Source: www.csw.org.uk
Date: November 16, 2024
Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart, and wait for the Lord. (Psalm 27:14)
Five years is a long time to wait – especially when you are waiting for your family to be reunited.
In Nigeria, Professor Solomon Tarfa and Mercy Tarfa have been working tirelessly for the return of all the children taken from the Du Merci Centres for vulnerable children, which they founded and ran.
Twenty-seven children were taken after Professor Tarfa was unjustly arrested on Christmas Day 2019. But while the professor has since been fully acquitted, 16 of the children are yet to be returned. They remain in the government-run Nasarawa Orphanage in Kano City, where they have suffered mistreatment and pressure to convert.
Pray for Esther:
One of the children is an 11-year-old girl named Esther. She was recently taken from the government-run orphanage without the knowledge of her siblings, or the consent of the Tarfas and their legal representatives.
Esther’s whereabouts are currently unknown. However, there is speculation that she may have been sent to an Islamic boarding school in possible preparation for an early marriage.
Her birth mother was orphaned at a young age and gave birth to Esther as a teenager. She has joined the Tarfas in the ongoing search for their daughter.
Latest setback:
On 4 November, the case to secure the return of the 16 Du Merci children was adjourned once again, and was rescheduled for 14 January 2025.
After this latest disappointment, Professor Tarfa said:
‘But I find solace in God's sovereignty. He knows the beginning and the end, and His plans for us are divine. I trust in His faithfulness and timing. “Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart, and wait for the Lord.”’
Please pray:
- That all 16 children would be immediately returned to the care of the Tarfas – the only parents most of them have ever known.
- That the court hearing in January 2025 will come to a just conclusion.
- For reparations to be made – something the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention called for in its June 2021 ruling on this case.
- For the health, encouragement and wellbeing of all the Du Merci children. Pray especially for Esther’s safety, and for her whereabouts to be made known.
- That the Lord would strengthen and uphold Professor Tarfa, his wife Mercy, Esther’s birth mother, and all who long for the safe return of the children.