OTUKI, Nigeria — Boys and girls clambered around a white van. They clung to the windows and crowded the open doors as Hope Springs International workers packed up the tents and equipment used in a two-day clinic.

Most of the children lacked parents to corral them — evidence of the scars left by the terrorist group Boko Haram.

Many of the 500-plus wards of the Center for Nutrition and Education of Children Foundation were orphaned by killings in northern Nigeria. Others were sent to this northeastern town by relatives to escape ongoing violence. Some came from vulnerable situations in the surrounding villages.

Danny Muñoz pulled out a piece of paper to take prayer requests from the children.

“I think we all have preconceived images when told you’re going to an orphanage in the middle of Africa,” said Muñoz, a volunteer with Hope Springs, which is associated with Churches of Christ. “Some of them were pretty accurate. But then also there’s a mass number of children in these small, rundown, beaten up buildings made of cement and tin, and it’s a little overwhelming to see that many kids be part of just a tiny community.”

The youth influx into the rural, predominantly Muslim community began after Polycarp Yusuf Degri, a local Christian, founded the children’s center in 2016.

“The issue of Boko Haram rendered many children homeless,” said Degri, who also serves as chairman of the nonprofit’s board of trustees.

But after initially struggling to raise funds to build dorms on the property, “​​the community had to come in and also help in hosting some of the children,” he said. “Every house in this area, they are housing two or more children.

“In this place, 70 percent are Muslims, and in all the eight villages around, they are Muslims, but they are so supportive,” he added. “They are like the backbone of this place.”

Impact of Christ in the community

Hope Springs first partnered with the center in 2020. The U.S.-based ministry dug a well with financial support from the NorthField Church in Gallatin, Tenn., to provide the children the only clean water available for miles.

“We had seen videos early on of some of the kids who were brought here after what happened with Boko Haram,” said Tom Haddon, pastor of NorthField, a church plant of the Madison Church of Christ. “They were orphans from that tragic incident a few hundred miles north of here, and we were trying to think of something to do with our kids from Vacation Bible School. So we asked them if they would like to help raise money for a well.”

For the Christian minority in Potuki, all sources of support are viewed as a blessing. Every child fed, educated or housed is an act of the Gospel.

“Anything, if it is God’s work done in his own way, will never lack resources,” Degri said. “That’s my assurance in life.”

Degri invited the nearby communities — more than 2,000 people — to use the well. A two-day clinic recently hosted by Hope Springs served both children at the center and families from the area.

While evangelism is not the foundation’s focus, Degri — who spent several years as an evangelist — believes serving is one of the most effective ways to spread the Gospel.

“Everybody is benefiting — that’s the mission,” Degri said. “That’s the true Gospel: the gospel of humanity. That’s why even some of our medical workers are even Muslims. They are part of us. Why? It’s because it’s not about Christ — it’s about the impact of Christ in the community.”

‘Something far greater to seek’

At the van, a 17-year-old boy — one of the oldest children at the center — climbed into the row of seats in front of Muñoz.

He told Muñoz he wanted to be a preacher and asked, “Can I learn everything from you?”

“That’s when we started praying,” said Muñoz, who serves as NorthField’s associate student pastor.

“Every prayer request that this kid asked for had nothing to do with his physical needs,” he recalled. “I think that hit me that this is someone like the Scripture says of David, that he was a man after God’s own heart, that this kid — to me — was a man after God’s own heart. He didn’t ask for food. He didn’t ask for safety. He asked for understanding of who God is and the leadership to lead people to Jesus. … That’s what he wished for his life.”

“I know a lot of orphans there were like, ‘Hey, I’m just worried about the next meal. I’m just worried about if I am going to eat today or am I going to have a place to live tomorrow,’” Muñoz said. “But he had something far greater to seek, and he had his eyes set on something so much bigger.”

This piece is republished with permission from The Christian Chronicle.

Audrey Jackson, a 2021 journalism graduate of Harding University in Searcy, Arkansas, is The Christian Chronicle’s managing editor.