Archbishop Benjamin Kwashi shares how Christians in Nigeria continue to face persecution from Boko Haram and Fulani militants, yet the gospel cannot be destroyed. He tells stories of a church altar and cross refusing to burn during an attack, and a Bible surviving unscathed from a burned vehicle. These signs show that despite challenges, the gospel message endures. Archbishop Kwashi encourages Christians to find new ways to spread the gospel during lockdown and to stand as lambs among wolves, trusting in God's protection and spreading the transforming message of Easter's resurrection.

1. Nigeria – Archbishop Benjamin Kwashi
THE BIBLE THAT REFUSES TO BURN
Release International’s Nigeria partner, Archbishop Benjamin Kwashi, has written
a moving message for Release supporters about the church in lockdown in Nigeria.
Coronavirus is just the latest challenge for Christians in Nigeria, who face attacks
from Boko Haram and armed Fulani militants. But Archbishop Kwashi’s message
is the gospel cannot be destroyed. At a time of lockdown, Christians must find new
and imaginative ways to spread that Gospel.
Christians, he says, have been sent as lambs:
‘Easter 2020 must surely go down in the annals of history as being unique. In
many countries the church buildings are standing there – empty; some are
even locked. But the great news is that the church is alive – and is growing!
In the north of Nigeria where I live there have been so many killings, together
with the destruction of homes, farms, properties, churches… The stories can
be heartbreaking. But the gospel cannot be burnt out or destroyed.
Let me give two remarkable pictures:
The other year a village in our diocese was attacked; people were killed and
buildings were burnt down, including the church. Inside the church,
however, the altar and the cross on it refused to burn, and were left standing.
Recently a column of vehicles was forced to spend the night in a town just
outside Maiduguri, the state capital in the far north-east, where persecution
has been hot. While the travellers slept they were attacked and the vehicles
set on fire. The people died, the vehicles and all their possessions were burnt
out.
Everything was lost except one thing. A Bible was retrieved undamaged from
inside a vehicle. It was lying on top of a laptop which was totally burned,
but the Word of God was intact.
These are signs which we cannot ignore!
Jesus said: ‘Go your way; behold I send you out as lambs among wolves.’
(Luke 10:3)
The prophet Isaiah points to Jesus as the ‘Lamb’ who stands silent and still in
the face of the wolves, before being led to the slaughter (Isaiah 53:7). It was

2. on the cross that this Lamb won the ultimate battle with the wolf and therefore
in St. John’s great vision in the Book of Revelation that Lamb is now
honoured, praised and glorified by all (Rev.5:12). Indeed, the Lamb has
become the shepherd, leading God’s people to the water of life (Rev. 7:17).
This is why in every generation those who are truly in Christ, and in whose lives
the Lamb of God reigns, are enabled to stand before the wolves. The wolves are
now faced not just with one lamb, but with a whole host of lambs, lambs who
have been transformed by the Lamb of God. God is always on the side of
such lambs, the ones who make no claims of their own, who trust the
shepherd implicitly and do what he tells them.
God cannot be on the side of the wolves because the wolves would never
allow him to help them: they think they are fine, perfectly able, and infinitely
superior to those weak little lambs. So when Jesus sends out the lambs he is
not an absentee sender, he is a present help in all times of joy, sorrow,
trouble, comfort, and each and every condition of life.
‘We are sent as lambs – but we
have a gospel worth living for
and a gospel worth dying for!’
We are to be builders, not destroyers, and the mandate of Almighty God on us
as Christians is to build lives spiritually, intellectually and physically. We must
build all people, and particularly the young people, and give them a hope for
the future, a vision of the Kingdom of God.
Today the coronavirus has caused buildings of bricks and stone to be
closed. But the new and imaginative ways in which Bible teaching, worship,
discipleship, Christian love and compassion are being continued, lived and
developed are opening new doors, in new directions, in new lives. This is the
living church!
No matter what the surrounding circumstances may be, the call of God is urgent;
there is not much time. We ourselves must be so firmly rooted in the gospel,
that the gospel’s transforming power can move in us, through us and into the
world, the world which so desperately needs to hear the message of salvation,
and of the love of God.
This is God’s call, and it does not depend upon buildings, health, strength,
academic ability or wealth. This is God’s call, and those who answer are the
lambs who can face the wolf, the church which can face persecution, the
nation which can face coronavirus – and win!

3. It will be costly, but the transforming message of Easter is that the cross led to
the resurrection! Moreover, the resurrection was not just a one-day event
which happened years ago; it is the resurrection which opens the door to a
new way of life, a life of faith, love, peace and hope, today and into eternity.’
https://releaseinternational.org/lockdown-resource/nigeria-archbishop-benjamin-kwashi/