By Carl Hill
Cliff Kindy (left) with Dr. Samuel Dali, president of Ekklesiyar Yan’uwa a Nigeria (EYN, the Church of the Brethren in Nigeria), after the accident.
At the end of a busy work week, Church of the Brethren mission worker Cliff Kindy was involved in an auto accident while traveling from Yola to Jos, Nigeria (approximately 200 miles). He and his party appeared unhurt, but the driver of another car suffered a broken leg in the accident.
Traveling by car in Nigeria can be an experience in itself. Speed limits and ordinary rules of the road do not always apply when trying to get from one place to another. Last Saturday, during this trip that usually takes about eight hours, the front tire came off the car somewhere in Bauchi State. The driver lost the ability to keep the car on the road and it veered off into a field where it eventually came to a stop. Meanwhile, the tire continued to roll down the middle of the road where it struck the driver’s side door of an on-coming pickup truck. The tire caused considerable damage to the truck and the driver’s leg was broken by the impact.
Another car was soon sent to pick up Kindy and the others, and they continued to their destination. It was not until the next morning that he suffered the after-effects of the ordeal. Before too long, he was surrounded by his new friends in Ekklesiyar
Yan’uwa a Nigeria (EYN, the Church of the Brethren in Nigeria), his glasses were straightened out, and a few band-aids were put on to patch up our bruised ambassador. Kindy contacted his wife back in the States to let her know what had happened and to assure her that he would be alright.
Markus Gamache, EYN staff liaison, visited the man who was injured in the accident and encouraged him.
We are praying for Cliff Kindy and we believe that God has been watching over him while he has been in Nigeria. The support shown to him by members of EYN leadership is a sign that everything he has been doing there is being appreciated and serves as a testimony to the outstanding work he has been doing.
— Carl and Roxane Hill are co-directors of the Nigeria Crisis Response of the Church of the Brethren. More about the Nigeria Crisis Response is at www.brethren.org/nigeriacrisis .