{"id":33905,"date":"2019-04-17T03:29:05","date_gmt":"2019-04-17T03:29:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.acnmalta.org\/?p=33905"},"modified":"2019-04-17T03:40:06","modified_gmt":"2019-04-17T03:40:06","slug":"a-story-not-just-of-woes-but-of-dogged-faith","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2019\/04\/17\/a-story-not-just-of-woes-but-of-dogged-faith\/","title":{"rendered":"THE STORY OF A WOUNDED PEOPLE"},"content":{"rendered":"<style type=\"text\/css\"><\/style><p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Last weekend, Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) Malta played host to guests from Nigeria who were in Malta as witnesses for the ACN Night of Witness event. \u00a0Each had a story to tell. A story not just of woes but of dogged faith in the midst of the storm.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Speaking at the Chapel of the Good Shepherd in Balzan, Rev. Fr. Polycarp Lamma, a Catholic Priest from the Diocese of Jalingo in North-Eastern Nigeria and Mr. Solomon Yuhwam, a Catholic farmer and prayer leader recounted their share of experience in the hands of militant Fulani herdsmen.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">In June last year, on June 5, which happened to be his birthday, Fr Lamma had a close shave with death. \u201cThey surround you and the only way to avoid death is to try and escape or hide. Fortunately, when they use guns, we hear them coming and have a greater chance to flee.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cI hid under a heap of rubbish and spent four hours concealed, until about 4.30am when the attack was over,\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Mr. Solomon on his part, bears the scar of such an attack on his right hand. He recounts that he only survived by a miracle, after throwing himself among the corpses of his fellow villagers who were not so lucky.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cMost of them are shot dead, but when the bullets run out they turn to machetes and even axes,\u201d he recounted.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">It all started in 2014, says Fr. Polycarp, though such clashes over grazing land in the region go back centuries, it was only in recent years that tensions escalated.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cWe lived in peace till 2014, when Fulani herdsmen committed a serious attack in the village. They burned everything down, including 43 religious centres, including the parish hall,\u201d Fr. Polycarp recounted.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">What started as a tribal clash has turned out to be an endless wave of violence against Christians and everything that represents the faith- Churches, religious structures, clergy.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u00a0\u201cWhen they attack, they shout Allah u Akbar, and start shooting, but not before alerting Muslim farmers about their intention,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The most inspiring part of these testimonies is the fact that despite these attacks on the Church, killing of members and destruction of Churches, the faith is still vibrant in the region; people still meet under trees for Mass and other spiritual activities.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Fr Lamma accused the Nigerian authorities of turning a blind eye, including Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari whom, he says, has never condemned these attacks.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cPeople are sometimes arrested but they are released within days,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cWe need your help; we need your prayers and support. We thank ACN for their efforts to see that those who are suffering are helped in every way.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">I call on Maltese\/Gozitans to continue to support ACN so they will continue the good work they are doing. Without your help, they cannot do what they are doing\u201d, he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Last weekend, Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) Malta played host to guests from Nigeria who were in Malta as witnesses for the ACN Night of Witness event. \u00a0Each had a story to tell. A story not just of woes but of dogged faith in the midst of the storm. Speaking at the Chapel&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":33907,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33905","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-e-newsletters"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>THE STORY OF A WOUNDED PEOPLE - Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2019\/04\/17\/a-story-not-just-of-woes-but-of-dogged-faith\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"THE STORY OF A WOUNDED PEOPLE - Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Last weekend, Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) Malta played host to guests from Nigeria who were in Malta as witnesses for the ACN Night of Witness event. \u00a0Each had a story to tell. A story not just of woes but of dogged faith in the midst of the storm. Speaking at the Chapel...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2019\/04\/17\/a-story-not-just-of-woes-but-of-dogged-faith\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-04-17T03:29:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2019-04-17T03:40:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/397933ce231a0870229517bc4bc66b0d6e417e39-1555009590-5caf9036-620x348.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"620\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"348\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"ACN Malta Media\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"ACN Malta Media\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2019\/04\/17\/a-story-not-just-of-woes-but-of-dogged-faith\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2019\/04\/17\/a-story-not-just-of-woes-but-of-dogged-faith\/\",\"name\":\"THE STORY OF A WOUNDED PEOPLE - Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2019\/04\/17\/a-story-not-just-of-woes-but-of-dogged-faith\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2019\/04\/17\/a-story-not-just-of-woes-but-of-dogged-faith\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/397933ce231a0870229517bc4bc66b0d6e417e39-1555009590-5caf9036-620x348.