Michael Orere studied the Bible at different times, with different people over the course of three years. Like biblical Jonah, he would run away after each challenge. We continued to reach out to him and he would come back to study once more, only to run away again and completely shut us out of his life.
He stopped taking our calls and deliberately avoided his own home when we planned to visit him. We persisted in showering him with the love of Jesus Christ as we know it. We stopped talking about studying the Bible with him, but kept praying for him and reaching out. All efforts to track him down, especially during Christmas, proved abortive. We kept praying for him and many others we have reach out to.
Shortly after the holidays, we received a call from Michael! We had turned in for the night, but in the morning we saw that he had called us five times! We panicked because we thought something may have happened to him. We became agitated when we called him back and he did not pick up. We concluded that something was definitively wrong after calling his elder brother, a disciple in the church, who too did not answer. Not long after, Michael called us back! “What is the matter?” we asked. “I am ready to become a disciple”, he said. He called so many times over the night because he was eager to become a disciple immediately!
Our regional leader, Wasiu Ajao of the New Ogba/Agege Region met with him to count the cost of discipleship and found him ready indeed to become a disciple of Jesus Christ. He had made great strides to repent and accept Christ in his heart as Lord. And on 26 January 2021, Michael confessed Jesus as the Lord of his life as he got baptized.
Shared from ICOC Nigeria.
