MY ACCOUNT
At A Glance:
Persecution forced Gladys and her son, Miracle, to flee their home. Yet with assistance from GCR supporters and partners on the ground, Gladys and Miracle have discovered "home" in the midst of a humanitarian crisis.
When we meet Gladys, she’s not able to tell us much. After years of abuse at the hands of Boko Haram, Gladys rarely speaks. We are told she “lost her mind somehow.” She isn’t able to care for herself or her son independently.
We found her at a camp in Nigeria for Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) and ask her if she feels safe there. “Yes,” she says, without hesitation.
A woman named Lydia, who works in the IDP camp, shares with us what she knows of Gladys’s story. It’s a story of survival, of true familial Christian love, and of finding joy wherever possible after hardship.
Around 2009, Boko Haram abducted Gladys in an attack on her village and took her far from her home. After five long years, Gladys and other captives were rescued by the military. While others reunited with her family, Gladys wasn’t able to return to hers, due to her condition.
Instead, she was sent to a camp where she was abused repeatedly. She gave birth three times, but each time, she was unable to care for her child. All three died.
By the time her fourth child was born, camp officials realized she was in no position to raise him alone. They brought her and her son, Miracle, to the IDP camp where Global Christian Relief met her under the care of a loving church ministry.
Now, Joy in Ordinary Events
“We assigned some people to be looking closely after her because of her condition and the baby then,” Lydia says.
“We assigned some camp officials who are staying there who started taking care of her, providing the food, clothes, and other basic things that she needed at that time.”
Much of Gladys’s past remains a mystery, but at present, she and Miracle are well looked-after. They’ll be able to remain in the camp for the rest of their lives.
“Anything she needs, like now she just told me that her rice got finished so we are going to bring rice for her,” Lydia says. “And so that's how we'll be taking care of her. And then any small support that comes, we also isolate to her.”
Despite her condition and the trauma she’s endured, Gladys finds joy in ordinary events. As we learn at a camp celebration, she loves music and dancing. And every day she walks with her son, now 7 years old, to his school at the IDP camp. She waits for him under a tree and walks him home again.
The steadfast love Gladys has for her son is clear, even if she cannot communicate it with words.
An urgent window to act. They refuse to hide their faith. Let’s make sure they don't face the fire alone.
Millions of Nigerian believers currently are living in displacement camps, driven from their homes by targeted, violent attacks. Yet their joy and faith in Jesus remain unbroken. Make an eternal impact today by delivering urgent emergency aid, spiritual support, and bold advocacy so the Nigerian church can continue to shine in the darkness.
