‘’ It is not far’’ – The metaphor about the distance of the Miyawa and
Jimbunawa people of Bauchi state to the Kingdom
Mallam Musa Wanda Turaki is a Missionary among his people, the Miyawa people of Bauchi state.
While addressing the HARVEST20 outreach team, he will conclude his information of distances
between a location and another in Miyawa and Jimbunawa land as ‘’it is not far’’. When he would be
asked, ‘’how far is not far?’’, he would say about two hours on foot or about five hours on foot! At
this, the short term team will sigh with exasperation. For a hardworking and rugged Missionary in
love with his people, no distance is far to bring the Gospel of the Kingdom to his people.
The HARVEST20 short term Missions outreach among the Miyawa and Jimbunawa people of Bauchi
state is a foray among a people harassed by the Devil but hungry for the Lord, they are indeed not
far from the Kingdom.
Christianity to Islam’’.
team
HARVEST20 short term Missions outreach was held from 10 th to 20 th December, 2020. The outreach
comprised a time of training and orientation for the Short termers, journey and engagement of the
unreached communities at their locations and concluded with a debriefing session of the team
before they were released to return home. For the participants, the experience was both
transforming and impacting.
The training/ Orientation
HARVEST20 started with two days of training in Missions and Discipleship with an
orientation about short term Missions and the communities where the team will be visiting.
The devotions were centred on ‘’ Basic attitudes for Missions advance’’ as Sacrifice and Zeal
for God were considered. Topics on ‘’ The role of the Holy Spirit in Missions’’ and ‘’The place
of Spiritual Warfare in Missions’’ were also considered. The highpoint of the training for the
Left: The 3 rd in command in the Dodo priesthood of the Miyawa people. ’’We prefer
Christianity to Islam’’. Right: Mallam Musa Wanda Turaki addressing the HARVEST20
team
Short term team was the session on understanding Missions and the state of the harvest as
the state of the unreached was explained to the team through video and documentary
presentations of the sad state of our world. They understood that there is a difference
between an unbeliever who has heard the Gospel but is unwilling to receive Christ and an
unreached people who have not heard the Gospel before or have not heard or understood
sufficiently enough to make a decision about Jesus! The training was concluded with a time
of prayers and impartation for the team.
Miyawa people: The land of Dodo (Masquerade) and oppressive Islam
The HARVEST20 short term Missions outreach continued after the training with community
engagement in Miyawa villages. Miya is the major town of the Miyawas but they are
scattered in different farming communities in the hinterland.
The pool of water drunk by communities in a radius of more than 5km. It also serves the
cattle on international transit. Right: A boy drinking from the pool
The HARVEST20 team were able to minister among two communities of Kurmi Tamara and
Kurmi Jojin. In Miyawa land, the major thrusts of engagement are prayers, film show
evangelism and family engagement in the communities.
The contention for the faith of the Miyawa people is occult traditional practices and Islam.
The Islamic caliphate in Nigeria is working strongly to impose Islam among them while their
ancestral pagan worship would not let loose. It is between these two spiritual forces that
the Missionaries are working to raise a church among the Miyawa.
Aside the spiritual stronghold of the enemy in Miyawa land, infrastructure and social
amenities are non-existent in Miyawa land. Open defecation is the order of the day as the
available toilets are the large expanse of open field used for farming by the villagers. This
disposes them to all sorts of diseases. The source and provision of water is very terrible.
Kurmi Tamara is on the path of the international cattle grazing route that cuts across many
countries from Guinea through Mali, Burkina Faso into Northern Nigeria down to the South.
As such the shallow pools that the people drink from are also shared with the cattle in
transit. As the dry season beckons, they are at the risk of another sanitation crisis!
Mallam Musa is the second born of one of the Sarkis (local Chief) in Miyawa land but the
only one that has embraced Christianity. He was able to acquire an expansive piece of land
to build a church but could only pay for half of the land, the HARVEST20 team assisted in
helping to pay up for the land as the team looks up to God to help with the construction of
manual water pumps to meet the water/sanitation needs of the teaming population in the
jungle and also provision of about a dozen modern toilet facilities for the communities. The
commitment of Mallam Musa is legendary as he traverses the length and breadth of
Miyawa and Jimbunawa land preaching the Gospel and exercising pastoral care over
Christian workers and Christians scattered across
the land, however, he does not have any means
of mobility! During the rainy season, he would
have to wade through pools of water to reach his
destination. Mallam Musa and his team need
motorcycles urgently for their work!
The King of Jimbunawa: Living in a fortress of
Crocodiles
The Jimbunawa and the Miyawa people are
neighbours but their gods are different! Visiting
the palace of the Jimbunawa king will reveal the
spirits and forces holding sway in their midst. At
the entrance to the palace are about seven pools
of crocodiles that form a semi-circular fortress. It
is a wonder to have crocodiles, an animal whose
natural habitat is in tropical climate surviving in
the desert! Such is the spiritual state of the Jimbunawa. Worse off is the fact that they are in
league with Islam to resist Christianity.
When the team visited the king in his palace, it was an intense spiritual confrontation as he
told them out rightly that they are not allowed to preach from house to house and they can
only show the Gospel film inside the small church building, which happens to be the only
church in the town, at the outskirt of the community. In spite of the opposition, they
reached out to him with an olive branch and he eventually agreed that they pray for him.
After this they had a prayer walk around the town specifically praying against all the
Spiritual forces sustaining the stronghold of the crocodiles!
It is a major source of concern to observe the illiteracy level among these tribes and absence
of government efforts to provide education or health services in these communities. The
only semblance of health centre in Jimbu town is referred to as a death centre by the
villagers because they believe they get worse after visiting the clinic. They seldom see any
health worker at the clinic. The only block of building being used for school does not have
teachers. The children will only come in the morning and play and go home. It is even worse
in the villages as there are no schools. The team’s initiative to respond to the need at the
public school was subtly rejected by the Muslim education officer stationed in the town but
there is a great prospect for the establishment of private schools to reach the large
population of unschooled children.
The youngest member of the HARVEST20 Team, 10 year old Agbolahan Olanihun,
engaging the children. Nearly all of them have never been to school because there is no
school or teacher in the only school in about 50 communities.
The cases of under aged marriage and child mothers are rampant. There are several
teenagers who are already given out in marriage and have one or two children, the case of a
child taking care of another child! There is an urgent need of educational and health
intervention in the communities.
As HARVEST20 came to an end, the short termers were all blown with the depth of
revelation in the hinterland and Missions frontline. They seriously yearned for the Church to
prioritize outreach to the unreached people groups and very passionate to mobilize more
youth for future HARVEST outreach.
