A Nigerian bishop whose home has been attacked by armed marauders seeking to murder him twice in the last two years has accepted an invitation to speak at HTB’s teaching holiday in July.

The Rt. Rev’d Ben Kwashi is Anglican Bishop of Jos, northern Nigeria, where inter-communal violence has resulted in hundreds of deaths in recent years.

He will join a line-up of guest speakers who include the Bishop of London, Mike Pilavachi, Pete Greig and Pastor Agu Irukwu.

The annual event, which is attended by around 1,800 church members and friends, will be held at Pakefield, Suffolk, from July 26 to August 2. It will be launched to the congregation on February 24.

Also speaking will be Jo Saxton, a writer and popular Christian commentator who lives in Phoenix, Arizona.

Bishop Ben Kwashi’s home was first attacked in February 2006 when at 2am a gun-wielding gang broke in to find only the bishop’s wife Gloria and their six children at home.

Terrified, she told them her husband was away.
She said, ‘They kept yelling “Where is the bishop?” We were helpless. They came into the house with guns.’

They beat up Mrs Kwashi and one of the couple’s sons, telling her “We won’t waste a bullet on you”.’ Bleeding profusely, she later walked three miles to get help.

In July, a gang of five men armed with guns and knives battered down the door of their home and found the bishop in his bedroom. They marched him outside where they told him they were about to kill him.

Inexplicably, they then changed their minds and instead beat up the bishop’s teenaged son Rinji and ransacked the house for valuables.
The bishop said later, ‘Persecution has never, and will never, kill the church. Conditions may be difficult or dangerous for a time, but the seed is in the ground and at the right time it will burst out.’

After the event, the bishop wrote a letter to friends. It read:

It is fairly clear that the unwanted visitors who came to our house on the 24th of July 2007 about 2am were clear about their target: they came in with a ladder, sledge hammer, digger and other weapons .They came specifically to the back door, and spent at least 20 minutes before finally breaking in. This gave us some time to call for help. They had a fair idea where my bedroom was, broke the door and met me on my knees praying. They told me that they had come for me and that I should come with them. The rest is what you all know: God intervened, for even though they took me out to the place where they were to carry out their plan, the Lord changed their minds. They brought me back to my bedroom where God’s final victory was demonstrated, as I knelt to pray and read from the Bible Psalm 124 waiting for my death; a little while later Gloria joined me and we were praying together; about 10 minutes later they were gone. They took away valuables, all our cell–phones, laptop. jewellery and left behind massive destruction.
This letter is to appreciate you all for your prayers, for your support, care and concern. We are living in difficult times all around the world, and we must ensure that our faith in Jesus Christ is firmly rooted and grounded in the word of truth, the scripture, and in the power of the Holy Spirit. We must hold on to the life changing power of the Gospel: it is the power of God to salvation for all who believe and we must not compromise. It is for this Gospel’s sake that we are being harassed, intimidated, persecuted and some have been killed for the sake of the same gospel. We must be unwavering, standing firm, upholding the truth of the word of God, knowing that those who have died in the faith for the sake of the gospel have not died in vain, and also that anyone who lives for the same gospel has this same assurance: it shall not be in vain.
In this we are certain that the gospel is worth living for and worth dying for. So that if we live, we live for the gospel and if we die, we die to the Lord. Of course this death could come by car-crash, plane crash, armed bandits, robbery, bomb-blast, war, terrorism or persecution etc. The means by which death will come, we do not know, but one thing we know is that whenever our time is up and our work is finished, we will go home to be with the Lord. So my brothers and sisters in the Lord, fellow pilgrims, stand firm in the hope we have in Jesus Christ who is the only one who is the way, the truth and the life. We thank you for your love, prayers, and the fellowship we share in the mission of the gospel of the Lord. This is the gospel alone that is able to save the whole world.
The Lord be with you, +Benjo