Focus on ChristSample

No bed for a birth – Sarah’s story

Mary knew what it felt like to be pregnant and far from home. Her journey was long and tiring. Her bed for that very significant birth night was not her own comfortable place, but a place for animals. A stable.

Sarah, in Nigeria, may have more empathy with the very real and human trials Mary went through on that journey than most. 

With Sarah expecting her fourth baby, it should have been a time for preparing the home for the arrival of their new addition, but the family found themselves suddenly homeless.

The unholy night

Armed men came, killing people and causing destruction. They burnt down Sarah’s house.

A camp for people who had fled the violence was the only place she and her family could find shelter. Not a place of comfort. Not a home. 

Receiving items like a mattress and water purification tablets were small pieces of hope.

Inspirational faith

We know few details surrounding the first years of Jesus’ life, but Matthew’s gospel tells us the threat of violence forced Jesus’ family to flee Israel and go to Egypt, where, for several years they lived, like Sarah, as refugees.

“We left the community unharmed,” Sarah says. “God deserves the praise. Since there's life, there's hope.” She finds her hope in the God who made a way through the birth of another baby born in a place of discomfort and displacement.

“It’s not safe to return to our communities,” says Sarah. “So we want you to pray and ask the Church to continue to pray for us – that there will be peace in the land.”

Find out how you can bring hope to people like Sarah in a practical way.