In a world where headlines and hashtags compete for Americans’ ever-shrinking attention spans, Mary Ngoshe might not matter anymore.
According to World Magazine, the Nigerian army found Ngoshe after she and her young child escaped from the terrorist group Boko Haram, which kidnapped her and 275 other schoolgirls from the Nigerian town of Chibok nine years ago yesterday.
The army found Ngoshe in June of 2022, and about a dozen other girls either escaped or were rescued from their captors last year.
None have escaped this year, and of the 276 kidnapped, approximately 95 presumably remain kidnapped.
And the world, for the most part, has moved on without any updates to convince the headlines and hashtags to once again care.
But these girls, and those who escaped or were rescued, would certainly matter to the author of Hebrews, who wrote, “remember the prisoners as if chained with them — those who are mistreated — since you yourselves are in the body also.”
They certainly matter to the saints in the Book of Revelation who cry, “How long, O Lord, holy and true, until You judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on earth?”
And while God might not answer that prayer as quickly as Christians think He should, these girls matter to Him.
And they can still matter to Christians who escape the news cycle long enough to learn about, pray for and bless these kidnapped girls — and all their persecuted brothers and sisters.
Christians can, for instance, download apps or subscribe to prayer alerts from organizations such as Voice of the Martyrs and Global Christian Relief (formerly Open Doors). Christians can likewise subscribe to newsletters from aid organizations such as Christian Aid Ministries or Bluffton’s Loving Shepherd Ministries or Forgotten Children.
Finally, Christians can befriend and regularly communicate with missionaries to learn more.
And as they learn more, they can set aside time to pray and weep.
One Christian, for instance, tries to reserve Sunday afternoons to read various publications that chronicle the suffering of Christians overseas. He started this, he noted, because of Hebrews 10:25, which encourages Christians to fellowship with one another. He then concluded that because Christians set aside Sunday mornings for fellowship at their churches, he could use his free Sunday afternoons to learn more about his persecuted brothers and sisters.
Christians can also encourage their families to pray together or keep prayer journals that include the names and stories of persecuted Christians — who often ask other Christians to pray that above all they would remain faithful.
And they ask others to pray for the ones who persecute them.
Certainly the persecuted would rejoice if God ended their persecution, and certainly they don’t desire suffering for the sake of suffering, but they ultimately recognize the power of God to bring about His Kingdom come through the suffering, as the Apostle Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 4:7-11.
But Paul also encouraged the Corinthians to give, and as the Apostle John writes, “But whoever has this world’s goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him?”
Fortunately, even if Christians can’t give much — or perhaps think they can’t give much — God will bless any cheerful and willing gift, such as the money Christians save after skipping Starbucks for a week.
Perhaps they eat out one less time a week for a month.
God will bless it.
Perhaps they cancel a streaming service for two months.
God will bless it.
And perhaps as Christians make these seemingly small sacrifices, they’ll realize they can make larger ones.
They might even want to.
And perhaps, because of that sacrifice or prayer, the remaining captives girls will escape too, and on April 14, 2024 — the 10th anniversary of their kidnapping — the headlines and hashtags will care enough to celebrate.
But even if they don’t, God will.
Because those girls matter. The persecuted church matters.
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