BACKGROUND

From Tuesday, November 29th through Friday, December 2nd, 2022, Missions 1 embarked on a storytelling effort and missions outreach to the Nupe and Fulani tribes in Niger State, Nigeria.

The Nupe people are occupying around 6,950 square miles of lowland in the Niger Basin. They are scattered over several states in west-central and northern Nigeria, but most of them live in Niger State.

The Fulani people are scattered mostly in Nigeria and Cameroon. These semi-nomadic people passionately oppose anything they see as incompatible with their way of life of wandering with their cow herds.

The objectives of the mission effort were as follows:

OBJECTIVES

1. Minister salvation, healing, and deliverance to the people living in communities in Niger State.
2. Provide medical treatment to the people of the community.
3. Minister to the missionaries working among the Fulani and Nupe people groups in the communities. 
4. Hold a session on promoting desirable food behaviour and nutritional practices.
5. Provide financial and material support to some of these missionaries during the outreach.
6. Tell compelling stories of these missionaries and their efforts among unreached people groups in the state.
7. Deploy stories of the missionaries in video, photo, audio, and written formats via media platforms, in order to create awareness and raise support for the missionaries and their efforts.

OUTCOME AND IMPACT

1. During the outreach period, we offered prayer, salvation, healing, deliverance, and medical treatment to over 530 persons.
2. Seventeen missionaries were given financial aid worth N230,000 to support their efforts. We also donated 618 clothing items, 29 pairs of footwear, 12 bags, 13 headgears, 1 belt, 2 caps, 2 toys, 24 Bibles (12 Hausa Bibles, 7 Fulani Bibles and 5 English Bibles) and 53 books (education literature). 
3. Captivating accounts of two missionaries and their work among the Nupe and Fulani people groups in these locations were captured (in video, photo, audio, and textual media). After the videos and photos have been edited, these stories will be deployed on media platforms to generate awareness and support for the missionaries and their activities.
4. Within a week of the team’s visit, the missionaries in that region reported wonderful testimonies among members of their churches and communities.

CHALLENGES

1. In one of the communities, the school (a nursery and primary school) is still under construction and has inadequate facilities. There is also a shortage of teachers.
2. The communities had poor network coverage, making communication difficult, especially with people outside the communities.

RECOMMENDATIONS

1. The completion of the school structure in one of the communities will be beneficial to the children of the community and nearby communities.
2.  We recommend partnering with bodies like Teach for Nigeria and the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) for the posting of teachers and corps members to these communities to ease the shortage of teachers.