From shame to healing: The power of God

Displaced. Abducted. Abused. Rejected. These are just some of the “pains” that Rifkatu* has carried to the cross of Jesus.

Just four weeks after her and her husband, Pastor Zamai* celebrated their wedding day, Rifkatu closed her eyes and silently prayed as one man after another raped her, brutally and repeatedly inside a Fulani militant camp. She was kidnapped by Islamic extremists, who are intent on persecuting Christians.

When Rifkatu was finally freed, something inside her had changed. “I started thinking, is this my wife, the woman I know and married?” Zamai remembers with sadness.

But thanks to your support, Rifkatu was able to find healing at our trauma care centre, which cares for thousands of women who have experienced violent persecution because of their faith.

Deep healing is in process for her and many like her.

“Something I will never forget is taking our pains to the cross,” she says. “Everyone wrote their pains on a piece of paper. We sang songs and burned our pieces of paper at the cross. They told us as the ashes go up, our pains are going up to God.”

Watch her story:

Zamai credits the time at the trauma centre with helping him to recentre his focus on the hope of Jesus. “Truly if we had not had the opportunity to come for this trauma healing, maybe to this day, our relationship wouldn’t have been mended,” he says. “When I went for the training, it encouraged and strengthened me and made me change my attitude and thinking. Because of that, I have embraced the situation with faith that God Almighty knows it all.”

“We want our voices, these women’s voices, to be heard,” says Asebe*, a trauma care provider who volunteers at the trauma centre supported by Open Doors. “Let the world know what is happening to Christian women in Nigeria. Their rights are not being protected. They are being traumatised; they are being abused because of their faith. And we want this to stop.”

“Let there be advocacy. Let them come with assistance in any way they can. Let them also pray, because what humans can’t do, I believe God can do.”

Here are three ways you can stop the violence and start the healing:

1. Sign and share the petition

Add your name to Open Doors’ Arise Africa petition or if you’ve already signed it, ask others to sign it too. The petition will be open until 2026, but please send your signature as soon as you can to help us build momentum and raise enough signatures to present it to the African Union, European Union and the United Nations.

2. Give a gift to bring healing to these deep wounds.

Your best gift today can help believers in Africa like Rifkatu with things such as emergency shelter, medical care, an education and trauma care.

3. Pray. The most important and powerful thing you can do is pray. Pray for Rifkatu and and others like her:

• Pray for Rifkatu’s continued emotional, spiritual and physical healing. Pray this family will keep following Jesus and be strengthened by God’s love.
• Give thanks that trauma healing centres, supported by you, can bring healing to thousands of persecuted Christians each year.
• Lift up to God the 1 700 believers who were sexually assaulted in sub-Saharan Africa last year because of their faith and pray the Lord will heal their pain.