“God is making me strong”

After his father was killed, 15-year-old Godwin in Nigeria couldn’t stop crying and struggled to eat. But then he made a transformational visit to the trauma centre run by Open Doors local partners.

With your help, Godwin is moving on from a bitter experience to a sweeter future. 

It’s more than two years since Fulani militants attacked Godwin’s village in Nigeria’s Benue State. Whilst he and the rest of the family fled to another village, his father returned home to get some food. As he did, a lady asked for help. He grabbed a motorbike, enabling her to escape – but when he returned to his own motorbike it did not start. As the militants encroached, Godwin’s father was defenceless.  

It was four days later before the family heard of his death. “We didn’t believe it, though,” Godwin recalls. “We didn’t cry. We said our father is not dead. If he was, we’d have known. ‘Our father isn’t dead, he ran away, but he isn’t dead.’ Then we realised he was really dead. We cried.” 

And the tears didn’t stop. “My mother was very hurt. Every morning and night, she cried. All of us cried. People tried to comfort us, telling us to accept what happened, but we refused to stop crying because our dad’s death pained us.” 

The family moved into their uncle’s home, only for him to turn nasty when the mother resisted his advances. “He added to our wounds,” Godwin continues. “It made me cry every day. I never forget my dad. I was not able to eat food. Whenever I ate, it tasted bitter.” 

Hope emerged when Godwin and his siblings were invited to the trauma centre, which your support sustains. “I was strengthened,” he says. “I now have the appetite to eat food. I am thankful to God because of how he is making me strong.  

“I learnt about forgiveness and I have been able to forgive those who killed my dad. That is why I am thankful, because I have received healing.” 

As he and his family look ahead to a sweeter future, Godwin asks for your prayers. “I want you pray for us because we have lost our dad. Other people have a father who can protect them if someone tries to hurt them. The person that will protect us, God has already called him to glory. We don’t have anyone but God.”