Prayers for Nigeria Day 10

Dear Friends

Today I leave Nigeria. I’m glad that I was able to come and see first hand what I have read and studied for over a year now. This country is a great country in many ways and its people are free people. I’m so glad for all of the kindness that people showed me and the outright courage that it took sit down and talk with me.

As I prepare to leave I chuckle remembering how different the manners of people in the North are. I met a convert who bowed deeply to me and I did not make a big deal of it because of the cultural difference. But hearing that man’s story, knowing what he has given up, what he lost for the sake of Christ. I should have bowed to him, I should have honored him. I know he didn’t see it that way but I wish that I could have given him the honor that he was due.

Its a funny thing going on a human rights trip. I met with leaders of the Sayawa people from a place called Tafawa Balewa, its a Christian enclave in the south of the Muslim dominated Bauchi State. After hearing the discrimination and deprivation that they have suffered, I told them that a small human rights NGO like Jubilee Campaign could not solve their problem. But I promised them that we would never forget them.

I made that promise as a member of a human rights organization which advocates for ethnic and religious minorities. But I was the one who made the promise. Even if circumstances change and I have to leave Jubilee Campaign, I will never forget them. I will never forget their plight, their courage in the face of overwhelming odds, their commitment to Christ against all the world has thrown at them.

Part of honor is knowing that sometimes obligations come upon you suddenly, without notice. Sometime honor may require you to give more than you ever dreamed you would need to. I can already feel the weight of new obligations settling on me, and I know that I will need help to bear them.

Let us pray.

Lord I thank you for the success of this trip. Though there were challenges and confusion, You worked things out to give us an amazingly broad and effective trip.

I thank you for the kindness of those who opened their homes to me. I thank you for the boldness with which pastors and ordinary Christians told me of the trials that they had suffered.

Lord as I go back to comfortable safe America, I pray that you would be with them. Lord I pray that no harm would come to them as a result of them meeting with me. Lord I pray for Nigeria, for the endemic corruption that holds them down, but the indomitable spirit that drives them up up and on. I thank you for the life and joy that is in them. Lord I praise you for the freedom that you have given them. It is beautiful.

Lord I pray for those in the North. I pray that you would protect the Christians from harm. I pray that the Muslims would realize that Boko Haram brings nothing but death. I pray for the security forces that have already realized that. Lord I pray that you would enable the police and the military to do their jobs with integrity.

Lord I pray that key people in the U.S. State Department and the U.N. would come to their senses and realize that this is not some local ethnic problem. This is religious extremism and it has grown strong enough to threaten all of Nigeria.

Lord I pray that Nigeria would not fall into chaos, or under the hand of a brutal oppressive regime like Iran. Let there be peace, true peace, not the uneasy tension which hovers over so many of the places that I visited.

Lord I pray for travel mercies as I leave this place and return to my own country. But Lord I pray that you would keep the memories fresh. Let me never forget the truth of what I have seen. I pray that you would make me able to keep the promises I have made.

In Jesus Name

Amen.

Prayers for Nigeria Day 9

Dear Friends

Today we were able to visit the northern state of Kano and meet with some of the Christians there. Kano is of particular interest to the Jubilee Campaign, because the Boko Haram attacks were targeted attacks on government buildings which killed far more Muslims than Christians. This was the most dangerous part of our trip by far and we are grateful that God kept us safe throughout it.

Due to this bloodshed, the eyes of some of the leaders of Kano have been opened to the reality that Boko Haram will not stop until their ideology is triumphant. As we are well aware that ideology dictates the death of Christians, but it also requires the vast majority of Nigeria’s Muslims to compromise their convictions or face death as well. We were even encouraged to hear of Muslim leaders who have explicitly and publicly condemned the Boko Haram. Unfortunately, those Muslims who do proclaim their opposition to the Boko Haram are quickly killed or forced to flee the area, silencing their voices.

Some other exciting things happened to us in Kano, but I’ll leave that for another day.

Lord,

I thank you for the Christians that endure in the far north and I pray that you will keep them safe in this lethal new world that they find themselves in.

Lord I thank you that the evil of Boko Haram has finally been recognized by some leaders of the Muslim community in Kano, but we grieve for the souls whose fate is now beyond the reach of the Gospel. Lord I pray for discernment for your pastors in the North, they desperately need wisdom in knowing who to trust. Lord unless people can build trust then there will never be peace in the north, but if they give their trust to the wrong people then the violence will only increase.

