“Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world” (James 1:27).
Many of these names have been changed.
Cheryl Pridham fills the tank to give the house running water.
Joy lost her husband in a car accident. Her in-laws made her move in with them for a week. While she was there, they took everything out of her house. Then the relatives told Joy to give them the money from her bank account. “No,” she responded. They poisoned her children—not enough to kill them, but enough to make the children sick and let Joy know they meant business. She gave them the money.
Mercy's husband was stabbed to death in a drunken brawl with his uncle. Two hospitals looked at the knife wound in his stomach and refused to help him, fearing that they would be held responsible for his death. A third hospital agreed to do surgery, but Mercy's husband passed away while in surgery. The uncle was put in jail and the relatives sold all Mercy’s grain and chairs to pay his bail. Mercy was left alone to pay the hospital bill for her husband.
“The armed robbery happened five months ago when I traveled to Jos from the airport in Abuja. I’d barely been in Nigeria 24 hours. They pointed their guns at us and made us lay face-down in the dirt. I thought, “This is it; we’re going to heaven,” but suddenly they ran away. I still have trouble sleeping at night, and I still jump at sudden sounds. You don’t just get over something like that.” This missionary attended Lyndon Wall’s seminar, “Facing Your Fear Factor.” Lyndon’s discussion of “fear of attack” helped her give each night to God, trusting Him to protect her from, or be with her through, trouble.