Nothing excites Evangelist Emmanuel Achika more than missions. Since he made up his mind to surrender all to Jesus and go into mission work, he has not had any cause to look back. He has also consistently resisted the temptation of becoming a pastor and being tied to a church.An indigene of Kebbi State, Achika told Church Times that he was born to a Christian home and had been part of the United Missionary Church of Africa.
He however surrendered his will to the Lordship of Jesus in 2008.Since he made that decision, he said, “No other thing excites me more than mission. The church identified this trait in me and sent me to do cross-cultural mission training with the Nigeria Evangelical Missions Institute in Jos. I was already planting churches for my church before the training. But after the training, I gained more insight which has helped me to plant more churches across the country.”Achika said he has so far planted about six churches after his missionary training with NEMA.
Beyond missions
Beyond doing missions, Achika holds a National Certificate of Education in Biology/Geography, speaks about six different languages, and has some knowledge of mechanical engineering. He is also a full-time businessman; he sells groundnut on a large scale.
He said his experience as a missionary has taught him not to rely on man and the institutional churches for support but to trust God and work with his own hands.
“What I have seen over the years is that many of our churches don’t want to support missions. They only pay lip service to it. It’s even worse if you are not carrying a title like Rev or Pastor. That is why many people abandon their call to missions to become pastors. But people who have the calling for missions won’t do that.
“In my case, I have faced several temptations of being asked to come and be a pastor. But I keep telling them, it won’t happen. There was a church I planted and they wanted me to stay back and continue to be their pastor, I told them God did not call me to stay in a place”
Church planting a gift
Reflecting on his church planting work, he said, “I think church planting is a gift. I find it easy to plant churches.”
It was in the cause of planting churches that he had to learn some skills and languages that have helped to enhance the work.
Achika who planted a church in Warri while doing his training attachment with Souls Harvesters Ministries recalled that it was the way he shared love in the community back in Warri that made it easy for him to plant a church there before leaving the place.
He said, “A particular Sunday, I was walking in one of the neighbourhoods, and I saw this mechanic working on a vehicle, I approached him and asked why he was not going to Church. He said because he had no offering and he needed to make money.
“I said no problem, that the church is not the building but we are the church. I began to share with him and suggested that we have fellowship together in his workshop. As God would have it, heavy rain began and many people came to take cover in the shop.
“That was how we had a full church service that Sunday with many people who were passing by. After the service, they fell in love with the worship. The mechanic then suggested we talk to the owner of a building close to the church to allow us to use the property for regular church service. It was like God had prepared the place already. The owner did not hesitate.
“Till date, the church is still being run in that place somewhere in Egele Local Government in Delta State. This happened in 2015.”
A missionary should be friendly
He explained that planting a church is easy if a missionary makes himself friendly. “That formula works. Whenever I have some funds, I get this liquid soap and share it with people in the community and make myself friendly with them.
“I take a step further by attending their functions like weddings, naming ceremonies, and burial services. I always express my willingness to help them even when I may not have the resources. But they see my heart and disposition towards them. Before long, they will be the ones encouraging me to start a church. It has worked in many of the places I plant church.”
Stumbling block
He recalled however that there was an instance it took him so much time to be able to penetrate a community in Niger State because of the strong hold of Islam and the hostility of some churches.
“In that community, they did not want me to plant a church because they felt it was a Muslim community. But even some of the churches that were already in the community did not want me because they felt a new church would lead to their members drifting away. But at the end of the day, we were able to surmount the challenge. We had a breakthrough because they saw that my intention was pure.”
Many churches according to him feel threatened when a new church is coming. “In my case, I don’t own the church. My own is to help the body of Christ. I normally hand over the churches I plant to existing churches and move on to another field.”
What mission taught me
He said mission work has taught him how to extend love to people. “I normally tell my colleagues that the first step in winning people is being friendly with them.
“People can resist many things but they can’t resist love and concern. You must first show that you care before they would want to listen to you. The average man is selfish. We want attention and we fall in easily when people show interest in helping us or supporting what we do.”
Apart from being friendly, Achika says the instrument of praying and fasting is also important.
“It is important to pray regularly and constantly for that new community. We can organize prayer programmes and also look out for the leaders of the new community we find ourselves. It is the leaders that will in turn help to get others to listen to us.” He said
My wife and missions
God has used him and his wife to deliver many people in the course of the mission work.
“One of the miracles I believe God did in my life is to give me a wife who is at home with missions. I started being a missionary as a bachelor. When I wanted to marry, I prayed to God to give me a wife that loves mission. And that is what happened.”
He said his wife, Rose, has been a great assistance to his ministry. “People testify of her support and love. She is caring. She loves people. Together we have extended the frontiers of God’s kingdom.”
The mission work has also exposed the duo to the medical field. “We had to take some training in medicine and auxiliary nursing to be able to help some of our people on the field. The beauty of mission work is that the missionary is everything to the community he finds himself.
“I know how to repair machines for grinding pepper and some other domestic machines. I had to learn it because it became useful in the field. In one of the fields, I helped a woman repair her grinding machine when it had an issue.
“She was surprised and said I had just saved her the stress of taking the machine to a far place for repair. That gave me the opportunity to share the gospel with her.”
Global Mandate Conference
One of the programmes that have been a blessing to Achika is the yearly Global Mandate Conference which is billed to start on February 22 at the Agape Generation International Church, Maryland, Lagos. About 200 missionaries are expected to participate in this year’s edition.
Achika said, “The GMC has been a huge blessing to me. Last year I was tremendously blessed by all the teachings. I was particularly impacted by Rev Emmanuel Ajose’s ministration in the 2023 edition. I love his style. I have been greatly influenced by his teachings.
“I have been blessed by Rev Toyin Kehinde’s ministration too and that of his wife, Dr Shade Toyin Kehinde, and several other teachers at the annual conference. It is one conference every missionary must attend.”
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