The founder of Benue State-based Peace House, Bro Gbile Akanni has said Africans do not need help in the way it is being perceived by some people in the Western world.
But according to him, it is the West that needs the help of Africans. He said the resources that Africa needs are in Africa.
He made the observation in a message monitored online by Church Times.
In the message, Akanni recalled how he went to preach in a foreign country and how an offer was made to him by some white men to come help Africa.
Africa does not need support
Talking about his experience in a foreign country, he said, “After I finished ministering in a particular country, a group of white men came to me and said they would like to have a meeting with me over coffee. So, we sat to drink coffee and chat. In the course of the meeting, one of them said, Gbile, I know you come from Africa. How can we help you people because we know there are lots of problems in Africa?”
Rather than jump at the offer, Akanni responded in the negative insisting that if anybody needed help, it was the white people.
His response to them: “Honestly speaking you are the ones that have serious problems because of what is happening in your country .I walk through your streets and I see church buildings where people are now playing table tennis. I saw empty ashes in places where there had been the move of God as I walked through your streets. I see that clubhouses have taken over places that were once on fire for God. If there is anybody that needs help it is you”
He told the group of white men that the only way he could be happy was if they made use of the message he brought to them while also adding that he was trusting God to support them rather than the other way round.
Turned down their envelope
The white people according to him were astonished that there could be a preacher from Africa that would not jump at their offer.
“They brought an envelope but I told them to take it and put it in their work. I told them, I would pray for them that the work would bear fruit. And the topic changed. They had never seen a preacher from Africa who did not come to beg” Akanni said.
That encounter according to him would later launch him into more opportunities to preach in many parts of the world.
“I was happy that what I carry does not only survive in Nigeria but survives in the coldest regions of the world” Akanni said. He expressed joy that what God has deposited in him is being appreciated adding that some of them followed him to Africa to experience more of God.
He said some of the white folks came to stay with him in Gboko to spend some time even when there was no light in the place and they had to fetch water from the well.
Sale of books
Earlier in the message, he recalled also how the host pastor of one of the churches he went to preach told the congregation to encourage him by buying his books.
Akanni said he told the pastor, “I did not come to sell books and I am not encouraged if you buy my books. Of all the books I have been writing, not a single Kobo has come to my pocket. If anybody wants to buy books let them buy books on their own”