X

Nigeria

1973

I carried the cross into Nigeria from the border of Benin and walked across the country to Cameroon.

I carried the cross through West Africa from Sierra Leone through Cameroon. I had a Land Rover with supplies and a bed inside. In each nation or language area I would hire a driver that could also be my interpreter when I preached. I would stand on the hood of the Land Rover to preach. The driver would go in front for a few miles or to the next village and wait for me to arrive. Should he stop in a village I would preach. Most of the time almost everyone in the village or town would gather to hear the message and see the cross. Often in a day I would preach to a few thousand to tens of thousands of people. Many hundreds to thousands of people prayed the sinner’s prayer to receive Jesus as Savior and Lord and to become a follower of Jesus.

Every day was hot. I poured sweat and had to drink, drink, and drink, not to dehydrate. Sometimes I was in open country but much of the time I carried the cross through bush trees with small farms along the roadside. Then every short distance was another village. I could see crowds of people around the Land Rover looking and waiting for me to arrive. I would arrive, get some water to drink then stand on the hood of the Land Rover and preach. Then I would do a brief Bible study of how to live for Jesus.

Then I would sit and rest a few minutes before walking on. People were crowding around trying to talk with me as I rested. Sometime I used the interpreter but often the people who came up to talk spoke English.

In most villages and towns many people would walk through the streets with me. Sometimes I would have hundreds of people leave town walking with me and I would slowly lose the crowd as I got further out of town.

Oh, I loved the people! Often the village people brought me food as I rested.

Late in the evening we would park the Land Rover in a village near a house and spend the night. I liked to sleep in the homemade bed we had constructed inside the back of the Land Rover. With the windows open it I had a breeze and all my supplies were nearby. I had a radio and could pick up BBC and Voice of America radio. This was my way of keeping up with the world.

My main diet was canned food and fresh fruit. In each main city I could find a store with western food. I would stock up.

I just lived each day in the Glory of God and in the presence of people. I remember that almost every night I went to sleep with people gathered around the Land Rover peeking in at me. Ha

What a wonderful way to live. I walked from dawn until night almost every day. I would lie down and rest for about an hour or so at noon. This helped refresh me and also got me out of the hottest time of day.

Almost all the time there were crowds in this wonderful country.

I carried the cross from the Benin border on to Logos. From there I carried the cross to Benin City and then to Enugu. I then walked on to the Cameroon border. My driver for most of this time was a man named ‘God Power’! I just loved the name and loved him. He was a good driver and interpreter and lived up to his name.

There was just day after day of cross walking and people and preaching. Buses stopped and I prayed with busloads of people at a time.

One day some people dressed in white came out on the road to give me some food and one can of hot beer. These were the best gifts they had. They had driven many miles to find me and to see the cross and hear the message of Jesus. Oh, they loved Jesus! I too loved them and we talked for a long time and prayed together. I felt we should have communion together to remember the Body and Blood of Jesus our Lord. I took some of the bread and prayed and blessed it and shared it in remembrance of the Body of Jesus. Then I opened the beer and prayed and blessed it and we shared it in remembrance of the Blood of Jesus. It was one of the most glorious communions of my entire life.

Late in the evening we would park the Land Rover in a village near a house and spend the night. I liked to sleep in the homemade bed we had constructed inside the back of the Land Rover. With the windows open it I had a breeze and all my supplies were nearby. I had a radio and could pick up BBC and Voice of America radio. This was my way of keeping up with the world.

Nigeria13My main diet was canned food and fresh fruit. In each main city I could find a store with western food. I would stock up.

I just lived each day in the Glory of God and in the presence of people. I remember that almost every night I went to sleep with people gathered around the Land Rover peeking in at me. Ha

What a wonderful way to live. I walked from dawn until night almost every day. I would lie down and rest for about an hour or so at noon. This helped refresh me and also got me out of the hottest time of day.

Almost all the time there were crowds in this wonderful country.

I carried the cross from the Benin border on to Logos. From there I carried the cross to Benin City and then to Enugu. I then walked on to the Cameroon border. My driver for most of this time was a man named ‘God Power’! I just loved the name and loved him. He was a good driver and interpreter and lived up to his name.

There was just day after day of cross walking and people and preaching. Buses stopped and I prayed with busloads of people at a time.

