Food Drive, Nigeria … A great success!

Posted by Bill on February 4, 2012

The Lord is busy at work through His faithful people at Lagos and Ibadan, Nigeria. CCI is glad to be partnering with Dominion Impact Church (Pastor Elijah and Pastor Kola).

I hope your spirit will be encouraged and strengthened as you read the following report from Pastor Elijah in Lagos.

Dear Friends,

Hunger, nakedness, illness, homelessness, oppression and the likes characterises the environment in which we live and minister every day in Lagos and Ibadan.

God hasn’t given the ultimate solution to our government. But to the church, the Lord has commissioned us to take charge of the situation and occupy/take territories from the enemy, for His kingdom. Most churches around us have neglected this holistic ministry of meeting the spiritual, physical, and emotional needs of the people. But as God gives His grace to Dominion Impact Church at Lagos and Ibadan, we want to make a difference in the lives of many needy people.

“For I was hungry, and you fed me. I was thirsty, and you gave me a drink. I was a stranger, and you invited me into your home. I was naked, and you gave me clothing. I was sick, and you cared for me. I was in prison, and you visited me” (Matthew 25:35-36).

Moved with compassion for our people, Dominion Impact Church, through its Life-groups in Lagos and Ibadan, sought to fulfill the above Scripture by embarking on ambitious ‘reaching out in love’ exercises within the New Oko-Oba and Challenge communities. This outreach was targeted at meeting some basic needs in the homes of the less-privileged. To us, it was a way of demonstrating the love of Christ in a practical way to people who don’t know Him. Christmas time, we believe, is an ideal time to do to this.

The Food Drive was carried out at Lagos and Ibadan, on the 18^th and 22^nd of December, 2011. The careful choice of food items was also necessary because of the Christmas and New Year festive season. We engaged our Street Kids (one of our Life groups) in our outreach strategy as a means of touching hearts. After the food drive, we saw that many homes had opened up to the gospel. Parents came and showed their appreciation to us, and it was a perfect opportunity to present the Lord to them.

We are grateful to you for your prayer support and for helping us to finance this outreach opportunity. Our food drive was a great success! The pictures were taken at our Ibadan Church food drive.

We love you
Pastor Elijah
Dominion Impact Church

Thank you for your valued partnership. If you would like to support the work of Dominion Impact Church in Nigeria, please just click on the PayPal button below.

CCI takes no fees or charges from your donation. The amount you send, less only what PayPal charges us, will be sent to Dominion Impact Church.

Pray for All Nations Community Church in Sudan

Posted by Bill on January 28, 2012

Just over a week ago (or maybe two weeks by the time this is posted), CCI had the privilege of forwarding a sizeable cash gift to All Nations Community Church in Sudan for the purpose of strengthening their efforts in outreaching their community. Shortly after I received the following email from Papiti, the pastor of ANCC …

Hi Pastor Bill,

Thank you and the CCI Team for this Divine Provision. I call it a Divine provision, because since last month we have been praying for our second evangelistic outreach to take place and we have been praying for money that can cover the cost. With the gift you sent we are going to start the outreach on 26^th Jan, up to 29^th.. This four days outreach will make a great change in the life of many people. So please join us in prayer for this day and for the part of cost that is not covered. God bless you more.

Papiti.

Friends, I am so amazed at the perfect timing of this gift. I had no idea that ANCC had planned a 4-days outreach and needed financial support. I give credit to the Holy Spirit for inspiring a number of CCI partners to collaborate together for His will and purposes with ANCC. I’ve attached several photos to help you in your prayers for Papiti and ANCC. Let’s pray for a great movement of the Holy Spirit during the 4 days of their outreach event.

Pastor Papiti and family

“Lord, what an amazing work You have done in ANCC. And how glad we are to know You will continue this work until it has been completed. We want to support Your efforts through Papiti and ANCC. May Your love, grace and mercy flow freely through their community in South Sudan during the time of their outreach, commencing on the 26^th of this month. Draw many hungry and thirsty souls to Your throne of grace, through Your Son, Jesus, by the power of Your Holy Spirit. Strengthen Your church, Lord. Receive the glory they desire for You. Amen.”

Celebrating the birth of Liberty City Church!

Posted by Bill on January 22, 2012

A few days ago I received an email from Wale and Emma Oladipo – old team mates from Maadi Community Church in Cairo, saying …

“We are just so pleased to update you with the fact that our church location has been confirmed – a community centre very close to the University of Leeds – and that our first Sunday service will be on February 19. Wooo! And have you seen the fantastic job that Nick has done with the website? Check out www.libertycitychurch.org.uk. It’s mega!

You may not have known that Wale and Emma (CCI Teammates) received a vision from the Lord to plant a new church! Well, I am thrilled to share with you that the birth of Liberty City Church will be celebrated in Leeds, UK, on the 19^th of February. When I visited their website, I was greeted with …

“Welcome to Liberty City Church, a brand new church plant in Leeds, based within walking distance from Leeds University, we are a Bible-believing church who love Jesus and love people. Our commitment to every member, seeker or curious bystander is that you are welcomed and accepted as you are, and that you will hear and be taught the uncompromised wisdom of God which unleashes faith to live a life of victory. Our passion is to enable and empower others to become all that God has called them to be and to experience the love of Jesus through a deeper relationship with God and each other. In His presence is fullness of joy… so why not come and experience His joy at Liberty City Church. Wale & Emma.”

