalds in Lagos, I will have to see if I can find it on my way to the airport.
Pictures of Badagry and of Nya and the people and congregations there are posted below.
– Pastor Matthew Ude