Northern Nigeria is not a Christian-friendly world. Here, Muslims advocate sharia, the imposition of strict and harsh Muslim law. Jihad is a well-understood concept to every small child. To die for the sake of Allah is the greatest spiritual goal. Northern Nigeria is an area where Christians have been killed with impunity and even with the support of the government. Witchcraft, paganism and the occult also provide a backdrop for the spiritual darkness of this part of sub-Saharan Africa.

 Obadiah Abimiku Doka grew up as the son of the head of the Witchcraft Association in Keffi, about an hour from Abuja, the federal capital. From his earliest days Doka was warned against the white mans religion. His father told him that Christianity was a lie, that Jesus was not true, and that the ministers of this faith were criminals and liars. Doka accepted those teachings. He became Muslim, he worshiped the family idols with his father each morning, and he desired nothing to do with Christianity, the hated false system.

 Doka was a bright young man and he was given the opportunity to attend a boarding high school, which provided him the education to become a teacher and become a man of substance in Nigeria. One day in 1984, Doka saw a circle of students running away from something on the ground. That something was a fellow student, Bitrus Ishimitu OMalley, who was convulsing from a seizure. Doka asked, What's wrong.

He is sick, was the reply, and if you touch him, you will get sick and die.

But Doka could not watch the suffering of his classmate without responding. He persuaded some others to help him take Bitrus to a clinic where he received treatment.  About a week later, Doka visited the home of Bitrus OMalley to see about his friend.  As he was leaving, he noticed a piece of paper on the floor.

Whats this? he asked Bitrus.

Shhhh! Doka, don't speak of this!  This is World Bible School course from United States.

Bitrus feared his family would discover the course and that he would be in serious trouble.  Bitrus was studying with a teacher from Ozark, MO named Charles White.  He gave the paper to Doka who filled out an enrollment form and also became a student of Charles White.

Doka was an eager learner.  Charles White guided Doka through the materials and Doka learned the lessons well. When Doka asked for a Bible, WBS supplied one.

The day the Bible came, Dokas friends went with him to the post office. The friends stood at a distance, because to intrude on the privacy of mail was frowned upon.  The postmaster, however, watched as Doka unwrapped the book.  When he realized what it was, he called, Boy, come here.  Doka showed the postmaster the Bible he had just received (his first package, ever).

Give it to me. The postmaster took the Bible, poured kerosene on it, and burned it.

Boy, if you took this to your home, you would be in serious trouble, he warned Doka.

Looking back, Doka agrees that this might have been a great problem.

But even without a Bible, through the teaching in the WBS lessons, Doka was soon ready to become a Christian, to be baptized. Charles White began to correspond with Christians in Nigeria to go to Dokas home and baptize him.

No one was willing. Etim E. Young, a gospel preacher who lived a great distance away, told Charles White that he would be killed if he went to Keffi, because this was a very dangerous area for anyone admitting to being a Christian.

Charles White communicated the problem to Doka, but Doka was determined to become a Christian and desperately wanted to be baptized for the forgiveness of sins.  Finally, he made the five-hour trip to the home of Etim E. Young and told him of his determination.

After a period of study, Etim E. Young agreed that Doka was ready to be baptized, but he hesitated because there was no church nearby with which he could worship.  Doka, however, insisted.  He had not come so far only to return home still in his sins.  Etim E. Young reluctantly baptized Doka who returned to his family in Keffi.

When he returned home, Doka could tell no one his exciting new secret.  For a while, he continued to worship the family idols with his father early in the morning, although he knew this was wrong.  To escape this practice, he got up early, before worship, and went out to the family garden.  He told his father he was going to drive away the birds and animals from the food.  His father was pleased to have such a responsible son, and Doka was temporarily free from the idolatrous worship.

At last, however, Doka shared the truth of his conversion to Christianity with one of his brothers.  This brother told Dokas stepmother who told his father.  Dokas father was furious. Where did you hear about this Christianity?  he demanded to know.  He drew a line in the dirt. Here is where your body will lie, he warned, if you do not abandon this Chrisitanity!  Choose between this religion and your life.

But Doka refused to recant his faith.  He was an outcast, considered no longer a member of the family.  His father even tried to prevent him from using the family name.  But still, Doka held on to his faith.  Doka's father went to the parents of Doka's wife, Naomi, and tried to persuade them to take back their daughter. They refused, and still Doka persisted in his faith.

The situation came to a climax when Doka's half-sister, Mary, asked him to escort her across town to return some things.  He willingly went with her.  At an intersection, by arrangement of the family members, there was a large fish-truck with ice, waiting to run down the Christian and kill him.  Doka was hit by the truck and knocked over a pile of sand in a construction area.  Mary, however, was run over by the wheel of the truck and was immediately killed.

In the confusion, the bystanders believed Doka was dead, too.  The family was drinking and celebrating.  But Doka was not dead.  When he reappeared, his relatives and friends were disappointed.  Some Christians in a safer area of Nigeria heard of Dokas injury and his peril and sent for him.  Clarence Wilson, who had been working to establish Christianity in Nigeria for 11 years, cared for Doka until he was fully recovered.  Soon after, Doka completed a course in Bible training, and, after much prayer and discussion, decided to return to Keffi to preach and teach.  Many of his friends considered this a fatal mistake.

But Doka returned.  At first, only he and Naomi were Christians. Then five. Then twelve. Perhaps as many as 250 eventually became Christians in Keffi, although many disappeared.  The exact numbers are hard to determine. Some were killed, their bodies discovered.  Some probably ran away to escape persecution.  A church of about 60 was eventually established in Keffi and remains today, still growing.

One of the friends of Doka's father, who became a Christian later, asked his father, You have said this boy will die. But Doka is not dead! Why?

Doka's father answered, He has a strong spirit behind him!

The friend shared this with Doka, who was surprised to hear his fathers statement. As Doka thought of this, and as he studied the Bible, he remembered the statement by John, he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. Later Doka told his fathers friend, Yes, I do have a strong spirit behind me. He went on to explain that his strong spirit was Jesus Christ.

Through contacts from America, Doka was sponsored to come to America to study the Bible. He received a degree in May of 2000 from Freed-Hardeman University in Henderson, TN.  Doka has now returned to Nigeria.  After a brief time back in Keffi, where the church has continued to grow, Doka and Naomi and their children have moved to Abuja, where they believe there is more opportunity to spread the faith.

Doka's remarkable story reminds us of the power of God to use simple resources to accomplish great purposes.  Think of how God brought Doka out of the darkness of northern Nigeria to a place in His kingdom:

A young man who needed compassion.

A simple piece of paper on the floor.

A faithful Christian half a world away who cared enough to send out lessons.

God's determination to penetrate the darkness, superstition, and danger of pagan Nigeria.

Doka, and all who know him and love him, are forever grateful to World Bible School, and to faithful men and women, like Charles White, who have joined with God to expand the kingdom of heaven.