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-04-17T03:29:05+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-04-17T03:40:06+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/#\/schema\/person\/3c01ab68e03f1b76347f9f6ac439a9d2\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2019\/04\/17\/a-story-not-just-of-woes-but-of-dogged-faith\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2019\/04\/17\/a-story-not-just-of-woes-but-of-dogged-faith\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2019\/04\/17\/a-story-not-just-of-woes-but-of-dogged-faith\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/397933ce231a0870229517bc4bc66b0d6e417e39-1555009590-5caf9036-620x348.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/397933ce231a0870229517bc4bc66b0d6e417e39-1555009590-5caf9036-620x348.jpg\",\"width\":620,\"height\":348},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2019\/04\/17\/a-story-not-just-of-woes-but-of-dogged-faith\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"THE STORY OF A WOUNDED PEOPLE\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/\",\"name\":\"Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)\",\"description\":\"Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/#\/schema\/person\/3c01ab68e03f1b76347f9f6ac439a9d2\",\"name\":\"ACN Malta Media\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/93fb625be2ad6b7f825159f4ef11b098?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/93fb625be2ad6b7f825159f4ef11b098?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"ACN Malta Media\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/author\/admin2\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"THE STORY OF A WOUNDED PEOPLE - Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2019\/04\/17\/a-story-not-just-of-woes-but-of-dogged-faith\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"THE STORY OF A WOUNDED PEOPLE - Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)","og_description":"Last weekend, Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) Malta played host to guests from Nigeria who were in Malta as witnesses for the ACN Night of Witness event. \u00a0Each had a story to tell. A story not just of woes but of dogged faith in the midst of the storm. Speaking at the Chapel...","og_url":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2019\/04\/17\/a-story-not-just-of-woes-but-of-dogged-faith\/","og_site_name":"Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)","article_published_time":"2019-04-17T03:29:05+00:00","article_modified_time":"2019-04-17T03:40:06+00:00","og_image":[{"width":620,"height":348,"url":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/397933ce231a0870229517bc4bc66b0d6e417e39-1555009590-5caf9036-620x348.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"ACN Malta Media","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"ACN Malta Media","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2019\/04\/17\/a-story-not-just-of-woes-but-of-dogged-faith\/","url":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2019\/04\/17\/a-story-not-just-of-woes-but-of-dogged-faith\/","name":"THE STORY OF A WOUNDED PEOPLE - Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2019\/04\/17\/a-story-not-just-of-woes-but-of-dogged-faith\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2019\/04\/17\/a-story-not-just-of-woes-but-of-dogged-faith\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/397933ce231a0870229517bc4bc66b0d6e417e39-1555009590-5caf9036-620x348.jpg","datePublished":"2019-04-17T03:29:05+00:00","dateModified":"2019-04-17T03:40:06+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/#\/schema\/person\/3c01ab68e03f1b76347f9f6ac439a9d2"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2019\/04\/17\/a-story-not-just-of-woes-but-of-dogged-faith\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2019\/04\/17\/a-story-not-just-of-woes-but-of-dogged-faith\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2019\/04\/17\/a-story-not-just-of-woes-but-of-dogged-faith\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/397933ce231a0870229517bc4bc66b0d6e417e39-1555009590-5caf9036-620x348.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/397933ce231a0870229517bc4bc66b0d6e417e39-1555009590-5caf9036-620x348.jpg","width":620,"height":348},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2019\/04\/17\/a-story-not-just-of-woes-but-of-dogged-faith\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"THE STORY OF A WOUNDED PEOPLE"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/#website","url":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/","name":"Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)","description":"Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/#\/schema\/person\/3c01ab68e03f1b76347f9f6ac439a9d2","name":"ACN Malta Media","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/93fb625be2ad6b7f825159f4ef11b098?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/93fb625be2ad6b7f825159f4ef11b098?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"ACN Malta Media"},"url":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/author\/admin2\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33905","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33905"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33905\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33911,"href":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33905\/revisions\/33911"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33907"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33905"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33905"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33905"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}