Peacemaking put into practice, then shared for the next generation

Dr. Sunday Agang’s cousin was murdered by Islamic extremists more than 20 years ago. His cousin was serving as a pastor when he was the victim of a new wave of violence sweeping through his country. The violence continues today.

Sunday, a Langham Scholar and Langham-published author, remembers feeling grief and sadness—and an overwhelming desire to seek revenge. He also remembered Jesus’s call to “turn the other cheek.” Though his instincts screamed otherwise, Sunday knew more violence wasn’t the solution. He then thought, “What do we do to show them that we’re human beings?”

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That question eventually birthed the start of an organization that cares for widows and orphans of the violence, both Muslim and Christian, bringing them together to offer support. It helped these women and, by extension, their families see the shared suffering and image of God in one another. At one point, extremists were hunting Christians in Sunday’s city, and some Muslim leaders helped him and his family escape because of the kindness he had shown toward them.

Sunday’s story is a remarkable testament to the power of loving your enemies. But he sees many young believers in his country today facing the temptation toward revenge that he once did. That’s why Sunday wrote his book No More Cheeks to Turn?, published by Langham Literature. In the book, Sunday shares his journey to becoming a peacemaker as well as practical implications of a Christ-centered response to violence. 

There aren’t many other books like this available in his context. “Most of the times when we are not speaking to the needs of the context, we don’t have the connection,” Sunday said. “There’s a need to have books that are connecting and really bringing the experience, the African experience, into literature.”

Langham Literature enables church leaders like Sunday all across the Majority World to share their experiences so that believers in their context—as well as the global church—can learn from them and pursue the peace of Christ. 

Langham books on peacemaking & reconciliation