Fall 2009 Pastors Conference

I am excited to say that we had a fantastic trip to Ikot Ekpene to be with Aniefiok and be a part of the 6th Leadership Conference for AOI. Five of us from Fellowship Bible Church Nashville arrived in Lagos on Tuesday, October 27th. Dan and Dian Belbeck, RoseAnne Coleman returned for their second time and Tom Clagett joined us for his first trip. As we got off the plane and took our luggage through customs, we went outside to find that Aniefiok wasn’t there. It was the first time in my four trips that he was not there to meet us. His flight from Calabar to Lagos was delayed by two hours and we waited outside the Lagos airport for about 30 minutes before he arrived. While it was a little unsettling, we were fine and it confirmed for me the importance of having Aniefiok meet teams as they arrive in Lagos and then travel on with them. He took us to a nice local hotel and the next day we flew to Calabar. From there, we met up with Innocent, Godwin, and Pastor Greg who helped us travel on to Aniefiok’s home.

The five of us took 10 suitcases, one each for personal items and one each for supplies that included 400 New Testaments to give to the pastors as well as some medications that Dr. Vanderpool sent with us to take to Aniefiok to give away to those that needed them. As part of our resources to give the pastors, we paid for 400 Marriage Bible Study books from Precept ministries. Through Dan’s association with this ministry, he arranged for the printing and delivery of these books from within Africa. Stuart Kemsley from Precept Ministries joined us from South Africa and brought the books with him. He met us in Lagos and was with us for the duration of our stay and we are very excited that we were able to establish a relationship with him. He may join us again and participate by teaching in a future conference.

The conference began on Thursday. Dian and RoseAnne had more women than they anticipated as they taught from and gave the women the Precept book by Kay Arthur, Teach Me To Study The Bible in 28 Days. Several of the women shared how excited they were that they were learning how to really study the Bible as never before. I’m thankful that for the second time, we have been able to include a track for women and RoseAnne and Dian are excellent teachers. Dan Belbeck continued his teaching to help the men improve their marriages, Tom Clagett presented a series of lessons on the Five Core Values that we teach at Fellowship (Worship, Community, Growth, Service, and Generosity), and I presented Leadership Lessons from the Life of Joshua. The conference concluded on Saturday and over the three days, there were close to 400 participants.

On Sunday, I had the opportunity to speak at Aniefiok’s church while Tom and Stuart attended and spoke at Godwin’s church. It was a good day to worship with our brother’s and sister’s as we danced and celebrated our Lord together.

On Sunday afternoon, we had the opportunity to meet with Francis, a local doctor that will be crucial to Aniefiok’s leadership team for the future medical clinic. On Monday, we had the opportunity to visit the school where the VBS is held in August and we also visited the local orphanage to deliver some gifts and toys that were delivered from our Nashville Inversion team while we were there.

Every time we go, God does amazing things and we always realize that while the material we teach is valuable to the pastors, the most important thing is the time we spend encouraging each other and bringing glory to God through our walk and ministry together.

In Him,

Jeff Runion