TERRORISM COME HOME? A RECENT INCIDENT ON THE IKA MISSION STATION

Foreword: Dear friends, I want you all to understand the new challenges that are on the horizon for the missionaries in Nigeria. This article will help you gain a better understanding as it has been written by one of the missionaries over there. Please, keep Tom and his family in your prayers as they are serving in Nigeria. There is a great need for missionaries in Africa. If we do not go and preach the gospel, then soon Islam will grab a hold of all of Africa. Please, keep that in mind, for there is only hope Christ and in nothing else. There are so few Christians who are willing to give up their lives for Christ's sake, why are we not all willing to? What do we have to fear? death? NO. We have eternal life so there is no need to fear death. Let us pray for God's will to be done in Nigeria.  - TJ

"In Nigeria a stage is set... trouble is brewing. An Islamist sect called BOKO HARAM and a terrorist Christian counterpart MEND, both complacent about bombing and destroying innocent people’s lives are preparing to step-up their nefarious activities. Just days ago MEND issued notice to Boko Haram - they will retaliate in defence of Christian lives lost in Boko Haram bombings.  Looking on, and down on the mayhem in the making, is a government ill prepared but apparently doing their best, while clamouring to know what to do and to find solutions to this crisis. In the middle, innocent people are dying, and lives are being destroyed.  For those who escaped the bombs and bullets so far, Boko Haram is a household word instilling fear and terror! Even here at Ika, hundreds of miles away from the scenes of destruction, a taste of that fear visited our hearts and minds just last week.

So was it a man or a woman wearing that burqa?  People say it was a woman, and they remind me that Muslim extremist have successfully indoctrinated their women to take up their evil work. So we have many questions, like, "Why would a young lady dressed so modestly be here, all alone here at Ika?"  And while others insist that it was a man, the big question is, “Was he or she scoping our compound?  "Are we being checked out, maybe targeted for an attack? "  Maybe if we knew what was in the black vinyl bag we'd have answers.  It is told that the woman was carrying a large stash of cash, but more people are saying and believing that it was a man in the burqa and he was carrying explosives - a bomb. Now that's about all I was told, and of course, I was very sincerely cautioned, ...to be careful, be ready! 

When all the talking was done, when imaginations ran tired from running wild, and when the tools had been checked and rechecked; the hour, the time for the generator to go off and the lights out finally came. In the eerie quiet and dark night, lightning streaked across the black horizon. Only an occasional low rumble of thunder could be felt more than heard. "So how do we find ourselves I asked myself?" "Are we, can we, and is it possible to be ready?"

Hours of waiting and listening to every sound wore on our patience, and then with the passing cover of darkness and the droning sound of the night’s falling rain, crickets announced the beginning of our new day.  Then a roster crowed, and then another.  Soon the sun's warm rays of life and light peeked through the clouds and glistened on the wet leaves in the trees. The roosters kept stretching their necks and crowing their heads off in their strange bird brain way to make themselves known for awhile. These were warming welcoming sounds, and signs and thoughts that made me smile along with relief and appreciation, and my prayer of thanksgiving during the dawning of that new day.  Once again prayers are answered, just as our Lord Jesus promised, "and be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age." Mat. 28:20b.  

With no one to trust more than themselves, and no one to put their hope in - like their government for protection, in the quiet and solitude of their homes people pray. Please join us in asking our Almighty Loving Heavenly Father for peace, for healing, for our leaders to find lasting solutions, and pray for those who minister, that we will be walking, talking, living examples of God's love and the hope we have in Christ Jesus. Pray... "May your will be done on earth as it is in heaven." Mat. 6:10.  

Tom Wheeler

Ika Mission Station

October 1, 2011