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Yakubu Pam, chairman of the Plateau state chapter of the Christian Association of Nigeria, told ct that more than 30,000 Christians have been displaced by the attacks.

The political situation has forced Christians to adopt new approaches. There are approximately 700 Western and Korean missionaries from 70 agencies working in Nigeria, according to Operation World. Chuck Brod of the Society for International Missions (SIM) told CT that the conflicts between Muslims and Christians have forced Western missionaries to be cautious about evangelism. Brod says many are focusing on education, agriculture, economic development, and medical work. "Missionaries coming to Nigeria are still interested in rendering various services in ways that will help the people," Brod said.

Femi Adewumi, a Baptist missionary working among the Muslim Fulani in Gombe, a northern Nigeria state, agrees. He told CT that since the implementation of Shari'ah, Christian missionaries are backing off direct evangelism among Muslims.

"We treat their animals, we go to visit them in the market, and we go to their camps to visit them," Adewumi says. "We take doctors to them. We spend weekends with them. We show them [the] Jesus film, we do free health care for them, we use [a] one-on-one method of witnessing and counseling. We try to do everything we can to show them the love of Christ and [are] looking for opportunities to share the gospel with them."

Even before the current wave of violence between Christians and Muslims, evangelizing nomadic Muslim Fulani has been next to impossible. Adewumi says only 1 Fulani in 10,000 is a Christian. During his first nine years of ministry, Adewumi says only nine Fulani prayed to receive Christ—eight of whom were women.

"A Fulani man sees himself as being born a Muslim," Adewumi says. "The family has the right to kill [him]. So asking a Fulani man to become a Christian is like saying, Come and die. And so it is a very difficult decision for them. The families may persecute them. They may kill them. They may take their wives. They may take their cattle."

Still, 3,700 Nigerian cross-cultural workers are doing a great deal of evangelism in Nigeria. According to Brod, learning another language and culture is just part of their task.

In an online prayer bulletin, Brod said, "How important it is to forgive others who have hurt us in the past." In the spring, Christians sustained mind-numbing losses. "No single church is standing," Samaila says. "They have completely been burned down. The two sons of one of our missionaries there, the Rev. Peter Haruna, were killed by the Muslim militants." On May 2 in Yelwa, a town of cattle herders and seminomadic traders, Christians killed hundreds in revenge attacks

"This is really an important issue in Nigeria due to the many ethnic conflicts that have occurred over the years," Brod said. "When Christians have had family members killed by those from other ethnic groups, it's difficult to come to that place of being able to forgive."

The challenge to forgive and minister is ongoing. In August, the central state government of Kwara—led by a Muslim—dispatched police to stop a five-day evangelistic program in Budo-Efo organized by German evangelist Reinhard Bonnke. Officials said they wanted to prevent a bloody incident in Ilorin, the state capital. Christian leader Olusola Ajolore accused the government of pandering to the whims of Muslims in the state.

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November 2004, Vol. 48, No. 11