The Adventures of Danny Mccain, an American born missionary in inland tribes in Nigeria.
Preaching to the President of Nigeria
By Danny Mccain
Greetings from Jos in Nigeria.
As some of you know, I have had a friendly relationship with Nigeria's head of state, President Olusegun Obasanjo, since he was in prison in Jos in 1995. I have had the privilege of being with him four or five times since he became president. I have been much closer to the chaplain of the Aso Rock Villa Chapel, the church inside the presidential villa where the president and other high government officials attend. Rev. Dr. William Okoye was the deputy chaplain to the president for six years or so but has been the substantive chaplain for the last eight months.
A couple of weeks ago, Dr. Okoye called me and asked me if I could come down to Abuja and preach at the Aso Rock Villa on March 5th. It is amazing how you can clear your schedule when you are asked to preach for the president.
I was happy that Mary was free and could go with me to this special occasion. Not only did I have the privilege of preaching in the chapel to the president and so many other top government officials, I also had the privilege of praying the "birthday prayer" for the president. In addition, Mary and I had the privilege of eating lunch with President Obasanjo after the service.
Since this was the president's birthday and the main part of his birthday celebration was in church, the NTA (NIgerian Televesion Authority) carried this story on national TV on Sunday evening. So many of my friends and colleagues have called, texted or spoken to me personally about this. It has reminded me so much of how impotant "community" is in Africa. A special privilege to any person is a special privilege to all his friends. In some sense of the word, all of my friends and colleagues have felt honored by this special privilege that I have been given, almost as if they had also been given the honor.
In light of those thoughts, I thought I would share with you the details of this occasion as well. You too are my friends and I would hope that you too in some way may be able to vicariously enjoy some of the things that I have been able to experience, As you know, I like to keep a fairly detailed account of significant events in my life. Obviously, this was a special event so I have recorded more details that you probably want to read about preaching to the president. I trust that you will enjoy reading any of this you have time for.
Thank you for your love and friendship. And thank you for your partnership in helping me live and work and serve God in Nigeria,
Grace and Peace!
Danny McCain
PS: I am attaching a copy of the sermon that I preached on Sunday.
Preaching at Aso Rock
Invitation
I got back from the US on Monday, 20 February about 9:30 in the afternoon. That afternoon I went to the Evangel Theological Seminary to begin teaching a masters level course on hermeneutics. I keep my cell phone on vibrate nearly all the time so it will not disturb people. I never answer it during class but during our ten-minute break in the three hour class, the phone started buzzing. It was William Okoye, the chaplain of the Aso Rock Villa Chapel. This is the church that meets inside the presidential compound in Abuja. He said, "Danny, I have been trying to reach you for a week or so." I explained to him that I had just gotten back from the States. He said, "I would like for you to preach at the chapel on Sunday, March 5th. Is that going to be possible?" I told him that I did not have my calendar with me but I thought that Sunday was free and I would get back with him as soon as I could check my calendar.
I later consulted my schedule and found out that I was preaching the following Sunday at Hillcrest but that Sunday was free. In fact, it would be a very good time for me because I would be teaching in Ibadan the week prior to that and would be flying back into Abuja on Saturday. That would even save me from having to make an extra trip to Abuja.
Background Details
Prior to the return of democracy to Nigeria in 1999, all of Nigeria's heads of states for the previous twenty years had been Muslims. They had built a mosque inside the Aso Rock compound. (Aso Rock is to Nigeria what the White House is to the US.) When President Obasanjo was elected, he decided to build a chapel inside also and did so with private funds. After the chapel was built, services have been conducted there every Sunday. For the first six years or so of his presidency, Prof. Yusuf Obaje was the president's chaplain. He was also, at the same time, serving as president of the Nigeria Baptist Seminary in Ogbomoso. Prof. Obaje carefully guarded the pulpit at the chapel. In the six years that he was chaplain, the only person that I heard of who preached in the chapel besides himself was Jimmy Carter. However, Prof. Obaje had political ambitions. He wanted to contest for the governorship of Kogi State. Once he made a public statement about this, the president asked him to step down because he did not want the chaplaincy to be a political pulpit. At that time the deputy chaplain, Rev. Dr. William Okoye, became the substantive chaplain.
I have known William Okoye for the past five years or so. He is the founder and general overseer of All Christian's Fellowship whose headquarters is in Abuja. He started his ministry about 25 years ago and now has about 300 churches in Nigeria. He has a pastor's conference and another general Bible conference in Abuja every year. I have spoken at one or the other and sometimes both every year for the last five years or so. Because he meets with the president for prayer every morning at 6:00 AM, he has been a source for me to get things to the president when necessary. Rev. Okoye is the one who arranged for me to have breakfast with the president a few years ago to discuss our AIDS project. He also has gotten additional communications to him for me, usually within 24 hours.
I saw Rev. Okoye a couple of months after he took over the chaplaincy at Aso Rock and he told me that he was instituting a lot of changes. One of the most important is that he was going to invite a lot more preachers to come and speak at the chapel. He felt that this would be good for the presidency and good for the body of Christ. And he said, "I want you to come and preach for us. It will probably be after the first of the year, some time in February perhaps. How does that time frame look to you?" Well, when you have a chance to speak to the president and other key government officials in Aso Rock, practically any time looks good.
