First Memories of Nigeria

I first went to Nigeria as a 23-year-old missionary in September 1970. My wife was expecting our first child, born at Vom Christian Hospital, our new home, two months later. Stepping off the Sabena plane at Kano, our first ever flight, we were hit by a heat we had only experienced before in the tropical house at Kew Gardens, near our first home in Ealing, West London. The next day Nigerian Airways flew us to Jos, our Sudan United Mission headquarters. From Jos we went to Vom on a road surfaced only as far as Bukuru.

Vom was a beautiful place to live. Dr Barnden had started the hospital, the first in the old Northern Nigeria, in 1922. In 1970 it was the largest mission hospital in the northern states. There were 300 beds. Expatriate staff, mainly British like us, numbered about 30. All Nigerian staff and students were Christians. The hospital trained nurses, midwives and laboratory assistants for national qualifications. New students, like the Tiv ones who did not speak Hausa had to agree to learn it; Hausa speakers had to agree to learn Berom, the local language. There was a good constant electricity supply from NESCO, the company that generated electricity for the nearby tin mines but no television. We relied on BBC World Service and snail mail for news from home. Our luggage, coming my sea, took four months to reach us.

My work was hospital pharmacist. One area where fee charging mission hospitals like Vom scored over supposedly free government hospitals like the one in Jos was that we had a trustworthy regular supply of medicines thanks to the Christian Central Pharmacy in Jos. CCP, established by my predecessor at Vom, supplied drugs to mission hospitals all over the north. The pharmacy had Nigerian staff. Malams Zwambun and Dabwang had been trained as nurses and missionaries too. Zwambun was Yergam from Langtang, as old as my father, and the most senior of all the hospital’s Nigerians. He was an elder in the hospital church. Dabwang, a local man, had trained in our mission’s Borno hospital at Gwoza. My third worker, Bashi, was from Vwang, the town by the hospital.

In September 1970, nine moths after the end of the Biafran war, the first Ibos were returning north. One of them, Mark, had just resumed work in the hospital office. The effects of the war were still felt in the scarcity of imported goods like food from Europe. We preferred local produce. I remember eggs were one kobo each. Milk was from local Fulani women who came to the house each day with creamy milk in the wet season when we arrived, soon to be watered down in the dry season. Katy had the help of Joseph, our cook. She did not find life in Nigeria easy at first. The strange noises at night bothered her. She is a music teacher but her first work at Vom was catering in the Private Ward. This was where expatriates and wealthy Nigerians were treated, the only ward with food provided by the hospital. Other inpatients brought a relative to cook for them. The very high fees paid by private ward patients, usually on company expenses, subsidised the ordinary wards where patients were charged according to their social standing. Poor people and local Beroms paid less than the standard charges. Fulani herders and salaried Nigerians paid more. The rich helped pay for the poor.

We were to be Turawa with no Hausa, staying at Vom for nine months until we were sent to Kano for five months full time Hausa study. That will be my next part of the story.

NIGERIA – More than 50 killed in third week of church bombings

Suicide bombers have attacked Christians in Nigeria during Sunday worship for the third week running, with the death toll this time rising to more than 50.
In what is becoming an all too familiar pattern of extremist attacks, a suicide bomber rammed a car into a barricade outside the Evangelical Church Winning All church in Kaduna city on Sunday.  At least 24 people were killed and 125 were wounded.
Within a few minutes, explosives were detonated at Christ the King Church in Zaria, also in Kaduna state, killing at least 16 and injuring dozens more, some of them critically. Many of the wounded in this second attack were children. Then a Pentecostal congregation called Shalom Church in Kaduna city was bombed, killing at least ten, according to the Red Cross.
The BBC reports that Islamist extremists Boko Haram have claimed responsibility for the three attacks – as they did for attacks in Plateau and Borno states on June 10 and in Bauchi state on June 3 (Prayer Alert, June 6 and 12).
Riots in Kaduna sparked by Sunday's bombings killed at least 52 people, according to Reuters news agency. Kaduna state government imposed a 24-hour curfew on Sunday to restore order.

