This Is Deeper Christian Life: An Outsider's View through the Eyes of Baffour Ankomah Who Travelled to Four West African Countries in August to See How the Deeper Life Bible Church Is Affecting Lives

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There is a revolution taking place in Africa which those of us living in the West have not paid much attention to, or at best sniffed at. We may not like it, but it does affect the lives of many millions of Africans. Seeing it at close range on a recent reporting trip to Togo, Ghana, Sierra Leone and Nigeria, it would be foolish of us to pretend that no such revolution is happening or that it is not relevant to the lives of so many millions of our compatriots.

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The revolution is religion, Christian religion, and it is sweeping the continent off its feet. To see over 15,000 people devotedly, and with clock-work discipline, filling up the 10 halls of the Deeper Life Bible Church (DLBC) at Ayobo, Lagos, Nigeria, on a Sunday morning, at about eight o'clock, and a good number spilling onto the massive grounds of the church reached by loudspeakers, you wonder where we in the West have emigrated to.

It was a sight to behold, and what impresses most is the discipline with which this massive throng of people go about their religious duties. Many may have woken up at 4am to prepare for the journey to Ayobo, to be seated by 8am when the service starts. Even football, the so-called new religion of the people, especially in the West, would have been impressed. It was awesome!

Which shows how relevant religion, or Christianity, is to the people. In Freetown, Sierra Leone, a country which holds the record for the highest rainfall in West Africa, a daily minimum of 10,000 people defied the heavy rains on three consecutive days in mid-August (the height of the rainy season) to attend a Deeper Life crusade at the National Stadium. The crusade was held in collaboration with all the non-orthodox churches in the country, calling themselves "the body of Christ in Sierra Leone".

Each day they braved the rains to come to the stadium. Those who sat on the roofless terraces had only their umbrellas for shelter. You don't go to such lengths for something which is not relevant to your life.

Similar scenes have been repeated all through West Africa for much of this year. It was the turn of Lome, Togo, on 30 July. Again, it rained for much of the day but it didn't stop over 8,000 people filling a local stadium for another crusade there.

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