By Okike and Irene Offia
In the Karmo District of Abuja, Navigator laborers are working with a group of people living in poverty, providing access to education and skills acquisition. Through whole-life discipleship, they are laying the foundation for generations of disciples who are resilient both economically and socially. So far, they have helped 15 school dropouts ages 7-15 to get back in school, have helped four adults enter various skill acquisition programs, and have seen another two failed attempts. All these people are involved in a weekly discipleship program where they are taught to be disciples who make disciples.
Abuja is the capital and eighth most populous city of Nigeria, located in the center, within the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). It has an excellent road network, scenic rolling terrain, and countless hills, the most prominent being Aso Rock, a 1300 ft (400 m) monolith which is a beauty to behold.
Despite this beauty, there is an ever-growing circle of poverty, as people on the fringes of society migrate to the center for greener pastures. Over the last ten years, this circle has grown even faster due to terrorism and religious insurgency.
In Abuja, there are four official camps for Internally Displaced Peoples (IDPs) and there are over 34 unauthorized camps in the FCT. While this poses a grave humanitarian challenge, the Navigator community in Abuja sees God bringing the nations of unreached and underreached people next door to where they live.
On the other side of town in the Kaura District, Irene and I are developing relationships with IDPs in a camp within walking distance of our home. We engage the people on three fronts: education, health care, and skills acquisition. Today, we have two girls on full scholarship in a private school. Just yesterday, a camp official said to me, “those girls are an inspiration to the other children in the camp.” We have engaged three volunteer teachers at the primary school and provided educational materials. We have also provided medications and have volunteer doctors who work at the camp clinic.
Regarding skills acquisition, we have trained ten women to make shaggy rugs from tailoring waste with a partner who has set up an outfit to market the rugs. We helped the women form a cooperative society with a revolving fund for economic purposes.
These engagements have opened up a new world of opportunities for discipleship among a people group who moved next door to where we live. We see a community of people transformed through holistic discipleship, prepared to engage their people as they return to their homes in the future. This is something new and we are learning to work with people different from us.
