Global
2 minute 15 second read
Today, thousands of people in Nigerian churches are discovering a genuine relationship with Christ, just as Patience did.
After more than 35 years serving in Nigeria, Mark and Isabelle retired to the UK, although Mark continues to be engaged in different aspects of ministry there. During his years at the Theological College of Northern Nigeria, Mark taught theology and church history and helped train many future church leaders. More recently, he focused on helping Christians apply their faith to everyday life. However, it was a deeply personal experience that led to the founding of a ministry that continues to impact thousands of lives today.
Mark and Isabelle became informal parents to a young woman named Patience after she married one of their Ethiopian students. Since her husband had no family nearby, they were asked to take on that role.
After completing his studies Patience and her husband moved to Ethiopia, but returned several years later, with their young child. Shortly afterwards Patience was diagnosed with AIDS. On the very same
day, she came to a genuine faith in Christ.
Though she had grown up around Christianity, she realised she had never truly known Jesus for herself.
As her illness progressed, Mark had the privilege of helping her grow in her new faith. The change in her was remarkable. She sought forgiveness, reconciled broken relationships, and showed a grace and openness that deeply affected everyone around her. She knew that when she met Christ, whatever she had done before was taken care of, not only the sin, but also the guilt and the shame, and she was happy to tell her story.
Sadly, she died just a few weeks later. But before she did, she found a profound peace in Christ. Seeing God’s work in her life, and the impact of her testimony, changed Mark forever.
Just a week after her funeral, God placed on Mark’s heart a vision for how churches could respond to HIV and AIDS with grace, honesty, and love. That vision became a ministry known as Grace & Light. Mark came across Tassie, at the time running a centre for counselling people with HIV, and she caught the vision straight away.
Grace & Light employs about 18 workers and in addition Tassie has trained hundreds of volunteers.
23 years later, Tassie, herself a Pioneers worker from Nigeria, leads the ministry. God is at work; today, thousands of people in Nigerian churches are discovering a genuine relationship with Christ, just as Patience did. Mark explains that many people assume they are Christians simply because they were born into Christian families. Through Grace & Light, churches are helping people understand the gospel for themselves and experience genuine faith in Christ.
Mark asks for prayer that God would sustain Tassie and the ministry as demand continues to grow. He also requests prayer for financial provision, protection from insecurity and kidnapping, and lasting fruit through the ministry’s outreach. Grace & Light employs about 18 workers and in addition Tassie has trained hundreds of volunteers.
Although Patience’s journey with Christ was brief, her testimony continues to bring people to faith more than twenty years after her death. Through Grace & Light, her legacy lives on in countless transformed lives.
