THE SECOND West Africa Multiply Leaders Conference was held in Lagos in December. Two Jesus Fellowship leaders, Victor Shefford and Clive Strudwick, attended. It was Victor's eighth visit to Africa, and Clive's first. Victor reports:

"Matthew Oluwasesin, our apostolic Multiply man in Nigeria, has built together a group of 10 churches that really cooperate in all sorts of ways - practically and spiritually.

The 45 delegates at the three-day conference included several pastors from Nigeria, five from Accra, Ghana, one from Benin state and one from Gabon, in addition to members of the host church of Glad Tidings and other Multiply Network churches.

The theme of the conference was 'building the body of Christ'. Thursday was a welcome day. On Friday there was a symposium, in which delegates split into three groups to discuss what makes for peace and unity in the body of Christ. It came out strongly that you won't get this peace and unity unless all the joints and ligaments in the body are disciples and willing to be trained and accountable.

Saturday's programme opened with a bible study from me on what the body of Christ is about. This was followed by a woman pastor, Sister Elizabeth from Divine Healing Ministries, sharing about two different types of love - convenient love and covenant love. Convenient love is where you love with anticipation of being loved back. Covenant love is sacrificial, where you give without expecting anything back. Matthew then spoke of the need for churches within Multiply Network to be separated from the world and not to indulge in the things of the world, then Pastor Samson Grace concluded this part of the day by stressing the importance of accountability for everyone in the body of Christ.

This session finished about 3pm. The whole day was interspersed with singing and dancing in which Clive and I were encouraged to join. After the main conference we had a celebratory meal. Even though there was only a BBQ spit to cook over, all 100 people in the church were fed.

There is quite a lot of interest in Multiply in the region. Ten churches are already in Multiply, and Matthew is considering about another seven for inclusion."