Mary grew up around Lagos, where there are many churches, and as a young woman she learned to follow Jesus passionately. But she also knew that things were not the same in other parts of her country.

One day, she sensed God calling her to the North, where insurgent groups sometimes targeted Christians. She couldn’t help but want to serve Him as a missionary, living in a dangerous area and leading others to discover God for themselves.

She lived there for some time, learning about the importance of discipleship if she was going to see any real, lasting change. She began to not only lead others to faith in outreach, but to bring new believers along with her, so they could learn to do the same things she was doing.

But the enemy pushed back.

Slowly but surely, things began to be more difficult. There was more fighting in the region. More targeted persecution of those who followed Jesus. The roads were becoming less safe. She was willing to risk her own life, but she felt torn on the inside about allowing the men and women who accompanied her, many of whom were married and had young children who needed them. What if something happened? Mary began to pray, asking God what to do. Eventually, she decided to leave the North, and return to Lagos.

But, she hadn’t given up.

Many of the people she worked with had phones and were able to connect online. She continued to reach out through messaging apps and was even able to start a Bible study or two.

But there was a problem.

Without living amongst the people she was discipling, it was difficult to bring them along for discipleship. She had less of an idea about what to study with them in scripture because she didn’t know what their lives were like. That’s when someone told her to give Waha a try.

Because Waha encourages people to put scripture into practice in every single meeting, life-on-life discipleship could still happen from afar. She couldn’t bring people alongside her as she reached out, but as people were challenged in Waha to read the Bible for themselves and put it into practice, many of them set goals to obey the commands of Christ and began doing those things themselves.

But she found the structure of Waha’s curriculum to be the most helpful. Because so few of the people she worked with were conversant in the Bible, it was incredibly helpful that Waha walked people through the Biblical stories of Creation to the birth of Christ before introducing them to the life of Jesus. This meant that they had a much deeper understanding Jesus’ sacrifice and were quick to commit their lives to Him, knowing full well that cost of being a disciple.

Mary continued to meet with the people she had worked with previously, but because of how God used her with the help of Waha, her group grew into multiple groups, consisting of over 60 people who are now learning to follow Jesus themselves and start their own groups, without getting stopped by persecution!