Another Romanian pastor, and founder of Voice of the Martyrs, Richard Wurmbrand is interviewed with his wife Sabina. It’s 14 minutes long, and puts a human face on much of what we’ve been thinking about at DTP over last few weeks. …and it shows us that what we read in the Scriptures isn’t theory, or idealism. It is the expectation of Christ for actual Christian experience.
If you’ve never heard of Wurmbrand, or are unfamiliar with his story, you can see a documentary about it here; a great animation suitable for children here; or read about it at a number of places on the internet, including here.
Wurmbrand says we should should read the story of a martyr each day… here’s one for today:
George Fathi (2009)
Church deacon George was known all over Alexandria, Egypt, for his Christian witness, and his evangelistic endeavours are believed to ahve lead to his murder. In October 2009 he was killed by two Islamist brothers, Mohammed and Ahmed Abdel-Moneim, who sister had been helped by George to convert to Christianity. It seems they were acting in retaliation for this perceived affront to their Muslim faith.
The brothers entered George’s flat at midaiy, and strangled and electrocuted him… Geroge’s dead and disfigured body was found soon afterwards by his father, who was sitting in a coffee house facing tehir flat and came to investigate when he saw smoke coming out. The offenders had started a fire and oened a butane cylinder to spark an explosion, but this was averted by Geroge’s father and neighbours.
When the Abdel-Moneim brohters were arrested, they claimed George had tried to sexually assault them, and they ahd acted in self-defence. But the Fathi family lawyer said the investigation found no evidence to support this claim. Mohameds’s defence later pleaded insanity - astrategy often used by Muslims accused of killing Christians in Egypt. The authorities are usually willing to go along with this defense plea.
If you want to take Wurmbrand’s adivce, you can find collections of such stories, collected for daily readings in ‘Heroes of our Faith’ by Patrick Sookdheo:. It is available at several online bookstores.
