On Easter Sunday, the Italian news website lacnews24.it shared the incredible story of Winner Ozekhome. This young Nigerian man disembarked at the southern Italian port of Reggio Calabria in 2016, at the young age of 17, after the odyssey of crossing the Libyan desert. 

It all started when Boko Haram launched a terrorist attack at the college where Ozekhome was studying. “Suddenly we heard shots. We didn’t know what was happening, but we all ran out quickly,” he told a reporter for Avis.

He ended up being taken prisoner by a human trafficking network, from which he eventually escaped. But trying to get back home was never an option due to the distance and circumstances.

“While crossing the desert in Libya there were moments when I thought it would all end there, that I would not survive. Instead, God always has a different plan for us,” Ozekhome told lacnews24.

After surviving a failed attempt to cross the ocean to Europe and a stint in prison, he escaped again. This time he made the crossing safely.

His unshakable Catholic faith helped sustain him during this difficult journey, which put him in life-or-death situations. He told lacnews24.it:

“God helped me and saved me during the trip so I could arrive here. For me, faith is fundamental. I can bear witness to the strength that it gave me during the most dangerous and risky moments of my flight from a country where I was not safe, where I wouldn’t have been able to feel free to study, to work, or to plan for the future.”

Ozekhome has now been in Reggio Calabria for five years. That is where he was first welcomed by the parish of Cannavò-Riparo.

You can read the original article here.