Interview with Northlake Christian Church and Reverend Phyllis Sortor, Schools For Africa Director, September 2022

Tell us a bit about you (you and your family) & a fun fact.

The first thing about me is, I’m a third-generation Free Methodist missionary! My grandparents on both sides were missionaries: my father’s parents were missionaries to the deep south of the U.S., my mother’s parents spent their lives ministering in Korea. My grandfather and grandmother were taken from Korea and incarcerated in a prison camp during WWII; my grandfather died there of starvation. My mother received the news of her father’s death from our home in Mozambique, where Mom and Dad served the Mozambican people and South Africans for 43 years. My grandmother came and lived with us there at Inhamachafo, Mozambique.

I’m a widow with three daughters, four grandchildren and five great-grandchildren! I’ve been a missionary under Free Methodist World Missions in Mozambique, (rebuilding my home mission station after 16 years of civil war,) in Rwanda and in Nigeria. 

Share what God used to prepare your heart to be on mission for Him.

When my late husband Jim and I, along with my parents, returned to Mozambique after the civil war to visit our old mission station, Inhamachafo, we discovered that the Christians in that place had continued the work of the Bible school in spite of terrible hunger, danger, deprivation and continuous attacks by enemy soldiers. The Bible school continued to function, training and sending out pastors to plant churches during that terrible 16 years of war. After that extremely emotional visit home, Jim and I organized a mission team of builders, nurses and teachers to return to Inhamachafo to rebuild the station from the ground up. Compassion Int. donated a full container of clothing, medical supplies, literature, food. The 6 weeks we spent there was such a blessing to all of us! And God impressed then, on my heart and my husband’s, that we were to dedicate the rest of our lives to the work of blessing and helping others less fortunate than ourselves. We applied to FMWM, were accepted and returned to Mozambique shortly afterwards to build a large church in Beira! And so, the wonderful life – a life of blessing and God’s favor – began! 

Share how God called you to the mission He has you in.

Jim and I were sent by FMWM, back in 2005, to work in Nigeria, specifically, to work in the first large school built by Rev Mike and Vickie Reynen in Akwa Ibom State, a school in which children were sponsored by the FM sponsorship program, International Child Care Ministries, or ICCM. The school is called Hope Academy. It was there that I first met a people known as the Fulani. The Fulani are a nomadic tribe of cattle rearers; a very large population of Fulani exist all the way across Africa. They are predominantly Muslim living isolated lives in the bush with their animals, mostly illiterate, very much despised by other more educated, business-oriented tribes. 

One day I was in a small village close to Hope Academy, buying supplies for the school, when a herd of cattle came through, followed by people looking so very different from those I’d been working with. The men were tall and stately, dressed in long robes, carrying machetes and long sticks over their shoulders. The women were equally tall, graceful, wearing scarves and intricate tattoos on their faces.

I turned to the man next to me and asked, ‘Who are these beautiful people?’

He replied, ‘Oh, those are Fulani. Forget about them! They are cattle rearers from the north, here to look for pasture and water for their cows. They allow their cows to enter our farms, destroy our crops! They are dirty, dangerous, live in the bush with their animals, don’t speak our language – and are Muslims! What ever you do, stay away from the Fulani!’

It was as though God punched me right in the heart. All I could think of was John 3:16.

For God so loved the WORLD, (including the Fulani!) that He gave His only begotten Son, that WHOSOEVER believeth in Him should no perish but have everlasting life! And I knew at that moment, without a doubt, that God was introducing me to the people for whom He sent me to Nigeria.

What mission has He called you to?

He called me to befriend the Fulani, in His Name. To bring peace between the Fulani and surrounding tribes by providing the children, ALL tribes included, with a good education, medical care and grazing solutions. To love and minister to the Fulani, meeting their needs in Jesus’ Name, praying always that through this love, many will come to know Jesus as their personal Savior and Lord. 

Share the Scripture verse or verses that captures God's work in and through you.

John 3:16 and 17.

Share a brief story of what He has done.

