The president and treasurer of the Lutheran Church of Nigeria (LCN) have been released from a local hospital and are recuperating after a robbery at the church headquarters July 18.
LCN President Rev. E.E. Ekanem says he was roused from bed in the middle of the night by a half-dozen men demanding money. Ekanem was hit in the head with a glass bottle, dragged to the church treasurer’s residence nearby and tied up on the floor. The treasurer also was injured.
“God saved my life,” Ekanem said in an Aug. 9 e-mail to LCMS World Mission staff, when the robber guarding him left and the Nigerian church president was able to escape. Ekanem, who was hospitalized for a week, said the robbers escaped with money, watches, a camera, clothing and other items.
LCMS World Mission staff still are talking with LCN leaders “to determine the extent of their personal and church-seminary losses,” according to Rev. Ken Greinke, interim area director for Africa with the Synod’s mission board.
The robbery took place just after Ekanem returned to Nigeria from the United States, where he took part in the Ablaze! International Summit and Mission Celebration events in St. Louis.
Posted Aug. 26, 2004
