WBS Office Destroyed in Nigeria

World Bible School Office Destroyed in Lagos, Nigeria

2/13/2012 Surulere, Lagos, Nigeria

We were awakened at about 6:00 am with the winds starting to blow. Around 7:00 am it struck with force. They later reported that it was hurricane winds of over 100 miles per hour. We heard things blowing around and glass breaking. Then the rains hit and a deluge began to fall.

About then my cell phone rang and it was Godwin Isaac calling from our WBS office. I could tell by the sound of his voice that he was shaken. He said in a broken voice: “The roof is gone!” I questioned him as to what he meant and he stated it again; “the roof is gone and the office is destroyed.” He then began to explain that he had gone to the World Bible School office early that morning to prepare for our day of work there in Lagos, Nigeria. He had heard the winds outside, but then his world was shaken when a sudden tearing sound exploded over his head and the ceiling came crashing down on him. At first he did not know what had happened. He crawled from under the ruble and tried to find the door. It was jammed shut so he had to force it open physically.It was obvious that it was a serious storm but we would only find out later how serious. The power was out and we could hear people scrambling to assess the damages. The church building where we were staying was intact, but we would find out that three roofs had been blown off next door to the building destroying their homes and most of their belongings.

There in the street below laid what was once the roof for the building where our WBS office is located. The winds had torn the roof literally off of the building and it crashed into the street below. All of the offices in the upper level were destroyed and now the rains were lashing down upon what was left. Everything was destroyed and soaked with the drenching rain that continued for about thirty minutes that morning. Godwin was not injured luckily, nor were any others in the immediate area. We would learn later that day that several died across the city of Lagos from falling debris and collapsed buildings. Godwin came to tell us of the incident and he was still badly shaken from what he had just lived through. He and his fellow workers would return and spend the morning salvaging what was left of our WBS office for Nigeria.

Luckily these things can be replaced and no one was seriously injured. We did learn that one of our preachers lost his house and all of his belongings. Who could imagine that something like this could happen while we were there to work in that very office that day? We have relocated to another office temporarily while they decide whether to rebuild the office building or not. Other church members were also affected across the city of Lagos, but we were thankful there was no loss of life among our Christian brethren.