In the initial phone call, while the chaplain was giving me the invitation, he added, "Oh, yes, that day will be the president's birthday. We will do something special for him that day. So think about it and see if you can come up with something that would be appropriate for his birthday." He told me that I would need to inform him of the topic, an Old Testament reading and a New Testament reading on Monday prior to the service.
Preparing the Sermon
During that particular week, I was teaching five to six hours a day so it was a very busy time for me. I finally decided that I would begin my sermon with some comments about the president's birthday but would actually preach on something else. This was the beginning of Lent, a serious time of reflection for Christians. Therefore, I would do something in that area, something that had grown out of my devotional reading in the past few weeks. Therefore, on the following Monday morning, when I was in Ibadan, doing another one-week intense course for a missions school, I sent my topic and scriptures to Dr. Okoye by text message. In a few minutes, he called me back and said, "Danny, what you are suggesting is good but I would really love for you to do something related to the president's birthday. If you don't want to do that, we have a series we have been doing during the year on the sower and the seed and we can go back to that." I said, "OK, give me 24 hours to think about this and I will get back with you."
At that time, I was at the venue where we were going to have the course. The officials were trying to hook up a generator so that I could do PowerPoint presentations. While I was waiting on them to get that sorted out, I sat down at my computer and started jotting down ideas. Within a few minutes, I felt reasonably comfortable with the thought of preaching on the idea of "celebration." It took the technicians almost an hour to get the generator going and I spent most of that time, experimenting with themes, outlines and other thoughts for this sermon. So on the next morning, I wrote another text message back to the chaplain that said in the typical text message style: "Rev thanks for clarifying birthday issue. I feel good to preach b-day sermon. I suggest ot text deuteronomy 16:9-12. will focus on words celebrate, give, rejoice, and remember. nt reading Hebrews 10:32-34. will call later to confirm if ok danny" Rev. Okoye called me back a little while later and confirmed that this would be fine. I texted him back later in the day: "rev here are 2 possible titles: 'celebrating the blessings of life' or 'celebrations: god's call to remember' thanks danny." So now the topic and texts were set. I just needed to get down to some serious preparation.
I had been invited to Ibadan to teach a one-week course on hermeneutics for masters students in inter-cultural studies. I was teaching from 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM every day with a one hour break. Elementary teachers teach long hours every day but it is pretty tough teaching six hours a day at this level. Therefore, when I would get back to the guest house every day, I was pretty tired. I can do some things in the evening, when I am tired. However, I cannot do too many creative things when I am tired. So for the last three mornings I was in Ibadan, I would get up at 5:00 AM so I would have at least an hour or so before going to class that I could focus on developing this sermon. During these early morning sessions, I began to get direction about the way I wanted to develop the sermon. And, while I was sitting on the plane in Lagos, preparing to fly back up to Abuja, I had some new ideas. I got out a yellow pad from my brief case and captured those ideas. I had to wait a couple of hours in the Abuja airport before Andrew and Mary arrived so I used a good bit of that time putting all of these ideas together. A whole lot of the sermon was put together, sitting in the hot waiting room with the noise of jet engines roaring in my ears and dozens of people pouring through the area within a few feet of me. However, when I really get focused I can tune all of that out.
Traveling to Abuja
Since this was going to be a special occasion and since it is easier for Mary to go with me to places like this now than it was when we had little children, I had encouraged her to join me in Abuja on Saturday. Therefore, she and Andrew traveled down to Abuja on Saturday morning. When we landed in Abuja, I turned on my cell phone and found a message from Mary saying that they were passing NASCO in Jos about 9:12. That would mean that I would probably have to wait about a half hour for them to arrive. Actually, I had been very fortunate in Lagos. When one of my students dropped me off at the airport, I bought my ticket, went through the screening, caught the little shuttle bus out to the aircraft and was on the plane within 12 minutes of the time I had walked in the doors of the airport. Therefore, I arrived in Abuja a good bit earlier than I had anticipated. Unfortunately, I received a text message from Mary a few minutes later that said, "We are in a real go slow! May be an extra hour. Sorry. Mary." I sent back a text that simply said, "no problem." A few minutes later I received another text: "This go slow is serious. People are constantly breaking down. Ours is running rough. You may want to take a taxi. We have not gotten to the barracks yet." The road leading into Abuja from the east side has been undergoing serious renovation for the last several years. They are almost finished with it but there is major construction going on now right in the outskirts of Abuja. All of the traffic gets dumped over into the outbound lane and with the indiscipline of Nigerian drivers, it had gotten to be a real problem.
To take a taxi into town would cost $25 or $30 and, fortunately, time was not so critical for once. I was working on my computer so there was no particular reason that I needed to rush to Abuja. I did meet one American fellow and asked him about riding into town with him. Unfortunately, his vehicle was filled with people who had come out to the airport to meet him. Therefore, I just waited. Here was Mary's next text: "We are having a real experience now. We jumped the curbs and got on the other side. Suddenly we came upon the asphalt layers. But we are beginning to move." They later told me that after a while, many drivers yielded to the temptation of jumping over on the freshly laid pavement on the other side of the curb and so people were zipping along over there. However, it was impossible to get from one lane to the other because of the curb and a deep ditch. However, Andrew found a place where he could get over the curb and through the ditch with the jeep. He managed to get over and get down the road for a couple of miles before running into the people laying asphalt. He then got completely off the road on the right side and was able to negotiate around the asphalt layers until the road was free. I don't think an ordinary vehicle would have been able to go through the bush like he did but the jeep made it fine.
