In my country, it is compulsory for university/polytechnic graduates to embark on a one year national service at the completion of their school program.
The National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) is a federal government scheme that helps to inculcate in Nigeria youths the spirit of selfless service to the community and to emphasize the spirit of oneness and brotherhood of all Nigerians irrespective of cultural or social backgrounds.
"...how beautiful how the feet of those that publish the goodnews of Christ."
Graduates usually embark on this journey on receiving of their call-up letters to serve in any state of the nation other than their state of origin. This letter normally brings joy and excitement to the prospective Corps members, and as for me, it was no exception. When I got my call-up letter to serve in the southern part of Nigeria, Delta state to be specific, I was as happy as a pig in the mud, Lol. It was going to be my first time of leaving family and friends to sojourn in a strange land. Away from that, it was also going to be my first time of experiencing total freedom. To live alone, wake up everyday to make daily decisions for my life, my spiritual life inclusive .
I had my basic education, secondary and tertiary education all in my native state. NYSC was definitely going to be a break out from the norm for me. The NYSC scheme consist of four stages; the orientation came, place of primary assignment, community development service and the passing out parade. The camp was fun-filled with so many programs, activities and daily trainings for corpers. They are mainly three recognized fellowship groups on camp; Nigeria Christian Corpers Fellowship (NCCF), National Association of Catholic Corpers (NACC) and Muslim Corpers Association.
The camp gave me privilege to have fun except for the parade. I enjoyed different camp shows/parties, the company of fine platoon girls, the goodies at mami market, the morning drills, sports, dance/singing contests, platoon kitchen competitions, the carnival, quiz, variety night and lots more. The camp was fun galore that it was possible for one to lose sight of the existent of religious activities or have an opportunity to fellowship with brethren of the same faith. It was difficult for me to miss identifying with one, as my dad had already instructed me before I left home to join one Christian fellowship. It was time to decide, asides my dad's advice, I personally considered it an important decision to make. I joined NCCF.
After camp, I ended up staying in NCCF corpers' family Lodge with other Christian corpers. I didn't know that this would mean the beginning of a significant journey in my spiritual life. I come from a Christian family where certain orthodox doctrines and laws are religiously kept. I remembered growing up with my sisters, morning devotions and a weekly fast was a tradition in my family, and my dad would enforce it sensu stricto. We disliked it sometimes, the deprivation of the early-hours morning sleep. But with time, we all got used to it. I had a good Christian upbringing but I never encountered God personally. I came from a sound Christian home where no form of malfeasance was tolerated, but I was yet to find God for myself. I used to believe in miracles, preachers would preach about it on sundays, yet my beliefs were never tested.
Before my service year, my spiritual life didn't experience any paradigm shift, my Christian mentality was beclouded with complacency. But while at NCCF, I encountered God differently. The things I used to hear started becoming spiritual realities. Through morning prayers, meetings, evangelism, outreaches, conferences and more, the miraculous kept happening. Initially, I found it difficult to stay at the NCCF lodge, because of the stringent rules there. But later, it became clear to me that when God wants to raise a man, He first of all disciplines him. So adaptation was inevitable. To make matters worse as I thought then, but no, it was rather for better, I was appointed to serve as one of the fellowship EXCOS (Publicity Secretary). I have always shy away from spiritual responsibilities or positions right from my high school days, I remembered rejecting the position of a Chapel prefect during my high school days, which haunted me for a few years afterwards. But this time, I was like the Biblical Jonah, there was no escape route. And today, I'm grateful for that particular privilege to have served under NCCF.
This was my first time of being in the midst of young people who were desperately hungry for God and whose greatest desire was to be used as vessels by God. I had never seen such hunger and passion. This was just beyond religious activity. This was a spiritual revolution which resulted in cultists surrendering their lives to Christ, asthma being healed, native doctor denouncing his gods and turning to Christ and more.
