If nothing is done for these people, this will lead to a huge tragedy

"Aid workers who recently visited two Christian camps in Maiduguri reported: “Life has become hell for the more than 3000 people living here... Already people are resorting to eating leaves. Children are dying of hunger. If nothing is done for these people, this will lead to a huge tragedy. People cannot go home because Boko Haram is constantly regrouping and continuing attacks.”" From World Watch Monitor.

This was an assessment made by the Aid Workers who are working among Christians in the North East of Nigeria. The truth is that some of our brethren are discriminated against when it comes to aids sharing. These are people that all their means of livelihood have been wiped off. Even if the insurgence ends today, their lives will never remain the same. They need help urgently.

What are we doing as a church in Nigeria? What is your church doing? What is your fellowship doing? What are we doing as families? What are we doing in our organizations that have Christian leanings? Where are our sacrifices?

Is it not unbelievable that some Christians are dying of hunger but our offerings have not changed; resource allocations are still the same; and our preaching rarely mention them? The Nigerian Church seems to have become what C.S Lewis called Men Without Chest in his book The Abolition of Man. We show a lot of exuberance and make a lot of noise but our hearts are not touched to express our gratitude to God in practical ways towards the sufferings of our fellow man. We seem not to feel anything in our chest. We have a massive opportunity to preach the gospel now but we seem to live nonchalantly as if nothing is happening. The opportunity for social work is a great opportunity we can all leverage on to preach the Gospel of Jesus now the door is wide open. Some of the monies we raise in the South to build structures can be sent into this work. We can cut something out of our vacation and holiday spending in order to help some of these ones rebuild their lives. By now, the matter is supposed to be everywhere on the websites of churches in Nigeria. Unfortunately if you google, the results will only show the Roman Catholic Agencies and other foreign bodies. We seem to be more concerned playing politics.

From the story the Lord Jesus told in Luke 10, the man was wounded and abandoned along the Jericho road. The Samaritan was the one who showed compassion. Men and women are wounded today both physically and emotionally because of persecution just across the neighborhood. The "priests" and the "Levites" of today have not behaved differently from the same way they behaved in Jesus' story; but where are the Samaritans that will show some compassion today?

You can be used by God to motivate your church to do something. You can write us at evergreenword@gmail.com or editor@evergreenword.com in case your church does not have any plan and you want to participate. We can link you up to agencies that are working in these camps. As you consider in your heart how God will want you to respond, may He bless you.

Whatever happened to our bowels of compassion

Bowels of compassion or mercies is King James Bible Version's way of describing a heart of compassion, a heart of pity and empathy and a heart of kindness. (Phil.2:1; Col.3:12; 1 John 3:17). When bowels of mercies swells up, it stirs one up into action.

The Northern Eastern Nigeria have suffered a great and terrible ordeal in the hands of the insurgency. nobody is spared whether you are a Muslim, a Christian or Animist. Towns and villages have been razed down; properties and means of livelihood destroyed; schools and churches and mosques completely burnt down; millions displaced; children forced to leave schools and for many of them, their lives have been changed irreversibly. As a Christian minister, my focus is on the ordeal of Christians in this region of the country.

There is a wrong misconception among Christians in the South that everybody in the North is a Muslim. This is very far from the truth. There are millions of indigenous Christians from these regions and many of them are among those that are displaced. Their churches have been destroyed and many are trapped in the Internally Displaced Person's (IDP) Camps. They cannot go back to their homes and they do not have any means of livelihood, they virtually depend on aids and helps to survive. The sad thing is that many are dying in the IDP Camps of starvation. Unfortunately, we cannot see massive movements among the churches in the South to mobilize Aids for these brethren. No regular Offerings are being raised for them.

After the August 29 2005 Katrina disaster in Louisiana, especially in New Orleans, there was a great mobilization of relief materials for the victims of the Hurricane by churches, church agencies, non-profit making organizations, and other groups. Among the groups mentioned here, six are outright church groups while four have some Christian leanings. But in Nigeria, the case does not seem to be the same. The reason is not that the church is poor, the issue is that we are distracted. The monies are under the authority of a few persons who use them for 'projects' that attract their fancy. A few of the indigenous churches in the North are overwhelmed by the enormous needs around them. Remember  "Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world" .James 1:27 KJV.

The question that keeps ringing in my heart is, what happened to our bowels of mercies? The purpose of this post is to stir you up to action. Make sure you are doing your part no matter how 'small' yo may think it is. Do not shut your bowels of compassion. If you want further information and contact on how to get involved, agencies and church organizations, kindly write us through evergreenword@gmail.com.

May God richly bless you.