One day, Chief invited me to visit his homeland on the banks of the Niger River up in Kogi State, in what is called the ‘middle belt’ of Nigeria. There, in his little camp, hours were spent discussing the possibility of establishing a school especially for Fulani children.Chief contacted the nine Fulani elders in the area, convincing them to agree with the establishment of a Christian school in their homeland. But there were still others to be convinced.There were four other representatives with whom we had to deal before building the school – two being traditional land owners in the area, and two traditional rulers over several states. All of these were powerful and influential leaders whose word could land us in prison or thrown out of the country for good. But let me say here, God was in control – this has been God’s project from the beginning, and though there have been times of extreme danger in which we feared for our lives, God protected us and carried us through. .We went first to the first land owner, whom I’ll call ‘Sule’.Sule’s palace is an elaborate structure built in the shadow of a large, private mosque! Getting out of the van, the first thing I noticed was a row of sandals outside the palace door, and two people crawling over the sill on their hands and knees!As we approached I watched the two as they crawled across the carpet to crouch below Sule’s throne, and I turned back to the van, ready to haul myself right out of there! But Chief laughingly assured me that everything would be okay and drew me on to the door!There, we took off our shoes and Chief crawled in on his hands and knees. I followed him, upright but hunched over as much as possible, trying to appear humble and subservient! I was shown a seat at the side of the room.When Sule entered, everyone bowed and touched their foreheads to the carpet – except for me, of course – I just sat there staring! Vague thoughts of Shadrack, Meshack and Abednigo floated across my mind, and I wondered about furnaces and whether God would agree to come and walk through one a second time! But nothing happened, and my gross disrespect was overlooked!Sule was a huge, impressive individual, dressed in the typical garb of long, voluminous white robes and white bonnet tied around his face. He arranged himself on his throne, looked down his nose at us, and proceeded to the business of the day.When it was time for our case, Chief told the story of our meeting, his request for a school for his children, and our readiness to build such a school. Sule asked many, many questions, and of course, the main bone of contention was religion. Sule asked Chief if he was aware that this school was to be a Christian school, and as a Muslim, didn’t he have a problem with that? Was he ready to sell out his people to the Christians? Chief said he had my assurance that I would not coerce or force his children to change their religion.Is that true, Sule asked me? I said it was true.“I am a Christian,” I told him, standing there before him, “and this school will be a Christian school. The school will be open to every child irrespective of tribe, language or faith. And though we will only teach Christianity, we will never force any child to change their religion.”Then came the issue of teaching Islam in our school. Sule was insistent that we hire Muslim teachers and provide Islamic religious training. I answered that we could not have Islam as part of our curriculum, just as I was certain that no Islamic school would teach Christianity as part of theirs!The visit to the second land owner was almost identical to that of the first, and though the two finally gave us an open door, we still had trouble ahead. A letter was written to a high official of the state by a traditional emir, whose power extends throughout many states, accusing Chief of accepting a huge monetary bribe from us, to set up a school to convert Muslim children, and then, a second ruler over Fulani people in the state reported Chief to the state security police, accusing him of threatening peace in the area by bringing in Christians to work among the Muslims.Chief invited his accusers to a series of week-long meetings, arguing on behalf of Fulani children, maintaining their right as Nigerians to an education and his freedom as a parent to place his children in whichever school he chose.When Chief was told that he would be held responsible for any child who died under our care, or who converted to Christianity, he reminded them that it is God and God alone who holds a child’s life in His hands. “Who am I,” Chief asked, “a mere mortal, to ordain the future of a child?”