Source: www.csw.org.uk
Date: May 9, 2020
Set me free from my prison, that I may praise your name. Then the righteous will gather about me because of your goodness to me. (Psalm 142:7)
On Thursday this week, Leah Sharibu will be 17 years old. Join us to pray the verse above over her on her birthday.
Leah refused to renounce her faith. She paid the price with her freedom.
Join us in prayer on Thursday 14 May to mark Leah’s 17th birthday.
Leah was one of 110 girls abducted from their school in Dapchi, Nigeria by ISWAP (an offshoot of Boko Haram) in February 2018. The next month, following negotiations by the government, the surviving girls were put into vehicles to go home.
However, Leah wasn’t among them. She wasn’t released because she refused to convert in exchange for her freedom.
In February Leah’s mother Rebecca joined us in London to protest on the second anniversary of her daughter’s abduction. She told us:
‘I want to thank you once again for the encouragement I receive from all of you, and plead with you to continue praying until Leah is out. I'm pleading with [the UK] government and with our Nigerian government, with President Buhari... to fulfil his promises that he has made to me personally, that he is going to rescue Leah and ensure that she is released, and not just Leah, all the others in captivity.’
How to get involved:
- Join us in prayer on the day, or pray on Sunday 17 May with your church, using this downloadable resource.
Book your place at the online prayer meeting at 7.30pm. - Over the past two years we've prayed and protested many times for Leah. Although we can't gather together physically at the moment, we can still gather online and pray from our homes.
- Let’s keep persevering in prayer until we see Leah freed, along with all those held by terrorist factions in north-east Nigeria.
In summary, please pray:
- That Leah and all other hostages would be released.
- For God to protect them from the terrors of their surroundings.
- That the Lord will be a refuge and a comfort to Nathan, Rebecca and Donald Sharibu and every family like Leah’s, awaiting the return of their loved ones.
- For divine protection for villages in central Nigeria, and the release of those abducted for ransom.
- For CSW’s work, particularly with the UK government, at the UN, EU and in Nigeria itself, to challenge the government to address the ongoing crisis.