Thank you for keeping this before us.

Yes, thanks, Kendall.

It’s high time that the shameful name Boko Haram becomes as well-known, and rightly despised, as Al-Qaeda.  This utterly ruthless and brutal movement of Muslim terrorists has killed about 1,000 Nigerian Christians (many of them Anglicans) in the last year.  Boko Haram has recently and openly attacked police stations.  Now it has even dared to attack military bases, and thus, in effect, Boko Haram has declared holy war, jiohad, on the national government itself.  If that seems suicidal, it is a sign of just how desperate and ruthless these fanatics are.

Kaduna, Jos, Kano.  These are also names we need to learn.  The names of three major cities in northern Nigeria that we North American Christians, and especially we Anglicans, need to keep in mind, and to include in our regular intercessions.  The first two are see cities for senior Anglican archbishops with growing flocks.  Kano, however, is still relatively untouched by any evangelistic efforts.  Kano is the sixth largest Muslim city in the world, with over 10 million people, virtually none of whom have heard the gospel or had a chance to be saved.  But even in this fortified citadel of Islam, the masses live in fear Boko Haram, which wants to impose strict observance of Sharia on the whole population.  Millions of people, Muslim as well as Christian and animist, live in dread of these remorseless killers.

Alas, things may well get worse before they get better.  The government is now forced to crack down—hard—on this extremely violent group that is openly seeking to create sheer anarchy, in hopes of creating the conditions for the emergence of a true Sharia state in northern Nigeria.  The cycle of violence and reprisal is apt to grow worse in the coming weeks and months.  Lord, have mercy.

David Handy+

Prayers for Nigeria.  There were quite a few testimonies from recent visits to Nigeria in the Synod debate expressing solidarity with the church there.  It can be listened to here.  It is good to keep our brothers and sisters there in our prayers each day.