UYO, Nigeria (Mennonite Mission Network) -- “But why didn’t God just kill Satan?” asked a church leader during a class at the Nigeria Mennonite Church Bible College. “If Satan is defeated by means of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, why does he continue to have the power to attack the faithful?” 

Bruce Yoder of Mennonite Mission Network was teaching a class on the book of Revelation when some of the perennial hard questions of the Christian faith surfaced.
 
“As I listened to the students banter this question back and forth, I was once again struck by the way Mennonites from different cultures can, at the same time, express their faith differently, but yet agree about certain truths,” Yoder said. “In North America, we tend to think in more abstract terms and pose the question, 'Why is there evil in the world if, in fact, God is all-powerful?'

“For our Nigerian brothers and sisters, the spiritual forces in the world, both the spirit of Christ and the spirits that work against Christ, are very real and must be dealt with in everyday life. Satan is a real entity who must be overcome through the power of the risen Lord every day.”

After a lively discussion, the students decided that God, in great mercy and love, delays the destruction of Satan and those who follow him in order to give them more opportunities to turn from their evil ways, Yoder said. 

“That consensus seemed to me to be a truth that Christians all over the world might be able to affirm,” Yoder said.

Yoder, who lives in the neighboring West African country of Benin, travels to Nigeria four times a year to teach and enjoy fellowship with Nigerian Mennonites. A local family hosts him during his annual visit. The prayer life of this family impresses Yoder. They pray as soon as they rise in the morning, and it is the last thing they do before retiring for the night.

In addition to the praying that accompanies each class period, the students of the Bible college also begin and end their days with a time of group prayer. “It is considered the most important part of what they do together since it contributes to the victory over Satan,” Yoder said.

A Mennonite radio broadcast in 1958 prompted a group of African-Initiated Churches in southeastern Nigeria to contact Mennonite Board of Missions, a predecessor agency of Mennonite Mission Network. A year later, the first mission workers arrived. From 1959-1967, 47 Mennonite missionaries served in Nigeria as teachers, hospital staff, and vocational trainers. Eventually, 10 congregations joined to become the Mennonite Church of Nigeria.
 
When the Biafran war erupted in 1967, all North American Mennonite personnel were forced to leave the country. Institutions gradually disintegrated and disagreement split the Mennonite church.

Until the arrival of Yoder, Mennonite Mission Network and its predecessors related to the two branches of Mennonite Church of Nigeria through occasional visits and annual program grants. Mennonite mission personnel were instrumental in helping heal the rift between the church factions and participated in the reunification process in the mid-1990s. 

The Nigeria Mennonite Church Bible School has just begun its second year of classes that will complete an overview of biblical books and in-depth studies of the Gospels and Revelation; courses on Anabaptist theology, evangelism and mission, and training in practical leadership skills. The first group of church leaders will graduate from the school next April.

The only Mennonite church in Nigeria outside of the southeastern region has recently erected a provisional building on donated land in Abuja, the capital city, and conducts services on Sunday and three weekday evenings. About 30 youth and young families, attracted to the city by employment possibilities, make up this dynamic congregation.

“It was good to see this new initiative and experience the energy that the young people bring to it," Yoder said.  "I was the oldest person there and I’m not yet 40 years old.”

Yoder and his wife, Nancy Frey, have served together in Cotonou, Benin, since 2000.  Frey and Yoder relate to more than 60 denominations in this country, many of them African-Initiated Churches. Frey works alongside Beninese administrators and teaching personnel at Benin Bible Institute, a three-year systematic biblical and theological training program that Mennonite mission workers helped to establish.

Yoder teaches and serves as an administrative liaison with Mission Network partners in countries throughout the West African region.

Frey and Yoder have two children, Jeremiah (5) and Deborah (3). Frey is a member of St. Jacobs (Ontario) Mennonite Church. Yoder’s home congregation is Martinsburg (Pa.) Mennonite Church.