Lord I pray that you would preserve the Muslims who recognize that Boko Haram is evil. Lord I pray that even those Muslims who desire Nigeria to be an Islamic nation will recognize that the terrorism of Boko Haram is destruction which begets destruction and it cannot build anything. I pray that the Muslims would see that unless they unite against these terrorists that there will be no more Nigeria.

Lord I pray for those of your people who have been humiliated by the northern Muslims until they are shamed and weak in their own eyes. I pray that you would strengthen their hearts and allow them to lift their heads up high. And I pray that their unashamed passion for Christ will bring a great harvest for the Kingdom.

Lord preserve your people

Amen.

Prayers for Nigeria Day 8

I saw something that I must mention, and it requires me to give an explanation. Due to the increasing (and very dangerous) trend of religious segregation in the country, Muslim areas are increasingly Muslim, while Christian areas are increasingly Christian. The clearest sign that you are entering a predominantly Muslim area is in the clothing, particularly that of the women.

I knew that and expected it, but what I did not expect was my own personal reaction to the sight. One of my chief hobbies is people-watching, and I have rarely enjoyed it as much as I have enjoyed it in Nigeria. The people are loud, boisterous full of life and laughter. Not so in the Muslim areas.

The women there walk with downcast eyes, furtively shuffling from place to place. Frowns of worry crease faces that have lost the contours of smiling. Even through the stifling veil of the hijab you can see fear in their stance and carriage. Every time that we cross into a Muslim dominant area I notice this shift on a visceral level.

Above all the things that I have learned in this trip is that Nigerians are a free people. They hold their heads high and stand up straight. It grieves me to see these women so broken.

All that was just background. Now let me tell you what sight compelled me to post this. As we were passing through a muslim section of town I my attention was drawn to 7 Muslim schoolgirls, in matching hijabs of pale Nigerian green preparing to cross the street.

One girl in particular caught my eye. She couldn’t have been more than 9 or 10 years old, but she was leading the group. She grasped her sisters hands, holding back one girl who tried to step out into the street early and shouting encouragement to her sisters as she prepared them to cross the street.

All of this happened in perhaps 4 or 5 seconds as we made a turn and then the flow of traffic took us along. As I looked at her face, at the life flashing in it, I suddenly realized that this girl was just like the Christian schoolgirls, that we had visited earlier in the day. She had the same life, the same passion, the same core of freedom. Immediately following the first recognition came the second, that all those women that I saw so downcast and fearful, they weren’t born that way. No, they were made to be that way. They had been broken.

I wondered what will happen to that girl’s spirit, to the life in her eyes and the smile on her face, when she grows up in a Muslim world, surrounded by a culture that denies her the right to her own self. What will happen to the laughter on her lips in ten years or so when she marries a Muslim husband and is broken to his will?

I mentioned this line of thought to my traveling companion, and he looked at me with a curious combination of sympathy for my ignorance and distaste for the truth that I was not seeing. In ten years? he said. Three or four, max. She will be a child bride bearing child after child, growing old before her time.

What response to that can there be but prayer?

Oh Lord, I pray for that Muslim schoolgirl. I pray that by your mercy and grace that you would preserve the joy in heart. Lord give her enough time to learn and grow up.

Lord I have no patience for feminists in the States, their irrational sense of entitlement garners no sympathy from me. But oh God my heart breaks for those girls who really are forced into lives they would never choose for themselves. Whose value is measured in the sons they bear and the amount of work they can do in a day. Like beasts of burden their minds are left to rot in darkness and their hearts grow cold.

Oh God I praise you for the transformation, for the converts that have come and are coming among the women of the Muslim world. Lord your truth is right, your word makes us to protect the weak, not break them to our will. Oh Lord we know that true submission to God means that in humility we cannot force someone to give God their heart.

Lord I pray that you would protect us in the days ahead as we travel to even more exciting places.

Amen

Prayers For Nigeria Day 7

Dear Friends

I left the States a week ago today. I have not yet spent a full week in Nigeria, as the trip itself consumed all of Monday night and most of Tuesday but it has been seven days since I slept at home. Since I arrived, it has been like riding a whirlwind. Almost everyday we have spent more than three hours in the car, traveling from city to city.

This morning we were able to travel with Congresswoman Martha Bodunrin, who took us to the scene of the 2010 Dogo Nahawa Massacre which killed at least 500 people.

As a side note, Congresswoman Martha Bodunrin is a faithful and exemplary representative of her constituents. When notified of the attack, she immediately flew from the capitol of Nigeria to Jos, but by the time she arrived the Massacre had already taken place. She was only able to witness the awful aftermath of the attack.