A few minutes later, I got another text from Mary that said, "We are passing airplane house now. Andrew says we should make it by one fifteen if no other problem." However, there was another problem. Here is Mary's next text: "We are in front of the parliament and some big shot is coming. Traffic cant move until they pass. We just jumped the medium and made a u. We are on our way again." The new president of Liberia was in the country at that time. She had come to speak at the Yaradua Center. I suspect that is what this was about. They had blocked off the road for her convoy that would be passing. Andrew simply jumped the curb and found another road to the airport. About 1:13, I called Mary. She said, "We are at the gate paying the airport fee now." So I walked out and met them just as they were pulling in. Their trip had been as eventful as my had been easy.
Sharon Ultimate Hotel
I had been told to go to the Sharon Ultimate Hotel where I would be provided accommodation. This is one of the nicer hotels in Abuja. We reported there, got a room, got some lunch and I spent the rest of the afternoon working on my sermon. Rev. Okoye had told me to call him when I got to town. I was not able to reach him until about 4:00. He told me that someone from the chaplain's office would come over that evening and give me the details of the service and also details about getting to Aso Rock the next morning.
That night a young man named James Ngwuli showed up. He is some kind of administrator in the chaplain. I had not met him before. He gave me the details of what to expect the next morning. Most of this was well-known because I have been to at least one service at the Aso Rock chapel before. He promised to come at 7:45 the next morning to lead us to the chapel.
Getting to the Chapel
We were ready and waiting in the lobby the next morning at 7:45. This was the fifth time I have been to Aso Rock, I think, so I was pretty familiar with the security procedures. To get into Aso Rock, you have to pass through three gates. The guards at the first gate recognized James so waved us on through. When we came to the second gate, Mary and I had to get out with James and go into a building where people are screened. First, we had to pass through a metal detector. Then each person had to sit down in front of a table that had about four interview booths. James explained to the person that I was the guest speaker for the day. The person asked for any kind of ID. I produced my alien card. He put it in a certain place under what apparently w as a camera and then took my picture. This picture was placed on a little ID card that was placed in holder. That holder had a red strap on it that you hung around your neck so that the ID, with your picture on it was visible all the time. Mary had to get the same thing. Unfortunately, because we knew that they scrutinize everything, she had left her main purse at the hotel and just brought a small purse and that one did not have her ID in it. However, they overlooked that and let her come on in with me. Interestingly, Andrew, as the driver, did not have to go through any kind of screening. After we had gotten our temporary ID cards, Andrew pulled through this gate and picked us up. We then drove to the next gate. Again, the security people there recognized James and waved us on in.
That night before, I had told James that I wanted Andrew to get in the service if possible and he assured me that it would be possible. Once we got all the way inside, James said that he was going to take me to the chapel and would come back and show Andrew where to park. He would then bring him in. So now, we went through another screening exercise. We were told we could not take cell phones or cameras inside. So James took these back to the vehicle for us. We got through that screening and then went on back another 150 yards or so through a covered walkway to the chapel. There was a line of people waiting to go through the metal detector. However, James walked up and said, "Make way for the guest speaker." The crowds separated like the Red Sea and Mary and I went to the front of the line. We had to go through the metal detector two or three times before we found all the things in our pockets that tripped off the machine. One thing was a very small jump drive I keep in my pocket. The security person asked me what it was. Mine has tape on it so it looks a bit beat up. I guess he had not seen one quite like that before.
As soon as I got through the metal detector, one of the ushers immediately took my Bible and led me inside the chapel and up on the platform. Mary was still being screened but I assumed that someone would take care of her. William Okoye was already on the platform. He greeted me and asked me to take the center of the four seats on the platform. The chapel is built in something of a rectangle with the long parts being to the side. The entire front fourth of the chapel is raised. On the left is the section for the choir, a choir that had what appeared to be about 50 people. On the left was another raised section. I am not sure what it was but I know that part of this section was reserved for chapel workers. In addition, I suspect it was for visiting pastors and other Christian leaders. The main chapel is made up of individual wooden seats with padded bottoms-very beautiful and well-built ones. I would guess that there are about 12 seats in each row divided by a 8 foot aisle down the middle. I would also guess that there are about 15 rows of seats. In addition, there is a balcony that appeared to hold about 100 people. Mary was told that the chapel holds a little over 500 people. In addition, they had put out special folding chairs on both sides of the main aisle leading to the front. So I would guess that there were perhaps as many as 550 people in the building, after it was full.
The platform has two levels. The first level is perhaps one foot above the main floor. The next section, which is the pulpit area, is another couple of feet above that level. In the middle of this section is a huge rounded stone. At its base it must be at least 5 feet across. On top of it, there is a table and on this table, is the podium from which the preachers speaks. However, that is the only activity that takes place. Everything else takes place from a podium on the lower level and to one side of the platform. Immediately behind the pulpit is the back wall that has a stained window cross in it. The windows are probably about eight inches wide and though they are a bit dark, you can see through them. Amazingly, one of the things that I remember from my first visit to the chapel was watching a lizard crawl around on the outside of that stained glass window.
When Mary did not come in with me, the chaplain sent someone back to check on her and instructed them where to place her. She eventually entered, about three minutes later and was given a seat on the first row on the platform to my left, in the "Christian leaders" section.
