220 Students Surrender to the Gospel

Oct 28, 2016 1443

Two rival groups faced off against each other, each side determined not to back down. For these students from a large Nigerian polytechnic school in Ibadan – there would be no backing down. The fighting became serious, then violent, and quickly deadly. Eight young people were murdered in cold blood that day: a reminder of the fragility and value of life.

These devastating events often spawn a cycle of violence, but one group of friends came together to try to find another way through this tragedy.

Stella and her fellow students have decided to give their lives to Christ.

Before the murders they had been gathering every week in the polytechnic library to view and discuss the Gospel messages on GNU’s website. They enjoyed the messages, but none of them had committed their lives to Jesus. But now, in their grief, they woke up to the true meaning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, presented, thanks to your support, through Good News Unlimited’s website.

As they reached out for hope, suddenly they understood! Here was a message so powerful that grief was overlaid with joy. They invited others, and the school community, rocked by the tragedy, rapidly grew!

One of the group, Stella, says:

We read on your website that Jesus is the way, the truth and life, and there is no other way; that all who come to Jesus, he will in no wise cast out, and God is able to save and forgive all sin.

Through the GNU website’s spoken messages, blogs and stories, these young people realised that life and death were both meaningless without the certainty of the Gospel:

We saw our friends die without Christ. Now 220 of us have completely surrendered our whole lives to Christ. Among us were backsliders, drunkards, womanisers, idol worshippers, Muslims, and members of secret cults. But now all of us have denounced all of these things. We have all started going to Bible-believing churches.

Previously, the most important social structures in these students’ lives were the strong, exclusive groups that divided people and caused so much rivalry, misunderstanding and hatred. Now,

We are for Jesus and he is our Lord and Saviour.

From excluding everyone who didn’t belong to their social group, Stella now says,

We want to be together in heaven, and we want to encourage others to join us. We are ready to witness for Jesus, to stand and be complete soldiers and ambassadors of Christ.

Thanks to you, two hundred and twenty Christian students are now shining the light of the Gospel, and we are certain that God will, with your help, touch the lives of many more people in Nigeria. – Edited from a letter from Stella.