Indigenous Missionaries Leave Legacy of Faith

Our missionaries need prayers. What is happening in the North Eastern part of Nigeria is a disaster; but most of the brunt is borne by Christians who are being targeted and killed. Read these wonderful testimonies about the lives of five ECWA missionaries who served and died in Nigeria. Take out time to pray for them during your family devotions and church prayer sessions.

From Morning Star News:

“These missionaries have been laboring in very dangerous, remote mission fields, far away from modern civilization,” said Elijah Ipole, head of media for the ECWA’s Evangelical Missionary Society (EMS). “Some have had to bury their loved ones while in mission fields. Some have had their properties looted or completely destroyed by the enemies of the gospel.”

Established in 1947 to empower indigenous African missionaries to take over missions work from foreign missionaries in Nigeria, EMS has lost five of its leaders to Boko Haram and other jihadists in the last four years, according to the ECWA president. One of them, the Rev. Isma Dogari, was murdered in Bauchi state in 2011. 

An EMS report describes his death:

“The Muslims took him to a mosque just by the roadside and, once inside, gave him a Koran and told him to denounce Jesus and live. But he refused and told them, ‘You need Jesus Christ in your lives.’ They then plugged his eyes, brought him out of the mosque, took him under a tree and asked him again to denounce his faith and live, but repeatedly he told them, ‘You need Jesus.’ At this point they stabbed Rev. Isma Dogari with a knife, slaughtered him and burned his corpse.” 

The Rev. Bukari Bunga, a director with EMS, told Morning Star News that Pastor Dogari was killed on April 10, 2011, while working in the Muntoshi Station. He was killed in Mararaban Liman Katagun. Other EMS missionaries killed by Muslim jihadists, according to Bunga, were pastor Ezra Ibrahim, killed in his station at Sabon Gida on Sept. 19, 2014; pastor Joshua M. Nana, killed in Bassa village in 2013; pastor Yunana Kinge, killed in Rafin Pa, Zankwa of the ECWA’s mid-central region on June 25, 2012; and pastor Yakubu Wazari, killed at Jos’ main market while taking his son to school on Jan. 8, 2011. He has served in Bani Kauwa II in Kasuwan Magani of the mid-central region.

“Please continue to pray for our missionaries, their families and the converts in the various mission fields, as you continue to bear in mind that the gospel is being preached by these missionaries in increasingly volatile and very deadly crises situations,” he wrote.

Pastor Mark Christmas - RCCG Pastor Kidnapped and the Abductors are asking for N30M

Kidnapping stories are beginning to become rampant again in Rivers, Bayelsa and Abia states. This one is a Pastor of a Redeemed Christian Church of God in Yenagoa, Bayelsa. Please pray for his safety and quick resolution of this. Also pray that this madness may be brought to a halt.

From Vanguard News:

ABDUCTORS of a Yenagoa-based clergyman, Pastor Mark Christmas of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, RCCG, “New Anointing Chapel”, are demanding N30 milion ransom for his freedom.

The pastor, according to his wife, Mrs Evelyn Christmas, was abducted along with two of his church members at his hometown in Biseingbene, a riverine community in Ekeremor Local Government Area of the state on October 18.

Mrs Christmas said her husband was lured to the community on the pretext of attending an emergency family meeting with his kinsmen when the incident happened.

“You know we reside in Yenagoa. So, on that fateful day, my husband was invited to Biseingbene by his kinsmen for a meeting. When he got there, he found out that the invitation for a meeting was false and a devilish plan to kidnap him.  My husband has spent over two weeks in their hands,” she narrated.

Christian Mother of Eight Is Slain

Persecution of Christians is on the increase. What breaks my heart is that as these things are happening, many of church leaders are busy pursuing their selfish interests. The righteous is taken and no one pays attention.

A mother of 8 is killed because her husband converted from Islam to Christianity. Let's continue to pray for her husband who is already marked.

 From Morning Star News:

Muslims in eastern Uganda angry at a Christian for leaving Islam killed his wife on Monday (Oct. 19), a month after his brother was killed for the same reason, sources said.
Mamwikomba Mwanika, mother of three adult children and five others ranging in age from 17 to 9, died en route to a hospital after Muslims unknown to her dragged her from her home at about 9 p.m. and assaulted her, survivors said.

Mwanika answered a knock at her door in Kalampete village, Kibuku District, to find strangers asking for her husband. Her husband’s brother, Samson Nfunyeku, was killed in the village on Sept. 23 after flaring tempers cut short a religious debate he’d had with Islamic scholars.

Mwanika replied to the visitors that her husband was away, according to her children. They said one of the men at the door then told her, “Your husband has followed the religion of his brother, and we had warned you people to stop these activities, but our message has landed on deaf ears.”
The Muslims threatened to kill her if she failed to produce her husband, the children said.

“The attackers dragged our mother outside the house as she screamed and cried for help,” said her 13-year-old child.