Even now, 2 years after the Massacre, the scene haunted the Congresswoman, and she was able to recall casualties in gruesome detail, without any prompting from the locals. We were unable to meet with the pastor, but I talked to several women who had lost their husbands to this violence.

Yet through the lingering horror God’s grace shown a beautiful ray of hope. One of the women gave birth to a child on the day of the massacre. In another place and culture such a child might have been hated as a reminder of the grief and loss. But if I have learned anything about Nigerian it is that they treasure and protect their children. This child was loved God’s constant reminder that there is beauty and life and joy, despite the agony of this dark world. It was a good reminder for me as well.

Lord

I thank you for the gift of life. For reminding me that your grace triumphs over adversity. That all the lies and all the hate and all the violence that comes against your people cannot quench your love and does not shake your faithfulness.

Lord thank you for signs. Thank you for that precious promise child, growing up with the all the love that the wounded community can muster. Lord I pray that you would strengthen that village. Let it grow strong and bright once again. Let that child grow up in a place where hope shines brightly.

Lord I thank You for Christians who have the humility to recognize where they are most needed and best applied. Lord I thank you for PhDs who are willing to teach children their ABCs because that is where they are needed most in the community that You have placed them. Lord I thank you for generosity of Christians to give and the stewardship of Christians to see that gifts are well used. And Lord God I praise You for appointing me to be there as a witness to see Your handiwork. I marvel a pattern that is so much bigger than any one person or organization.

Lord I praise you for the sense of “place” that you have given to Nigerians, the recognition of the ties to the land and the sense of belonging. Lord I know that that sense of place will only be finally fulfilled and justified in heaven, but as I watch these Nigerians I think that many of us in America have forgotten what we should long for!

Lord I pray that you would give me wisdom as I work. Thankfully I know that there is no solution in my hands and I am not called to save Nigeria. But Lord as I see these people in the light of faith and grow to love them, I desperately want to help them. To build up based on a strong foundation, not tear down or worse, build something that must be torn down because it does more harm.

Lord smarter people than I have failed, caught in cultural currents and internal politics that they were unprepared to face. I do not pretend to be better than they. I cannot outsmart all the players, I cannot see all the angles and manipulate everyone. And even if I could, what would it profit?

Lord I ask that you would make me your instrument, that you would use me and this trip as one small part of the work your are doing in Nigeria. Clear the way, and make the way clear before me so that I might not stumble.

Lord preserve Your people.

Amen.

Prayers for Nigeria Day 6

Dear Friends

I greatly enjoyed my first Sunday in Nigeria. Today I was struck by the vast differences between people. In the morning I attended a church service in the capitol city of Abuja. The church campus was very large containing several buildings which serve both the church and the Christian school attached to it.

The inside of the church was very technical, with modern earbuds, wireless mics, and massive video screens. The sound system was impressive to say the least, in fact I’ve been to rock concerts with lower average decibel levels. The sermon was inspiring, full of hope and joy, and I felt very welcomed.

In the afternoon we visited one of the northern states to interview an Anglican bishop concerning the persecution of Christians in his state. The entrance to the Church compound was guarded by a soldier so old and so fierce that it would not surprise me to learn that he had been originally trained by the British! The man was half-deaf, but very committed protecting his bishop.

The Anglican bishop was one of the most impressive men I have met so far in Nigeria, and I have met some impressive men. He was concise, even pausing for me as I was taking notes. Unlike most of those that I have interviewed, this bishop had clear requests for the international community. Put pressure on the Nigerian government to arrest these people (whom he listed by name), add their names to the list of known terrorists, and seize their foreign accounts to make it harder for them to fund large-scale attacks.

The thing that struck me most was how close these two churches were in space yet how far apart they were in the realities they faced. I’ll have to think more on the subject but that was my initial impression.

Dear Lord

I thank You for bringing me to Nigeria, to bear witness to the way that Your children bring honor to Your Name. There is so much pain in what I have seen, so much horror and the wreckage of human lives has not grown any easier to bear in my short time here. Yet there is still hope.

Lord, You remind me that whatever happens in the North, or even to Nigeria as a whole there is still always hope for your people. And You will continue to provide, in marvelous and miraculous ways. Lord once again, I thank you for preparing the way for this trip. In so many ways I feel that I am not assessing what needs to be done, but discovering what is already unfolding in your marvelous plan.