The Prayer Service
The first of the three parts of the service starts at 8:00 AM so it was already in progress when we arrived about 8:20 or so. This part of the service lasts from 8:00 to 9:00 and it is a prayer meeting. It was being led by someone from the chaplain's office named Zion. It was a fairly typical enthusiastic prayer meeting. Prayer meetings in Nigeria are guided. The leader will give a prayer point and then encourage all the people to pray. And as a general rule, people will pray out loud, as they did in the chapel that morning. After a couple of minutes, someone will be called on to pray specifically for that issue. After that prayer finishes, they will go on to the next prayer point. And each of these prayers would often be interrupted by an appropriate course. However, the leader was very strict with time. He would only allow the course to be sung one time. The thing that was being done when we walked in was that they were going down through the program, praying for every item on the program. The following items were listed on the program:
1.. Call to Worship "God's Goodness"
2.. Opening Prayer
3.. Opening Hymn "Now Thank We All Our God"
4.. First Lesson Deuteronomy 16:9-12
5.. Recognition of Guests/Notices
6.. Worship in Praise, Offering and Prayer
7.. Second Lesson Hebrews 10:32-39
8.. Pastoral Prayer
9.. Choir Special
10.. Message "Celebrating the Blessings of Life"
Rev. Dr. Danny McCain
11.. Closing Hymn "Doxology"
12.. Closing Prayer and Benediction
They were praying for the last four items when we got in. After this, the congregation was reminded that today was the birthday of "Mr. President." Therefore, there was a prayer time for him as well.
After they finished praying for the items in the program, they spent some time praying for issues related to the State. They focused on three specific things. First, they prayed about the upcoming census that would be taking place in a couple of weeks. As was done with the other issues, a couple of minutes were spent in private prayer and then someone led in the prayer about that issue. The second prayer item was related to the ongoing review of the constitution that is taking place. This is making national and international news right now because one of the items being discussed is will there be a change of constitution that will enable presidents and governors to contest for a third term. However, apparently the review of the constitution is an ongoing activity that includes the consideration of 95 specific items. Serious prayer was made for this. The final item of prayer was concerning the ongoing hostage crisis that is taking place in the delta area right now. A couple of weeks ago, nine oil workers were taking hostage. A couple of days earlier, all but three were released but three are still being detained. The hostage takers are demanding certain major concessions by the government regarding the oil industry. The person who prayed about this item said in part,
Lord, you know that hostage taking is not a part of our culture. We have never done that. We have always treated our visitors with respect. In the west (Yoruba land), when a visitor came, we would always give them water. In the east (Igbo land), when a visitor came, we would always give them cola. We have always protected our visitors but something new has come and we know that this is not from you.
The prayer meeting part of the service ended around 9:00 with a closing prayer. During the closing prayer, President Obasanjo entered the room and came and sat on the front row, closest seat to the platform. He had a little stand in front of the seat. A couple of minutes before he entered, a big tall strong man dressed in white came in and placed his Bible on the little seat. I assume he was part of the security detail.
The President's Sunday School Lesson
Without any introduction or ceremony, the president then came forward to teach the Bible study. The custom is that if the president is in town, he will teach the Bible lesson. He began in his rather low and gravelly type voice reviewing the previous lesson. Apparently, they are just embarking on a study of the Book of Acts and during the previous week, the president had covered the introduction background. Therefore, he took three or four minutes to ask questions about the previous lesson.
After that, he started teaching at Acts 1:1. I have heard the president give testimonies before and I have heard him lead in prayer but I had not heard him teach. However, I knew that while he was in prison, he taught Sunday school nearly every Sunday and also preached regularly so it was very interesting to hear him teach. I was not really surprised because I know he is an excellent communicator but I was very pleased to see that he was a very good teacher. He used what I call the old "Sunday school" approach which is a sort of loose exposition of the passage. He would have someone read a verse or two and then he would stop and teach. His teaching included questions, explanations and stories. The reader was a girl in the choir who would read until the president told her to stop.
He talked a bit more about the authorship of the book. He explained the two-nature volume of the Luke-Acts combination. Perhaps the thing he stressed most in this section was the fact that Jesus waited until the disciples were prepared before conveying on them the responsibility of leadership. They had been physically prepared. He stressed how physically strong you have to be to be a commercial fisherman. He said that they had been mentally prepared. Jesus had been teaching them for three years. However, they still needed the spiritual preparation that would come from the Holy Spirit within them. The president also addressed the issue of the disciple's question about the kingdom. They had said, "Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?" (1:6). The president said that when Jesus and the disciples were talking about a kingdom, they were talking about two different things. Jesus was trying to teach them about his kingdom but they kept interpreting the kingdom in another way. He said, "When you show someone a shovel and give it another name, some people are not going to understand what you mean."
I was very pleased with the lesson. As a pastor I would have been happy any time to have a layman who could teach the Bible like this. The president was quite articulate. Although he talks slowly and rather gruffly, he tends to say what he wants to say with a real efficiency of words. He was good in responding to questions. When someone answered a question with a wrong or a questionable answer, he did not make them feel bad but would try to squeeze something from their answer. And he was funny. He told funny stories. He spoke in Pidgin English. It was very enjoyable, listening to him.
