By Connie N. Larkman, managing editor and news director for the United Church of Christ
Bring
back our girls. Many Americans are familiar with the international
outcry surrounding the April 14 kidnapping of almost 300 Nigerian
schoolgirls. An Islamist militant group, Boko Haram, stormed a school in
Chibok in northeast Nigeria and spirited the girls away. The girls have
not been rescued, even though on May 26, Nigerian officials said they
know where they are.
"The tragedy of the kidnapped girls in
Nigeria is not an isolated incident, but part of a global pattern of the
abuse of women and girls," said Jim Moos, United Church of Christ (UCC)
national officer and co-executive of Global Ministries of the Christian
Church (Disciples of Christ) and the United Church of Christ. "Sadly,
religion is often used to justify the ideology of male superiority
instead of proclaiming the liberating good news that women equally bear
the image of God."
While much of the outrage over the conflict
in Nigeria centers around the abduction and the abuse of women and
girls, the terrorism inflicted by Boko Haram on the people in Nigeria is
not gender specific. The underlying issue is religious freedom.
"Boko
Haram proclaims a distorted and cruel version of the Muslim faith,"
Moos said. "it serves as a warning to people of all faiths that
privileging any single belief system at the expense of all others
inevitably results in oppression."
'Violence is rampant'
Stanley Noffsinger has seen the lethal results firsthand. As general
secretary of the Church of the Brethren, a UCC ecumenical partner and
birthing church of Ekklesiyar Yan'uwa a Nigeria, Church of the Brethren
in Nigeria, or EYN, he hears horrific stories of destruction and death
from his brothers and sisters in EYN almost daily. Of churches bombed,
and members abducted and killed. And the trouble is escalating. Boko
Haram's attacks started out focused on the churches, the Christian
community, because they wouldn't support shariah law. The terrorist
group wants to convert Christians to Islam and the church is the
problem. But now, Noffsinger says it's no longer that simple. The
extremists no longer discriminate between Christian and Muslim. Boko
Haram is targeting all who are not with them in their ideology. Their
territory is the northeast region of Nigeria, where most of the EYN
churches are concentrated.
"Borno state is where a lot of
violence is taking place. As of this weekend, all civil authority has
left the Borno state," said Noffsinger. "That's a Boko Haram mainstay,
and it's critical for us--our church is strongly located in northeastern
region and we're in the middle of the violence."
More than 350
EYN members have been killed and many more injured in this violence. A
great deal of property has been burned, including 22 church buildings, 9
local churches, and more than 2,500 homes, affecting thousands of
members. Many people no longer feel safe sleeping in their homes. They
sleep in the bush instead. "Violence is escalating so quickly that there
are new reports every day," said Noffsinger, indicating it's becoming
very difficult to track the details of what is happening in Nigeria
because of the hostility.
EYN President Samuel Dante Dali said
EYN has no contact with Boko Haram. "They will not even agree to work
with the church because the church is their primary target of
destruction," he said. "We, as a church, can only present our petition
to God to seek for his mercy and his own will to liberate the girls from
Boko Haram."
The US Brethren are working to support their
Nigerian brothers and sisters, with prayers, financial assistance
($100,000 has been sent to Nigeria to date through the EYN Compassion
Fund, with more assistance being received daily) and their presence.
Noffsinger has spent a lot of time with the people of EYN. He last
visited Nigeria in April, and was flying home the evening of April 14
when the girls were kidnapped from a school founded by the Church of the
Brethren.
"The history of the US church with Nigeria dates back
to 1923, when Church of the Brethren was established as a mission
outpost," Noffsinger said. "Our ties are long and deep with the church
in Nigeria. It was viewed as a mission church until the early 1970s,
when both churches decided that the Nigerian church needed to be
recognized as its own entity. It was about the same time that the Chibok
School was turned over to the government to become a government school,
in an area where there are a lot of Brethren people. Education for
Nigerian Brethren has been around for a long time, as a holistic part of
the mission program. Health and wellness and education were part of it
as well as spirituality and faith formation."
Noffsinger
believes spirituality, strong faith, and an unwavering belief that God
is walking with them is sustaining the Nigerian Brethren in this time of
crisis.
"EYN leaders and members have been writing to me with
resolve in their voices that nothing can shake them from their
commitment to Christ and the Church," said Noffsinger. "The Nigerian
Brethren believe deeply in the power of prayer. They are emphatic about
that." He told the story of a young man he met in Nigeria who attends
one of the Brethren schools. "His responses continue to amaze me,
because his faith is absolute. He told me, 'Nothing can happen to me
that can separate me from the love of God.'"
And despite the horrific uncertainly with which the Nigerian Brethren live, they continue to reach out to help their neighbors.
Rebecca
Dali, the wife of EYN president Samuel Dali, created a nonprofit
organization CCEPI (Center for Caring, Empowerment, and Peace
Initiatives) to assist women and children affected by the violence,
orphans, and refugees who have been fleeing to neighboring countries and
those displaced within Nigeria. She can often be found, at great
personal peril, traversing the countryside taking supplies to those in
need. She loads up her car and takes food to refugees. She documents the
missing so they will be remembered, and has interviewed the girls'
families, and all the returning girls who were able to escape their
captors. The US Brethren sent her $10,000 to support her work.
"We
need your prayers," she wrote to the US church. "Now there is virtually
no security in Borno State. Many have fled to Cameroon. In refugee
camps in Cameroon and [for] some who are displaced, there was no food,
medical, or other kinds of help. The government, even when warned, does
not stop the violence. People are suffering."
"Although Global
Ministries does not have partner relationships in Nigeria, it is
important that we care about the recent kidnapping of school girls
because of our commitment to a shared life with justice," said Sandra
Gourdet, Global Ministries Africa office executive for the UCC. "We are
connected as human beings and our solidarity demands that we reach out
to the girls and their families in their struggle to cope with such an
atrocious act."
Noffsinger says the Nigerian Brethren are asking
their brothers and sisters in the United States to do two things--to
fast, and to pray for them. From candelight vigils to Mother's Day
events, the call to prayer has been picked up by Brethren and other
denominations' congregations across the country.
"We have tried
to approach this from a point of engagement of spiritual disciplines,"
Noffsinger said. "Because we want to honor and respect the request of
the Nigerian church saying, 'Here's what you as a North American church
can do as a sister church: prayer and fasting.'"
The people of
EYN believe that with God, all things are possible. That spiritual
partnership, sharing their stories, documenting their history and their
struggles will help them get through this crisis.
"The Church of
the Brethren is an historic peace church," said Geoffrey Black, UCC
general minister and president. "As they and their partner churches and
institutions in Nigeria face the challenges resulting from religiously
motivated violence in that country, we stand with them in prayerful
solidarity. Our affinity with them comes out of our shared commitment to
peace and just peace making."
Our grief and our love are being
held at the same place," said Noffsinger. "We, like the Nigerian church,
must not be overcome by this great darkness, but rather, walk forward
in the light of Christ. The darkness will not overcome us. Love is
stronger than grief and will overcome this time."
To help the
people of EYN through the UCC International Disaster Relief Fund,
indicate you want your gift to go to the Women and Children in Nigeria.
We will send your support to our ecumenical partner, through the EYN
Compassion Fund for the Ekklesiyar Yan'uwa a Nigeria (Church of the
Brethren in Nigeria).
-- Connie N. Larkman is managing editor and news director for the
United Church of Christ. This UCC release is reprinted here with
permission.
Source: 6/10/2014 Newsline
