“We were sitting down, about ready to eat [when we] heard gunshots.” For the students at Nigeria’s Dapchi school, there wasn’t a lot of time. Bullets started falling in front of the hostel where the girls were. For the Christian students, the threat was very real. “We knew we would be the target,” Affodia Andrawus said soberly.
Leah Sharibu’s dorm was in front of the gate, so the girls ran that way, calling for her. “But she was caring for a sick roommate,” Affodia explained, “and refused to leave her.” Leah tried to carry her while they ran, but she kept falling. When her friend finally got to safety, Leah ran for the gates—not knowing that’s where the Boko Haram truck was parked. “We kept shouting her name,” Affodia remembers. But she was put on the truck anyway. That was the last she ever saw of Leah.
The next morning, Leah was the only Christian who was missing. Although the terrorists took others and killed five that horrible February day, she is the only one from the 2018 kidnapping who has not been released. “They freed all of us except one girl, Leah, whom they said would not go because she was a Christian,” one of the girls who came home told the village. She refused to convert to Islam, and for that, she is still in captivity. “My mother,” Leah wrote in a message another student brought back with her, “you should not be disturbed. I know it is not easy missing me, but I want to assure you that I am fine where I am… I am confident that one day I shall see your face again. If not here, then there at the bosom of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Two of the three humanitarian aid workers the militants also kidnapped have been executed—and they have threatened to do the same to Leah. For now, she is a slave—one of the hundreds of prisoners suffering at the hands of Nigeria’s Boko Haram. While her country’s government looks the other way, the church cannot. This coming Sunday, November 3, Leah will be one of the people I personally remember during the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church.
Unfortunately, she is one of millions around the world who being tortured, detained, imprisoned, beaten, or oppressed for their faith. The Trump administration takes that seriously—so should all of we. In Congress, Rep. Gary Palmer (R-Ala.) introduced a resolution (H. Res 640) condemning the global persecution of Christians like Leah. He hopes it’s one issue that both sides can stand on in solidarity. As he told us on “Washington Watch” Tuesday, “Resolutions are
basically messaging vehicles. And I think that that members of the House, by signing onto this and passing this, commit ourselves to standing with people of faith who are being persecuted.”
Frankly, he said, “it ought to be part of whatever we do in regard to future trade negotiations or further agreements that we have. We had, as you may recall, toward the end of the Obama administration, an effort to pass the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Well, I was one of the guys who stood against it—and one of the reasons I [did was] because it included Malaysia, which is one of the worst places in the world for human trafficking and for forced human labor. From my perspective, I don’t think we should be doing business with countries that are forcing people into bondage.”
We couldn’t agree more. We’re grateful for leaders who make a point of having this conversation, so that more people take action on behalf of the hurting believers around the world. This weekend, you can join us in raising awareness for innocent Christians like Leah by committing to take a stand—and encouraging your church to stand—for the persecuted. For more information or specific prayer points, visit FRC’s “Remember the Persecuted” webpage.
