In August, Neal went to Nigeria to promote the new Harvest Connection DVDs with the Nigerian Evangelical Missions Association (NEMA). After arriving, he learned that, because of the way churches and missions work in Nigeria, it would be insufficient to follow the original plan (that is, to show the DVDs to the NEMA facilitators and discuss how to use them in their churches and ministry settings).

So here's how the two conferences ended up working out. At the first conference, in Ilorin, 18 people were there. Neal and Tim (NEMA general secretary) alternated teaching sections (i.e. Tim taught Session 1, Neal taught Session 2, etc...) and then used the DVD portion as a summary and conclusion for each session. Tim and Neal also entertained questions and discussion about how to use this teaching in the local churches and ministry settings.

The second conference was in Delta State, attended by 200 local pastors and missionaries (and a few ministry and denominational leaders). Neal and Tim focused on teaching the actual material of the Harvest Connection, instead of training attendees to use the DVDs. Through this, Neal observed the contextualization of Harvest Connection and its interaction with the Nigerian Christian subculture.

NEMA is already known in Nigeria for emphasizing work among unreached people groups. Future partnership efforts would probably focus on sharing AIMS material with them and letting NEMA contextualize as necessary for Nigeria. This is a strength NEMA has--expressing Harvest Connection (and, potentially, other AIMS materials) in a Nigerian way. The DVDs will undoubtedly be used in a Nigerian way to mobilize more laborers for the harvest.

Praise the Lord that God used the time to start (and continue) doing some great things! Please see attached photos for action shots of the trainings.