For the love of humanity

God is bringing beauty out of these ashes of destruction, believes Release International partner Ben Kwashi, the Archbishop of Jos.

But the price is high. The toll the violence is taking on church leaders as well as ordinary Christians is formidable.

‘I’ve done far more funerals in the last 20 years than naming ceremonies or weddings put together,’ said Archbishop Ben. ‘I’m a grieving pastor.

‘I have a church on Bauchi Road which has been destroyed four times. I have rebuilt it four times, and I will rebuild it ten times. Because I will never abandon those people.

‘And all this is happening under the nose of the federal Government in Nigeria. There seems to be no hope for justice for the Church in the north and northeast.

‘What the persecutors are bringing is destruction. They’re bringing illiteracy, they’re bringing people back to the days when they are helpless, and disease will kill them.

‘But we have a gospel that is not only able to save life but bring civility to humanity; that brings kindness and introduces health care, and mostly for free.

‘Those who bring this gospel have chosen to be transformers in this life, going about the real business of change and transformation in communities where people consider their governments have forgotten them.

‘Their motive is whatever will count in eternity, whatever will count before the Lord. This kind of love is unusual. It is selfless. And they do it for the love of humanity.

‘In all this God is at work, bringing out of these ashes – literally – his beauty and his glory in the lives of His people.’

Archbishop Benjamin Kwashi tells his story in his biography Neither Bomb Nor Bullet, which is available on the Release International website.