We organized several outreaches in different communities, and they were usually tagged "RURAL RUGGED". We moved from village to city, and from city to village. Camping in public schools and any available open space. And for each place we visited, God would manifest Himself in a very unique way.
KWALE
Kwale is the headquarters of Ndokwa west LGA in Delta state. It is a beautiful city blessed with some oil companies. It's also made up of small villages in the interior parts called (the emus); emu-unor, emu-obotnde and other emus. The best weed and weed smokers in the world are found in Kwale. Well, I couldn't agree more after visiting Kwale. Though it harbours some good oil companies, the rural parts thrive on weed, so sad. The streets smell weed, their houses expel weed, their notebooks are made of weed, such that their children could easily tear it off, wrap it and start smoking. When we arrived Kwale, we camped at a public primary school with no security, we prayed and launched out the following day. The outcome was massive, God did many great things there. I confronted a man who was smoking weed (marijuana) with his son on his laps about four years of age. I asked him why he did such. He told me it was to help relieve him of life stress and worries. I shared the gospel with him and also told him about the health consequences of smoking. He felt remorseful, dumped the weed, smashed it under his foot and confessed Jesus Christ instantly. At Kwale, I saw God healed the sick, I saw God through the smiles of little children. I saw God turned former cultists back to sane humans. Kwale was a wonderful experience and we didn't go there for the weed, we went for the souls!
ASABA
Asaba is the capital and administrative city of Delta. Yet as developed and exposed as it is, I found it difficult to believe that it still had shrines and idol worshippers in some parts. When we arrived, close to where we were to hold the NCCF State prayer/Leadership conference was a big shrine with idol worshippers inside. "Oh my, people are still in bondage" I said to myself. During the conference, I don't know what happened, but the following day, the entire shrine was left vacant. The idol worshippers and the shrine attendants had packed their gods and vacated. This could have only been God's power, and the shrine, it's worshippers and their idols couldn't contain it, they had no other choice than to pack out.
EJEME
The state RURAL RUGGED took place at Ejeme. A village in the southern part of Delta. Most of the NCCF members across the state converged to reach out to people through the gospel of Jesus Christ, free medical services to both young and elderly persons, free gifts and food to children etc.
We lodged in a public primary school and launched out the following day for evangelism. During the house-to-house evangelism, we met a native doctor. I've watched native doctors in movies, perform juju and sing incantations, but this was the first time of encountering one physically. I was a bit frightened at the sight initially, I guessed some of us were equally frightened too, but we under the covering of corporate faith, we were under God's covering, and so we were unmoved. We shared this common belief, that impossible is nothing with God. When the native doctor was asked by our fellowship President to denounce his gods and accept Jesus Christ, he simply laughed and called us grasshoppers. He further said that he would give our bodies to be fed by the birds of the air and wild beasts if we didn't leave. We started praying, and as we kept on praying, the native doctor started singing incantations. At this point, I knew I was at the crossroad of my Christian walk, this was a combination of both physical and spiritual warfare. As we kept on praying, suddenly the native doctor went his knees and begging us to stop as he began confessing Jesus as is Lord and personal Saviour. I was so excited and somewhat surprised, this was real!
Immediately, we moved inside the shrine, packed out things, everything. We gathered them outside and burnt them all. We prayed for the man and took him along with us for a fellow up. The news spread across the community, people were surprised and were eager to meet with these corpers whom God has used to stir the entire community and as such the turn-out for our
evening crusade meeting that day was massive with the former native doctor in attendance. We were all excited and grateful to God for his marvellous works. This was a miracle, and this was the most remarkable to me.
All these events and more awakened my spiritual being and reminded me that miracles are real and that God still perform miracles. Indeed, God still performs miracles and if miracles do not happen any longer, then God's promises would exist only to mock us. God restored this native doctor back to the status of being His son and that is what miracles are about, they're about God restoring what Satan has destroyed and for this native doctor, it was no exception. This is a true life story!
Word Count: 1752 words
Thank you for reading patiently to the end. All images were gotten from my phone.
