Lisa Crouch, associate director of Children’s Disaster Services, a program within Brethren Disaster Ministries, has offered some helps and hints for talking with children about the situation in Ukraine.
All believers are called to continue praying for the people of Ukraine and all impacted by the invasion of Ukraine by Russia. Please also pray for world leaders and Russian leadership that a miracle will happen, and a road to peace and justice will be found. Brethren Disaster Ministries is monitoring the needs of response partners and mapping out the Church of the Brethren response.
“We solicit for your prayers. The wife of the pastor of EYN LCC [local church] Wachirakabi has been kidnapped last night. Let’s commit her to God in prayers for His miraculous intervention in the situation,” Anthony A. Ndamsai shared via WhatsApp. Cecilia John Anthony was reportedly kidnapped from a village in Askira/ Uba Local Government Area of Borno State.
Praise God for the return of four girls who were abducted from Kautikari, in the area of Chibok in northeast Nigeria, on Jan. 14, 2022. Kautikari village is located east and about 20 kilometers drive from Chibok town, predominantly occupied by Christians.
Brethren Disaster Ministries has received a report of another violent attack affecting Nigerian Brethren in northeastern Nigeria, reported by Zakariya Musa, head of Media for Ekklesiyar Yan’uwa a Nigeria (EYN, the Church of the Brethren in Nigeria).
In an ISWAP/Boko Haram attack on Kautikari town on Jan. 15, at least three people were killed and five people were abducted. Two churches of Ekklesiyar Yan’uwa a Nigeria (EYN, the Church of the Brethren in Nigeria) and more than 20 houses were burned. Kautikari is one of many communities devastated in Chibok and other local government areas in Borno State, Nigeria, where churches and Christians are targeted.
Brethren Disaster Ministries staff have directed a grant of $15,000 from the Church of the Brethren’s Emergency Disaster Fund (EDF) to help Church World Service (CWS) distribute relief kits and blankets and give support for unaccompanied minors following the December 2021 tornados.
A devastating outbreak of 59 confirmed tornados occurred overnight on Dec. 10 to 11 in the central US, followed by powerful storms on Dec. 15. District Disaster Response Coordinators (DDCs) from the affected Church of the Brethren districts–Illinois and Wisconsin, Missouri and Arkansas, Northern Plains, Southern Ohio and Kentucky, and Western Plains–report little to no damage in the communities with Church of the Brethren congregations.
Brethren Disaster Ministries staff have directed grants from the Church of the Brethren Emergency Disaster Fund (EDF) to a rebuilding project site in Pamlico County, N.C.; Syrians displaced by civil war; and people displaced by the war in Yemen. To support these grants financially, give online at https://churchofthebrethren.givingfuel.com/bdm.
The Nigeria Crisis Response budget for 2022 has been set at $183,000 after careful deliberation. Five years ago, we expected the Nigerian government would restore order in northeast Nigeria and families could return to their homes while the response supported their recovery. This led to planning to end the crisis response in 2021, but these plans had to be revised due to ongoing violence.
