The Church of the Brethren in Nigeria, better known by its Hausa derivative as Ecclesiya Yan’uwa a Nigeria (EYA) said it has lost 1,390 local church auditoriums to Boko Haram insurgents
The church, which started in Garkida in 1923, has its headquarters in Kwarhi, Adamawa State.
It has most of its local congregations in the State and the rest of the Boko Haram-troubled North East.
President of the EYN, Rev Joel Billi, told reporters in Kwarhi Wednesday as part of the centenary activities of the church, said however that insurgency has also brought something good to the church.
He said: “At the peak of the insurgency, 36 of the then 50 EYN DCCs were completely displaced. Seven were partially closed, with only seven DCCs not directly affected by the insurgency. Of the 456 local councils and 2,280 local church branches at that time, 278 LCC buildings and 1,390 LCB Church auditoriums were destroyed by the insurgents”.
The EYN President said that dishearteningly high numbers of members of the church were killed or abducted while most of them around Borno State continued up to a couple of days back.
He added however that many of those who had been displaced to distant places had become a blessing to the church as they had facilitated the establishment of branches in such places.
“All glory to God because though the insurgency was orchestrated to uproot Christianity 8n its area of operation, God in his faithfulness used the insurgency to propagate the gospel and expand the frontiers of EYN in Nigeria and the Cameroons because those that were displaced carried their faith to wherever they went. Today, several EYN churches have sprung up in places where our members went to sojourn because of the insurgency,” the EYN president said.
