Today, Americans memorialize September 11, 2001 for the thirteenth time. Just as Roosevelt said of Pearl Harbor in 1941, 9/11/01 is “a day that will live in infamy” in the hearts and minds of all Americans and, most especially, those who lost friends and family members on that fateful day. For this reason, we remember and pray that God will spare us from such a tragedy from ever happening on our soil again.
But, imagine if atrocities like 9/11, granted on a much smaller scale, happened in America on a daily basis? Then, you would know what life is like in parts of the world where freedom of religion and basic security are not nearly as strong as they are here in America. One such part of the world is northern Nigeria, where the Boko Haram Islamic militants wreak havoc and terror as routinely as we commute to work in the morning.
As I’ve written before, HEAL offers asylum to several refugees from the north whose towns were raided by Boko Haram. In fact, one of our postulants, Emmanuel, came to us recently as a survivor of an attack in his home state of Kaduna. As he rode on a bus en route to the HEAL mission, a roadside bomb exploded, destroyed the bus, and killed half of the passengers. Emmanuel recounts, “I said to myself, ‘this could have been me.’ I wept and fear consumed me as I thought about the unsafe environment of my siblings and family.”
Emmanuel grew up witnessing terror almost daily, but has lived to tell the tale. “Children watch their parents beheaded and parents watch their wives and daughters raped and murdered in cold blood”, he reports. Now that he is with the HEAL mission, Emmanuel sees himself as chosen by God as a witness to the dignity of every human person in protest against the degradation of life perpetrated by those motivated by evil.
So, as we remember our lost Americans on 9/11, let’s also remember our besieged Christian brothers and sisters in those parts of the world not as blessed as we are. One way to help is by attending the 1st Annual HEAL Benefit on 10/29.