Unfortunately, my listening to the president teach was interrupted at one point. Rev. Okoye, who was sitting next to me, leaned over and said, "We are going to have a special prayer for Babba during the service and I would like for you to lead in the prayer." Things like that always make me a bit nervous. I know that prayer is primarily something we do so that God will hear us. However, the truth of the matter is that other people listen and pray along with the prayer. And I am not really a spontaneous kind of person. I like to be well prepared for things like this. However, there was not much time to prepare except in the remaining minutes that the president had to teach his lesson. Therefore, I picked up program and started jotting down thoughts that would hopefully help make my prayer a bit more coherent.
The president finished his teaching right at 10:00 AM and the next service began immediately. People had been coming into the building since before I got there but by this time, nearly everyone was in place and the chapel was almost full. Within five or ten minutes of the beginning of the actual worship service, the place was completely packed.
The Morning Worship Service
The service began with a call to worship which the president led. He then had all of the people recite the memory verse for the year. They recited it three times. It was Genesis 17:1c (NIV) "I am God Almighty; walk before me and be blameless." There was then an opening prayer which the president led.
After that we sang the opening hymn which was "Now Thank We All Our God." After that, Jerry Gana stood up and said, "Mrs. Danny McCain will read the first lesson for us." Mary then walked up to the lower platform and read the Deuteronomy passage. I was proud of her and happy that she was able to be with me on this special occasion.
The next thing on the agenda was the recognition of guests and announcements. Zion, apparently one of the assistant chaplains stood up and said, "We have a long list of distinguished people who have come today to worship with us. And I think you know why." He then began to introduce the special guests individually. The following people were introduced and stood for recognition:
1.. The governors of Taraba and Bayelsa states
2.. The governor of the central bank (who was introduced as the only governor who had plenty of money)
3.. Several ministers (we call them secretaries in the US) including the minister of education, the minister of finance, the minister of transportation, the minister of environment and several other deputy ministers.
4.. The chief of army staff
5.. The national commissioner of police, the highest ranking police officer in the country.
6.. The heads of several other federal government bodies that I cannot remember
7.. Leaders from the ruling political party
Of special interest to me was the minister of education, who is ultimately my boss since she is responsible for all educational matters in the country. I had met her once in Jos. The second person was the minister of the finance who is the lady who has done so much to bring corruption to a close in Nigeria.
I remember thinking while all of these introductions was going on, "Kai, this is a bigger thing that I thought. I knew the president was going to be here but this place is crawling with manya manya (big big) people." However, to God be the glory, I was not nervous. With all of these big people present I felt a little guilty that I was not nervous. However, I have learned over the years that big people listen the same way as ordinary people.
After this, we sang some choruses while the offering was being taken up. The singing was very enthusiastic, as good as in any church I have been in. And the people seemed very happy.
Praying for the President
Immediately after the offering, Rev. Okoye and Prof. Gana stood up and asked the president to come up on the platform again. Someone brought out a great big birthday card which was at least three feet high and a wrapped present. The chaplain congratulated the president on reaching his 69th birthday and then they handed him the cards and present which he then handed to someone else to take care of.
The chaplain then said, "And we have also brought you another gift, which is even more important than these gifts." Jerry Gana then read Psalm 20 which he paraphrased and personalized slightly for the president. After each phrase, there was great shout of "Amen" from the audience. The reading was very appropriate and surely was a blessing to the president. The chaplain then said, "Rev. Dr. Danny McCain will now pray for you." I walked up to the edge of the platform and stood about three feet from the president and prayed my prayer. The following is the closest that I can reconstruct it.
Almighty God, we are grateful for this special day in which we are able to come to this place and celebrate your resurrection. Thank you for the privilege of praising and worshipping you in this special place.
We are also especially grateful for this day because it is the birthday of our president. We thank you for the sixty nine years you have given to him. We are grateful for the life you have given to him. You have protected him during times of war; you have spared him when he was sick; you have been with him when he was in prison; you have been close to him during the recent loss of his wife; during this past year you have been with him during the times of success and the times of failure. We are also grateful for the family you have given to him, including his children, grandchildren and the memory of his late wife. We praise you for all of the accomplishments you have given to him during this past year.
We now pray that you will continue to pour out your blessings upon him. We pray that you will give him many more years to serve you. When Moses was approaching this age, he had only just begun his real ministry and we pray that you will make it so in the life of President Obasanjo also. We pray that you will give him more wisdom. You have given him the ability to take complex things and make them simple. We pray that you would give him even greater wisdom during this next year. We pray that you will expand his influence. We thank you for the powerful influence that he has in this country as head of state. However, we also know that he has great influence all throughout Africa and we pray that you would increase and expand that influence, not only in Africa but around the world. We also pray that you will give him more disciples. We know that he will not live forever so we pray that you will raise up a whole host of men and women who will learn from him and carry on his work after he is gone. Give him many younger people who will be loyal and faithful disciples and who will carry on the important responsibilities you have given him. And most of all, we pray that you will give him greater favor with you during this next year. We are grateful for a president who loves you. However, we pray that during this next year, he will be filled with even greater love and devotion for you. And we pray that your presence will smile on him. Be close to him and be close to all of us during this next year.
We pray all of these things in the name of Jesus. Amen.
This prayer reminded me a bit of another important prayer that I prayed. On January 24th, 1996, I was invited to open the US Congress in prayer. I knew about that even well in advance and had to submit the prayer in advance to those who supervise such things. It was 121 words long. That was also a very special occasion. However, this prayer was equally as special, though I did not get to enjoy that anticipation nearly as long. Thank God for the privilege of praying publicly for the president of Nigeria.
