No ‘scam,’ Nigerian pastors discover
TV reporter amazed at book project
By W. Harold Fuller
JOS, NIGERIA–Nigerian pastors who heard about a "Pastors’ Book Project" figured it was just another of the nation’s notorious scams.
So skepticism ran high when SIM (a mission founded in Canada in 1893 as Sudan Interior Mission) and its Nigerian churches, ECWA (Evangelical Church of West Africa), offered to provide a 39-book library of pastoral aids–all for the Nigerian equivalent of about $100 (CDN). The fee even included a four-day conference of Bible teaching by outstanding Nigerian and foreign speakers.
Although SIM/ECWA had shipped in 15,000 sets, few pastors had signed up by the time the first of five nation-wide conferences was held last September. But skepticism turned to amazement when 986 beaming pastors did a jig at the conclusion of the first conference, many balancing their precious sacks of books on their heads, in cultural fashion.
