One of the older Nigerian workcampers came up to me in our second week in Michika and said, “You are an inspiration. If you can leave your comfortable lives to come here and work with us, then I too can come out of my home to work on my church.”
In continued work together to rebuild the devastated church denomination in Nigeria, members of Ekklesiyar Yan’uwa a Nigeria (the Church of the Brethren in Nigeria) and the Church of the Brethren in the US converged at the tumble-down church building of EYN’s LCC No. 1, Michika congregation in Adamawa State. This is the place where EYN president Joel Billi pastored until Sept. 7, 2014, when the church was attacked, and some members were killed. Assistant pastor Yahaya Ahmadu was shot to death and the entire church structure including the pastorium, offices, schools, library, stores, church building, and property, was set ablaze by the Islamist Jihadists known as Boko Haram.
Brethren Disaster Ministries has directed grants from the Church of the Brethren’s Emergency Disaster Fund (EDF) to the Disaster Recovery Support Initiative and the task of developing new project sites following the 2017 hurricane and fire season. In addition, a grant has been given to assist families displaced by violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Children’s Disaster Services (CDS) is offering several training workshops for volunteers this spring, in a variety of locations across the country. CDS volunteers work at the invitation of the American Red Cross and FEMA to care for children and families affected by disaster. Find out more about the ministry of CDS and how to become involved at www.brethren.org/cds.
I am amazed at the end of each year when I add up and record all the work that has been done in Nigeria by the Nigeria Crisis Response, a joint effort of the Church of the Brethren with Ekklesiyar Yan’uwa a Nigeria (EYN, the Church of the Brethren in Nigeria). Last year, 2017, was no different.
New to National Youth Conference in 2018: all service projects will take place on the campus of Colorado State University. NYC will be hosted at CSU in Fort Collins, Colo., on July 21-26, 2018. Registration opens online on Jan. 18, 2018, at 6 p.m. (central time) at www.brethren.org/nyc .
Rev. Yuguda, head of the Disaster Team of Ekklesiyar Yan’uwa a Nigeria (EYN, the Church of the Brethren in Nigeria) sent information about their trip to Chibok to take money to one of the Chibok schoolgirls who is sick. The government was not paying her medical bills.
The report of the Nigerian government to the outside world is that Boko Haram have been defeated. But the government is still losing soldiers, losing billions of Naira for security, and also losing lives. The internal situation is clearly different from the government report.
Hurricane Maria recovery in Puerto Rico is slow, but there is progress. When a whole island has extensive damage to basic services like electricity, running water, and cellular communication, recovery is difficult and long. Power is returning to more areas, but less than half the residents have power. Cellular service is improving, and church leaders are able to communicate better.
Children’s Disaster Services (CDS) is responding to the fires in southern California, at the end of a week in which wildfires stoked by strong Santa Ana winds started northwest of Los Angeles and now have begun in the San Diego area as well. CDS will be deploying a team of eight volunteers to serve affected children and families in southern California beginning this weekend.
