Ten Bold Believers Stories from 2008

Each day through the end of the year, I will be posting one of the top 10 “Bold Believers” stories of 2008, as reported by the Voice of the Martyrs Kids of Courage.

7. Blessing and Goodness

Blessing Justine is 13 years old. She lives at the Stephen Center in Nigeria. The Stephen Center helps children who need a place to live and a school to go to. Blessing Justine came to the center six years ago. But she was not happy there. She tried to go to the police station to ask the police to take her home. Blessing said, “I was a little girl and I cried all day and said, ‘Take me back home!’”

The kind Christians at the Stephen Center helped Blessing Justine learn to like her new home. The other children helped her, too. They understood her feelings. Like Blessing Justine, many of them have no father. They were left fatherless after radical Muslim rioters attacked their Christian neighbors. The Voice of the Martyrs started the Stephen Center to help these children.

Blessing is a good student. She would like to be a veterinarian someday. But she has not forgotten what it is like to be new and scared. Now Blessing is helping a younger student, 5-year-old Goodness Akalonu. She helps Goodness get used to life at the Stephen Center. Blessing said, “She likes to be talked to with a soft voice. She is a quiet and gentle girl, and she is brilliant.” Blessing calls Goodness her “school daughter.” When Goodness gets older, maybe she will help a younger student.

To protect their identities, the names of some of the people on this site and some identifying details have been changed. Some of the quotes and stories have been edited and paraphrased from the original sources for clarity.