The Passion To Share The Gospel

later this year as well to the Bangor Worldwide Convention and to do something for us in the Diocese of Downed Revoir as well in terms of our Bible week. So, you're incredibly welcome. Let's give this man a round of applause, please, and a warm welcome. We'll do this in a very relaxed way. We'll both take our seats, okay? And if you'd begin by maybe sharing with us just something of your own story of faith. It strikes me that those who come to faith through reading the Bible, for example, always have an incredible love for the Scriptures. Those who maybe are converted at a big rally see the value of a big evangelistic rally, but tell us your story as to how you came to give your life to Christ. I'm one of those children that came into the world wondering what this world was all about. So, my mother didn't even know what to do with me. And growing up, I went to a military school. I wanted to serve the Nigerian army, which is what I think my life... I was too active. I was always... And one of the things that I had as a gift was I didn't know how to do what was right, so I was always in trouble all the time. That worked well for the army. They liked it, and I liked it too because I was always in the guard room. But one of those days, we were going out with my friends, and some gentleman was witnessing in the street, and I wanted to put him off because I was baptized. I was confirmed. I'd come from a Christian background family. But in less than 10 minutes, I found myself in tears, broken down completely with the simple words, the thief comes to steal, kill, and destroy, but I've come that you may have... That was exactly what I was looking for that I didn't know how, and that was how he turned me back from going into town to do my mischief back to my house in the barracks, and that began a journey to where I am today. I received Christ, and the experiences have been amazing since then. Archbishop, there's a lot of young men and young women here today. What are the things that have really sustained you and that have kept you in a place where today you love Jesus more than you did that day? The first one is what Nick spoke about at the beginning, that the gospel brings you to a fellowship of brothers and sisters, and whereas my brothers and sisters before I received Christ was around the bottle of beer and cigarettes and all of that, now I became a brother and a brother of sisters within a fellowship of love, of integrity, of sincerity that I never had. That is the one that keeps me going. The second is the powerful word of God. The man who led me to the Lord very early, I was about 18 towards 19, taught me how to read the Bible once a year, and he had a background of navigators, so I was also encouraged to memorize scripture, and then the other exciting part was I encountered also Campus Crusade, so I began to witness in the streets just like what happened to me. So those things give me tremendous joy, and they keep me going to date, still the same. Archbishop, you were present. You've been at all the different worldwide GAFCON gatherings, and I was present when you were present in Nairobi some almost nine years ago, I suppose it is now, and for me that conference, there was lots of very special moments, but one of them was at a service in the cathedral in Nairobi when the congregation of whatever number, a couple of thousand people probably, began to sing a song that I'd never heard before, Faith of Our Fathers, Living Still in Spite of Danger, Toil or Spear. And in that moment, something that I knew in my head really went from my head to my heart that I was part of a church and part of something that down through the years people had paid an incredible price for, and many were still paying an incredible price for the gospel and to be sure that the gospel would be proclaimed and proclaimed boldly and clearly across the nations, and in our world, many have given their lives for that gospel. You live up close to persecution. Would you share just something of your own story in that, but also something of how that might speak to us in the West today? I just saw one of the books that Andrew Boyd here wrote about me. He's been to many times. He's visited and he's written extensively on some of what I have been through with my wife and children, but as a young priest in Zaria, the very first time I would come close to death was in 1987. I was rescued by someone who was my French teacher. He was by now commander in the army in Zaria and some of the senior army officers who rescued me at night, but my house was burnt and my church was burnt. What came out of that is my response to your answer. I wasn't so sure why that would happen to me. I didn't know why, but after that, I vowed to God that every other day I lived, I was going to declare the gospel of Jesus Christ. I was going to live for Jesus Christ and I was going to serve Jesus Christ through any community where I was. I said to Gloria, I'm not so sure I will live up to 40 years, but whatever is left of my life, I'm going to be reconsiderate about preaching the gospel and living for Jesus. That is one thing that came out of that. I'm now 66, so I've lived through, apparently I was going to have many more ahead of me of those testings, and they did come and they came in most awkward manners, but each time it came, afterwards there'll be something new for which I had a purpose to live for. By the second attack was when I now knew that the gospel was worth living for and it was worth dying for, because by this time, tears have finished. I no longer cry, but people who were crying when they've been persecuted, I had what I had in Christ in me to comfort them, to bring them to my house, and Gloria's doing worse. She brings all the children to the house. Now there are close to about 100 in the house and then another 400 outside of the house. So it seems every attack seems to open a door for a new version of the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ. You're having it now in Europe with Ukraine, and I think the church is going to have to open the doors of its heart and its homes to enter and engage into this ministry. I think that one of the things that this persecution does is you get used to it. You never do, honestly, you don't, but you kind of you get used to it. I say, when am I going to die, and then before I die, what do I do? So there is another thing that comes out of it. If you read Paul's letters, he kind of forgets about whether he's going to live or die, and he says, if I live, I live for Christ. If I die, I'm going to be with the Lord. So either way, we're in good business in Christ. Okay. Archbishop, your general secretary, I think is your title, of GAFCON, and would you just share something with us of what the Lord has placed into your own heart for that movement, for the church, and how that relates to us here in Ireland and for these guys today? Well, first is to thank you. In Ireland, in the whole of the UK, what I've done to the young people now is we've gone around in Platter States to look for the graves of both local and European