{"id":4091,"date":"2015-05-15T11:44:05","date_gmt":"2015-05-15T16:44:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.brethren.org\/?p=4091"},"modified":"2015-05-15T11:44:05","modified_gmt":"2015-05-15T16:44:05","slug":"drawing-strength-from-jesus-and-each-other","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/blogtest\/2015\/05\/15\/drawing-strength-from-jesus-and-each-other\/","title":{"rendered":"Drawing strength from Jesus and each other"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\tby Donna Parcell (Volunteer just returned from Nigeria)<\/p>\n

I am overcome by the strength and resilience of the people of Ekklesiar Yan\u2019uwa a Nigeria (EYN-Church of the Brethren-Nigeria).\u00a0 Everyone has a story.\u00a0 There is not one who has not been affected.<\/p>\n

There is Zakariya, who hasn\u2019t seen his mother in two years and doesn\u2019t know if she is alive or dead.\u00a0 And Ibraham who heard from a former neighbor that his father was killed by Boko Haram.\u00a0 There are those who saw their parents or children killed.\u00a0 Pastors tell of witnessing people in their congregation killed or tortured.\u00a0 People fled in different directions, and many have not seen or heard from family members in months or even years.\u00a0 Everyone we meet has lost someone.\u00a0 Everyone.\u00a0 I can\u2019t imagine this happening to my own church.<\/p>\n

Most have spent time in Internally Displaced Persons camps (IDP), living in tents with scarce food and water and crowded conditions.\u00a0 But the children still laugh and play.\u00a0 They make up games and fashion toys out of discarded water containers or broken tires.\u00a0 They all have many mothers as the entire village looks out for each other.\u00a0 They often cook together as a community and fellowship together.<\/p>\n

The EYN members in Jos have taken in and cared for displaced persons into their homes.\u00a0 It is common for a family in a 2 bedroom house to be caring for 50 additional people.\u00a0 They are not discouraged by this, they are finding ways to take in even more people.<\/p>\n

They firmly believe that this persecution will result in spreading the word of God and growing the church, just as it did in the early church.<\/p>\n

\"Despite<\/a>
Despite a burned church – EYN still meets<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of God.\u00a0 And yet, they are not poor in spirit.\u00a0 Yes, they grieve and struggle deeply with their loss.\u00a0 But they rely heavily on each other for encouragement, support, and guidance.\u00a0 They turn always to our Heavenly Father, and trust Him in all things.\u00a0 They are confident in the love of Jesus, and have incredible faith that He will sustain them and bring peace to their country.<\/p>\n

They are so appreciative of the concern of the global Church of the Brethren.\u00a0 They feel covered by the prayers that are placed before the Throne daily on their behalf.\u00a0 They are humbled that they are remembered and prayed for.\u00a0 They are strengthened by our concern and prayers.\u00a0 And through all of the horrific events of their everyday lives, they continue to pray for us.\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Donna Parcell (Volunteer just returned from Nigeria) I am overcome by the strength and resilience of the people of Ekklesiar Yan\u2019uwa a Nigeria (EYN-Church of the Brethren-Nigeria).\u00a0 Everyone has a story.\u00a0 There is not one who has not been affected. There is Zakariya, who hasn\u2019t seen his mother in two years and doesn\u2019t know<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[139,370,419,642,814,921,1109,1160],"class_list":["post-4091","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nigeria","tag-boko-haram","tag-ekklesiyar-yanuwa-a-nigeria","tag-eyn","tag-jesus","tag-nigeria-crisis","tag-prayer","tag-strength","tag-trauma"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/blogtest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4091","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/blogtest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/blogtest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/blogtest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/blogtest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4091"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/blogtest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4091\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/blogtest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4091"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/blogtest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4091"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/blogtest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4091"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}