After the prayer, we had the New Testament reading which was Hebrews 10:32-39. Then Rev. Okoye prayed a pastoral prayer. The choir then sang. While the choir was singing, the chaplain leaned over and said, "How much time will you need?" I responded, "How much time do I have?" He said, "Take 30 minutes." The administrator who had come the night before had told me that I would have 45 minutes to one hour. However, if I was only going to have 30 minutes, that would alter some of the things that I was going to say, including some of the introductory remarks I was going to make. As soon as the choir finished, it was time for me to preach.
The Sermon
I was introduced by Professor Jerry Gana. He has been a very prominent Christian in this country, one that has come from the academic community. He has been perhaps the closest friend to President Obasanjo over the years. He got up and simply said, "We are happy to have with us to bring the sermon, Rev. Dr. Danny McCain, the head of the department of religious studies at the University of Jos." Well, I am not exactly the head of the department but that is a mistake that many people make. I stood up and stepped up to the preaching podium. Professor Gana continued, "And Rev. McCain has with him today his wife, Mrs. Mary McCain." He paused and then said, "The McCain's have lived in Nigeria for the past 18 years so that is why Mrs. McCain is dressed like our ladies." (Mary was wearing a beautiful traditional blue African dress with appropriate head tie.) He then said, "Dr. McCain has been a very good friend of Mr. President for many years. However, we want him to know that all of us welcome him to come at this time and bring us God's word."
I began by saying, "I am very grateful for the invitation to speak here at the Aso Rock Villa Chapel." I then went directly to my sermon. I began with an attempt at a little bit of humor to start out the sermon. I said, "When I was informed that today was President Obasanjo's birthday, I immediately did a little research in the Bible to remind myself of what the Bible says about birthdays. I discovered that there are only two birthday celebrations mentioned in the Bible. Interestingly both of them were birthdays of heads of state." The people were looking at me interestingly at this point as if they did not know who I was or how they should respond to me or whether they were going to be able to understand my English. I continued, "The first was the birthday of Pharaoh. That celebration was good for his cupbearer but unfortunately, that was the occasion on which he hanged his chief baker." There was a smatter of laughter. I continued, "The second was the birthday of Herod. And it was during his birthday celebration that John the Baptist was executed." There was more laughter this time. Then I concluded the brief introduction, "When I saw those things, I decided that I would not speak about the birthday celebrations in the Bible. I was afraid that the chaplain and all the cooks around Aso Rock might run away." There was a healthy amount of laughter by this time.
Using humor is a bit tricky in a cross-cultural situation. I very seldom attempt to tell a joke in Nigeria. Many of our jokes in America are very culture specific and often are based upon a sophisticated understanding of language. People who speak English as a second language have a difficult time picking up on those things. However, you can tell stories that are funny and Nigerians will really laugh.
Now that the people knew they could understand my English and that it was alright to laugh at my stories, I continued. I explained that I was going to talk about ceremonies. And then I said, "One of the first things that I learned when I came to Nigeria 18 years ago is that you Nigerians tend to celebrate differently than we Americans." I mentioned several things that Nigerians like to celebrate, each one getting a little bigger laugh. I then told a story about the first wedding that I had attended in Nigeria. And by the end of that story, everybody was with me. The president was setting on the front room, shaking with laughter. I never was nervous before or during the sermon but seeing the response of these people to my attempts at humor, I felt good that I had them with me and that they were going to respond to my sermons about like every other audience in Nigeria.
I then preached the rest of my sermon. It was basically a sermon about celebration. I first of all tried to demonstrate that celebrations were divinely authorized in the Bible. And then I used the Feast of Weeks (Pentecost) as a model for the way that we should celebrate. The place where this is described in Deuteronomy 16:9-12. It uses four key words that I built the rest of my sermon around, including celebrate, give, rejoice and remember.
There was only one time when I spoke directly to the president. I was making the point that the word "celebrate" implied rest. So I said, "Oga, I have been told by those close to you that you work too much so that you don't get enough rest. I want you to know that our celebrations should include rest. I am reasonably sure that the Federal Republic of Nigeria will not collapse if you take off the rest of this day to celebrate your birthday and rest a bit."
I cheated a little and took about 40 minutes to preach the sermon. However, I knew that I had everyone with me, including the chaplain, and still finished the sermon by 11:45. And besides, I have lived in Nigeria long enough to know what "30 minutes" means. It means, "Don't preach too long." This was actually a fun-kind of sermon. There was no heavy duty theology. There was no big emphasis on sin and repentance. There was no call for sacrifice and simplicity and holiness. Therefore, it was the kind of sermon that I could enjoy preaching and I think that the audience could enjoy listening to.