Lord I thank you for the generosity of the Nigerian people, for once again providing me a place to stay tonight. I pray that you would help me to rest well. Lord as tomorrow the schedule of meetings picks up once again, I pray that my mind would be sharp and alert as I strive to serve you well.

Amen.

Prayers for Nigeria Day 5

Dear Friends

Today is a day of rest. Half way through my time here, we only had one informal meeting today. The rest of the day was spent in helpful rest and thank God, we are in the home of an extremely gracious Nigerian host not another night in a hotel.

Not that I have anything against the hotels we have stayed in, they have been very nice places. But there is something special and significant in being invited into someone’s home and given a room there. About receiving advice from a gracious lady on how to endure the Nigerian heat, and hearing the stories of wise man who has walked with God for a long time.

I was privileged to join their family devotions, which they do every night before they go to bed. As we sang songs, read a brief scripture passage and listened to a section from the Daily Bread, I was struck by the fact that none of the couple’s own children were present. Two of the girls there were relatives, nieces as it happens, and another was a longtime family friend. But they still called it family devotions and if I had stepped into the house at that moment, I would have assumed that the three girls were their daughters.

During the prayer at the end of the devotion my host went mentioned  cities in the north by name, praying for the Christians there. Over the past two months, I have been studying northern Nigeria intensely and over the past week I have interviewed people from most of these places. So the prayer tonight will be a simple list of 7 cities in Nigeria and a short description of what the Christians have suffered there. I hope that as you go about your weekend that you will pray, knowing that this is only the tip of the iceberg.

Lord we pray for your Children

In Maiduguri, the longtime headquarters of Boko Haram in Nigeria, where churches are burned and Christians killed almost at will.

In Potiskum, where houses were tagged with Arabic graffiti to identify the Christians for house to house killings done “ethnic cleansing” style.

In the city of Kaduna, where there is a literal bridge between the Muslim and Christian halves of the city and tensions run high.

In  Kano where Boko Haram killed over 200 people in a single attack less than a month ago.

In Tafawa Balewa where Christians have experienced decades of systematic discrimination and targeted violence in an effort to push them off of their ancestral lands.

And last but not least, Jos, beautiful Jos which has known an entire decade of violence, wiping out a reputation for peace that was known throughout the whole of Nigeria.
Lord we pray that You would hold Your children close. Give them peace even as they live with death every day. Lord we thank you that of all people we can grieve with hope, and that those Christians who have lost family and friends can take comfort in Your promises. But Lord we also pray for justice to be done, that your name would be vindicated. Lord the blood of innocents cries out to from the ground. Let justice be done.

In Your name oh Lord

Amen

Prayers for Nigeria Day 3 & 4

Dear friends

I apologize for failing to post last night. It was a very exciting day interviewing Christians from many of the wide and varied parts of Nigeria. The tales were heartrending and left you awed by the faith of these followers of Christ. Before we get to the prayer, I want to share with you this brief account that one of our team wrote up about a convert we interviewed.

EDIT: The convert whose story follows this is a different person from the 79 year old pastor. The pastor was one of several hundred internally displaced persons from Yobe State who had been driven out of their ancestral lands by Islamist attacks.

“He lost his entire family because of his conversion to Christ. The sharia court granted his wife divorce on the grounds that her husband was now a pagan. She married a muslim. His first son wanted to go with him but the convert told his son to wait because he didn’t want the boy to grow up without a mother.

Fearing the boy would persist and become a Christian too, his muslim relatives poisoned and killed him. After a few years his wife died of an illness. His remaining son, the only remaining member of his family was given a “scholarship” by the state government to study Islamic studies in Libya. On his way to Libya, the vehicle carrying him crashed, killing the boy.

After 5 attempts on his life, he finally relocated within Nigeria. We offered him to consider political asylum abroad. He said he is the only Christian in his entire local government area. He told us “I was born in Nigeria. I will die in Nigeria.”

After all I saw today February 9th 2012, I wonder if I have ever been or seen a Christian.”

In the light of that story let us pray.

Lord, in the wake of all the people that I have met over the past few days. I thank you for the pastors that you have given to Nigeria. Perhaps, indeed it is likely that you have guided my steps to exceptional representatives of their ranks. But again and again when I meet these pastors I meet people who are exceptional, the best and brightest that their communities had, offered to Your service.

Lord I pray for our efforts in Nigeria. The recent violence has drawn attention and efforts from all over the world. I pray for these efforts, so many of which either fail to help or do even greater harm because of misinformation, inaccuracies, and outright lies. Eventually the truth will win out. Lord God may that day come quickly.

