The rebel terrorist group known as Boko Haram has done it again. This time they killed more than 70. Reports indicate 52 people were killed in a Kawuri village in Borno state. Twenty-two more died in an attack on a church service in Waga Chakawa village in Adamawa state.
World Mission supports partners working there on the ground with unreached people groups. The organization’s executive director, Greg Kelley says, “The people that we work with in northern Nigeria are stationed in the vicinity of where Boko Haram is, so it’s made it very difficult for our partners to operate. They literally have one eye open at night because people are being killed and kidnapped.”
Kelley says that makes ministry difficult. That’s why World Mission is taking action.
“We’re in the process of relocating our team into a more neutral environment that’s safer, that has more stability, so that they can facilitate all of the work that’s going on in the north,” he says.
World Mission’s work with the unreached has been successful.
“We of course distribute the audio Bible—the Treasure—among them. Just last week we got a report of two Boko Haram—these are the terrorist guys themselves—coming to Christ.”
Once they come to Christ, it’s amazing how God uses them.
“They bring that same kind of intensity to the gospel,” he explains. “One guy said, ‘If I could have died for a cause that I didn’t even know my fate, now that I’m a believer and follower of Jesus, I am willing to die for this truth no matter what.”
World Mission has sent more than 5,000 Treasures into the region, but the goal is to send hundreds more. First, though, they need to move their headquarters.
“Right now they’re located right in the middle of the Boko Haram area,” Kelley says. “In order to move them, we need $20,000. So that would absolutely be a prayer request.”
This is a great investment because many of the conversion stories remind Kelley of the apostle Paul.
“Persecuting Christians and coming to know Jesus and becoming, arguably, the greatest missionary whoever walked on the earth—that is exactly the pattern that we’re seeing in these Boko Haram terrorists,” he says. “As they give their lives to Jesus, they become some of the greatest witnesses for the gospel.”
This article originally appeared on mnnonline.org.