(Sources: AP, BBC, Compass Direct, Reuters)
For more news and a country profile about Nigeria, click here• Pray for an end to extremist violence which has claimed more than 500 lives in Nigeria this year already. Pray too that those who live in affected areas will not seek reprisals, and that God would bless the efforts of those who are working to build bridges between Christian and Muslim communities.
• Pray for all those grieving or injured after this spate of bombings. Pray that they will draw near to God and draw on His strength to face the future with hope.  
• Ask God to protect our partners in Nigeria who are supporting the victims of the violence.

Urgent Prayer Alert: Triple suicide bomb attacks on Nigerian churches

This week, your prayers for the nation of Nigeria are desperately needed. On Sunday, three suicide bomb attacks took place on three churches in Kaduna.This is the third consecutive Sunday that has seen gun or bomb attacks on churches in northern or central states. Church services bombed in KadunaLast Sunday a suicide bomber rammed a car full of explosives into the ECWA Good News Church in Zaria, destroying the children’s church and killing a child and a young man.  Several people were wounded, including CSW Nigeria's Coordinator for the area. On the same day, two suicide bombers in separate cars attacked Christ the King Catholic Church as the congregation was leaving mass, killing sixteen people and injuring several others. Meanwhile, in Kaduna City, another bomb exploded at the Shalom Pentecostal Church as ushers were interrogating the bomber, killing three people. As with the attack on the previous weekend in Jos, the bombings sparked violence as angry youths took to the streets to protest the seeming inability to prevent the incessant bombings. A 24-hour curfew is now in place, although the situation is still very tense. “Weekends are now a terror for Christians in central and northern Nigeria”According to our contacts and partners on the ground, without urgent prayer the future of Nigeria looks desperately bleak. Speaking of his heartbreak at the incessant bombings, Anglican Archbishop of Jos, Benjamin Kwashi, said, “Weekends are now a terror for Christians in northern and central Nigeria.  My heart truly bleeds at the unnecessary killings and I am deeply saddened that in a nation like Nigeria there are people who sponsor, plan, train and support people to execute evil specifically targeted against worship of God on Sundays by Christians in churches." CSW-Nigeria’s CEO told us, “Attacks on Christians while they legitimately worship on Sundays are now a common occurrence. Unless the culture of impunity is overcome, our country will slowly slip into another civil war that will be fought along religious lines." Christians in Nigeria are asking for worldwide prayers to help bring an end to this horrific violence. In the words of the Archbishop, “Christians and well meaning people everywhere must rise up for peace and speak out against injustice, seeking every opportunity for reconciliation and forgiveness so that Nigeria will be restored. I call for concerted prayers throughout the Church worldwide in order that those who are working for peace will not grow weary in well doing." Please can you:• Forward this email and prayer points below to everyone you know, asking them to pray and encourage others to do the same. • Ask your church leader or prayer coordinator to include prayer for Nigeria in this week’s prayer meetings and next Sunday’s services. • Every  Saturday please remember to pray for the safety and protection of Sunday services in northern and central Nigeria. Thank you so much for your support. Blessings, The CSW Team Prayer points – please use these prayer points to guide your prayers:• Pray for all those who have lost loved ones in attacks by Boko Haram, asking God to comfort and uphold them, sustaining them with His peace. • Pray for CSW-Nigeria’s Coordinator for Zaria who was injured in one of the attacks.  Pray for full healing for him and others who were injured during the other attacks. • Ask God to move in power to expose Boko Haram's plans, members, funders and backers and bring an end to every aspect of the violence perpetrated by the group. • Pray for the protection of CSW-Nigeria staff as they seek to support victims of the violence. • Ask God to grant wisdom, courage and strength to church leaders as they seek to lead and guide their congregations through these turbulent times.
- Contact- www.csw.org.uk- Unsubscribe CSW is a Christian organisation working for religious freedom through advocacy and human rights, in the pursuit of justice. Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) PO Box 99, New Malden, Surrey, KT3 3YF