For everyone in Nigeria, especially in the North, this is reality
– church has become one of the most unsafe places to go. Who knows when and
where a church will next be bombed? Only God knows.
Even though there is fear of this happening and it’s always
in the back of our minds, churches are still full every Sunday. The church I
attend doesn’t even have enough seating for everyone, even though they already
have 3 services. The church is very much alive!
As I drive to church on a Sunday morning, I pass many
security checkpoints on the way. Many army and police officers patrol the
streets each Sunday. Some of them are born again Christians who have to miss
the services at their own churches in order to protect their fellow Christian brothers
and sisters. Pray for the military as they serve God and His church in this way.
A huge amount of responsibility falls on their shoulders.
No car is allowed anywhere near church buildings. We have to
park far away and walk. Each church has members of the Boys’ Brigade on
security by the church gates. They use a security scanner on each person before
they go through the gates (This will sound crazy to people back home but it’s sadly
become so necessary here). A lot of responsibility also falls on their
shoulders. Many have already lost their lives in service. They are on the front line.
It’s easy to be gripped with so much fear that we stay at
home, and that would be a much safer option. After the bombing of the COCIN
Headquarters church in March, I started ‘church hopping’ for a while, trying to
find a ‘safer’, more secure place to worship, but I never settled in another church.
God led me to read Deuteronomy 31:6
which says; ‘Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or
terrified because of them, for the Lord your God
goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.” This verse hasn’t
just come up once, it just seems to keep appearing, either by reading it, or
hearing someone say it. God is reminding me that He is in control and that He
goes before us. God is so much bigger than any terrorist group. We can’t stop
going to church because of ‘them’.
Last weekend as I was anxiously praying about this whole
situation, part of the chorus of ‘Our God’ by Chris Tomlin came into my head,
bearing in mind, I haven’t heard this song in a long time! The words of the
chorus are:
“And if our God is for us, then who could ever stop us, and
if our God is with us, then what can stand against?”
Though it’s always at the back of my mind, I now feel a
little more at peace about going to church and truly believe that the same God
that protected Daniel in the lion’s Den when he refused to change his habits of
worship, is the same God that will be protecting me and the many others that
are continuing to go to church each Sunday, but we need to believe it, we need
to trust Him!