FOREIGN MISSIONS
In the vision that the Lord gave Apostle Numbere the work was to be in three phases – Nigeria, Africa and the rest of the world. Deep in his heart, therefore, there had always been this burden for Africa. Although he had been a guest speaker in churches and conferences in Kenya, Ghana and Liberia, he knew that that was not just what his call was all about. He needed to get down to the grassroots, meeting the people at their level in order to give them the gospel. He needed God’s leading and instructions on where and how to start. He visited countries like Egypt, Ethiopia, and Sudan, prayerfully scouting for openings but it was not until February 1994 that the Lord opened the door to Africa.
UGANDA
The first door to be opened was that of Uganda, “the Pearl of Africa”, through one of our elders, Christine Wifa, a Ugandan by birth. Uganda, he found, is a very expensive country to live in. It was also not an easy place to penetrate with the gospel because of her very stringent laws for the operation of Churches. Moreover, the Nigerian ministers there had fallen into disrepute because of their materialistic tendencies and gospel.
He stayed a few weeks in Kampala and was able to establish a baby Church there. Thereafter he went back to Nigeria to return to Uganda in the December of that same year with Ministers Evangelist Yohanna Biliyock and Pastor Pakribo Warmate. These two Ministers worked selflessly and tirelessly to re-establish the Church and to get the Ministry registered. God rewarded their efforts and the Ministry got through the various stages of registration. Unfortunately Pastor Warmate’s wife died at home and he had to be recalled, leaving only Biliyock to carry on with the work. The work pattern in Uganda was to be the same as in Nigeria – going to the downtrodden with the gospel. Apart from Kampala, we now have Churches in Kyegegwa, Iringa, Karama, Bwerayangi, Kyarijumba, Kyemengo (“the Church in the forest”), and many other villages in the interior of Uganda.
Uganda is a mountainous country and its villages lie hidden, tucked away up the rocks and mountains. There are no roads, only footpaths and the villages are far away from one another. Evangelist Biliyock was able to break through to the jungles of Uganda. Apostle Numbere went with them down to the villages to visit with the people; interacting with them, eating with them, sleeping with them, as well as teaching them the Word of God.
To get to the heartland of these villages they had to use motorcycles. They had to ride up the mountainside, down through the valleys, brushing through bushes with hanging branches and stems flogging them as they passed, leaving whip-marks all over their arms despite the long-sleeved shirts they were wearing. Some places were too high for the motorcycles to climb so they had to get off their bikes and trek up the mountainside, pushing the bikes along as they climbed. You can imagine how tedious and energy-sapping that was. The footpaths were muddy and slippery because of the rains and many times they fell off their motorcycles. Thus they travelled for miles and miles through no man’s land, but no matter how arduous the journey was, they did not turn back; they always reached their destination.
Moving from one village to the other took hours. By the time they got to a village they would arrive there very tired, very dirty and completely broken down, but the scene they would meet there would so challenge their hearts that they would forget about themselves and their condition. At every village they went to, they would find the people gathered in great numbers from their numerous hamlets, waiting patiently for them. Whole families– fathers, mothers and children, would be there. The Word of God was scarce in those villages and they were hungry for it. They would therefore stay there as many days as you wanted, ready to hear the Word of God, day and night. Therefore in each village they visited, they had fellowship throughout the day and all through the night every day of their stay there. They had no kerosene (paraffin) or gas lamps so the night fellowships were held in almost total darkness. All they had were small oil lamps similar to what Nigerians call “Biafra lamp”.
He found the people in abject poverty, living in mud and thatch huts, neglected by both the Church and the civilized world. They did not even have common white salt: what they had as salt was very brown. There were no hospitals, pharmacies, dispensaries or medical stores and so when they were sick they depended only on God; for even the smallest of injuries could easily turn into festering wounds. In one of the villages, Apostle Numbere was given a “Vono” spring bed. The people could not afford mattresses or pillows so he had to spread his wrapper (cloth) on it so he would not be injured by the bare springs. Even the bed was a borrowed one. For a carpet, they cut elephant grass and placed on the floor and then they placed an animal skin on it as a bedside rug. All this was because they regarded him as a very important person so he was given this special treatment. It was the same story in all the villages they went to. In some places, there was no vono bed for borrowing or rental and in some places there was no sleeping space in which case they had to sit on their chairs all through the night.
