Historic Background

Nigeria-Ijaw Mission (NIM) was established by Faith Christian Church in December 2002 after I returned from a trip to Nigeria where I joined up with our Nigerian national missionary, Wilson Okotie (O-ko-tee-ay). Since 1998 we have been supporting Wilson's ministry (High Impact Christian Center-HICC) as a church planter and Apostle-Missionary to the Ijaw (Ee-joe) Tribe in the Niger River Delta region. After witnessing first hand, the great inroads Wilson has made among the Ijaw, I have formed NIM to increase and concentrate our support and involvement more effectively.

My connection w/ Wilson and his ministry (HICC) is through my friendship w/ Dr. Daniel Bernard (Full House Ministries), the American missionary who discipled Wilson while living as a missionary in Nigeria. Wilson continues to operate under Dan's leadership and we (NIM) function in a support/partner role with HICC and FHM. Because Dan Bernard lives here in Clearwater, FL we are able to coordinate together w/ Wilson concerning the progress of the work and maintain an ongoing communication.

The Ijaw, the oldest people-group of Nigeria, and 4th largest tribe, number about 15 million and divided into several kingdoms. They are indigenous to the Niger River Delta and are also called "The River People", dwelling in small villages along the banks in fishing communities. They are the most isolated of Nigeria's 200 tribes, due to their ancient cultural ways, remote access and a reputation for being fiercely aggressive. A few years back Wilson Okotie was called of God to live among and evangelize the Ijaw. After a sustained effort of almost 2 years Wilson converted the village chief of Ajakurama; was adopted as his son, and began to win many Ijaw converts. He established a church and immediately began an intense 1-year discipleship program to train Ijaw pastors. He then took the chief and visited the neighboring village of Ogbudugbudu (O-bu-du-bu-du) where they preached the gospel, gained converts and established another Ijaw church. Subsequently Wilson married Nannas (surnamed "Praise"), the granddaughter of a late Ijaw King. Within a few years Wilson had established 2 village churches and trained indigenous Ijaw Pastors. Adding to this amazing breakthrough is the fact that Wilson is of the Itsekiri (Ee-sheh'-kerie) Tribe and yet has been received with favor and adoption by the Ijaw.

How We Became Involved

In Nov. 2002 I visited Ijaw Land (as it is called) w/ Wilson & Praise. After a 3 hour boat ride down Niger R. tributaries we entered Ajakurama, where Wilson had established the first church. We met with an Ijaw King of the Egbema Kingdom, who welcomed us, gave us land to build a church and extended an invitation to establish churches in every village of his kingdom. I held crusades in both villages where we are presently operating churches and experienced a great number of salvation responses. We then entered a new village (Abere) where I was only the 2nd white man they had ever seen there - the first being a British census taker in 1959. After holding a crusade there we established another church under the care of the two pastors from Ajakurama. We provided bicycles for the Pastors' transportation through the jungle (about 20 miles) so they could travel between the 2 villages. The first Sunday service 2 days after my crusade we had 27 adults including two chiefs, 20 youths and 30 children in attendance. We now have 3 churches and the potential to plant several more over the next few years; as rapidly as we can train and provide support to Ijaw pastors and send them to neighboring villages. I also met w/ an Ijaw Queen who, along w/ her husband are members of our church in Ogbudugbudu. She and several chiefs and elders pleaded w/ me for assistance in establishing churches, pastoral support and commerce through the Kingdom. A complete photo chronicle of my trip is available for viewing online at the faithchristianchurch.net website.

Project Overview

2003: Our immediate goal is simple. We have a "first opportunity" and open door of welcome to evangelize the Egbema Ijaw Kingdom and establish churches in their towns & villages. We intend to use all means at our disposal to do exactly that. We will plant 9 churches in the 9 major town/villages of the Kingdom and presently (March 2003), have churches in 3 villages w/ 4 full-time pastors. We will plant a 4th church in the village of Ufunama this Summer.
The Strategy: After planting a church in an Ijaw town/village w/ one of our trained Ijaw Pastors we will follow up with the building of a block/zinc-roof church complex that consists of the following:

Once the Church Complex is built and the store is stocked and operating, the $70 per month Pastoral Support will continue for 3 more months before being terminated. The church will then be self-sufficient and we can continue to move ahead to the next Ijaw Pastor and keep up w/ the church planting process.

2004-5: We currently have 5 new Ijaw Pastors in training for 1 year under Wilson at the Headquarters Church of HICC in Lagos. In 2004 we will plant the next 2 churches and then 3 more in 2005. This will bring the total to 9: one in each of the key town/villages of the Egbema Kingdom. The Ijaw converts from Egbema will then begin to evangelize the other Ijaw Kingdoms. I will be making regular trips (1-2 per year) and taking church members as well as providing consultation for other pastors travelling to Ijaw Land.

When this goal is accomplished we will have succeeded in winning a previously unreached Ijaw Kingdom for Christ and established a base of missions churches that will duplicate thee work in other Ijaw Kingdoms. From this perspective a 15 million member unreached people group is brought within the reach of the Kingdom of Christ.

Initial Annual Budget For 2003
This budget is based projections for accomplishing the following:

Supporting 5 Ijaw pastors & their families ($70/month ea.) 4,200.00

Constructing 1 church complex composed of the following:
church (200+ seating), parsonage, attached retail store for
ministry-support business (block construction w/ zinc roof) 6,000.00

One-time stocking of store w/ goods for re-sale 1,000.00

1 trip to Nigeria 2,000.00

Start-up & operational costs & equipment for Nigeria 2,000.00
Total $15,200.00

Contributors will be free to "designate" their giving to any of the specific areas of the projects and their contributions will be considered as Restricted Funds. "Non-designated" contributions will be applied to the projects where they are most need.

Your contributions to this missionary-church planting effort a reality. The Lord has opened a tremendous door for us to this previously unreached African tribe having granted us great favor among them. This in itself is an amazing accomplishment. It is no small coincedence that the Ijaw have recently come to the forefront of international news as they are embroiled in a civil conflict with the Nigerian military and U.S. and European oil companies. NOW is the momment to move with the gospel. We are "on the ground" and committed to go forward, with your assistance.

Please contact us with your contribution at the faithchristianchurch.net website, by email at nickcha@aol.com or by phone at 727-791-1904. -Thank You!