NIGERIA – Threats force Church underground
27/09/07
Converts from Islam travel to meet together in secret
Rev Titus Dama Pona – no stranger to persecution
Of the 25 converts who formed a church in Maiduguri, Nigeria, in the north-east state of Borno two years ago, only three remain.
Still, although they worship separately in the towns where they now reside, once a month the converts brave the threats of Islamic supremacists and family members to return to Maiduguri to secretly pray and praise together.
"The venue and time is agreed among themselves, and the venue is changed every meeting so they are not attacked," said the Rev Titus Dama Pona, founder of Good Way Mission, who planted the church, Kanuri Christian Fellowship, in September 2005.
Rev Pona is the pastor of the only known underground fellowship in Nigeria, a group said to be the first church amongst the Kanuri and Shuwa Arab ethnic groups in the Islamic enclave of Borno.
The state served as the gateway of Islam into Nigeria in the 12th century.
Three out of the 25 converts, Rev Pona said, are training in theological institutions with the hope of reaching their own people with the Gospel.
The Rev Joshua Adamu, 67-year old chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria, Borno chapter, gave thanks for Rev Pona's ability to preach to, train and support the Kanuri people.
"For the first time, we have a fellowship that is bringing Kanuri converts from Islam together," Adamu said.
"And this has been possible because of the ministry of Rev Pona. He has a gift for reaching Muslims with the gospel."
Upheaval
For church members Mohammed Modu, Ma'aji Kalli and Ali Gana, going underground has been a matter of life or death; their families have been searching for them, intending to kill them.
Kalli and Gana have spent the last two years in hiding from their parents.
"I saw salvation in Christianity, which is not available in Islam," said Gana, whom Rev Pona baptised at an Evangelical Church of West Africa (ECWA) service in Maiduguri in November 2006.
Another member of the church, Allahbeh Chibok, lost his wife and children after he converted.
She divorced him based on his conversion, Rev Pona said, abandoning him and their three daughters and marrying a Muslim man.
Then she died, Rev Pona said, and her parents in collaboration with some Muslim fanatics abducted the daughters.
Parental rejection upon conversion, however, is not inevitable. The Muslim father of church member Baba Aji, for example, helped him escape from Islamic attackers because, Rev Pona said, his father loved him in spite of his conversion.
Pastor's price
Rev Pona's success in taking the Gospel to these Islamic-dominated ethnic groups has come with its own price. Last year he escaped death when Muslims broke into his home. Rev Pona said two armed Muslims stormed his residence in the Hulolori area of Maiduguri on 18 February 2006, bent on killing him.
At the time, Rev Pona was conducting Bible studies at Maiduguri's ECWA church. Meeting only Rev Pona's daughter at home, the gunmen quizzed her about his whereabouts and left, promising to come back for him.
A few hours later, Maiduguri was in flames.
Muslims upset by Danish newspaper cartoons depicting Muhammad had gathered in the palace of the Islamic leader in Maiduguri, the Shehu of Borno, and gone on a rampage, setting churches ablaze and maiming and killing Christians.
After four hours of carnage, 57 Christians were dead and 55 churches burned down.
It was not Rev Pona's first brush with opposition. Born into a Muslim family in Chibok town of Borno state – his father is still Muslim – persecution has followed the missionary to the Kanuri and Shuwa Arab ethnic groups for 27 years.
Opposition remains fierce to his small church plant among Kanuri Muslims; some converts have changed their Islamic names to Christian ones to avoid being identified by Muslim fanatics.
But Rev Pona is optimistic, believing that "like a mustard seed, it will blossom into a church that will become a gateway to heaven for Muslims not only in Nigeria, but in the African continent."
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