A Testimony Of God At Work In Africa

I received the following email from Nigeria about how God is using the Pursuing Intimacy With God site (www.intimacywithgod.com) and Bible studies. What a great blessing and privilege to be a part of God's mission and work in the world.

Dear Kevin, Warm greetings of peace to you in the Lord's name.

I am writing to thank you for sending the "Pursuing Intimacy with God" Bible study 1&2. I am short of words to express what a blessing the materials are. I did not write immediately because I wanted to be able to send a contribution, no matter how little, in appreciation of those materials and your good work for the Lord in Brazil. I will certainly send a contribution in the near future. For now, I am writing to thank you and to let you know how I am using the materials and the blessing that it has been to me and my group.

I am a Missionary myself, focusing on reaching unreached rural people in Africa. I pioneered the Christ Missionary Outreach Ministry here in Nigeria since 6th September 1990. We are planting churches in rural communities where there is no gospel witness. In 2009 I came accross Leadership Institute in Orange County in California when I was doing a doctoral program at International Theological Seminary in Los Angeles. This group has a fantastic approach to leadership development. They primarily seek to incorporate leadership and spiritual formation in such a way that gives priority to leaders spirituality. They do six leadership retreats in a period of two years. I participated in this.

When I returned home to Nigeria last year, I felt in my heart that I need to adopt that approach, so I thought of a theme to center my session on and came up with "Cultivating intimacy with God" then I thought of checking the internet to see what I can find that would be of help. That is how the Lord led me to your web site. 30 pastors and leaders registered for the retreats. The first one took place March 29- April 1, 2012 in prayer mountain facility being developed by a Curian pastor here in Nigeria. When I got your materials, I changed my theme to read exactly like the title of your study materials: "Pursuing Intimacy with God" because that seems to capture the depth of my heart desire for the pastors and myself. Next I decided that I will include two studies from your materials in each retreat. In this last one, the pastors did two studies (week one and two, from page 1-11). I asked them to take two hours alone with God and those materials and them later on we took another one and half hour of discussing them together. The impact was tremendous. Now they have gone home with the materials to now study them carefully again with others. I intend to do this till we finish our six retreats next year.

I just wanted you to know how these materials are being used to the glory of the Master of the harvest, the Lord Jesus. Thank you so much again.

Bitrus Audu, Director, Christ Missionary Outreach Nigeria