After seeing the Fulani at that first cattle drive through the small village of Ekparakwa, I began to pray earnestly for the opportunity to meet them. About three days later, I was back in Ekparakwa, in a small paint shop, when two young Fulani girls entered the shop. Using sign language, they requested some empty paint tins that were stacked by the door. The shop keeper frowned and motioned for them to get out of her sight! I quickly followed the girls outside and greeted them in ‘broken’ or ‘pidgin’ English. They just stood and stared at me! I reached out and touched their scarves; they reached out and touched my hair! 

Two young Fulani men then approached. They understood a bit of English, so I offered them a ride back to their camp in my van. They were very happy, piled into the van, offered me biscuits they had purchased in the market. They showed me the way to a small path leading off into the bush. We all got out of the van. I asked the young Fulani men if I could return the next day to visit them in their camp; they agreed!

The following day I returned on a motorbike, followed that path to the Fulani camp – just simple, low, grass huts in a forest clearing. When the women and children saw me, they ran and hid behind the trees, but out of one hut came an old woman with arms outstretched, smiling and saying, ‘Sanu! Sanu!’ (Welcome! Welcome!) I was later to learn that she was the matriarch of the clan, the mother of the clan’s chief, Alhaji Mogodi. 

Out of the same hut came the two young men I’d met in Ekparakwa. One of them said to me, ‘No one in our family ‘sabi’ (knows) how to read or write. Please, bring a school for our family!’ 

I began to visit the family every day, carrying Bible story books, reading to the children, teaching them games and choruses. We became very good friends.

But, I’d not yet met their chief! What would he think about my bringing a Bible into his camp? 

One day, as I was driving to Hope Academy, I was flagged down by a Fulani man on a motorbike. Not speaking any English, he pointed to himself then to the direction of the bush camp. I knew this must be the chief, Alhaji Mogodi. 

Mogodi showed up at Hope Academy the following day with another Fulani man who spoke English. In my office, with the second man interpreting, Mogodi spoke words that defined what my ministry would be for the years to come.

‘My grandfather cheated my father,’ he said. ‘He gave him cows, bought wives for him, but never sent him to school. And my father cheated me. He bought me cows and wives, but wouldn’t allow me to go to school. I don’t want to cheat my children. Please, open a school for my children.’

Some days later Mogodi came to our home in Eket, this time with a different Fulani man and the interpreter.

‘My father was very open to Christianity,’ Mogodi told us. ‘He had many friends who were Christian pastors. He even named one of his sons ‘Christian’! And this is my Christian brother-in-law, Pastor Ardo, married to my sister Mariamu! Please,’ Mogodi continued, ‘You are welcome to bring your Bible into our camp any time.’ 

And so began my ministry to the Fulani, with Chief Mogodi my closest colleague. Mogodi has made a confession of faith in Jesus Christ. His mother, Halima, died holding onto her son-in-law, Pastor Ardo’s, hand. I believe she also accepted Jesus in her dying moments. 

Please help us know how we, your church family, can pray and support you.

Pray for our safety on the roads. Nigeria is a very dangerous place these days, with kidnapping for ransom the order of the day. Pray that the Holy Spirit will enter into the hearts of the men, women, boys and girls with whom we work, that they will see Jesus and accept Him as their Savior. Pray for the 13 SFA schools, and the 5 former ICCM schools that we have adopted since ICCM withdrew from Nigeria. We need your financial support as we pay teachers’ salaries in these 18 schools.

Thank you so much for your prayers, interest and help! You are an important part of our ministry team! We could never function over here without you! Thank you!

Phyllis Sortor and Team SFA!

Phyllis Sortor was born in Mozambique of missionary parents, received her education in Mozambique, Zimbabwe then in Seattle, WA where she graduated from Seattle Pacific University with a higher degree at the University of Washington. Phyllis has spent most of her life in Africa, working first under Free Methodist World Missions in Mozambique, Rwanda and Nigeria, then as director of the non-profit organization, Schools for Africa, working towards peace in Nigeria through the provision of education, health care and grazing solutions for the semi-nomadic tribe, the Fulani.