iCore: . . . how it all began
The International congress on Rural Evangelism (ICORE) was early known as Greater Rural Campaign (GREC) and was born out of divine encounter in may 1991 given to Saturday Mark Akpan in which he heard an audible voice charging him to raise an end time army through the preaching of the undiluted word of God. This vision had years of incubation and preparation through prayers study and seeking for counseling from senior ministers of the Gospel. In 1994 December, a prayer fellowship was organized with lunch served at 62 Hospital Road, Abak and was attended by 19 people. It was a vision sharing meeting and generated a lot of enthusiasm.
Encouraged by the response, a monthly meeting was initiated. The first large conference was held in February 1995 with Arch-bishop Joshua Caleb, Obong Okon Mkpong as key speakers with award of Honors conferred on Archbishop Daniel Otong and Obong J. B. Affia both of blessed memory in partnership with Vision Christian University.
In April 1996 Greater Revival Campaign (GREC) as it was known then debuted in Lagos at close 57, house 9, Satellite Town. It held a weekly fellowship every Tuesday, Engr. M. U. Udoh played host and served meals with his wife at the meetings and we appreciate God that he has grown to be a pastor and theological guru today from nowhere.
GREC had come to a settled belief that discipleship not evangelism in the mandate of the Church while evangelism is only a means to it. In search for a viable discipleship platform, Goshen Community Church was formed on August 16, 1998 to offer pastoral care to converts of our evangelistic endeavors and serve as a prayer base, supporting our rural outreaches. Between August 1998 and April 2001, we had six organized rural outreaches and planted three churches: The upper law Tabernacle – Nto Edet, Etim L.G.A., Goshen Community Church, Ikot Inyang Udo, Ika L.G.A. and Dayspring Chapel, Atan Ntukuk, Afaha Obong, Abak L.G.A. To God be the glory.
Aside the church planting, God also brought us to fame during this period, the impact of Ikot Inyang Udo Crusade in December 1999 which for two weeks was carried by the state owned newspaper - The Pioneer, led to the Nkek Abak Crusade In January 2001 which was yet another explosive outing. God showed up at Nkek Abak and many souls were brought into the kingdom; satanic structures were demolished and the land and people dedicated to God.
It should be mentioned that the burden of church planting and administration slowed us down for a while with its attendant problems, but the goodnews in that we were not extinguished. We organized very few outings but focused on our annual conferences and discipling of the people to give us a strong force to move again. After the years of silence, we moved into Lagos in 2005, the outing was successful and planted in church which is discipling the believers and very supportive in our move till date. In 2009, the name Greater Revival Campaign was changed to International Congress on Rural Evangelism following the restructuring, realignment and refocus on our original mandate with contemporary trend. Between 2010 – 2012, the congress held in Abak, moved to Lagos in 2013, came back to Abak for another 3 years and moved to Bayelsa in September 2016 and Calabar in 2017 with tremendous results.
To the glory of God we have been involved with different moves of God in this century. We 0participated strongly in the A.D. 2000 movements in the late 9O’s and have partnered with many in our bid to expand the kingdom. We have worked with SVM2 in South South Nigeria, pioneers Nigeria and Rubema Christian Mission Support. We have seen thousands of souls come into the kingdom, planted twelve Churches, Ordain sixty ministers, Honoured sixteen men and women and through our school graduated 162 and commission them into the ministry. iCORE’s history, impact and focused was summarized thus in our recent meeting. We are:
Impacting Lives
Igniting Leaders
Inspiring Visions
Invigorating Dreams
Imparting Unction
Investing Commitments;, and
Inducing a Synergy for the Great commission