“Bathroom” was merely an enclosed space over bare ground but because he was an important guest they cut plantain leaves and placed on the “bathroom” floor for him. In one of the places when he saw the water they gave him to bath with, he shrunk back, “Jesus!” he exclaimed. As dirty as he was from the mud and the dust that got on him as he travelled, his body was cleaner than the water! For a moment he was like Peter in the vision of the animals when he said, “Lord, I have never eaten anything common or unclean.” Then the Holy Spirit spoke to him, “But this is what these people have been living on”. That was enough chiding for him. He said, “Lord, thank You”. He then had a full bath, pouring the water all over him, from his head down to his very toes. The soap could not foam but he did not mind any longer. As he toured the churches in those remote villages his spirit was lifted up with gratitude to God. “Thank you, Lord” he prayed. “This is the vision of the Ministry, a forgotten people, a neglected people are now having the gospel. Blessed be your Name.”
The Ugandan mission has taken giant strides. God has brought in trusted nationals such as Pastor Nansikombi to join us and carry on with the mission. Together with Evang. Biliyock they have laboured tirelessly and we now have thirty eight Churches in Uganda, most of them located in the villages. 
RWANDA
In 1998 Evangelist Biliyock moved to formally establish a Greater Evangelism Church there. The year 2000 came and Apostle Numbere visited Rwanda from Kampala. What he saw there broke his heart, particularly after he visited Nyamata, one of the largest pogrom centres. The pogrom in Rwanda was such a terrible one; what they have as war relics are museums all over the country, containing nothing but the skulls and bones of those who were murdered, each centre containing skulls and bones of about thirty to one hundred thousand victims.
Apart from being sad that so many lives were wasted, Apostle Numbere could not help wondering as he saw those bones, “How many of these people knew the Lord Jesus before they were murdered?” The thought of the hundreds of thousands that the devil had hurtled into a Christless eternity added to his grief. He also found so much bitterness and hatred in the hearts of the Rwandans–the Hutus against the Tutsis and vice versa. So much was the bitterness that nobody ever preached about forgiveness. God so brought Apostle Numbere’s preaching on forgiveness to bear on the hearts of the people that at a point they started weeping. They wept as they struggled within their hearts to forgive those who had wronged them so much.
One night after he had ministered, a lady came to see him. She told him of the great struggle she had had in heart after hearing his sermon on forgiveness. She said, “Please, I need you to tell me what to do, I want to forgive but I can’t. For you to understand my situation, please let me tell you my story first”. She said that during that ethnic war, her husband and all her children were killed in her presence after which the men went on to rape her violently. She had no idea how many raped her for they were so many. They raped her until her waist broke and she died, and even after she had died they continued raping her corpse. She did not know how she came back to life but she had contacted AIDS as a result of this. She went on with her story, “Inside of me I appreciate what you preached, but how do I go about it? I do not know what forgiveness is because every day that I wake up and find myself alive, I have things in my body telling me, “Somebody did this to you!” I do not even know those men; but I hate everybody!”, he sobbed. “I hate everybody; I do not want to hear the names of tribes. I just hate everybody!”
Apostle Numbere could not hold back his own tears. He wept along with her as she poured out her heart. She had been broken in her body and broken in her soul and spirit by her fellow human beings. God gave Apostle Numbere the wisdom to minister to this broken woman. He said to her, “Sister I understand your state of mind. I understand, but look, the Lord said, „Vengeance is mine, I will repay.” Even if all those men that did this to you were around, you are but a weak young lady, can you fight any of them? They have destroyed everything that mattered in your life. They have given you a sickness that is incurable. Yes, on this side of life, they have damaged you irreparably. Human beings have made you lose out on this side of life.
Would you also allow human beings to make you lose out on heaven? The Lord said if you do not forgive them that you would not be forgiven. It means you will also lose heaven. Would you like to lose on both sides? Why should you lose here and also lose heaven? Do not allow man to make you lose heaven. I know you are a human being. I feel for you, I feel like you do. Who would not feel the way you feel? But this is the very thing you must not allow to make you lose heaven. Since the Lord said, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay”, leave the vengeance to Him. If only you can say, “Lord, I leave everything in your Hands; I forgive all those people,” God’s grace will heal these festering wounds in your heart. And after the days you have to live here on earth you will go into the presence of Jesus Christ where you will know no more pain. All these things will not be there in heaven. You will not have AIDS in heaven; you will not be without your uterus in heaven; you will not have a broken waist in heaven. There will be no damage to your life and to your body. Jesus will take care of all that. You will be free!”
She started crying again and he started crying with her. As he ministered, the Holy Spirit came in and removed her burden. She heaved a sigh of relief, brightened up as a small smile broke out on her lips and crept across her face. “Thank you”, she told him. “This is what I needed to hear. I will obey. Now I forgive them – whoever they are”.
To the glory of God, Greater Evangelism World Crusade has spread to other countries like Benin Republic, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ghana and Cameroon, lifting the faces of people to Jesus.
Culled from "A Man and A Vision" by Nonyem E. Numbere and "I Forgive, For My Sake" by Ap. G. D. Numbere. For inquiries, visit our bookshop.
