The Church should have seen it coming but she flippantly ignored all the warning signals under the misguided impression that she is far too numerous, too influential, to be dealt with in such a manner. When you add the power of her God and His promises as her fallback option, she must have been convinced that her invincibility was cast in stone. Thus, when, during the buildup to the 2015 elections, a certain candidate was said to have sworn to implement the Islamic code with every drop of his blood, instead of proceeding with caution, it was the Church, rather than the candidate, who dismissed it as impossible and voted massively.
At this time, a segment of the Church is waking up and rising to the challenge, calling on the God of heaven and hoping for a quick fix. True, with God on the Church’s side, she in invincible. However, the glory is departed because the Church forsook her Master. The last edition provided a vivid background. Thus, there is the dawning of a new reality: the entire Church is surrounded by the foot-soldiers of the enemy and there seems to be no way out.
The “slaughter” in the Christian camp has been great and though many Christians still live in denial, this edition aims to capture it as modestly as possible as some of the photos and narratives are too graphic for publication. In the affected communities, it is like the playback of a gruesome horror movie; men, women and children slaughtered like goats and rams – so horrible the survivors are simply glad to be alive. Whole families were sometimes burnt alive, not sparing pregnant women children, and people in ministry. Thousands have been maimed, one wonders whether the “horses” and “riders” in our peculiar situation have any blood running in their veins.
It was probably a situation such as this which looked like God was far away that inspired the lamentation in Psalm 44. As the psalmist recounted the exploits of the Lord in the deliverance of Israel in times past, he wondered when the Lord would show up. But You have cast us off and put us to shame, and You do not go out with our armies. You make us turn back from the enemy, and those who hate us have taken spoil for themselves. You have given us up like sheep intended for food, and have scattered us among the nations. You sell Your people for next to nothing, and are not enriched by selling them. You make us a reproach to our neighbors, a scorn and a derision to those all around us. You make us a byword among the nations, a shaking of the head among the peoples… Yet for Your sake we are killed all day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Ps 44:9-14,22 NKJV. Is it all gloom? Certainly no! What the adversary fails to realise is that he is just a tool to get the Church to her knees so she can seek God. Once God’s people connect to Him, God arises to their defence. The prayer is that that happens soon so that like Paul, we will look at the scenario and conclude: Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. Rom 8:37 NKJV. When that happens, the indomitable Christian spirit will again be seen by all. Also in this edition, we highlight the need to take care of our own while leading communications consultant, Leke Alder, proffers ideas on the way forward. We also celebrate Leah who turned 16 recently. Yes indeed, in spite of everything, we are more than conquerors!
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