Tuesday, February 18, 2014

The tears of War

When I took the position of the Director of Nursing at St Mary's in Lafayette, IN, I noticed a dutiful, and quiet soul that took care of the residents in a compassionate and respectful way. She was a nun, still bound to St. Mary's on her visa to America, even though the Sisters had sold the facility and it was no longer Catholic.  She was very hard working and would pick up extra shifts and while I spent my three years there, Sr. Andrea completed her RN and became one of my nurses.

Sr. Andrea was from Nigeria. She had a love and devotion to her country and her loved ones that she had left there. She came to America to be educated in her vocation of nursing so that she could take those skills back to Nigeria where they were so urgently needed. Sr. Andrea told me that she was a midwife in Nigeria and she delivered many dead babies due to the lack of prenatal and proper medical care or facilities. She was grieved and knew that there had to be a better way. She was torn always about her obligations to her education and the urgency to return home to Nigeria to help these women and children.

Sr. Andrea was able to return home over the Christmas holidays last year. I was very concerned because of the danger and atrocities towards women, especially Christian women. Sr. Andrea's two toned blue habit would reveal her as a very clear target. Sr. Andrea desired to see her mother and the rest of her family that she had not seen in several years now. She did go and she did return safely and I let out a sigh of relief that God had heard our prayers.



Since then the atrocities of the Boko Haram and the Ansura, the two terrorist groups that have declared Jihad and bloodshed against Westerners and any Nigerians that in there opinion are not following Islamic law, including the Nigerian government, have alarmingly increased. In July of 2010 the Boko Haram, which means, "Western education is forbidden", joined in solidarity with Al-Qa'ida.

The latest attack of the mis-motivated Islamic militants was against civilian villagers in Izge.  Witnesses describe the horrific scene saying that the Boko Haram arrived on Sunday morning, riding in on trucks and motorcycles. They gathered the men of the village in the midst of the village and proceeded to shoot and hack the men to death. They then proceeded door to door, killing any villagers they found, setting off explosives and burning down houses.  The estimated dead ranges from 60 - 100. It is an estimation because the villagers had to flee and leave the bodies in the street to save their lives. The governor of this ill-fated region, Kashim Shettima, says the Boko Haram is more heavily armed then the Nigerian soldiers. Shettima says given the current state of affairs,  the Boko Haram will "overrun communities and butcher innocent souls" despite the army presence. 

What evil possesses a group to believe that they are providing a necessary cleansing of the "infidels"? I cannot for the life of me understand how one can shed the blood of innocent men, women and children in the pursuit of Jihad. I know from the history books that this is an old war that goes back to the foundation of man when two nations and two manners of people wrestled in the womb of Rebekah Ge 25:23. Regardless, I cannot understand the apathy of bloodshed. Do we remain barbaric and primal, that our disagreements are settled with blood? G_d forbid. Yet that is what happens, daily, not just in Nigeria but around the world. 

War..... "the blood of the soldiers is the elixir of freedom" was a slogan that I read on a military site while visiting my son. War.... I cannot tell you the grief of spirit I felt as I saw my son deploy to the battlefields of this war that  continues from the day of the crusaders. War... the same demonic force that caused the arch angel Michael to wrestle with the prince of the kingdom of Persia thus delaying Daniel's prayer. 

Fear not, Daniel: for from the first day that thou didst set thine heart to understand, and to chasten thyself before thy God, thy words were heard, and I am come for thy words. 13But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me one and twenty days: but, lo, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me; and I remained there with the kings of Persia. Da 10:12 & 13

Is that what is going on? Are the angels both of light and of dark warring in the heavens? That is the only explanation that I can perceive for the delay in the deliverance of my brother and sister Christians that are enduring these atrocities by the hand of blood-thirsty warmongers in the name of their god. Or is the delay of deliverance due to the apathy of American Christians? How many have assembled in a solemn fast demanding the deliverance of our brothers and sisters? How many turn the page because they can't handle the information? How many stand silent? 

The American church needs to wake up. This blood-thirsty evil has already come upon us. 911 is not forgotten. Apathy and, even worse, embracing the enemy and allowing them unprecedented access to the Holy pulpit of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  According to Sun Tzu, The Art of War, “The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting.” 

Join me in prayer, join me in publishing the hard truths of today. Join me in a fast for our brothers and sisters, however the Lord instructs you, do something! Do not be a part of the apathy. 

      And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; ...I Co12:26