NEITHER BOMB NOR BULLET
Benjamin Kwashi, archbishop on the front line
By Andrew Boyd
Monarch. 336 pages. £12.99
ISBN 978 0 857 218 438
What a story of faith and courage, grace and perseverance, suffering and sorrow, with blessing and growth!
You need to read this book to see how a person can follow Christ and make such a difference in one of the hard places in the world, to understand how our brothers and sisters in Nigeria are suffering, to thrill at God’s work despite such tough opposition. And you’ll enjoy the read all the way!
Kwashi is now General Secretary of GAFCON (the international conference for evangelical Anglicans unhappy with trends in Lambeth). But his story starts with looking after cows in the bush. A wild youth leads to a glorious conversion.
From then on, his priority is evangelism, and he rejoices in the power of the gospel to change lives. How he courted his wife is unique! Kwashi learns to take a stand in his army years against bullying, persecution, and the opposition of some churchmen. We see the rise of militant Islam – in 72 hours 100 churches burnt, Christian homes flattened, hundreds dead and apparently no action by the police – and the response of the gospel of love. The archbishop is away when his own house is attacked and ransacked, his wife brutalised and his children beaten – and yet by the grace of God he stays and preaches the good news.
The book concludes with a series of ‘letters’, thoughts on the responsibility of the world, on the place of resistance, and advice to young Christians.
As a non-Anglican myself, I was reminded of the many good reasons why evangelicals work within the Anglican Church, and the great things that can follow – as well as seeing the reasons why I am not an Anglican!
