“Many of us by the time we started to read the Bible, the Bible was just about one shilling and six pence or two shillings but these days a copy of the Bible will not cost less than three to five naira upward. But the production cost of the Bible in those days which we bought at the rate of one shilling or two shillings will not cost less than two pound sterling. There were some people who came together to make up for the printing of the Bible so that the copies of it might be made available and affordable to people. The people who made this money available are not known to you, neither do I know them not to talk of paying them back for the kindness they have done to us. But they have done it and have gone on to their rewards.
“This is the type of things to which we are called. We do not need to keep doing something which will catch the eyes of the public. If God gives us money, what we need to concern ourselves with is how we are to spend the money for His cause. Those people in their time and age have sown their seed to the spirit and they are surely going to reap it. It may be that God endows you with some finance and you begin to wonder what you are going to do with the money: and you finally say 'I'd better expend it upon my children after all I must give them sound education'. Yes, you will give them sound education but they will not believe the Bible and that will be your own problem.
“For many years now we have been receiving literature and tracts for distribution in our country here without paying for them. The people who are responsible for the production of these papers do it sacrificially. There are people in the printing department who volunteered their entire time and hazarded their lives for the sake of the Gospel. Sometimes there are accidents, maybe, the guillotine cutting one or two fingers but in spite of this you still find these people carrying on this great work. What about financing the printing project, not that the money is forced out of the purses of people but people willingly give of their substance for the maintenance of this department hence we are able to get all these tracts and literatures for distribution.
“What about our Sunday school books? There was a man who came in contact with the Apostolic Faith in Portland, Oregon. It happened that he came to town to hold a religious conference of his own organization. He was been a highly educated person with a university degree. He had studied the Bible in different languages but all to no avail. Incidentally at this time, he came to America to hold a conference of his own organization and he ran into our people holding a street meeting. He heard them testifying that it was possible to live a life above sin. It appeared he could not believe his ears. He was told that if he could follow them to their church he would hear more of this. This man followed them to the service and he heard the details of the Gospel and God touched his heart.
“When he got back to his apartment, he told the leaders of his group 60
that he was going back to relinquish his post in their midst. The leaders asked him why he wanted to do so, he said he had found a better way of worshipping God and that he was not under any circumstances going back into the former employment. This was how this man left his job and location and came to America. When he came to America he did not present himself as the leader of a group before and that he should therefore be given a position in the church. Rather, he took a secular job where he received a meagre amount to live on. He was very regular in church services and soon prayed through to his Christian experiences. He acquainted himself with the people of God – going in and out with them—and the people of God started to wonder, “What type of man is this? He was very zealous, very earnest, very interested in the things of God. By and by he became a worker, by and by, he became a Sunday school teacher. He dedicated his life to skilfully planning our Sunday school books as a result of which we have all the Sunday school books which you and I are using now.
“This man is now dead and he has gone unto his reward. Neither you nor I know him but he has done a great thing for which his name will be immortalized. But what are you doing with your money? What are you doing with your education and what are you doing with your talents?
“We do not need to start writing tracts now for distribution, we have quite many of these. We do not need to sit down and start writing Sunday school book, we have this in series. But we have Igbo speaking people among us, we have Efik speaking people among us but I do not know what they are doing with their education. They cannot sit down and translate some of these tracts and Sunday school books into their own languages to make them available to their members who cannot read the English language.
“For many years we have been contemplating having our own printing department and God has answered our prayers and we have started printing papers here in Nigeria. But we are not doing this on commercial basis but for people's use without getting anything from any of these people.
“For many years since the life of Brother Inyang we had thought of printing the Sunday school book in Efik language but since his death, because of lack of cooperation we have not been able to get anything out. I wonder what our Igbo and Efik people are doing. Even if many of you aspiring to be teachers do not understand the English language you should be able to read the Bible in your own language. If you are not able to do this, I wonder what kind of teachers you will be. It appears we are not cooperating with God and we are going to be judged for negligence.