There are many Nigerian Christians in the UK. They go to large churches and raise much money for Christian ministry. In the fellowship where I preach we have some lovely Nigerian Christians. I still do not understand why so little seems to be done for Christians in the Jos area by wealthy Nigerian Christians. A year ago Christians in Jos suffered badly through persecution and violent attacks; some were murdered. I heard that Dutch Christians (Open Doors, so hats off to them) were helping them, but relatively little seems to be done by Nigerian Christians. Why are they reluctant to get involved in relieving the pain and hardship?
I have not heard of appeals by Nigerian church leaders in the UK for funds to help these folk in Jos. Please tell me if there have been such appeals and funds raised.
I have asked a leader of a charity working to help the persecuted church and I have asked an eminent Nigerian Christian doctor. I still do not know why Christians in Jos receive little support from UK churches run by Nigerians. The widows and orphans in Jos are still there.
Sometimes charity does not begin at home!
I have not heard of appeals by Nigerian church leaders in the UK for funds to help these folk in Jos. Please tell me if there have been such appeals and funds raised.
I have asked a leader of a charity working to help the persecuted church and I have asked an eminent Nigerian Christian doctor. I still do not know why Christians in Jos receive little support from UK churches run by Nigerians. The widows and orphans in Jos are still there.
Sometimes charity does not begin at home!
2 comments:
It is sad that wealthy Nigerian churches in the UK have not openly or perhaps quietly raised funds to assist the victims of the Jos crises. However, it will be good for the readers of this blog to understand some fundamental truths about the Jos crises. This is no more a civil/political unrest than the crises in the south-southern Niger-delta regions of Nigeria. The root of this problem is a political war between the original indigenes of the ‘plateau’ (Jos) and migrant core Northern Nigerians who are predominantly Moslems. These core northerners do speak out that the war in Jos is not between Christians and Moslems but a tribal dispute. It is well understood that Moslems in Nigerian would always seek such opportunity to turn to Christian institutions to unleash their anger. This is so because a typical Nigeria Muslim sees any provocation from a non Muslim to be an attack from a Christian. So without an effective control these go overboard in their demonstrations. Therefore at the surface, Nigerian Muslims were ‘killing Jos Christians’ but the reality is a fight between two tribes. It is unfortunate that some gullible church leaders have also seized the opportunity to seek donations from foreign churches falsely in order to divert the money to their private use. I would advise any foreign organisations willing to help the actual victims to go through international organisations with great reputations such as International Fellowship of Evangelical Christian (IFES) with HQ here in the UK. The Nigerian arm of this organisation is the Nigerian Fellowship of Evangelical Students (NIFES) with HQ in this same Jos. NIFES is the second largest national member group in the IFES after the IVF of the USA. During those crises which I understand is continuing, NIFES locally called on all her graduates worldwide (yours sincerely inclusive) to donate money for ‘mercy outreach’ to those villages. They bought large amounts of food items, materials and money, and recruited students and available alumni to physically visit the villages and the people to do ministry amongst them. Foreign Churches and Organisations that might have given money to private local church leaders for this course might have as well enriched some ‘smart’ wolfs who are not prepared to lift a single cry to God for those poor people. Ask before you act!
These comments are worth forwarding to churches that have links with Nigeria. Excellent insights.
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