My Mission Monday

Inconceivable Love

By Shelli Littleton

“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade—kept in heaven for you” (1 Peter 1:3–4).

There is a child, only ten years old, who is married and giving birth. Inconceivable. Her youth should dance with playing dolls, catching butterflies, twirling in her dress, and galloping on a stick horse. Her eyes should glisten and thoughts be carried away with Cinderella’s fairy-tale ending. Her heart should only know the love she witnesses between her mommy and her daddy. This is painstakingly not so for young girls in Nigerian—particularly Muslim—lower-class societies.

There is a child whose youth and purity have been stolen. There is a child giving birth to a child before her precious body was prepared. Instead of dancing on her daddy’s toes, picture her limping down the way, leaking human waste. These young girls are suffering with vesicovaginal fistula (VVF), a condition caused when girls give birth at a tender age, often in labor for over three days, resulting in a permanent limp and a chronic leakage of human waste. Their babies often die, as the young girls die to society. Because of their condition and odor, they are forced to divorce their husbands, and they become social outcasts confined to small huts outside the community. Tears well up in the eyes at the mere thought.

Yakubu and Diana Bakfwash are involved in the Evangelical Church of West Africa’s (ECWA) mission hospital in Nigeria that reaches out to these young girls. Yakubu is senior pastor and head chaplain for this hospital; his wife, Diana, serves as matron. In 2001, it was estimated that the number of unrepaired VVFs in Nigeria alone was between 800,000 and 1,000,000. The hospital ministers to these children and to women who have lived with this condition for some 20 to 30 years.

The hospital’s mission is to enable these women to regain their mental and physical health in order to undergo a surgery that will heal their condition. This leads to healed hearts, as many of these young girls and women receive Christ as their Savior—new birth into a living hope.

There is a child who is so greatly loved, and many more Nigerian Muslims and outcasts like her, that Yakubu and Diana sold everything they possessed to purchase one-way airline tickets for themselves and their three daughters to the United States, to study at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas.

Back in Nigeria, Yakubu is an instructor at Jos ECWA Theological Seminary (jetsnigeria.org) where he teaches Islamic studies. Desiring to make an impact for Christ in the hearts of Nigerian Muslims, he is pursuing a Southwestern master of divinity and also yearns to obtain a master of theology in missions, with an emphasis in Islamic studies.

Diana is focusing on “homemaking” at Southwestern to aid her in the mission’s rehabilitation center where such skills are taught to these girls and women, enabling them to survive and thrive. She and other staff teach sewing, knitting, soap and bead making, Kampala, Batik, tie dye, pomade making, baking, and more. The rehabilitation center lovingly houses them for up to three months for proper mentoring, disciplining them to grow into maturity, before returning to their families.

There is a child—Salamatu. Seeing her changed life, she declared, “Rayuwu ba tare da Isa ba, ban’zane, na gan Isa, na taba shi, nakuma zama da shi,” which translates, “Life without Jesus is a miserable life. I have seen, touched, and even leave with your Jesus.” Because of the Bakfwash family and the mission hospital, Salamatu now reads, writes, has learned basic sewing and hand-craft skills, owns her own sewing machine, is empowered economically, and is physically healed. But above all, she has “Isa”—Jesus as her personal Lord and Savior. For her, there is nothing like it.

Love for Africa has Yakubu and Diana eagerly awaiting their return home to put into practice the knowledge they have obtained here. They know nothing is important apart from making disciples for Christ. They offer a challenge to people with a heart for missions to think twice, get involved, and partner with them to do God’s work in northern Nigeria. They covet prayer for financial support toward their studies’ success, good health, their sick parents’ health needs back home, the resources to make a yearly visit to the mission hospital, and for the growth of the ministry in their absence.

They long to return to the mission hospital to support the more than 1,000 former patients who revisit every year for a glorious celebration, where the young girls and women receive a spiritual growth check-up and a revelation of what their heavenly reunion will entail. Yes, there is a child awaiting attendance at that sweet heavenly reunion because of the Bakfwash family’s love—God’s faithful, inconceivable love.

And there will be no more sorrow, no more tears, no more pain, and no more shame. She will have that Cinderella fairy-tale ending and will be a beautiful bride prepared for her Groom just as intended—taintless, spotless, and whole-hearted, with renewed youth and innocence. She will dance on her heavenly Father’s toes. And He will bestow on her a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair (Isa. 61:3)—an inheritance that will never perish, spoil, or fade.

“In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed” (1 Peter 1:6–7).

Shelli Littleton loves writing. She and her husband, Brian, live in Fort Worth, Texas, with their two daughters, Karalee (11) and Katelyn (9), and serve Travis Avenue Baptist Church.