MADAGALI, Nigeria (LifeSiteNews) — A Catholic priest based in northern Nigeria expressed his thanks to LifeSiteNews readers for their generous support of persecuted Christians facing Boko Haram.
Using LifeSiteNews’ crowdfunding platform, LifeFunder.com, Fr. Innocent Sunu has been able to feed, clothe, water, and invest in his impoverished parishioners of Madagali, Adamawa State, where they face unrelenting attacks from Boko Haram’s headquarters in the nearby Sambisa forest.
A special video sent to LifeSiteNews shows Fr. Innocent transporting a lorry load of food by night to Madagali:
“Sometimes we have to act like smugglers,” Fr. Innocent explains to viewers. “This truck you are seeing is food. It is going to our village and it’s sponsored by you, all of you, from LifeSiteNews, John-(Henry) Westen, Tim Jackson, Fr. Kevin, all our people in Ireland, all our people in America, all our people in Scotland, Canada and wherever.”
“It’s a trailer load of food and I have to be very discreet so that the people will not think I have some money to spend, so that I will not be kidnapped,” he continues. “Pray for us and let us be well and good.”
“It’s going to the poor people. You can see it, it’s here, there are other trailers,” Fr. Innocent says as he points the camera toward a trailer full of mattresses for the infirm and old people who otherwise sleep on the ground. “We have to do it at night. This is night. We have to pay soldiers too so that it will be cleared, because for every bag, if we have to pay money, it’s a lot of money.”
“Thank you very much. God bless you,” Fr. Innocent concludes.
Fr. Innocent has used the money to not only provide food for those in need but also to drill wells, erect a steel reservoir, buy seeds, build toilets to prevent cholera, provide sewing machines and cash so that widows can get back on their feet, and help local Muslims too, some of whom are converting to Catholicism at great risk to their lives.
He made a special video at the end of August that demonstrates some of the harsh realities Christians are facing in Nigeria:
Here are a few photos from his parish of Madagali showing those who have benefited from his now-completed LifeFunder campaign:
