We met Pius from Nigeria almost 2 years ago through a WhatsApp group designed for church leaders in West Africa. He was facilitating the discussion and sharing the vision of raising up 1 million laborers for countries in West Africa.
We contacted him and shared the vision of empowering leaders in WA to “cast the nets” online, find the people of peace and initiate online groups. He was ready.
He invited us to cast vision and train leaders in his WhatsApp group. We did it and the following Christmas we started a digital campaign. We would meet via zoom for the training. His internet signal was poor and it would drop time after time, but Pius would not give up. Please let’s continue, he would say.
When the online Christmas outreach started he led the first person to Christ. He was full of joy and shared it first in his WhatsApp group. In the next few days Pius kept leading others to Christ even though the internet would drop in the middle of conversations, but he would never quit, and he grouped them in Whatsapp groups.
After the campaign, we continued the relationship. We would pray for him and his wife Aytomowa, and they would pray for our family. After a year of praying for them to have a child, Aytomowa called Rudina to give her the good news: they were expecting a baby! Rudina could not keep her tears. God had heard the prayers and had visited them. The first months we were praying for a safe pregnancy. The baby is due this February. Please pray for Aytomowa and the baby for a smooth labor and a healthy baby, please pray for their needs as their family is growing.
As an evangelist, Pius kept sharing the vision and the urgency to reach the lost in his WhatsApp group. In the meanwhile, he wrote a book emphasizing the same urgency and vision. Rudina reviewed it and was deeply impressed by the deep sense of mission he had reflected in his book.
This Christmas Pius WhatsApp-ed us to ask help to train a multi-site church in Liberia and then a group of missionaries that are targeting Chinese minorities in West Africa.
The Liberian church had thousands of people that came as a result of the Amazing Question Outreach. Many of the Liberian volunteers were completely new to the online ministry and the pastor got sick in the middle of the campaign, thus he was not able to continue the whole time. Pius jumped on and he started to lead people to Christ. In a few days, he launched the first group of 39 people. Today this group has grown to 81 people.
The experience with the missionaries reaching the Chinese minorities is still going on. This time he is not a participant in the training but a collaborator and trainer with us. He would organize the group, set the agenda, and train them on how to approach people online and is one of the admins on the Chinese Facebook page. He is monitoring the campaign and encouraging the missionaries to follow up on the new contacts. He led to Christ being the first non-Chinese visitor on the Facebook page.
Here is what he said about his experience:
“I give glory to God for getting to know about the Amazing Question Social media gospel campaign since last year. It has opened my eyes to the practicality of launching the gospel on Facebook to reach a larger audience. It also opens my eyes to see how much the Lord can do through the obedience of His people to saturate cyberspace with the gospel of the Kingdom.
I am glad to announce to you that the campaign at Liberia was a huge success, as it has opened to me a wide door of opportunity for digital ministry. To the glory of God, I was able to redirect 81 people to the WhatsApp group and I am launching a weekly WhatsApp fellowship with them this coming Friday.”
I think we have a digital champion that God has prepared for this time.
What does the profile of a digichampion look like in your region?
