[Photos] ECWA church donates food items to Kaduna Muslims

The Evangelical Church of West Africa (ECWA) Gospel Church, Tudun Nupawa, Kaduna, yesterday donated foodstuff to six Muslim communities in Kaduna as assistance for less privileged persons. The items include: bags of sugar, millet, maize, and beans. Donating the items, Rev. Yunusa Nmadu, the Senior Pastor of the church, said the donation was to assist less privileged Muslims with whom they had been living together over the years. Nmadu said the gesture was part of efforts to re-establish the long-standing relationship between the Muslim and Christian communities in the area, especially in view of the current security challenges. Quote ``People of other communities will learn from what happened today. We grew up together without any differences, our parents taught us to live together but along the line the relationship went sour. ``We are here to let the people know that we are one people in spite of our different religions, we love everyone. “If God wanted us to be Muslims, all of us would have been Muslims, and if God wanted us to be Christians, He would have created all us Christians. ``We are here so that the World will know that we are of different religions but are living together as a people and not as Muslims and Christians,`` the pastor said. Receiving the items in his palace, Sarkin Dutse, Alhaji Shu’aibu Balarabe, said that the Emir of Zazzau had advised the people to live in peace with one another. Balarabe said there was no compulsion in religion and advised his subjects to live in peace together in spite of their different faiths and to be partners in peace building. He said it was their duty to protect all the churches and the mosques in the area. ``We have been living together in peace but unfortunately, the crises experienced in the state seem to be dividing us. We know that all the crises were not motivated by religion,`` he said. The Imam of Tudun Nupawa Mosque, Malam Attahiru Liman, said most of the youths, who indulged in violence, neither attended church services nor observed regular Muslim daily prayers.