Dear Friends,

As always, thanks for your prayers while I was in Nigeria earlier this month. The Lord answered them in some wonderful ways that I want to tell you about.

I know you’re probably tired of hearing about successful pastors’ conferences, but please let me briefly tell you about what happened in Lagos, the capital of Nigeria. I was invited to speak to about 500 pastors at a conference organized by a Nigerian ministry. There were pastors there from all over the country, as well as from the neighboring nations of Gambia and Cameroon. After speaking with the Lord’s blessing, the primary host mentioned that I had brought 200 copies of The Great Gospel Deception to sell for 200 Naira each (about $1.40, which is what it cost us to print them in Nigeria). They sold all of them in about ten minutes. So we brought another 200 with us the next day, and they sold out immediately as well. This is the first time such a thing has ever happened to me in Nigeria. Beyond that, as a result of one of my sermons in which I mentioned the message of John the Baptist, the host pastor asked the conference participants to bring good clothing with them the next day that could be given to poor pastors. The result was a huge heap of hundreds of bags of clothing, shoes, and even food that is now to be given to poor pastors. Praise God! I’ve been invited to return in February 2004 to teach at another large pastors’ conference in Lagos at no expense other than my plane fare, which is a great blessing as well.

The Lord also providentially arranged another meeting for me with Daniel Ekechukwu, the Nigerian pastor who was resurrected two days after an auto accident in late 2001. I videotaped a very interesting one-hour interview with him, and was also given opportunity to videotape interviews with his wife, his father, the doctor who pronounced him dead and the mortician who partially embalmed him. You can read the full report and view the photos of Daniel Ekechukwu on our website.

Over the next few weeks, I’ll be working on a rewrite of The Christian Disciple’s Manual, which has been out of print for at least a year, in order to have it ready for printing by the middle of November. This has always been our most popular book among pastors, because it covers so many subjects. I’m going to re-title it as well, to something like The Minister’s Manual.

As always, thank you for your part in making Shepherd Serve an effective ministry. You are greatly appreciated.
David