Niger

A Divine Appointment with Niger

In January 2007, I traveled to the West African nation of Niger for the first Miracle Healing Rally ever allowed in that country.  Through that trip, I believe the Oral Roberts Ministries and our Partner family took a giant step in fulfilling God’s command to us to take the power of the Gospel to the “uttermost bounds of the earth.”  If ever there was a nation where God’s light is seen dim and His power is not known, it’s Niger.  Thank you, Partners, for 60 years of being a vital part of this ministry that has taken God’s miracles of hope and healing to countries like Niger and so many others.   -Richard

Some 25 years ago, God gave me the names of 40 nations of the world where He was going to send me to preach the Gospel and pray for the sick.  One of those was the nation of Niger, in West Africa.
One of the things God told me was that He would open the doors to those nations.  I was to wait on Him, and He would open the doors in a way no one could deny…and no man could close.
Little did I know then the unique way God would open the door—more than 20 years later—to the nation of Niger.  And when He did, He got my full attention…immediately!

A ‘Coincidental’ Landing?

In 2004, I was on a flight back to Tulsa from a Miracle Rally in Ghana.  I had just dozed off to sleep when I heard the pilot announce, “We’ve lost our second generator.  We’re going to have to land in Niger.”
And I thought, Now isn’t this amazing?  Because Niger was one of the 40 countries where I knew God would send me one day.  I learned later that the pilot could have chosen to go a different direction to land the plane.  The decision had to be made quickly, and he chose Niger.  And because he did, I soon found myself landing—completely unexpectedly—in Niger, West Africa.
Some people would call what happened to us a coincidence, or a diversion.  Looking at it only from a natural point of view, it wasn’t really supposed to be where I was headed.  But I believe that God has divine appointments for our lives, even when we don’t understand them.  When we are seeking God’s will for our lives and walking in obedience to Him, what may look like a distraction or a diversion to us may very well be one of His divine appointments.  That’s why I know in my heart our “unscheduled stopover” in Niger was one of those moments.
I was only there for about 24 hours.  But during that time, I fell in love with the people and the country of Niger.  And the Lord began laying on my heart that His time was soon coming for a Miracle Healing Rally in Niger.
Now, I didn’t know at the time that ORU graduates Neal and Danette Childs were there in Niger as missionaries.  I didn’t know Neal’s parents, Ron and Jerry Childs—who I had met years ago in Nigeria when they were administrators for the late Archbishop Benson Idahosa’s church—were now missionaries to Niger.  I didn’t know the Childs would eventually become our sponsors in Niger.
I didn’t know all of the other “divine appointments” God was beginning to make for me to return to Niger to minister.  But I knew if I began taking steps in that direction and doing everything I knew to do, He would provide the way.

Doors Begin Opening

The following year, on our way to conduct a Miracle Healing Rally in the country of Nigeria, we again stopped over in Niger.  But this time it was a planned stop to accept the invitation I had been given to conduct a Pastor’s Conference with a group of about 100 pastors.  Now even though that’s a small number, it represented half the total number of pastors in Niger—a country where less than 1% of the total population is Christian.
I had a wonderful day of meeting with the Nigerien pastors—teaching them, praying for them, and ministering to their needs—and God used that time to begin to develop a strong relationship between us.  At the time, I had no idea of how pastors from more than 80 churches in Niger would later work together in a miraculous and unprecedented way to help us make the message of Jesus and His healing power real to the people of their country.

‘I’ve Never Seen a Government as Open to Us.’

The United Nations consistently lists Niger as one of the poorest countries in the world.  Many people are dying of malnutrition and other diseases.  Food is not widely available, and too expensive for most families to buy.  For many, even the most basic medical care is almost unattainable.
It was in that world, and in a way that had never before been allowed in that nation, that government doors miraculously opened wide for the Richard Roberts Miracle Healing Rally.
One of our ORM vice presidents, Mike Bernard, who has been with me in virtually every healing rally I’ve ever conducted, said, “I’ve never seen a government as open to us as Niger.  And not only was it open, many leaders were eager to have Richard pray for them and for their staffs…and several state leaders were healed.  Even at press conferences, after everything was over, the press would put their cameras and notebooks down and get in line to be prayed for as well.”
In our nightly services, tens of thousands of people heard the name of Jesus proclaimed for the first time.  In the opening service alone, when I gave the invitation to accept Jesus, it looked like the entire crowd of at least 20,000 people raised their hands to accept Him as their Lord and Savior.  Every night, the salvations continued as the crowds grew larger.  Many reached out in childlike faith, and not only found Jesus as their Savior, but also as their Healer, as they saw miracles of God’s healing power right before their eyes.
A woman deaf for 30 years began to hear!  A 3-year-old little boy who had never walked before—only pulling himself along with his hands—stood and walked for the first time!  A woman blind for two years cried, “Today, thank God, I can see!”  A beautiful young woman diagnosed with sickle cell anemia walked without crutches for the first time in over a year.
And prayer was not the only avenue to healing we brought to the people of Niamey, Niger.  In free medical and dental clinics, approximately 2,000 people received desperately needed medical and dental care from our 40-plus member  Healing Team consisting of doctors, dentists, nurses, student nurses, and a team to hand out food.

A Team God Has Put Together

My dad has often said that if he had had to carry the vision God gave him for this ministry in his heart alone, with no one to help him bring it to pass, very little of what we have accomplished through the Oral Roberts Ministries would have been possible.  He had to have Partners to share it with, and to help him do what God was calling him—and them—to do.
I couldn’t agree with him more.  Lindsay and I know the value of partnership.  As we were making the final plans to go to Niger,  Lindsay became aware of a door God was miraculously opening for us to be able to send hundreds of thousands of nutritious, pre-packaged meals to starving families in Niger…if we could raise the funds.
We began to let people know about this very special Seed-Faith project…and because of the generous financial seeds that our Partners and friends planted in this ministry, we were able to provide 285,000 meals to Nigerien parents whose children were malnourished and starving.
As our Miracle Healing Rally was over and we headed home, I wrote in my journal, “I head home to America, knowing that I’ve done what God told me to do.  And I pray the nation of Niger will never be the same.”
Partners, we still have much to do together to take the message of the Gospel to a world of hurting people.  Deuteronomy 32:30 tells us that while one person can chase a thousand, two can put 10,000 to flight.  There’s power in partnering together.  As the time grows shorter until Jesus returns, let’s continue to work together to let the world know that God is a good God, and He wants us to be whole in every area of our lives.

For more information or to plant a Seed-Faith gift in the Oral Roberts Ministries, click here or call the Abundant Life Prayer Group at 918-495-7777.