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Judd Saul has been making missionary trips to Nigeria for a decade. He had been involved with a mission that had a hospital and a school, but he has always had a calling to help with the plight of persecuted Christians in the internal displacement camps.

And that is why he started Equipping the Persecuted. Saul will be returning to Nigeria in early December.

Internal displacement camps are where individuals are placed after their villages are blown up, burnt down or – in other words – massacred.

“People essentially get displaced from their homes, which their family has been for hundreds of years, and they’re stuck in these camps,” Saul said. “If these people try to go back to their homes, a lot of them are usually killed.”

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought much of the world to a screeching halt, but it hasn’t slowed down the attacks of Boko Haram.

“All these governments have focused on fighting COVID, but in Nigeria Boko Haram doesn’t care about the virus and their attacks have increased,” Saul said. “What we have been doing is, after attacks occur, our mission goes in and delivers food, delivers medical aid and we also pray with them. We rebuild their churches and share the gospel.”

Currently, they are working on a program that trains village security teams, providing basic security awareness and emergency planning.

“This way, if an attack does occur, they know how they can evacuate the most amount of people and how to respond to trauma situations,” Saul said. “These trainings that we have been doing have been saving lives.”

Saul said he’ll never forget the words of a village chief that inspired him the last time he was in Nigeria.

“I went to a camp and brought in a whole truckload worth of food because I heard that they were starving and were in need,” he said. “They weren’t expecting us, they weren’t expecting me. The chief of the village was crying and in tears. He said that they thought God had given up on them and they thought the world had forgotten about them. One little act of bringing them good and praying with them gave them hope.”

Those interested in supporting Equipping the Persecuted can visit their website!

Author: Jacob Hall

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