{"id":4271,"date":"2015-07-25T11:46:32","date_gmt":"2015-07-25T16:46:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.brethren.org\/?p=4271"},"modified":"2015-07-25T11:46:32","modified_gmt":"2015-07-25T16:46:32","slug":"a-ministers-wife-tells-her-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/blogtest\/2015\/07\/25\/a-ministers-wife-tells-her-story\/","title":{"rendered":"A Minister’s Wife tells her story"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Conference<\/a>
Conference in\u00a0Tampa<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Salamatu’s Story<\/strong> (written by Janet Crago)<\/p>\n

It was a Sunday morning that won\u2019t ever be forgotten. During worship services at Salamatu\u2019s large EYN (Ekklisiyar Yan\u2019uwa a Nigeria which means Church of the Brethren in Nigeria) church, Boko Haram terrorists invaded the church building and started shooting people!\u00a0 There was a tremendous rush by everyone to get out and away.\u00a0\u00a0 In the haste to leave, no one knows for sure how many died, how many were injured, and how many escaped.\u00a0 Months later, relatives are still just connecting with other family members.<\/p>\n

Salamatu fled with only her Bible and a copy of the SS&S (Sacred Songs and Solos).\u00a0 Her group of escapees tried to go south to Uba, but that road was blocked.\u00a0 They then headed through the bush to another nearby village, a distance of 8 miles.\u00a0 They had no food or water, but had to push through if they wanted to live.\u00a0 Eventually, they had to cross a river, and\u00a0 they took turns crossing in a canoe.\u00a0 The charge was $100 Naira ($.50), but luckily some people had a bit of money.\u00a0 They all shared resources and were able to cross.\u00a0 Salamatu sprained her ankle scrambling up from the river so she had to walk on a painful ankle the rest of the way..<\/p>\n

This exhausted group arrived in the nearby village early the next morning.\u00a0 This village has several large EYN churches and those churches were opened for people to sleep in.\u00a0 Also, some people opened their homes for the refugees.\u00a0 Many women cooked, so their immediate hunger needs were met.\u00a0 However, This village was only a temporary refuge.\u00a0 Someone located a pickup truck. That night, after about only 20 hours in the village, 40 people stood in the back of the pickup truck for their ride to Yola.\u00a0 It was a very long, exhausting night riding 120 miles, standing in an overloaded pickup.\u00a0 They were very frightened.\u00a0 Prudent people don\u2019t travel on the roads at night in Nigeria, let alone with Boko Haram lurking around.<\/p>\n

When they arrived in Yola, Salamatu\u2019s 12 year old son burst into tears and said he would never return to their village.\u00a0 In Yola today, there are 6 EYN churches and several refugee camps.\u00a0 The refugees dispersed to friends, family, or to the refugee camps.\u00a0 Salamatu and family were taken in by a \u201cbrother in Christ\u201d.\u00a0 He hosted them for 1 month.<\/p>\n

Then, Salamatu\u2019s brother-in-law loaned them a small house in a suburb of Abuja, the capital city of Nigeria located just southwest of the center of the country.\u00a0 They stayed in the house for 7 months.\u00a0 At that time they could finally return to their village, only to find everything in their house burned, destroyed, or carted off.\u00a0 Even their mattresses were missing!\u00a0 Salamatu and her husband had each left a vehicle behind – they were gone.\u00a0 One assistant pastor had a vehicle \u2013 it was gone.\u00a0 The church had a bus – it was gone.\u00a0 Both assistant pastors\u2019 houses were burned.\u00a0 The church was destroyed.\u00a0 Life in their village is quite difficult now.\u00a0 They must walk everywhere.\u00a0 There is no electricity.<\/p>\n

Salamatu had left behind a small shop in which she sold women\u2019s wear, children\u2019s wear, Bibles, and Song books.\u00a0 The shop was destroyed along with all the goods in it.\u00a0 Her plan was to use the profit from the shop to pay for school fees for her children.\u00a0 She had saved money for some time to accumulate enough funds to get the shop started.\u00a0 Now she has to start all over again, but has no start-up money.\u00a0 They consider themselves very fortunate to have escaped.\u00a0 Their four children are all back in school.\u00a0 But Salamatu worries that they won\u2019t be able keep them there because of her inability to pay the school fees.\u00a0 Their village still isn\u2019t really safe from Boko Haram.\u00a0 So, Why did they go back?\u00a0 To quote Salamatu, \u201cIf the shepherd runs away, who will take care of the sheep?\u201d\u00a0 After all, her husband Joel is an EYN pastor.<\/p>\n

Today the Boko Haram prowl the bush around their village.\u00a0 Those living there exist in a constant state of tension \u2013 to stay or to flee.\u00a0 Would we, faced with this ongoing reality, find the faith to stay and be there to minister to those who return helping to restore some sense of normalcy to their lives?\u00a0 Let this be a challenge to us all. We pray that Christ\u2019s peace and presence will abide with them all.<\/p>\n

\"On<\/a>
On the bus as part of the EYN Women’s Choir Tour<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Salamatu’s Story (written by Janet Crago) It was a Sunday morning that won\u2019t ever be forgotten. During worship services at Salamatu\u2019s large EYN (Ekklisiyar Yan\u2019uwa a Nigeria which means Church of the Brethren in Nigeria) church, Boko Haram terrorists invaded the church building and started shooting people!\u00a0 There was a tremendous rush by everyone to<\/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":[139,370,419,813,814,882,921],"class_list":["post-4271","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nigeria","tag-boko-haram","tag-ekklesiyar-yanuwa-a-nigeria","tag-eyn","tag-nigeria","tag-nigeria-crisis","tag-peace","tag-prayer"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/blogtest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4271","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=4271"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/blogtest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4271\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/blogtest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4271"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/blogtest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4271"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/blogtest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}