My friend started, he started by saying that he had heard a lot of testimonies in the church but one actually stood out. On that particular Sunday, this couple came out to the altar and shouted praises to God.

Before I continue, I want to emphasize that I have not been to a church while people were giving testimonies and that is because I am a Muslim but the people I used to see on the television giving testimonies had given me a preconceived notion of how it must look – happy. That explains why I believe that they must have shouted praises to God immediately they got to the front of the congregation. This testimony is just a reflection of what different people face in the present day Nigeria….but this has a different twist to it.
Prior to this day in church, this couple had woken up on another day like every other Nigerian. The father, the mother and their three children were all happy about the journey they were about to embark on. I believe they wanted to travel to another state to see one of their family members. They had their own car and saw no reason not to travel with it, after all one of the reasons of having a personal car is to feel comfortable on long journeys. Well, they set off.

In the course of their much anticipated journey, where the kids were probably thinking of how they were going to hug their cousins and show them love, where the parents were also probably imagining the loveliest feeling they would have immediately they were welcomed by the family they had been yearning to see for a while, their expectations were dashed by a group of individuals. On interstate highways, many people have been robbed of their vehicles, phones, laptops as well as other valuable property that may have been on them at the time of robbery but these guys operated differently. As my friend told the story, I knew there was nothing much to it for I always heard of it before that our highways are full of robbers.
These were robbers who wanted to rob a family, so what!!? The story seemed to me uninteresting at that point in time but I forced myself to listen to the rest of it as you tend to force yourself to read the rest of it.

This family was waylaid by a group of armed men on the highway. Seeing that these men were armed and dangerous, the man stopped the car and started to fear for his family. The armed men got down from their car and approached the family. They probably had a leader who was nice and courteous for he told the man and his wife that they were not there to rob them but they only needed the couple to do them a favour.
They called the couple aside and told them that all they needed was for the couple to provide for them what they needed.
They said that they needed a human being for whatever purpose but that it was important that the father, even if it had to be him, provided someone from his family for them to take away. One can’t help but imagine how eager the man would have wanted to offer them anything and I mean anything but himself or any member of his family at that particular point in time. After they must have realized that it would be a hard decision to make for the man, the robbers were kind (or callous) enough to give the family about ten to fifteen minutes to deliberate on the issue. It was glaring that if they fought those men or wasted more time in deciding who should be the sacrificial figure, they could get killed or get kidnapped. If you had been in the man’s shoes and the wife’s, what would have been your decision?
Now coming back to the church testimony, the couple being there indicates that they both survived that day and that was what their testimony was based upon. It was also based upon the fact that the couple had to make the hardest decision of their lives by giving the armed men one of their children (un)willingly. One of their children was sacrificed for the survival of the family.

I can’t begin to imagine what was going on in the minds of the parents when the child was being whisked away, I have not been able to understand and may never understand how they reached their decision but I know that at that point in time, different people would have acted differently. When my friend finished narrating this story, we all started to feel for the couple while we made different comments. Some said that the couple made the best decision; others disagreed while one said that he would have sacrificed his wife but as for me, I would have chosen…………..

Terrible situation to be in ...... but I believe the head of the family should have sacrificed himself for his family as Christ sacrificed himself for us. How would the Mother and Father live not knowing what would be done to their child! I can imagine endless nights of them imagining all sorts of horrible things happening to the kid. They had a duty to protect the child. Sad situation.

seyibrown: Terrible situation to be in ...... but I believe the head of the family should have sacrificed himself for his family as Christ sacrificed himself for us. How would the Mother and Father live not knowing what would be done to their child! I can imagine endless nights of them imagining all sorts of horrible things happening to the kid. They had a duty to protect the child. Sad situation.

Truly sad. One can only make easy decisions when one is not in the same situation. What do you think would have happened to the wife? How was she to convince her in-laws that she did not kill her husband?

So, what happened to the 'sacrificed' child?

Rukemi291: So, what happened to the 'sacrificed' child?

Nobody knows what they did to the child. They just took him away. There are 1000 + 1 things they can utilize him for though.

Rukemi291: So, what happened to the 'sacrificed' child?

That is the question the child's mother will be asking herself till the day she dies!

AbdH:
Truly sad. One can only make easy decisions when one is not in the same situation. What do you think would have happened to the wife? How was she to convince her in-laws that she did not kill her husband?

.... and do you not think that the couple's family, neighbours and friends will also not gossip about whether the couple had actually used the child for some kind of ritual? The man took the decision he thought was the best and one could agree with him from a point view ... one can only pray never to find oneself in that kind of situation!

seyibrown:

.... and do you not think that the couple's family, neighbours and friends will also not gossip about whether the couple had actually used the child for some kind of ritual? The man took the decision he thought was the best and one could agree with him from a point view ... one can only pray never to find oneself in that kind of situation!

True! That is the problem. People will never believe their story in as much as they didn't come back home with one of their family members. May we be saved from such situation.

May God continue to protect us, our loved ones and properties. Amin.