I just received this email from friends about a bombing of a church in Jos, Nigeria just this morning. Nigeria remains a hot spot of religious conflict today. CNN is reporting multiple casualties in the suicide bombing. Here is the email:
Once again, today’s was a Sunday blast, this time at a church compound where many were meeting for the 7 am morning worship. We did not hear how many were injured or killed besides those who drove the vehicle in that caused the explosion.
The church is about a block from our compound, close enough so that we definitely heard and felt the blast. Our first thought was to pray, fervently, and so we did! We were close enough to have two broken window “louvers” and a lot of dust and bits of our ceiling fall in. But we are very thankful, we were not hurt.
We’ve noticed debris in the air and the smoke of fires also in our neighborhood. We learned recently from others that the fires were retaliatory attacks on Muslim businesses on our nearby streets, maybe some of the places where we ourselves shop.
Our security leaders advised that we should stay close to home so we did not attend our usual church services. We had our own worship, a time of prayer and it’s actually been a pretty quiet day.
Sorry if the main news here seems to be a lot of troubles these days. Actually, it is possible to carry on our regular work in spite of interruptions and violent attacks. We are in the midst of a lot of ministry email to sponsors of our Nigerian children and meetings with our Nigerian leaders. We also met with a number of our children this past week, interviewing and getting their photos.
Please continue to pray:1. Pray that there will be no more retaliatory acts of burning or violence. 2. Pray for those who were in the church this morning when the blast happened. The building (a large structure) evidently cracked but did not fall. We are thankful. 3. Pray for safety on our compound, just a block away from today’s blast. We were also listed earlier as a “target” but then so were many other places. Pray that we would not be deterred or distracted by these acts of “terrorism.” Pray for increased faith and peace of mind. 4. Pray that Christ’s love would prevail. Pray that those who have been duped into thinking that these attacks will win them some favor in the next life will learn the truth. Pray that they would accept the truth of Christ’s “once and for all” sacrifice, making the way for each of them to find a saving relationship with the living God.
Thanks for praying,