Chairman’s Report for January 26, 2023

In this issue of the newsletter
New: Hundreds of Christians massacred on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day
New: Hundreds of new orphans as parents are massacred by Sunni Muslims
New: The tin mines of Plateau state have been taken over by “herdsmen”
New: Orphanage children assist with aid to displaced Christians south of Jos

Sunni Muslims kill hundreds of Christians on Christmas Day

Does anyone care?

Beginning just two days before Christmas, Sunni Muslim Fulani Herdsmen began a military style campaign in Plateau State, Nigeria.

The attacks occurred just south of Jos where our orphanage is located.

The campaign culminated on Christmas Day with the mass murder of more than 300 Christian villagers.

Most of those murdered were in the Bokkos and Barkin-Ladi Local Government Areas of Plateau State.

Many Christians massacred were buried in mass graves on Christmas Day. Their families had planned on celebrating the birth of Jesus, but instead they were at funerals mourning the deaths of loved ones.

The message from the Sunni Muslim Fulani Herdsmen was clear: “We can kill you even on your most sacred days.”

The Muslim Fulani have military style brigades that are well armed in a nation that prohibits the ownership of guns. The Fulanis who attacked had AK-47’s and the farmers had no weapons at all because of the anti-gun laws in Nigeria.

Where do the Sunni Muslim Fulani obtain their weapons?

There are 12 states in northern Nigeria that are totally controlled by Muslims and have Sharia law. Sharia law supports Jihad. This is Jihad just as were the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001.

Jihad is not new … Damascus, Syria was Christian until it was overrun by Jihad in 634. Christians and Jews lived peaceably in Jerusalem until it was overrun by a Muslim army in 637. Constantinople, capital of the Eastern Roman Empire, was overrun by the Muslim Ottoman Empire in 1453. The Jihad is ever expanding and as murderous as ever.

In August of last year, I drove through Barkin- Ladi to visit the victims of previous attacks in Mangu. Our Heart for the Persecuted Church Project delivered mattresses, clothing, food and medical supplies while I was there.

At a school set aside as an IDP camp, I prayed with the mothers whose husbands had been murdered.

I will never forget one of those women I talked with, she told me of receiving a call from her husband’s cell phone … but the call was from his murderer! The Fulani who had his phone told her that he had killed her husband, and by Islamic law she now belonged to him.

I went to hospitals where many of the seriously wounded victims of the attacks were fighting for their lives and prayed with them. I saw wounds that will last a lifetime — like that of one man I prayed with who had lost his tongue and the roof of his mouth to an AK-47 bullet.

The Western mainstream media calls this slaughter of Christians “Clashes between farmers and herdsmen.” This is not a “clash,” it is the genocide of Christians. These actions are the reality of jihad. This is Sharia law!

The last time I was in Nigeria I traveled on the road from Jos to Mangu. This road goes through Barkin-Ladi, and I stopped there to deliver aid to more victims of Jihad.

Our Christmas for Refugees events were held in Mangu, which is located between Barkin-Ladi and Bokkos. This was only a few days before the attack.

At the Christmas celebration held in Mangu, the orphans we provide for at our orphanage presented the program. There were puppet shows and the singing of Gospel hymns, as well as some games, and also coloring contests.

Most touching was their presentation of the story of the birth of Jesus.

The Christmas celebration was presented to over 500 children who had been made orphans during attacks by Muslim herdsmen in 2023. The children were joyful that they had not been forgotten.

(Note: Just over 1,000 children had been made homeless during the 2023 attacks in the area, but we did not have the resources to provide for all of them. We choose 500 of the youngest and most vulnerable for the Christmas celebrations and gifts to families.)

Were our orphanage kids who traveled to Mangu in vans to share the good news of Jesus in danger? They had the protection of our Lord who took them safely to Mangu and back.

Every Christian in Nigeria is in danger. Currently the danger is greatest in Plateau and Benue States, as jihad is conducted southward from the northern states that currently have Sharia law.

Despite billions of dollars being spent by the United States to “fight terror” since 9-11, Al- Qaeda and the Islamic State now control 40% of the territory in Mali and Burkina Faso.

The United States and its allies will not admit the “terrorists” are Muslims, because that would offend our “Sunni Allies” such as Saudi Arabia … yes, the same Saudi allies who reduced oil output last year to raise the price of gasoline in the USA.

