“My name is in gold because God sees me”: Christy's story

Christy was taken from her home and repeatedly assaulted - by a miracle, God led her to safety - now she's signing the handmade petition. Can you?

Christy holding her handmade petition

Izzy, from the Advocacy team at Open Doors UK and Ireland, recently travelled to meet with some of the women at trauma centre run by Open Doors partners in Nigeria. She wanted to hear their stories firsthand, and give the women an opportunity to contribute their names to the handmade petition – which will become a huge banner made up of unique petition squares on which people have painted, sewn, drawn, or written their name and “I see you”. It's part of the See. Change. campaign to highlight persecuted Christian women around the world. Each square says “I see you” to women persecuted for their faith and gender, and will be presented to the UK Government during the Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict (PSVI) conference in November. The women whom Izzy met also wanted to add their voices. They very touched and pleased that Christians from so far away were taking up their cause.

Christy is one of the women Izzy met. She has been through experiences that many of us can’t even imagine, but God’s faithfulness and the trauma centre are bringing her new hope – and the recognition that she is seen.

Christy’s story

Christy is a pastor’s wife, and was kidnapped by Fulani militants, along with her one-year-old son. They were taken to a remote forest, where she was repeatedly raped and beaten in front of her child.

After three days, the kidnappers contacted her husband to demand a ransom. When he said he couldn’t afford the high amount, they said that he should sell his property. Eventually, he and his brother managed to negotiate the ransom price down from 20 million naira (£45,000) to 1.5 million naira (£3,300). Even to raise this, her husband had to sell everything he could – including essential equipment for farming and food.

On the day that Christy was released she was taken, along with another woman, to a junction. They and their children were left there. In every direction there was gunfire. It was the middle of the night and they didn’t know where to go. They ran.

But God saw her. Christy and the other woman were lost, cold, frightened and vulnerable. They prayed: “We are here. If you want us to live, show us the way. If you want us to be killed, let Your will be done.” God told Christy to follow the moon.

They did. They walked for miles – and eventually they saw a road. They knew that meant that God had guided them to a village. It wasn’t clear whether it was a Christian village, so they were cautious. But then they saw a church, and realised that they had reached somewhere safe. Not only that, it was the very church whose financial secretary had been arranging the payment of their ransom, and who had been trying to locate them! God had led them to safety.

Christy makes her handmade petition

Hope and forgiveness

Thanks to your support, the trauma centre in Nigeria is offering women including Christy a chance to heal. During her time there, she has attended sessions about forgiveness and, by the grace of God, is able to forgive her captors. When they released her, they asked her to forgive the atrocities they committed. It had been too painful to contemplate – but, during the trauma care, she felt such peace in her heart from God that she was able to forgive. “If I saw them, I would even give them food and water,” she says.

When Christy added her name to the handmade petition, she used gold sequins. “My name is in gold because God sees me,” she says. God sees her, and every name added to the petition is a way of saying that you see her too, and all women persecuted both for their gender and for their Christian faith. Thank you.

Barnabas* is the team leader at the trauma centre, and has a vision for its purpose: “Our heart for this place is that whoever comes here will surely encounter God, will surely experience healing from all the emotional traumas that they carry – lots of prayers, lots of love, lots of compassion, lots of fellowship, lots of worship.” He’s keen that they can then return to their own communities, and participate in a way that trauma had previously prevented.

“To all who are praying, to all who have contributed, we say thank you,” Barnabas adds. “There’s no way this would have happened without you.”

*Name changed for security reasons