By Chijioke Kingsley
Abuja (Sundiata Post) – An American Missionary, Kariann McCullough who came into the country five months ago for a long term missionary work with a specific assignment of winning souls to Jesus Christ, has impacted the lives of many indigent women who are heart broken without knowing how to find peace in Christ.
Though she has been coming to Nigeria every September for nine years, but had only spent two weeks each year until God spoke to her for a long term stay which began on February 1, 2024.
“I will be here for nine months, then leave and return again”, she said while interacting with our correspondent on Friday.
McCullough who gave her life to Jesus Christ at the age of 33, said she was a prostitute at her teenage age, because her parents couldn’t provide her with parental love, so she went in search of it, a journey that ended her up in a brothel as a teenage prostitute.
She was also involved in shoplifting and many other vices as she lacked parental care, she told our reporter.
With a strong disdain for a hotel that houses female prostitutes, reflecting back to her teenage years, she began to pray to God for a shutdown of a brothel in Jos.
“It took me 18 months to pray for God to touch the heart of the owner of Mandela Hotel, to close it down and use the building for something more meaningful.
“Today the hotel is shut down and the owner is now born again”, she said with excitement.
McCullough said her mission is to win one soul for Christ every day, a task she tagged “Looking For The One”.
During this process she met a man on the street. According to her: “I normally don’t reach out to men, but however, God had me reach to him and I shared how much God loved him, and the next day I had our team at City Ministry to go and find him, offered him a bath, gave him new cloths, and a warm meal. Wow the transformation was amazing”, She said.
This passion has driven her to the Jos Prison facility where she meets with inmates, especially ladies to teach them about the love of Christ.
She has used the phrase ‘boarding school’ to illustrate to the prison inmates that their stay in prison is a way for God to reach them with His word and love, after which they will become a new person and be free.
“I have been coming to the Jos Prison for eight years now and the transformation of the inmates has been amazing”, she said.
A native of Texas in the United States, she found herself in the hinterlands at Miango community of Plateau, where she teaches windows to forgive those who killed their loved once and destroyed their crops during the incessant face-off between them and the Fulani’s.
“I have taught the windows in Miango to forgive, love their oppressors and have faith in the love and mercy of God. I have encouraged them to trust Jesus. The turning point was when I asked them to pray for a Fulani man, and they obliged”, she said.
The missionalist who provided fresh water for families of 20 on her birthday in February upon her arrival in Jos, said she couldn’t stand the fact that people cannot afford good drinking water.
“My life has been moderated with the scripture of Jeremiah 29 verse 11-13, which says, I have The Plan Declare The Lord.
“God has been showing me over the past nine years that His people in Jos are desperately in need to know how much Jesus loves them.
“My heart was broken last winter when I saw so many ladies stuck in the brokenness of their sin. This made me ask God to bring me to Nigeria for a long term mission work.
“For the past 5 months I have been traveling around the Jos and Miango community, loving God’s beautiful daughters”, she said.
She added that part of her mission is also to teach women how to love their children and not beat them when they go wrong because that was the reason that drove her into prostitution.
She suggested to parents other ways of punishing their children when they go wrong, instead of beating them.
She also noticed that most Nigerian Christians beat their wives at home and pretend to love them in Church.
“Most Christans in Nigeria are living double standard lives, like lying, cheating, gossiping, etc.
“These attitudes have to stop because it’s either you are a Christian or not. To be a Christian means that the old you has been nailed to the cross by Jesus. You have to now live every day for Him”, McCullough said.
She said another turning point for her was when God led her to some women who sell charcoal along the popular terminus market road, a sight she can only attribute to darkness and what hell looks like.
“I told my driver to stop immediately when I saw them. I went to them, prayed for them and told them that Jesus loves them as well as sees their sufferings.
“God used me to provide eyeglasses and a new set of teeth to one of the ladies. I have also distributed small bags of rice to all the women at the Charcoal market, as directed by God”, she said.
McCullough enumerated other activities she has engaged herself with in the country like encouraging the ladies at City Ministry medical outreaches and
working with the staff of MORE House Memoirs of Recovery on12-step recovery programme for over the past four years.
“There have been amazing stories of transformation in both the women and men, since I started this journey”.
She said she has been a guest speaker with Pastor John Oyakhire of City Ministry and also speaking at Jungle Ministry on how she was set free by Jesus.
“I have also spoken on narcissistic personality disorder at Mental Health First Aid Conference.
“I have been to the 1 More Soul Concert by Mallam Razphi and as I was leaving, Razphi asked me to give encouragement to over 3000 attendees.
“My assignment is to execute a Biblical Base 12-Step programme titled Regeneration. “I am currently teaching a group of 10 ladies once a week for a total of 9 months. The transformation already has been overwhelming, breaking strongholds each week”.
She also said she has taught ladies in a local women center how to make beads from scraps of paper.
She finally called on those struggling with the strongholds of addictions such as suicide, sexual abuse, depression, etc, to reach out to her through this medium for help that will ultimately lead them to Christ, our correspondent reports.