A recent map produced by the Wall Street Journal showed the current influence of Al-Qaeda and its affiliates. It showed a band that crossed Africa from West to East, including far northern areas of Nigeria.

Somehow Al-Qaeda and its affiliates obtained not just AK-47’s but heavy machine guns and artillery. In another decade or so, those weapons will probably include war planes. Their goal is to force Islam and Sharia law on the entire world, including Europe and the Americas.

Can the Jihad in Africa be stopped? That would take the full military posture of the United States. We can’t defeat Jihad in Africa and the Middle East as long as most of our military structure is set to defend the South China Sea from China.

By its nature Communism is self-destructive. The communist leadership of China will bring that nation to a state of collapse. The United States should not spend trillions of dollars to contain China while ignoring an expanding Islamic threat that will eventually bring tyranny to the entire world if not stopped now.

What about the growing number of orphans because of the attacks?

James 1:27 is taped to my computer screen:

Pure religion and undefiled before God, even the Father, is this, to visit the fatherless, and widows in their adversity, and to keep himself unspotted of the world. (1599 Geneva Bible)

The modern English version in the NIV reads, “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.”

There are now dozens of Bible translations, but James 1:27 gives us the same instruction regardless of which one we read. We are to care for the orphans and widows, and to keep ourselves from being corrupted by the evil of the world around us.

This ministry cannot help every orphan in Nigeria, as there are literally millions of them! There are over two million children who have been orphaned just by AIDS.

We can help the victims of Islamic oppression, the orphans created by Jihad.

This ministry cannot help every orphan in Nigeria, as there are literally millions of them! There are over two million children who have been orphaned just by AIDS.

We can help the victims of Islamic oppression, the orphans created by Jihad.

Fifteen open beds for 1,000 orphans

Our Nigeria orphanage has openings for just 15 children this year. Over 1,000 Christian children have been orphaned in Plateau State by Jihad just in the last year! Which 15 do we take in and what happens to the other 985?

There is much to be done. In many cases locating relatives for younger children, transporting them and helping with food and clothing will be enough. Some children have lost their entire extended families and placement will be more difficult.

Hundreds of children still have their mother, but she has lost her husband and the farm the family once lived on. These single parent families need urgent help with food and shelter, and they need more permanent solutions.

I am not alone in working to find solutions. My ministry has partners in Plateau State.

The orphanage has formed a new body of skilled volunteers to deal with the newest orphans and the hardships they face.

This is our ministry in Nigeria, and we can build onto it!

Currently food and clothing are the biggest problems for widows and orphans in Mangu, Bokkos and Barkin-Ladi Local Government Areas. They were able to take nothing as they fled their homes from Fulani. Their homes were burned with all their belongings.

First the farms, now the mines?

The big land grab: Fulani herdsmen who are supposed to be nomads have taken over homes in Christian villages — and particularly those villages close to the tin mines!

My favorite café in Jos is called “Tin City Café.” The wealth of the city and surrounding area comes from the wealth of tin and other minerals in the mountains surrounding Jos.

Fulani men have taken over the abandoned mining camps in Barkin Ladi and are actively mining tin, according to Rev. Mark Lipdo, the founder of Stefanos Foundation. There are mining pits located in Jos South, Barkin Ladi, Riyom, Mangu and Bokkos.

It is becoming clear that the Fulani invasion has displaced more than 10,000 Christian families so far, and it was not just about grazing land for cattle. The past year of violence was an actual invasion of Sunni Muslims from the northern areas of Nigeria to take over the land and the wealth of majority Christian areas.

There are reports now that units of the Nigerian Army have arrested Christians attempting to return to their own homes in their own villages, now held by Fulani herdsmen.

Several teenagers from our orphanage went to Bokkos with on January 6th. They were protected by six “rented soldiers” as they investigated the situation. Their report states that only 5,000 of 15,000 displaced Christians were able to find shelter in IDP camps.

Our orphanage children donated some of their own clothing to the victims, but much more is needed.

Our orphans prayed with families who had lost loved ones and homes.

Can we do more? Yes. The most urgent needs will be identified as we raise additional funds to help. Our brothers and sisters in the Lord need our help!

Please pray for the persecuted Christians of Plateau State, Nigeria.