Nigeria (MNN) — A Nigerian pastor and his pregnant wife were laid to rest on Friday , leaving behind eight children between the ages of one and 19 years old. It’s the latest in a barrage of ethnic and religious violence overwhelming Nigeria. More Nigeria headlines here. “It’s frustrating,” Todd Nettleton with Voice of the Martyrs USA says. “The government of Nigeria seems to lack either the will or the ability to get control of these kinds of attacks and put a stop to them.” Bloodshed is increasingly common these days in Nigeria. Hostility between the country’s Christian and Muslim populations has effectively split the country in two. Earlier this year , the number of internally displaced people in Nigeria surpassed two million. (Graphic courtesy of VOM USA) “Yet again, we see Christians being targeted,” Nettleton says. “Nigeria has been on a sort of nationwide lockdown because of the coronavirus, but it has not slowed the wave of attacks.” Nigerian Christians killed while farming As described here on Pastor Emmanuel Saba Bileya’s LinkedIn profile, the Nigerian church leader furthered his theological education at Calvin Theological Seminary in Grand Rapids, Michigan. “ It gave me an environment that was peaceful and with good resources so I could concentrate on my studies ,” Pastor Bileya commented in this 2015 article . After graduating in 2014, Pastor Bileya returned home to train pastors and church leaders. He later began distance learning at the Institute for Worship Studies or IWS. On a memorial page , the IWS community remembers Bileya’s servant leadership: Rev. Bileya was an ordained pastor in the Christian Reformed Church of Nigeria. Born on Christmas Day of 1968, his family gave him the name Emmanuel, “God with us.” For all in the IWS community who were blessed to meet Emmanuel, […]
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