Nigeria is a very easy place to preach because it is easy to tell if your audience is with you. In addition to laughing, there are various others ways that Nigerians respond. If you are quoting a well-known passage or even making a very obvious point they will completed words for you. For example, you can say, "the wages of sin is (pause)" and they will all shout out "death." Or in this sermon, I would say, "And now you know that when we celebrate, we must (pause)" and they will say "rest." In addition, there are other sounds that are made by Nigerian audiences that either give positive approval to what you are saying or, sometimes, negative approval. These include little groans, groans, ooh's, ahh's and other non-words that give a cooperate response to the speaker. It is hard to describe the sound but it is very easy to know how the audience is responding to you. For example, when Jerry Gana mentioned that we had lived in Nigeria for 18 years, there was an outpouring of these happy sounds. When I mentioned that during our celebrations, we also remembered sad times and then said that on this happy day, it would be a little saddened by remember that the president's late wife was no longer with us, there was this cooperate sad sound of moans, groans and sighs. There was only one time that the audience broke out in applause. That was when I mentioned that on July 1, my parents would celebrate their 60th anniversary. This was not the best sermon I have ever preached in my life but it was certainly one of the more enjoyable ones. And it will be difficult to top, as for as the audience is concerned.
After the sermon, we quickly sang the doxology and the president led in the closing prayer and benediction.
The President's Family Chat
Now that the service was officially over, the president had a few more words. I think he is generally viewed as the host every Sunday so after the service formally concludes he will give what Mary has described as a little "family talk." He has done that every time I have visited the chapel. He thanked all the people for coming. He had certainly picked up on the celebration theme. He said that, as a general rule, he did not particularly like celebrations, especially when they were about him. He then said, "However, I guess I am going to have to take my friend, Danny's advice and rest a bit today." Everybody laughed. He talked a little bit more about rest and then said, "If my chief of staff had been here, I am afraid he would not be very happy. However, at least I could blame Danny for me not doing my work today."
The president continued to talk about some other aspects of my sermon. For example, he said,
You know I read recently that Nigerians are the happiest people in the world. Why is that? Maybe it is connected to our love for celebrations. Here is a fact. We may have a lot of poor people but we don't have a very high suicide rate. Why is that? Because if a man looses his job, he will send his children back to his brother in the village. His wife will go stay with her aunt and he will go to Lagos or Abuja to look for work. Everyone is taken care of.
He continued by telling a story. He said,
Some time ago, I took a taxi in London. As we were moving, I started talking to the taxi driver and he said to me, 'I don't like living in London anymore.' I asked him why and he said, 'Because we don't love anymore.' He then told me that his wife had been to some kind of meeting and had met her next door neighbor and discovered that her husband had been dead for six months. Can you imagine that happening in Nigeria-a person being dead six months before the neighbor knew about it. No, we would certainly let everyone know that someone had died because there would be much wailing in the house. And in fact, the neighbors would come from the outside and wail also.
He was feeling pretty good about this time so he took a little side trail and said, "Have you ever noticed how people will go to a place where someone has died? The girls will be walking down the road just saying, yak-yak-yak-yak. However, as soon as they enter the house where the person has died, they will suddenly start wailing." The people started laughing. He continued, "And real tears will come out of their eyes. And they will be telling the person. 'We have never seen anything like this. This is the saddest day of our lives.' And then they will finish their visit and they will walk outside and immediately it is yak-yak-yak-yak." The people almost fell out of their chairs laughing. This is good Nigerian humor.
This sparked another line of thinking about the giving part of my sermon. He said,
When I was first started contesting for this office, in 1998, it was being financed exclusively out of my farm. We had all of these campaign workers down there and every day, we would kill a cow to feed them (laughter). My friend, Andy Young came around and said, 'What are you doing killing a cow every day?' I told him that is what we do in Nigerian politics. You have just got to kill a cow. And after the election, they continued staying. (huge laughter). I finally told them that I was moving to Abuja to try to save my cows (more laughter). Yes, we Nigerians love to celebrate. I thank you all for coming and helping me to celebrate my birthday.
Following the President
At this point, the recessional started. I was told to go and walk immediately behind the president. One of the chaplain staff went over and got Mary who gathered up her things and followed us. The chaplain and Jerry Gana also joined us in the recessional. The people on the side to our right going out were all greeting the president and he was shaking hands with them as he went out. When we got on the outside, he grabbed my hand and led me on in the direction he was going. His big tall security agent told me to follow him.
We left the chapel and went to the building next to it. There was apparently some kind of children's program going on there. We went into what must have been a Sunday school room that appeared to have about fifty children in it. Ten or fifteen of them rushed up to the president and hugged him. He was very patient and gentle with them. The people with the president insisted that Mary and I go in the room with them. The children then made a little presentation to the president. They sang happy birthday to him and then quoted Psalm 23. They then sang two or three other short choruses before we left the room.
We then following the president to another room that had a bunch of snacks in them. I assumed that we were going to have a snack. However, the president only stopped long enough to pick up a little sandwich and then continued. People with us kept saying, "follow the president." We did. We followed him over to the "big house," the residential part of the villa. At one point, a security agent told us to follow another person while the president and the chaplain went in through another door. We went around to the front of the residence and went through another metal detector. We were then led back through the various halls and rooms until we came to the small dining room, where I had had breakfast with the president on one other occasion.
Breakfast with the President
The president was there with about ten or twelve other people. I was told to go sit on the immediate right of the president. When I got there, the secretary to the government had already taken that position. He is one of the most senior officials in government. I did not feel like it was my place to tell him to get out of the seat that had been set aside for me so I sat down next to him. Mary was seated next to me. There were eventually about 20 people who sat around the table. The president was already seated and was eating by the time we got there.