Wale & Emma Oladipo

Wale and Emma are totally motivated to play their part in fulfilling the Great Commission. Between them, they have a broad experience and knowledge of various Christian denominations and they are passionate about leading people of all backgrounds into a relationship with Jesus Christ. Wale is a qualified psychotherapist and treats private clients alongside his work with Anxiety UK and Greatvine. In his free time he loves to play football and spend time with his family. Emma is a secondary school English teacher. She is passionate about music and languages and loves to meet people from other cultures.

Let’s rally around Wale and Emma, and Liberty City Church, with prayers and encouragement. Let’s expect great things from our great God, for what He will do in and through Liberty City Church.

“Thank You, Lord, for Wale, Emma, and Liberty City Church. We stand with Wale and Emma in the dedication of this church on the 19^th of February. May the life and ministries of this church reflect your grace, love and mercy to its surrounding community. Lord, may You be honored and glorified through Liberty City Church. Amen.”

Bill J

Can you help our partners in Nigeria?

Posted by Bill on December 31, 2011

Our partners in Ibadan, Nigeria – Dominion Impact Church – have courageously stepped out in faith with an ambitious project to construct a building for their church family.

Our dear friend, Reverend Kola Emiola, says,

“The purpose of this project is to enable us have our own permanent place of worship in Ibadan. Present lease cost of our worship facility is exorbitant. And, our facilities are not adequate to enable the smooth running of our ministry activities. Our facility, for example, does not allow enough space for us to provide quality ministry support for the children in each of our services. Our regular leadership and cells training are most of the times disrupted by rain and excessive heat from the sun. At times, we are forced to rent space from nearby hotels for special leadership conferences/trainings. Using these facilities are very costly. We had to find a solution.

Hence, our faith step in trusting the Lord to buy land, and begin constructing facilities that would support our growth. This building will house our worship centre, children department, cells centre for leadership trainings, library and office for our church staff and pastors.

Please, we invite you to join us in this great building project. Please help us in any way you can (prayer, encouragement, and financial gifts).

We’ve partnered with Kola and his team at Dominion Impact Church since 2004 and have visited them several times. We are delighted to be able to share with you that they are godly people, with a sound leader in Pastor Kola, who are extremely passionate in their faith for the Lord.

Are you in a position to help?

No matter how small, your financial gift will make a difference. Just click on the PayPal button below to make a specific donation to Dominion Impact Church‘s building project.

Just Imagine

Posted by Bill on December 17, 2011

IMAGINATION_by_archanN

I joined the ministry team at Maadi Community Church (MCC) in May, 2000, hoping the Lord might build His church through me and my wife, Beryl (Matthew 16:18a). Even though I knew I was a weak vessel, I willingly gave myself to the Lord, expecting Him to do great and mighty things. I expected the Lord to establish networks of small groups that would care for God’s people, grow many lay-leaders, and engage in bold Kingdom expansion activities. Throughout my time at MCC, I exercised an “extra mile” commitment in everything I did. I poured my mind, heart, body and soul into this work. Not only did the Lord fulfil my expectations, He went one amazing step further by birthing five churches from our expanding number of small groups. What a surprise!

Why didn’t I expect the Lord to birth churches from our efforts? In my case, there are two reasons: Firstly, birthing churches was outside of my ministry experience, and secondly, I never imagined this possibility. My Egypt experience took me from being willing to dream dreams that “I/we” can make happen to the spiritual realm of imagination … dreaming dreams that only the Lord can achieve. I now know that the ability to imagine such things is a gift, offered by God to His children to help them “see” in advance His grand purpose for their lives! Through the exercise of this amazing gift the Lord performs His plans … “plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope” (Jeremiah 29:11b).

In my small “Collins Gem” Australian English Dictionary, “imagination” is defined as, “faculty of making mental images of things not present”. I like this definition, but from a Christian perspective the following definition is better: “faculty of receiving from God mental images of things not present.”

In the Old Testament we learn of Joseph’s amazing gift of imagination. His brothers made fun of him and dismissed him as a “dreamer” (Genesis 37:5-11). The exercise of one’s imagination is something that is not usually encouraged in most families, work places, and churches. Living within the safe parameters of “do only that which is humanly possible” seems to be the norm for most people in the world. It’s the norm, alright, but it’s not all right with me! This near-sighted view robs us of the amazing hope that Scripture teaches we have in our relationship with the Lord – to open our spiritual eyes and see … and to reach out and take hold of everything the Lord has determined for us.

In July, 2006, I had the privilege of dedicating to the Lord the second of our five daughter churches at Ain Shams (an hour’s drive from Maadi) – the Interdenominational Revival Bible Church was born and dedicated to God’s great glory. I knew this young church had an exciting future ahead. Through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, I could see this church growing and maturing into a fine adult church, and then multiplying many daughter churches that would grow and multiply many daughter churches.

Friends, my imagination has been sparked by the Holy Spirit and has taken me to many exciting new places in life. I can now see further, and I can now see more! My imagination runs hot with amazing possibilities. Do you know what I’m talking about? Do you have the gift of imagination? Are you exercising that gift? Just imagine! There’s a whole new world out there waiting to be seen and seized.

Exercise this divine gift – see and experience the amazing things the Lord has in store for you.