One day some people dressed in white came out on the road to give me some food and one can of hot beer. These were the best gifts they had. They had driven many miles to find me and to see the cross and hear the message of Jesus. Oh, they loved Jesus! I too loved them and we talked for a long time and prayed together. I felt we should have communion together to remember the Body and Blood of Jesus our Lord. I took some of the bread and prayed and blessed it and shared it in remembrance of the Body of Jesus. Then I opened the beer and prayed and blessed it and we shared it in remembrance of the Blood of Jesus. It was one of the most glorious communions of my entire life.

Nigeria
1973

I carried the cross into Nigeria from the border of Benin and walked across the country to Cameroon.

I carried the cross through West Africa from Sierra Leone through Cameroon. I had a Land Rover with supplies and a bed inside. In each nation or language area I would hire a driver that could also be my interpreter when I preached. I would stand on the hood of the Land Rover to preach. The driver would go in front for a few miles or to the next village and wait for me to arrive. Should he stop in a village I would preach. Most of the time almost everyone in the village or town would gather to hear the message and see the cross. Often in a day I would preach to a few thousand to tens of thousands of people. Many hundreds to thousands of people prayed the sinner’s prayer to receive Jesus as Savior and Lord and to become a follower of Jesus.

Every day was hot. I poured sweat and had to drink, drink, and drink, not to dehydrate. Sometimes I was in open country but much of the time I carried the cross through bush trees with small farms along the roadside. Then every short distance was another village. I could see crowds of people around the Land Rover looking and waiting for me to arrive. I would arrive, get some water to drink then stand on the hood of the Land Rover and preach. Then I would do a brief Bible study of how to live for Jesus.

Then I would sit and rest a few minutes before walking on. People were crowding around trying to talk with me as I rested. Sometime I used the interpreter but often the people who came up to talk spoke English.

In most villages and towns many people would walk through the streets with me. Sometimes I would have hundreds of people leave town walking with me and I would slowly lose the crowd as I got further out of town.

Oh, I loved the people! Often the village people brought me food as I rested.

Late in the evening we would park the Land Rover in a village near a house and spend the night. I liked to sleep in the homemade bed we had constructed inside the back of the Land Rover. With the windows open it I had a breeze and all my supplies were nearby. I had a radio and could pick up BBC and Voice of America radio. This was my way of keeping up with the world.

My main diet was canned food and fresh fruit. In each main city I could find a store with western food. I would stock up.

I just lived each day in the Glory of God and in the presence of people. I remember that almost every night I went to sleep with people gathered around the Land Rover peeking in at me. Ha

What a wonderful way to live. I walked from dawn until night almost every day. I would lie down and rest for about an hour or so at noon. This helped refresh me and also got me out of the hottest time of day.

Almost all the time there were crowds in this wonderful country.

I carried the cross from the Benin border on to Logos. From there I carried the cross to Benin City and then to Enugu. I then walked on to the Cameroon border. My driver for most of this time was a man named ‘God Power’! I just loved the name and loved him. He was a good driver and interpreter and lived up to his name.

There was just day after day of cross walking and people and preaching. Buses stopped and I prayed with busloads of people at a time.

One day some people dressed in white came out on the road to
give me some food and one can of hot beer. These were the best
gifts they had. They had driven many miles to find me and to see the cross and hear the message of Jesus. Oh, they loved Jesus! I too loved them and we talked for a long time and prayed together. I felt we should have communion together to remember the Body and Blood of Jesus our Lord. I took some
of the bread and prayed and blessed it and shared it in remembrance of the Body of Jesus. Then I opened the beer and prayed and blessed it and we shared it in remembrance of the Blood of Jesus. It was one of the most glorious communions of my entire life.

One time Jesus turned water into wine, and should it be important to Him, I was sure He could change this beer into wine. It was beer or hot water.

I preached in many churches along the way and met many wonderful new friends.

Many thousands of people came to Jesus in Nigeria. All glory to God.

From my diary:

Life has been strange for me. It has been a constant struggle. God has always asked me do the seemingly impossible and when the impossible is accomplished He has another impossibility immediately in front of me. For some, success brings the human luxury of a life of ease, but for me God has always had me leave at the moment of success and glory and start out on a new and even more difficult task. The hand of the Lord has been on me and used me and moved me, and He will continue to do so. He has anointed me to shake the world. I do not strive to bring it to pass, He does. The things we started in Hollywood have spread around the world. I have had constant opportunity to go to the road of ‘big time evangelism and organization,’ but God has called me away from this to the simple, dramatic and direct. He wants me in the dirt with the oppressed, the poor, and the lonely. He wants me to cut the hearts of the lazy, the lips of the Christians, the greedy. He uses me as a sharp knife, one swift stroke and it cuts deep. I can’t explain why, but God will help you to know why our way has been the way of struggle, blisters, dirt, cold, pain and glorious victory and power. I trust that when you grow old you will be pleased with me.

