It was not long after we went to bed that we heard the knock. Standing by the door was one of the elders in the village who is also a member of our church.

"What happened today was very awful," he announced.

"What?"

"One lady delivered 'something'"

"What is that?"

"Come and see!"

Bad Omen

When we got to the compound, we saw the 'something' on the floor. It was a baby in a pool of her blood, with the  placenta dangling. She had just been delivered. The baby was shivering in the harsh harmattan cold. The mother and other members of the family had deserted the baby and ran away. They told us that the mother delivered the baby and she fell face down on the floor, and that this was a taboo.

I told them that it is not the fault of the baby as the mother had no one to help her in the course of delivery. They refused to listen to me, reiterating that it was forbidden in Boko land. they said that they called us to help them raise the sum of N4000 ($34) for a witch doctor to slaughter the baby and carry out some rituals. The grand father of the child had been weeping, seeking someone to assist them.

"This is just an accident," we tried to reassure them. They insisted it was not, that the baby does not mean well. They said, if they let the baby live she would kill both her parents and wipe out their lineage, and they would not allow this to happen. And if the parents decide not to kill her, the people in the village would burn down their family house, kill them or drive them away from the village as allowing this kind of baby to live may bring serious calamity to the clan. One of the villagers went on to inform us that they just killed a baby like that a month earlier.

Another practice is that if a child grows the upper teeth first, they will kill him by holding the legs and drowning him in a basin of water. The ones they cannot kill are taken by the Fulani cattle rearers, and over the years these ones have grown into a tribe known as the Gando Fulani. For the case of falling face down however, no one made any effort to take the babies. The babies have always been slaughtered. However, we heard of a family that had this kind of baby, father and mother took her and escaped to the other side of the border in Benin Republic. And the mother died.

A Gift from God

When we cold not stop the people who were bent on killing the baby, we pleaded that they give us the baby. They agreed but on the condition that we take all the items that were used during the delivery. We took the baby, cut off the placenta, and found a placenta bury them as they did not want it around their area.

Early the following morning, I went to the chairman of the Local Government Area and the Police to make report. The chairman, a Boko man looked at me and said, "we  heard a story that Mary Slessor, a missionary stopped the killing of twins in Nigeria. Probably, you are the ones that can stop this practice in our land." He told me to go to the district head and request that he calls the parents to write an undertaking that they had rejected the child and given her to me. I met the village head who invited the child's parents. We signed the documents. One was  given to the district head, one to the Police and I kept the other one. That was how God gave us ownership of a baby and we named her, Favour of God.

Favour began to grow. The people were watching from afar. Gradually, some started to peep to see if the baby is alive. When they started to notice her tremendous growth, they started saying, "This baby does not resemble a Boko child." And now, some even come to touch her. Now over ten months old, Favour is very health and doing very well. She is a sign to the whole community.

It is now over ten years that Ephraim and Regina Nnaji have been waiting for the fruit of the womb. Who will deny that Favour is God's gift to them? How unsearchable are His ways! The Nnaji's are CAPRO's pioneer missionaries to the Boko people. (a very unreached people group) of Niger State, Nigeria.