When I was touring Israel this past year I ran across a large number of Nigerian groups at different locations. In case you wonder how I know they were from Nigeria -- no joke, almost all of the thousand or more I ran across were wearing outfits made from the same material. We saw more of them in Egypt when we were climbing Mt. Sinai. They were coming down that brutal mountain when I was walking up and each group we passed would give encouragements and say things like "Nigeria strong!"

If I'm remembering the story correctly, the government of Nigeria pays for one spiritual journey for each of its employees. The overwhelming majority go to Mecca, but those we ran across were Christians who'd chosen to visit Jerusalem. This led me to the impression that Nigeria was a land of great religious freedoms.

I'm sorry to say that an article I just read proves I had the wrong impression.

Rampaging Muslims have killed 10 Christians, injured 61 others, destroyed nine churches and displaced more than 500 people in northern Nigeria, according to eyewitnesses – all because Muslim high school students claimed a Christian student had drawn a cartoon of Islam’s prophet, Muhammad, on the wall of the school’s mosque.

Read further if you'd like, but please take a moment to pray for our brothers and sisters in Nigeria and the persecution they face.