Let God arise, let his enemies be scattered. Let those also who hate Him flee before Him. Psalm 68:1
“These are the times that try men’s souls” so began Thomas Paine in one of his classic essays, The Crisis, which he penned in December 1776 at the early months of the American war of Independence. The Colonists had no choice but to resist what they perceived as dictatorship and tyranny from their homeland of England. In this essay, Paine expressed confidence in the just cause of their resistance and hope for victory and freedom in these words “I have as little superstition in me as any man living, but my secret opinion has ever been, and still is, that God Almighty will not give up a people to military destruction, or to leave them unsupported to perish who have so earnestly sought to avoid the calamities of war, by every decent method which wisdom could invent…..Neither have I so much of the infidel in me as to suppose that He has relinquished the government of the world, and given us up to the care of the devils.”
As we are all aware, this solemn Prayer call was spurred by the recent beheading of Rev. Lawan Andimi, the Chairman of CAN in Adamawa State, Nigeria.
Such confidence behooves us as ECWA USA, as we join the wider family of ECWA, CAN and Christians in Nigeria and worldwide in this solemn 3-days of prayer and fasting: Friday, January 31 – Sunday, February 2, 2020. As we are all aware, this solemn Prayer call was spurred by the recent beheading of Rev. Lawan Andimi, the Chairman of CAN in Adamawa State, Nigeria. Rev. Lawan Andimi was executed by Boko Haram on January 20. He was an ordained minister in Ekklesiyar Yan’uwa a Nigeria (EYN, the Church of the Brethren in Nigeria), served as EYN district secretary for the Michika area, and was chair of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) for the Michika area. This brutal act seems to have brought the unabating crisis and unjustified killing of Christians in Nigeria to a tipping point.
Brethren, this is “no ordinary as usual” prayer and fasting. The ever-provoking climate of instability, insecurity and uncertainty coupled with the evident non-chalance of the Federal authorities in Nigeria to these devastating tragedies call for Desperate Prayers for such Desperate times.
This is a prayer for God’s intervention because the Christians in Nigeria are facing the danger of religious genocide.
Please make a note of the NEW CALL-IN NUMBER (712) 770-3716. Code 527836#
Author: Rev. Joseph Ezeigbo
Rev. Joseph Ezeigbo is the Vice-Chairman of ECWA USA and a Bible teacher for the weekly Bible study at ECWA Maryland. He is also a part of the National Day of Prayer and the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted.
