Eye Opening

It often isn't easy for new Christians here. Even
our own Sunny talk about how his brother
would hit him so violently when he became
a Christian.  The brother who just met us and
was certainly grateful for his connection to Sunny.

Our eyes have been opening to persecution this week.  Our homeschooling curriculum started the book Trial and Triumph by Richard Hannula, which he labels as a family history for Christians.  I am so impressed with his introduction I am going to share some with you, as his stories intersected with our lives in the Sahel this past week.  "The Psalmist calls us to praise the Lord and 'tell of His works with songs of joy.'  God's greatest works are not the creation of the mountains and seas but His acts of saving love, which transform sinners into children of God.  These stories were not written to exalt great Christian men and women.  They were written to exalt the Lord who made them great."   I love how the focus is on God strengthening people for His glory.

Worship service

The book goes on to tell stories of Christians who remained faithful in the midst of persecution.  Many were martyrs of the faith.  This week in the middle of the church service our evangelism pastor drove his motorcycle into the church with a youth on the back.  The youth had on jeans, a t-shirt and mud covering his whole body.  As he drove in, the women outside the service with children covered their faces in surprise and tears popped into their eyes.  He limped into the church with the pastor, as he walked past I saw how blood shot his eyes were and I was trying to understand what was going on.  Before he could get far he was surrounded by women who had left the worship service and were now crying over him. The congregation sang a song together, but the women quickly turned into an emotional hysteria of prayer, tears and crying out.

A typical well scene.

I found out this young man is a Christian believer from a Muslim family.  His father had two wives and he is the only child from one wife, who died shortly after his birth.  The other wife has 12 children.  His father died last year.  On Thursday he was warned that something was going to happen to him on Friday.  Because of this the family he lives with while going to school drove him to school.  On the way home though, he was kidnapped and thrown in a old dry well on his head.  Shortly after, the mother of the house where he is living called his phone.  The kidnappers eventually answered it and said he was dead.  She said, "Are you God and his creator?  Only He can decide when this boy will die, and I believe God will save him."

Village Scene

A Fulani herdsman heard the young man calling out from the well in the middle of the bush and called back, "are you a spirit or a man."  He ran off to tell the closest town leader and call the police.  Other villagers and police worked to get him out of the well.  He survived in the well for two days without food or water.  Every snake in the Sahel is poisonous.  And to think of all the other things that could be in the well.  It is a miracle and a true testimony to God's power that he is alive.  It was a witness to all the townspeople who came to get him out of the well.  We pray the story will bring understanding of the power of Jesus to many others in the Sahel.  When talking about the persecution he has faced from his family for the past three years, he says, "They have no power of my death, only Jesus has that power.  And if I were to die, I would have the privileged of seeing Jesus face to face."

We are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses!  Let us keep our eyes open to God's work around us and recognize the work of the Holy Spirit in the lives of our Brothers and Sisters.  What a privilege and honor to live, work and serve here.  May I be filled with the Holy Spirit to the same extent to remain faithful even when it isn't convenient!

-- La Maestra