Greetings in Jesus name. Thank you so much for your prayers, sms, telephone calls and emails. The past one week has been a very challenging one. We are compelled to take very painful decisions after much prayers and careful consultations.
As you are very much aware of, the lingering crises in Jos resurfaced towards the end of 2010 with series of bomb blast leading to the death of scores of persons. We cried to God fervently trusting that the crises will end with the year. Unfortunately, the ones in 2011 seemingly worse. Everything in the past one week has been on standstill. The streets are almost completely empty. The banks were locked up. The shops were not open. The casualties resulted from the killings were neatly concealed apparently to avoid reprisal attacks.
In the midst of this uneasy calm, I managed to sneak out, leading a team of resource persons to Indigenous Believers Campmeeting (IBC) for the Kamberi and Dukawas in far-away Niger State near the boarder of Benin Republic. The program was a huge success. I returned this night to meet the usual uneasy calmness, news of attacks and counter attacks.
Our 2011 session for the School of Cross-Cultural Missions were due to have resumed last week. Most of the new set of students could not resume for fear of attack. The outgoing students are wondering what happens in the next minute because of perpetual fear and rumour of possible attack.
Having successfully tasted mission work in some of the dangerous fields in the Middle East, I had earlier choose to ignore the challenges that the ongoing Jihad poses. The reality on ground now requires some wisdom. It is apparent that with the constant lost of innocent lives, we have to postpone two of our key meetings schedule to hold in the first quarter of 2011 despite the huge sum we had invested on preparation already. The first is the Leadership Empowerment Conference (LEC) scheduled to hold in Jos on March 15-21 and the 16th African Missions Summit on March 22-27, 2011. After due consultations, the LEC we scheduled to hold at Bauchi, Abuja, Ibadan, Ankpa, Ogogu, Abeokuta and Lagos have to be rescheduled also because of the political climate which is breeding all kinds of crises like Bokoharam, kidnapping, bomb explosion, etc.
Attached is the picture of the victims of the January 12, Crises in Jos. They are innocent travellers from passing through Jos in a bus. They met their untimely death in the hands of those who claimed to be fighting for God. Please, do not open if you are not strong hearted. This is genocide! In the face of this reality, we will not entirely close up our ministries in Jos. We are trusting God to move some of the ongoing training work outside the city. This will require renting a hostel for our students and classroom and office accommodation. If the situation does not improve soon, we may also relocate our Unreached Children Home (UCH)~ our ministry to orphans and vulnerable kids also out of Jos. On several occasions last year, we had to move them to the mountain top and later to the barrack for safety. The sight of constant crises is not a good memory for the kids. All these require huge sum and above all the leadership of the Holy Spirit.
We no doubt covet your prayers now than ever. Pray for our staff, friends and partners in the city for divine protection. Pray that our ministry in Furaka community where we are committed to helping over 100 souls (indigenous people and settlers). Pray for both the state and federal government of Nigeria for wisdom on how to approach the issues on ground.
Thank you for being there for us at this very difficult time.
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