We sat there rather quietly for a while. You don't want to do the wrong them in a situation like that so you just wait until you see some other senior person doing something and then you follow them. It was a very beautiful environment. There was a table over behind the president that was filled with a beautiful roasted turkey, a big beef roast and several other beautiful pieces of food. They were arranged as beautifully as any food I have ever seen. In front of each of us was a plate with the presidential seal on it. On top of that was another plate that was turned over. On top of that was a bowl that was also turned over. We then had a juice glass and a water glass. All of these were beautiful pieces of china with the presidential seal on them.
Someone came around and turned our bowls over. I saw someone putting some very thick "soup" in the bowl next to mine. I had never seen soup that thick. And then the waiter came to me and said, "Would you like to have some pap?" It was only then that I recognized that this is what we called akamu in Port Harcourt. It is a breakfast dish that was basically some kind of starch. And now it was obvious that we were going to have a breakfast. In addition to the pap, we were given some akara, which is fried bean cake. These two always go together. On my first trip to Nigeria, in January 1987, I had eaten this combination nearly every morning for breakfast. However, it had been many years since I had had it. The akara and akamu were very good. After this, the waiters brought around boiled Irish potatoes, boiled yam, and fried plantains. They also brought a poached egg as well as some scrambled eggs. After that, they served some kidney gravy to put on top of all these things. By this time, we were down to the plate. We still had another plate to go and I was afraid we were going to have to keep eating. So I ate enough but did not stuff myself just in case we had to eat some more. They later offered us coffee or tea but I declined any of that. The juice was so good, I did not want any other liquid. It was a very nice meal.
I chatted with the secretary to the government who was seated next to me during most of the meal. I also chatted with the chaplain who was seated directly across from me. I said a few words to the president and he teased me again about getting him in trouble for not working. However, the president was kept busy during the meal. The phone must have rung six or eight times during the 45 minute meal. In addition, there must have been at least six or eight people who came up to him to wish him happy birthday or discuss something else with him during the meal. At one point, someone brought him about six or seven newspapers. He basically looked at the headlines and then set them aside.
One woman who had been especially attentive in the sermon came up to greet him and then whispered to me while he was talking on the phone, "I want to see you." After her conversation with the president, she came up and said, "That was a beautiful sermon," (a refrain that I heard several times that day). She added, "I would love for you to send me a copy of it by email if possible." She did not have a card with her so she wrote her email in my little notebook. I later learned that she was the leader of one of the government agencies.
Closing of a Memorable Event
After a while, the president stood up and when the president stands, everyone else stands. He walked around to where Mary and I were standing and shook our hands. We wished him a happy birthday. He then walked around the end of the table and walked out the way we had come in, through the main part of the house. We all dutifully followed. During this time, I had several people come up to me and thank me for the sermon and congratulate me. We went out into a little hall where five or six of the big birthday cards that the president had received were being displayed. One was especially interesting. It was actually the picture of a Naira note with the president's face on it. However, in the place where they would normally have the denomination of the note (10, 20, 50, etc.), they had 1937 which was the year that the president was born. It was a very creative piece.
At this point, it was time for us to all be going our separate ways so the chaplain started walking with us out of the residence. He stopped once and introduced me to the army chief of staff. I chatted a couple of minutes with him. We interrupted our conversation so the chaplain could introduce me to the commissioner of police, the highest police officer in the country. As we were walking pass the metal detector, one of the security agents smiled and said, "Oga, we go come to Jos and celebrate." I said, "As I said, celebration is good." We went outside and found Andrew parked in the driveway, waiting for us. William's driver has disappeared for some unexplainable reason so I volunteered to take him home since he had another meeting he needed to go to immediately.
We drove out of the Aso Rock villa. It is a whole lot easier getting out of the place than it was getting in. William told me that things had really changed in the chapel and that he was very grateful for the opportunity that God had given to him to serve in this capacity. He asked me if I could come back down at Easter time and speak in his regular church. I assured him that I would try. He also volunteered to help me contact the minister of education on our projects if I needed him.
We went from there back over to the hotel to check out. We were on the road by about 2:15 and were back in Jos by 5:30 or so. The journey home fortunately was uneventful.
Reactions
Immediately after I had preached, the chaplain had given me an envelop filled with money. It had a number of brand new 1000 Naira notes, each of which is worth about $7.40. The envelope had the presidential seal on it. I told Mary to give one of those 1000 Naira notes to each of the people who work for us and to physically take it out of the presidential envelop in front of them and tell them that this money came directly from Aso Rock. So each one had to come around personally and tell me thank you for the money I had given to them. I was very happy that not only could I give them a little bonus but that I could give them money that came straight from Aso Rock.
The next day, when I walked in our department, the cleaner smiled real big and said, "Oga, last night I see you on the television with Obasanjo." She later said, "I was very happy when I saw you." The 9:00 PM "News Line" program on Sunday evening had carried the celebration. They had shown a portion of my prayer for the president and also a part of my sermon. All throughout the day people were coming up to me congratulating me on being with the president and asking about the details. One of my colleagues in the department, Mrs. Lere came to see me and said when she saw the picture, she called her husband and said, "This is my colleague." Others told me a similar story. Everyone seemed very proud of this special privilege that had been granted to me. In some way, when something good happened to me, it was happening to all of them because the sense of community is so much greater here in Nigeria. They all were in some way able to vicariously enjoy my "preaching to the president."
I am grateful for the opportunity that God gave me to preach the birthday celebration sermon for the president. I am humbled by the opportunity and trust that something that I said will be a blessing to others.
