When Boko Haram overran Michika in northeastern Nigeria in January 2020, they went looking for Reverend Lawan Andimi. He was a district leader in the Church of the Brethren and a well known Christian voice in Adamawa state, and that made him a target. They took him.
Then they handed him a chance to beg for his life on camera. What came out of his mouth was not fear. It was faith.
The hostage who comforted everyone else "By the grace of God, I will be together with my wife, my children, and my colleagues," he said. And if not, he was still at peace. "I have never been discouraged, because all conditions that one finds himself is in the hands of God." He looked into the lens held by his captors and spoke about a God who was still alive and still in control.
On 20 January 2020, Boko Haram beheaded him. He did not deny the name of Jesus to save himself. He held it, all the way to the end, the way believers have since the very first century.
Andimi's courage did not die with him. His words travelled the world and steadied thousands of frightened Christians. A man with a knife at his throat became one of the clearest witnesses of his generation that Jesus is worth everything. Greater love has no one than this.