HISTORICAL BACKGROUND (cont'd)

From the time the first overseas missionary set foot on the Eastern Region (as it was then called), SDAs of Eastern Nigeria have demonstrated a unique commitment and zeal for the Adventist faith. Wherever they have gone, they have carried Adventism with them and have participated actively in the local congregations or churches to which they belong. However they have maintained regular touch with their homeland, and many have given financial assistance to some aspect of the church program at home, mainly on individual basis.

The first major organized effort to assist the church back home in Eastern Nigeria was undertaken in New York under the name ENSDANY (East Nigeria SDA in New York). It was directed specifically to the Adventist Technical Secondary School, Owerrinta in Imo State, Nigeria. A similar effort was launched less than two years later, but with a much wider base (in terms of the Eastern Nigeria fields represented) over in California under the name "Eastern Nigeria Adventists USA".
 

In the later half of the year 1999 rumours began to circulate about the "reorganization of the work" in Africa and around West Africa, in particular. The news of the creation of a new Union from the former West African Union, a neighboring sister union with a lot in common with the Nigerian Union, fanned the already ignited flames for the creation of an Eastern Nigeria Union to fever heights among the Easterners.

Letters and phone calls began to be exchanged among Easterners on increasing basis by the end of 1999 calling on support for the creation of a new Union Mission or Conference in Eastern Nigeria. One of such letters was written by a brother in Chicago (at the time) and was dated
December 28, 1999. He followed it up with another letter in February 2000. This initiative was followed in a more widely circulated letter with joint signatures in April 2000. This letter called for one hundred (100) signatories to back an "Appeal Letter" to the Africa-Indian Ocean Division (AID) and the General Conference (GC) asking that the matter of the creation of a new Union in Eastern Nigeria be dealt with at the July 2000 General Conference session. The final letter sent to the AID and GC in April 2000 had about sixty-five signatories from across the USA.
 

At the time of the General Conference session in July 2000, a delegation of four from Chicago and one from California went to Toronto, Canada to meet with our leaders from Eastern Nigeria attending the GC session. These met in a closed door meeting at the Days Inn, Toronto from about 11 p.m. Saturday night (July 7, 2000) to 4 a.m. on Sunday, in order to make their travel schedules. Two major recommendations made at this all-night meeting were stated as follows in the Minutes of the meeting: "8.B. -- That there should be established immediately a meaningful, regular communication machinery between the Eastern Nigeria Adventists (homeland and abroad) for purposes of correct information dissemination and planning. That needs of the Eastern Missions be constantly pressed on the NUM without hesitation or fears till the East becomes a Union Conference . . . 8.E. -- That necessary and urgent efforts be made to establish a united front/group of all Eastern zone Adventists resident in the United States, for purposes of meaningful fund-raising and inputs for the creation and support of the Eastern Nigeria Union Conference, if and when created."
 

How much impact or effect the above efforts had on the Church leadership's decision for what is now almost a foregone conclusion (the soon to be inaugurated Eastern Nigeria Union
Conference) may not be easy to determine. But one irreversible outcome of all of these "movements" is the pulling together of a people long separated by the vastness of the US both physically and psychologically and their determination to see a new Union Conference headquarters and the cause of God in their homeland solidified and strengthened. This is what NACENA is all about.

More and more momentum was gathering everywhere for the beginnings of NACENA. On August 6, right after the GC session, an "informal meeting" of ENSDANY (East Nigeria SDA in New York) was convened. Present at the meeting also was a brother from Utah. They discussed the need for holding a "national convention of East Nigerian Adventists in USA". Five months later, a Teleconference was held on December 23, 2000 to which many Eastern Nigeria Adventists across the USA were invited. The subject for discussion was captioned "Making a Difference -- The Challenge of the 2000s in the Growth of the Church in Eastern Nigeria". At this conference the date and location of the first convention were voted. Thus, NACENA was born in Houston, TX on April 19, 2001.