ICC Note: Hassan John is a survivor. He has witnessed atrocities Islamic extremists have committed against Christians and has persevered in ministry. The scariest part of Hassan’s life as a Christian is that he carries a price on his head. Hassan’s story is shocking, but sadly all-too-common in Nigeria, one of the hardest places on earth to be a Christian.
By Ruth Gledhill
12/6/15 Jos, Nigeria (Christian Times) – Hassan John has a price on his head of 150,000 Nigerian naira. It sounds a lot but it is just £500. That is what his life is considered to be worth. As a Christian pastor in Jos he is regarded as an “infidel”.
John, who is 52 but looks much younger, is currently in Oxford for a year studying apologetics at th eOxford Centre for Christian Apologetics. He is also on placement at Latimer Minster, the groundbreaking Christian missional church under leadership of Frog and Amy Orr-Ewing. In Jos, he goes out to work at his church each day never knowing if that is the day he will be murdered by some desperate Boko Haram follower looking to claim the paltry price on his head. The extremist Islamists want him dead, even though a substantial part of his week is spent working with Muslim women in the community, helping to educate them and to set up their own businesses.
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