A Nigerian church leader who fled persecution and is now living in the United States recently shared the horrifying details of how his father was killed for simply standing by the Gospel of Jesus Christ and how terrorists aligned with the Islamic State burned down his church building.
David-Olonade Segun, who now resides in Holland, Michigan, told the Holland Sentinel that a new chapter of his life began a few years ago after his family was targeted by extremists affiliated with Boko Haram (also known as the Islamic State of West Africa since 2015).
Segun and his wife, who were originally from the a Christian-majority area of southwest Nigeria, operated a ministry called Victorious Life Assembly, which not only ran a church but also operated a school, orphanage and widows ministry.
Although the ministry originally began in southwest Nigeria, Segun and his family made the decision to move the ministry to the troubled northern part of Nigeria that has been plagued by violence in recent years even though they knew the risks they would be taking.
"I felt the leading of God to go to the parts of Nigeria and minister to these people," Segun explained.
According to the Holland Sentinel, the ministry provided a home for as many as 150 orphaned children and offered care for the poor and the widowed in parts of northern Nigeria. Additionally, the ministry provided clean water to local villages.
Although the Victorious Life Assembly was a blessing for the beleaguered community, it drew the ire of Boko Haram.
The terror group has terrorized the Borno state of northeast Nigeria with its radical Salafi jihadism since 2011 and has killed thousands. The group has also enslaved countless women and school girls.
The pastor recalled the attack that changed his life forever. However, he wasn't there when it happened.
Segun told the newspaper that the day after he, his wife and their four children left their home to go to a convention where Segun was scheduled to be a speaker, Boko Haram militants arrived at their home. Although Segun's mother was able to escape, his father was not as fortunate.
Militants reportedly questioned Segun's father about where he was. The father told them that his son had gone to the church. After the militants couldn't find Segun at the church, they reportedly burned it down and killed the church's assistant pastor.
Segun stated that the militants went back to his father and allegedly placed a Bible and a Quran in front of him and told him to choose one.
Segun said that after his father chose the Bible, the militants doused him in gasoline and burned him to death.
"If they had destroyed everything I owned, that would have meant nothing to me," Segun contended. "But my father, he loved Jesus, he taught me to be strong.
"My friend encouraged me that, 'Your father stood with Christ in the end.'"
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