I thought that I might, for a couple of weeks or so, focus these posts on other countries for which we might focus some prayer. In doing this I will choose countries where there is either persecution of Christians, no significant indigenous church, or extreme poverty. I will reference my sources but will use mainly Operation World book and Barnabas Fund site and emails.
Let’s start today with Nigeria. I have a love for Nigeria since all through my time living with my parents my mother was the area secretary for SUM – a missionary society that worked in Nigeria and over those years we had a stream of missionaries and Nigerian national Christians stay in the house with us, many of whom became good friends.
So Nigeria has a history of Christianity with many long established Bible Schools, Churches, Hospitals and so on. But how the face of that land has changed as far as the church is concerned in this generation. Abraham and Ruth (who many of you have met) now live and worship in a land of growing persecution, where in some areas it is already extreme and totally out of control.
Barnabas Fund reported on a couple of incidents in the last week or so –
firstly, and I quote “Three heavily armed Fulani militants broke into a Christian high school in Plateau State, Nigeria and shot its headmaster, Pastor Bayo Famonure, his wife, and two sons as they took part in evening prayers on 5 May.
Carrying AK47s and machetes, the gunmen stormed the family’s quarters at Messiah College Mission, Gana Ropp, and demanded money from the pastor. When he replied there was no money, they shot him in the head and leg, and left him for dead. His wife, Naomi, was shot in the back, and their sons, Adua and Victor, were shot in the feet. The gunmen then fled.” Praise God after surgery they all survived but can you imagine if that happened in your home last Tues evening?
In a second report we read “At least ten Christians were killed, and twelve taken hostage, in multiple attacks by Fulani militants that eyewitnesses say included the participation of uniformed military personnel in Nigeria’s Middle Belt, on 23 and 25 April.
On 23 April, in an attack on Kujeni village, Kauru Local Government Area in Kaduna State, three young men identified as Maigida Maisama, Yahuda Mallam and Bulus Danzaria, were killed by militants. The cohort of assailants included armed Fulani herdsmen and, according to local eyewitnesses, a well-armed band of men in Nigerian Army uniform.
A number of youths were kidnapped in the assault. Some of whom have since escaped, but twelve are thought to remain captive at the time of writing. The abducted Christians were named by a Barnabas contact as: Bako Machu, Isaiah Bako, Timothy Musa, Hakuri Maigid, Apolo Ali, Emmanuel Maikasa, Haruna Dogo, Titus Ahmadu, Caleb Bakinpa, Tanimu Ami, Samuel Usman and Maigida Gamashewa.
Three Christian men, all married, were shot dead in an attack on 25 April in Kikwari village, also in Kauru local government area. The dead were identified as father-of-eight Ado Maisamari (56), Titus Amos (27), who leaves three children, and Habila Amos a 25-year-old father of one.”
Friend, when we get discouraged by what we are facing, let’s turn to God in praise for what we are not facing, and for those who are right now facing persecution, the like of which this land has not seen in centuries.