Living in Part-Time Exile on the Niger-Nigeria Border

Living in Part-Time Exile on the Niger-Nigeria Border

On a quiet night in July 2021, shortly after stepping out of his bathtub, Abdullahi Yusuf, 35, found himself face-to-face with a nightmare. A gang of 15 heavily armed men stormed his house in Illela, in northwestern Nigeria, banging on the door and demanding that he come out onto the porch. His wife and children, jolted awake by the commotion, huddled in fear as the menacing voices outside grew louder. "It was around 2 a.m. when they came," Yusu…

Invited Out of Exile

God too is necessarily dependent on love.… God would not exist unless there is someone to love. In such love, we are all invited out of exile and into the holy life.—Michael Battle, “A Holy Exile”  CAC affiliate faculty Dr. Michael Battle served as chaplain for South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu (1931–2021). He writes about Tutu’s passionate belief that we all belong and are invited out of exile:   For Tutu, God is a fellowship, a community, …