Big is the word for Africa's Christians
By Brian Murphy
ASSOCIATED PRESS
May 29, 2006

LAGOS, Nigeria -- It's eight hours into the service, and the congregation is still dancing. Shout, they're told. Yell out to the Lord. Their cries melt into a muggy night with the odor of sweating bodies, jasmine and the tropical musk of the Nigerian bush land.

"Hallelujah," rumbles the head pastor as the church band kicks into a new number. "Hal-le-luuuuuuu-jah."

Even from the heights of the pulpit, he can't see the far edges of the crowd. More than 300,000 people have come for the once-a-month, all-night, Pentecostal-style revival, led by a preacher most simply call "Daddy."

Given the standards of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, it's just an average turnout.

Think big. Think very big. Then think bigger. the rest