More Than Just Reporting

This past week, we reported on the tragic murder of Nigerian school teacher, Christianah Oluwatoyin Olusase. This morning, the tragedy deepened for me as I learned that she left behind a husband and two young children; a son, Timilade and a daughter, Temiloluwa. As I read the report of how she was killed, I was shocked. It is becoming so obvious to me that her killing was religiously motivated. The students were just looking for a reason to attack this dear lady after one student (the one who claimed that her Quran was desecrated) had been caught cheating during the exam. Indeed, some eye-witnesses are now claiming that the book that the student claimed was a Quran was simply a book written in Arabic. As she was being mercilessly attacked in her classroom, her husband reports that she was able to telephone him in Abeokuta. He told our Nigerian director, "Her last words to me were: ‘The car is damaged. The school is on fire. There is danger around me.'"

He never heard from her again. When he tried to call her back, there was no answer on her phone. He told us, "I imagined that that must have been the time she was overpowered and killed. Her body was burnt beyond recognition. Muslim fanatics still go to spot where she was burnt to spit there." Her remains have since been brought to Abeokuta in the south and buried.

I was grateful to learn, however, that our Nigerian mission partners have supplied the family with funds to offset the funeral and other expenses and that we will provide free education for the children at our school in Abeokuta; a school specifically set up to educate and care for children whose parents have been killed for their faith.

People sometimes ask me how it is that I do not fall into despair working with those who suffer so much and so unjustly. It is because I don't just report on it. Yes, we do raise awareness but behind the scenes (often unreported) we try to do something to let our brothers and sisters know that they have not been forgotten. Praise God for that.

Please remember this family in your prayers. Remember our partners in Nigeria in your prayers as well. Thank God for their diligent work and pray that God would equip them as they bring comfort to those who are suffering for Christ's sake.