I went to a movie tonight. My heart was broken. The people were going crazy over these Chinese movies and American police and murder movies. The movies are very terrible but the reaction of these people is even worse. It is very bloody. I only saw one and I will never go back to another over here. The crowds scream, “Kill, kill, kill,” or “Hit, hit, hit.” They applaud the violence. I’ve never seen anything like the way the Africans respond to movies. It is so sad that the western world is teaching these people about sexual perversion, crime, and cheating. I feel so ashamed about what we are teaching, not that this country is perfect, but it is so evil the way the West is compounding their troubles and their lives by teaching them the worst, not the best, that there is in our society.

I gave away most of my food today. People are in such bad shape. I wish I could feed the world. Beautiful little people work. I tell you, it is so unbelievable how they work. Many have to walk so far to get water. I do love the people of the soil, they are so friendly and sweet, so interested in what I am doing. They always say, “What message from God do you have for us?” Oh, that is the cry of these people, God save them all. It is just God’s grace that moves us on to spread His word.

How thrilled I am to be giving these strong years of my life in this service for Jesus. I know many people must think I’m crazy, for in their minds, wanting the opportunities I have had to have riches, power, organization, materialism, to waste these priceless years of strength when I could be fishing, watching sports, driving new cars and sitting in air conditioned houses, or leading a mighty Jesus organization.

Tell them not to weep for me, I weep for them, for I am in the center of God’s spontaneous unorganized grass-roots richest blessings and I love it. The values of the world offer me nothing, how could it be that crowds of preachers are willing and feel led of God to pastor the ‘first’ church with all its benefits, and here there is plenty of room for first’ churches, but no takers.

I know God has called me to keep walking, but if it were otherwise I’d find the most remote and needy area of Africa, preach the gospel and help them farm. Oh, wake up world!

Nigeria14I find few people are interested in me when I am back in America, the real person, who I am, my emotions, the inside of me. I think it was also that way with Jesus. The crowds saw Him and they wanted His miracles, His healing, His food, the things He did. But few were interested just in Him. Even the disciples fought over a place of honor near Him.

So many people in the West seem interested in my stories, where I have been, the exciting things. They want to hear this story and that story. They see an image, but not me.

Very few people ever say, “What is your life, what are your values? What is the basis for your living? What emotions have you experienced? Why is Jesus Christ Lord? Tell us what you know about God, what have you learned about life with Jesus?” On the contrary, most ask, “How many
countries have you traveled? What is the prettiest scene you have ever seen? Where do you get your money? What church do you belong to?” I get very tired of this. Many times there seems to be no place to escape. I try to insert the real Jesus into their questions. It seems so many live their life on such a shallow basis.

The greatest thing is love. God said that we should love Him with all our hearts, soul, strength, and might and to love our neighbor as ourselves. Then Jesus even made that love more profound by saying, “We are to love as He has loved us.” So I think in essence when we face the judgment of God, perhaps since love is the most important thing that God may be interested in on judgment day what is the quality of your love, the true quality? How did we love the poorest, how did we love those who seemed to be despised?

Once Jesus was talking and He said, “I was naked and you didn’t clothe me, I was thirsty and you didn’t give me drink, I was a stranger and you didn’t take me in, I was sick and you didn’t visit me, I was in prison and you didn’t come to me.”

We will say, “Lord, we never saw you that way.”

And He will say, ” As you did it not to the least of these, you did it not unto me.”

So, what is the quality of love? How enduring has it been? How temporary or changing?

Lord, it’s so good. It has been a long hot walk today but the people wore eager to hear the Word of God. Crowds were already waiting for my arrival all through the day.

Tonight I’m sleeping in a small village and am preaching at 8:30 p.m. at the church. I’m exhausted, but not so much that I can’t share the love of Jesus with these eager people. They all welcome me, gather around to look at me and want me to preach.

I just ate and took a bath in front of about 100 people. They followed me. I couldn’t keep them away. I tried to get in a little dark spot. I do more strips a month than most go-go girls in Hollywood. As a matter of fact, I not only strip, but I bathe in front of them. It makes no difference, they are curious about everything. It feels so strange sometimes when I’m in a house, but I am accustomed to the crowds now.

My children spent sometime in the capital of Lagos when I was there. It was so good to be with my children Gina, Joel, Joy and Joshua.

God bless the beautiful people.

Pilgrim followers of Jesus,

Arthur and Denise Blessitt
Luke 18:1