missionaries. I want to rebuild them and put proper cenotaphs. Did you say the graves? Yes, yes, yes. We have found quite a number already. Walter Miller, Jack Lloyd, Reverend Fox, no, Dr. Fox, Miss Webster, and a few others were found. The reason is that I want the coming generations not to forget that people died for the gospel, not with guns. They brought education, healthcare, they brought agriculture, and they brought themselves to us. In the days when there was no custom, visa, police, protection, nothing, they died. We must not think of the gospel as a comfortable enterprise. It has to cost and will yet cost. So, on becoming general secretary of GAFCON, if you put these two things, the first, the way I came to Christ, two, my value for missionary work, I have nothing to offer the worldwide church than that. My first calling to the Anglican Church to go back to its missionary call, its apostolic missionary call, the world now needs the gospel. The authentic gospel, everything that Bishop Foley is trying to bring before us, we want to debunk it with the power of the gospel, Paul says, is the power of God unto salvation. There's nothing that can save or transform communities and lives in the gospel. So, if we drop that, we might as well drop the apostolic succession, but we must not. GAFCON must not. So, my first calling to GAFCON as a world is that we are missionaries to the world with the gospel and the leaders of this mission enterprise are the bishops. They claim the apostolic succession. We might as well run with it and each gospel, of course, begins locally. It has its context. So, but the second is to make sure that this gospel is passed on from one generation to another. And that is a big thing for me because I live in a situation where I might get killed, but somebody has to take it on. So, if I don't raise the next generation, that will be it. Then the ministry of women. Women can change issues when it comes to gospel. They are an amazing people. I mean, we're not very wise when we look down on women, but when it comes to gospel, they are the fastest spreaders of the good news. I've seen that with Gloria as a local priest. In the evening, she would have gone everywhere else, and then she comes back in the evening with about five or six women who all have different kinds of problems, and she believes I will solve the problems. So, I try the best I can. Some of it, you know, children are sick, so I usually keep chloroquine, all these medicines, and I treat them. I'm the pharmacist. I'm a quack, so I do all that. And God in his infinite mercy, his children get better, and then some are hunger issues. Women have been bitten by their husbands. So, anyway, I solve all five women problems. Two weeks later, five women come to church, but they don't come alone. They come with their children, with their dependents. So, you see, a church of about 50 people, now five women bring in another 25, 75. Church growth is women. So, we want to encourage women who are raising children and grandchildren to know how significant it is to lead their families to Christ, and women can do that. So, I want to encourage that. So, I want to encourage mercy ministries as the case in Ukraine now, as the case in Nigeria, in Sudan, in Yemen. The Gavcon family ought to be a generous family in extending its hand to suffering. It has a way in which it speaks the gospel before you preach it, when you care. Tell us something about what's planned for the next big worldwide conference in Kigali. When it's happening, why folks from Ireland maybe should consider beginning now to get ready to go to it and bring others with them. Just tell us something about what that might be like as an event. I'm afraid that if we ask the folks in Ireland all to come, there'll be no space for others. That'll be your problem. That'll be my problem. But we're expecting people from Ireland to come. We're expecting people from all over the world to come. It will be in April next year, April 19 to 24, I think. Plan to attend. The reason is, if we love our Anglican church as Jesus has given to us to care for him, we should be there. Because we're believing that at that gathering, we're going to look for what the Lord will do with us to send us back to our various nations. The theme of the conference is John 6, to whom shall we go? Everything else in the world has failed. Only Jesus can help us and only Jesus can help our church. There are those who are still within the church that need strength to be able to stand in the church to bring out the light for Jesus. There are those who like Foley have been thrown out, yet we love the body of Christ and we must not leave anybody to be missing. We want to bring salvation to all people. There are those who like in northern Nigeria, in Sudan, in Congo, who don't even know what peace looks like. They need Jesus to help navigate the troubles and the struggles of this life, yet to enter into Christ with joy. One common denominator at the foot of the cross is that nobody comes to the cross and leaves with sadness. There is fullness of joy to all who come. So we're looking at coming together in Kigali and together at the foot of the cross, taking and drinking from teachers of the word, and there will be opportunities for us to pray for one another, to lay hands and cry together. There'll be opportunities also of calling out in the evening sessions of joy and music and ministry to all who attend. Thank you. I see Trevor Johnson looking at his watch here, but I have one last question if I just may. Is that OK Trevor? One last question. I'm looking out here over this congregation this afternoon. There's a good number of young men and young women here. If any of them are thinking of their future and thinking of what God might be calling them to, and they're thinking maybe of ordained ministry or some other type of ministry, but they're looking at the church at the same time and they're thinking, I'm not sure, what would you say to them in response to that? And I want to just say none of these questions have been pre-prepared, but what would you say to any young man or woman who's thinking down those lines but looks on at the church and maybe isn't terribly encouraged at what they see at times? The church, when you look at it in human terms, at any generation, has never been encouraging. There always will be troubles, but what is most encouraging is Jesus in our hearts and the call that he calls us to. If you're such a young person here, male or female, don't look at the church. In fact, the very reason Jesus is calling you is to come and solve the problem. Amen. Amen. Let's pray. Lord, we do thank you for the privilege that is ours to belong to Jesus. We thank you, Lord, for all the ways that you've led each of us to this point in our lives today. Thank you that the gospel is the power of God to change lives. Thank you, Lord, for your hand on Archbishop Ben's life. We pray protection and blessing and fruitfulness in all his leadership, particularly, Lord, in the leadership of GAFCON. Just bless him and fill him with your wisdom. In Jesus' name. Amen.