Seminarians willing to die

Seminarians willing to die November 3, 2016

We at Beeson Divinity School are privileged this week to have Benjamin Kwashi, Anglican Archbishop of Jos, Nigeria, delivering to us the annual Reformation lectures.

Yesterday he told us all something arresting.  There is a new generation of young people coming to seminary there.  They have lived through years of persecution by Boko Haram, the radical Islamist group that butchers Christians in northern Nigeria, especially in Jos.  Archbishop Kwashi’s house has been burned.  They have come to kill him twice. His wife was attacked, blinded, beaten and left half-dead.  (See her story in Gloria: The Archbishop’s Wife.) Their son has been beaten several times and once was left in a coma.

But this son, and other seminarians with him, eagerly come to seminary.  They want to go out to areas infested with Boko Haram, and to share the gospel.  They know the risks.  But they are willing to die. For they know the power of the gospel.  They know it transforms people and changes the world. They want to make a difference.

Archbishop Kwashi yesterday left us with a challenge.  “Jesus told us to go.  He didn’t say, ‘Go only to safe areas.’ He told us to go.  Are we willing?”


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