BACK TO DAMBOA As we traveled back to Damboa I wondered what we would find. The year 2000 was plagued with religious disturbances in Nigeria. The first major problem was in Kaduna. In Kaduna serious problems broke out between Christians and Muslims. As a result of those riots many lives were lost as well as the destruction of many homes and business and churches. The EYN church in Badarawa (Badarawa is a suburb of Kaduna) was burned and the pastor was killed along with two men from the church. We requested COB disaster fund money and we were granted $20,500. Half of the money was for the rebuilding of the church the other half assisted persons who lost their spouses, houses or businesses.
The next outbreak of religious disturbances that had a direct effect on EYN was in Damboa, Borno State. We went to Damboa to inspect the damages. When we got there we found a church that was completely destroyed along with the parsonage. The only thing remaining of the church was most of the walls. I say most because one of the walls was completely destroyed. The destruction was terrible to behold. We visited with the church leaders and encouraged them to the best of our ability. As a result of the riots most of the Christians fled from Damboa for fear of their lives. Many went to Maiduguri and found sanctuary with Christians there. Now some were beginning to come back to Damboa. We came back to Jos and for the second time in 2000 requested a disaster fund grant from COB. COB granted a $5,000 disaster grant for rebuilding Damboa and two of its preaching points that also sustained damage. We drove from Jos to EYN headquarters on a Saturday as we prepared ourselves to go back to
When we arrived at the church the first thing we noticed was that the church people had built a nice wall around the church compound with a strong red steel gate. You need to understand that gates and walls are very important in Nigeria. I thought to myself, "Kai, these people are serious!" We walked into the "L" shaped church building and discovered that it was "packed out," completely filled. Every concrete pew (many of the EYN churches have concrete pews with no backs) was packed and people were standing on the outside looking in the windows. They were not there because of our visit. They did not know we were coming until they got to church that morning. Word had reached the pastor the day before and he had no chance to tell the people that we would be visiting them. He told them during the worship service that we were coming and they were waiting for us. I cannot begin to tell you how I felt as I walked into that demolished structure and saw a packed church. The church building was in a state of total destruction. The roof was completely gone and the rear wall of the church was totally destroyed and yet the church was absolutely full. I came with words of encouragement for these people and a check from Church of the Brethren to rebuild their church, but I received the most encouragement. We did not know what we would find when we got to Damboa. What we found was a church packed with the faithful people of God who were determined to stand on the promises of God and rebuild their church, their lives and be a witness for God in Damboa. Surely God must have said, "Well done thou good and faithful servants." Their plans are to demolish what is left of their church building and build one large enough to contain their growing congregation. John and Janet Tubbs
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