Lord I pray for the honest men of Nigeria. Lord the irony that those who try to do their jobs without favoritism are slandered and often fired on charges of corruption. I pray that you would strengthen and encourage those who choose to do the right thing anyway, knowing that at any moment it could mean the end of their careers.

Lord I pray for those who have been forced to flee from their homes. Lord I listened to a man explain that when people go from house to house killing Christians that it is not safe for children. And in his eyes there was a sense almost as if he was ashamed that he had left, shamed that he fled a coordinated religious cleansing! Oh Lord, I do not deserve to be counted next to such a man!

Lord God I pray for their elderly, for that magnificent 79 year old man who preached the Gospel for so long, held the line for so long. Lord my heart breaks that after such a lifetime of service that this reverend, this shepherd, this father and grandfather, this protector of the weak was forced to flee. It broke something inside of him, I think, to leave the land of his fathers and I do not know if he will ever be healed this side of heaven. I do know that looking at him looking at his eyes I felt such a respect for the man that I cannot express. If there was anything of mine that could have eased his pain, I would have given it without hesitation.

Lord you know the truth. I pray that we would speak the truth to the world. Lord touch the hearts of those with agendas, and let them for once in their lives choose to put others first, and not seek their personal advantage at the cost of all else. Lord, I know that only you can make that happen. But Lord if people try to do business as usual, the killing will not stop until every Christian in the north of Nigeria is dead!

Lord save your people!

Amen

Second Day’s Prayer

Lord I pray for the Nigerian people.

Lord I pray for the consequences of living with endemic insecurity, when military checkpoint snarl traffic around hotel entrances for literally hours at a time. When churches must have guards every time their doors are open, oh God protect Your people!

Lord how to motivate a system that only seems interested in quelling the violence after bodies are lying on the ground, and does not move to prevent before or prosecute afterward.

Lord I pray that You would raise up in Nigeria men like Job, who delivered the poor and the fatherless, who broke the fangs of the wicked and plucked the victims from their teeth. Lord I pray that you would encourage those men who have that caliber of soul but are disheartened and sabotaged by the system.

Lord I pray for strength for those men who have every human reason to give themselves over to hate, who have lost homes and land, friends and family. I thank you that if there are any cowards in Nigeria, that you have not sent them my way. But Lord for men who are not cowards to endure such things! Lord I do not have the strength or the wisdom for such a thing, but I believe that you do and I am amazed at the way that your Spirit shows itself, more and more true in the lives of these men.

I thank You for the Nigerian pastors that You have guided me to. I thank You for the unity of the Spirit that is possible between Christians across nations and cultures. It is marvelous beyond words to travel half-way around the world, and feel the same presence of God in people and be able to find unity with them instantly.

I thank you for the reminder that even under all the violence the work of the Gospel goes on, and You are bringing many to Your Name. Lord I praise You for the courage of those who see the light of Christ and return to preach to their families, even when those families come against them with hatred.

Lord lest I forget, I pray for Muslims who have been killed by Boko Haram, I pray that you will open their eyes to see that no one is safe when people use their faith as an excuse to indulge their bloodlust.

Lord I pray that Nigerians will remember the duty that they have to one another as part of the same community, the same nation, the same world. For you created us all equal and certain things are owed to one another simply because we were all made by God, and He demands that we respect what He has made.

Lord I pray for my work here. I thank you for all the little ways that You show me that You have laid the groundwork, in preparation for divine appointments which work out to Your design. I pray that this trip would be another step in a mighty work that would see peace come to Nigeria.

Lord keep me safe as I travel, give me rest when I sleep.

Amen

Prayers for Nigeria Day 1

Due to the fluid nature of the situation here in Nigeria, it would be inadvisable to post details of our trip day by day. So I have decided to post a prayer every night. This prayer will be informed by what I have learned over the course of the day but will contain no specifics. I encourage you to pray along with me and hope you enjoy this means of participation.

The First Day’s Prayer

Lord I thank you for travel mercies, and a long long day now done.

I thank you for this marvelous opportunity and pray that you would direct us to see just what you want us to see.

Lord I praise you for the mighty hearts of the Nigerian Christians. They have endured so much for so long.

Oh God, I pray that your grace would be on them to sustain them, for when 3 weeks without a murderous explosion is considered relatively peaceful, Lord the trials are heavy indeed.

Lord we pray that you would raise up a just government in Nigeria, one which would fulfill your mandate to keep order in society.

I pray your blessing and protection on our trip

In Jesus Name

Amen