Amid ongoing dangers, Christian leaders in Nigeria in October recalled the exemplary faith of indigenous missionaries who gave their lives in areas overrun by Islamic extremist militants.
While President Muhammadu Buhari told an India-African summit in late October that Islamic extremist group Boko Haram has been contained to ‘sporadic’ attacks in remote areas, leaders of the Evangelical Church Winning All (ECWA) told how Nigerian missionaries sent to those areas have suffered.
‘These missionaries have been labouring in very dangerous, remote mission fields, far away from modern civilisation’, said Elijah Ipole, head of media for the ECWA’s Evangelical Missionary Society (EMS). ‘Some have had to bury their loved ones while in mission fields. Some have had their properties looted or completely destroyed by the enemies of the gospel.’
Established in 1947 to empower indigenous African missionaries to take over missions work from foreign missionaries in Nigeria, EMS has lost five of its leaders to Boko Haram and other jihadists in the last four years.
Crisis situations
ECWA President Jeremiah Gado stated in a letter to churches in Nigeria in October that the EMS missionaries remain in danger.
‘Please continue to pray for our missionaries, their families and the converts in the various mission fields, as you continue to bear in mind that the gospel is being preached by these missionaries in increasingly volatile and very deadly crisis situations’, he wrote.
Protection
At the same time, Gado reaffirmed God’s protection of many workers.
‘We thank God, however, that even though we have lost five missionaries over the past five years to Islamic jihadists, most of them have been protected and delivered from attacks’, he wrote. ‘It is a miracle of God’s grace and protection that the casualty rate is so low in light of the terrible turmoil that our missionaries are passing through.’
Boko Haram, which seeks to impose shari’a law throughout Nigeria, has killed more than 17,000 people, according to Amnesty International, including 1,600 in the last four months.
Christians make up 51.3% of Nigeria’s population of 158.2 million, while Muslims account for 45% and live mainly in the north, according to Operation World.
