June 12th: Ramadan, Cows And Cow Business.
Ernest Prayer for the Muslim world continues.
June 12th: Ramadan, Cows And Cow Business.
The Ramadan has reached the 27th day today! It is a good day to talk about cows and cow-related matters. And so much to say about cow business.
The 27th night is the Night of Power
Cows to the Fulanis are more valuable than human beings. Their lives are tied to their cows. That is why they can waste human lives that cows may live
Over the years, Fulanis have succeeded in weaving cows intrinsically into our private, public and national lives. Our traditional rulers keep cows, manned by Fulanis. Politicians have cows tended by Fulanis. Governors have cows herded by Fulanis. There are cows in Government Houses. Those who own cows in the South, for instance, are many. And wherever the cows are, there will the Fulanis be
Islam is transported on the back of cows by Fulanis. Wherever the hoof of cows and the feet of Fulanis touched, Islam has touched that place
Beside this, cow business has become a a thriving trade in the South among southerners. Fulanis/cow merchants have gone into alliances with locals, and these locals now have cow pens along major roads in the southeast. As one travels from the North into the East, these cow pens are a common sight. Cow business has been indigenized as a bridge to indigenization of Islam.
And the church too contribute alot of funds to Islamization, yet cries against it! How? When members of churches bring cows for thanksgiving, part of the money used to buy the cows goes for Islamization. When we do burials, when we run conferences and meetings, and so on, and we kill cows, we contribute a part of the money to the advancement of Islam in our communities. Every cow we buy, a Zakat of it (tithe, if you like) goes to sponsor Dawah (Muslim missions) work in different ways. You figure out, if you can, the number of cows slaughtered in the whole southern regions daily and fathom how much we are supporting Islamization in our communities!
Cow business is a strategic Islamization business which many people, including the church, are involved. The question now is
“How can we as a church be involved inadvently in cow business, yet doing nothing (or not much) about evangelizing the cow-boys (those who herd the cows)? How right are we, in the sight of God, to eat their cows, and yet turn around to pray that the herdsmen should perish?
As the Ramadan reaches the 27th day, truck-loads of cows are arriving different states in the South from the North. And we are the ones consuming those cows! This is how interwoven this cow business is in our land, even cleverly interwoven into the fabrics of the church.
Let everyone lift up hands and voices to heaven in great uproar, with deep compassion, for the salvation of the cow-boys. Pray that all those involved in cow business in one form or the other will experience salvation of the Lord speedily.
Pray for our dear country. We are becoming a country that loves cows more than her citizens. Talk to Him that owns the cattle on a thousand hills to quickly and speedily capture the hearts of the Fulanis and their local business partners for Himself.
Pray for the church to awaken to the urgent need of evangelising cow herders all around the neighborhood of the church. Ask God to deliver His people from the morbid fear of cow herders (while yet loving their cows) which has paralysed many people from making attempts to engage them with the gospel.
Finally, pray that believers with veterinary skills will recognize the tool God has put in their hands for the sake of the cow herders. Ask the Lord to open their eyes to see the vast opportunities of ministry to the Fulanis that abound in the South.
Some years ago, we labored, according to the power of God at work in us, among Bedouin Arabs, striving to put the church on the back of the camel.*
We gave it a hot chase among them as much as we knew how. Now that cows and cow herders are everywhere in the orbits of the church, should we not begin to experiment with putting the church on the back of cows?
May the Lord help the southern church to have a paradigm shift, and that quickly. Amen!
Thank you for journeying with us in this Ramadan trip. We have fof days to descend down.
