Forty-eight class lectures and seminars, two Sunday sermons, numerous talks for morning prayers, keynote lectures for the whole College, singing in the choir, training with the football team, prison visitation and ministry, running a First Aid course for students and staff, many hours spent chatting with / mentoring / counselling / playing scrabble with students: how my recent four weeks at Peter Achimudu College of Theology (PACT) in central Nigeria flew by!
When I retired from Union Theological College (where I had been Professor of Old Testament Studies and Principal for many years), I agreed with Mission Africa to go to Nigeria twice a year for three years, each trip for six weeks, to teach in two Theological Colleges supported by the Mission: PACT in Kogi State and William Wheatley Theological College (WWTC) in Abia State – and I am now half way through that three-year commitment. My core work is teaching Old Testament Studies and Hebrew plus helping the two Colleges to upgrade their courses towards University recognition. But, as the above description of my recent Spring visit to PACT makes clear, I seek to become involved as widely as I can in the life of the College and the lives of the students. In addition to my involvement in PACT and WWTC, I am asked to give guest lectures in other Colleges; and in JETS, one of the bigger Colleges in Jos, I help with the supervision of PhD students.
There are serious moments and fun moments. I will never forget the day that Marybell (who cooks and cleans for me in PACT) arrived in the morning with a live chicken peeping out of her shopping basket. At lunchtime that same day, I had chicken and rice with mango sauce, from mangoes grown on the compound. It gives a new meaning to fresh food! The students played a football match in my “honour” (I have a knee injury at present and unable either to play or to referee, as in the past). I wasn’t sure what it would mean to have a match played in my honour: it did involve kicking-off the match (limping with a walking stick) – but the main role was to pay for the half-time drinks and refreshments!
Friday at PACT is Prison Ministry Day. I regularly joined the small team of students who undertake prison ministry as their weekly evangelism project. The local prison was built in 1915 under the British Empire. I imagine the British did not design it as a holiday camp – but after nearly 60 years of independence and almost zero maintenance, it is now a grim place by any standards. It is relatively small – about 100 inmates – half of them Muslims and half Christians. We lead a Church service, after which a limited few moments of individual conversations is permitted. Many of the prisoners are young men incarcerated because of failure to pay a fine or a debt. The fine or debt is not necessarily a large sum by our standards (£30 perhaps) - but it is well beyond the means of these young guys or their families to raise – and so they languish in the prison with little prospect of release. The prison staff seem kindly enough; they welcome the students who come and allow us to bring Bibles, medicine, and some small home comforts (for example, I provided a bag of slippers, which they had requested so as not to have to walk about bare-footed). They join in worship with great enthusiasm and the Gospel message does seem to bring some hope and comfort amid the hopelessness.
On my way home from PACT in March, I had an overnight stop at Holley Memorial Hospital. There I gave a talk at the launch of a community football tournament, organised from the Hospital as a community outreach. I spoke to them about how Northern Ireland (the Green and White Army as we are called) had just missed a place in the World Cup; but that we would be supporting Nigeria (who also play in Green and White) in Moscow. To my astonishment one of the teenage players could name every player on the NI Team with the name of their club! It was encouraging not only to see a high standard of football; but, also, the attentiveness and enthusiasm with which the teenagers and young men on the teams listened to my Gospel message.
For my next visit, I will primarily be based at William Wheatley College. Abia State is a two-day car journey from Abuja Airport. It is in the middle of what those of us who were around in the late 1960s will remember as Biafra - and they will recall the horrific civil war and resultant mass starvation for the Igbo tribe especially, which dominated the TV news of that era. 2017 was the fiftieth anniversary of the outbreak of that war. However, the present younger generation of Igbos have little recollection of that era and the majority seem well integrated into modern Nigeria. My accommodation at WWTC is more basic than at PACT. The survival skills which I learned through 35 years of service in the Territorial Army stand me in good stead; and I am slowly learning to cope with various insects and the occasional lizard running around the house! There, as at PACT, I feel privileged to be able to contribute to the theological training and ministry-formation of so many high calibre young ministry students who will be the future ministry and leadership of the Church in that part of Nigeria. I am humbled at their faith and commitment and the hardship that they face (some live on as little as a cup of rice a day). And the academic standard which they reach is impressive – especially in view of the very limited library and internet access available to them.
I would value your prayers for security (the threat of terrorism and violent crime is real) and for safety on the roads (an even greater danger). Pray also for wisdom for me in teaching and in mentoring students and more generally for the life and work of the Colleges.
