term 8 week 5

It doesn’t matter that things are difficult. God is with us

vietnamese Christian

OK - so we’re beginning to change gear in our homework to try to help us connect what we’ve been looking at through the Scriptures over the last few weeks with our own experience of discipleship. How do we make sense of the question of persecution in the context of a liberal, secular society? What would you think if you heard a specialist in global persecution suggest that within 5 years a ‘westeern’ country could make it onto the Open Doors World Watch list?

Ron Boyd-MacMillan was the guy who did a lot of the research for the world watch list, and has been a writer for Open Doors. He has spent many years studying the phenomena of Christian persecution in many different social, political and cultural contexts. Here he is spending some time reflecting on Secularism and its laying slow seige to the Church in the West.

and this week’s story of a martyr:

Susianty Tinulele was shot dead while speaking from the pulpit of her Church in Central Sulawesi, in Palu, Indonesia, Sunday 18th July 2004. Four masked intruders opened fire with machine guns on the preacher and worship team. Susianty was shot in the head and died instantly. Four teenagers were also hospitalised with serious injuries and another 17 year-old died.

Susianty was a victim of what appears to havve been a campaign to assassinate Christian leaders in a campaign that started in November 2003. When police arrested suspected members of militant group Jemaah Islamiyahm they found detailed descriptions of church services and lists of Christian leaders.

Violence was also directed against Sulawesi Christians who were not Church leaders. The night before Susianty’s death, Mrs. Helmy Tombiling died from nine stab wounds to her chest and stomach inflicted by attackers outside her home in Poso, Central Sulawesi.

term 8 week 4

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.

term 8 week 3

In Sudan, I’ve seen a blessing in persecution. If suffering has become so bad that people have nothing to lose, the Church will grow. Then dying only means going to heaven.

pastor in Sudan,

cited in Brother Andrew, The Calling

Here’s a great memory verse to learn and meditate on:

Is.57:12-13, “I, even I, am he who comforts you. Who are you that you fear mere mortals, human beings who are but grass, that you forget the Lord your Maker, who stretches out the heavens and who lays the foundations of the earth, that you live in constant terror every day because of the wrath of the oppressor, who is bent on destruction?

term 8 week 2

All we have to do is stop preaching the Gospel; then the police won’t bother us anymore. But we are not willing to pay that price.

pastor in vietnam,

cited, The Calling, Brother Andrew, 209

David Abdulwahab Mohamen Ali (2008)

David’s conversion from Islam to Christianity was strongly opposed by his Somali Muslim family. Consequently, he had not seen them for many years, when in April 2008, he travelled back to Somalia from Ethiopia where he had been living since 2000, to visit his sick mother.

On 22nd April, one of David’s cousins came to him with two members of the Islamic militant group al-Shabaab, to question him about his faith. They asked him whether he was a Muslim or an infidel. He replied: ‘Neither, I am a follower of the Messiah’. David’s cousin, to avenge the famiy’s honour, pulled out a gun and shot the 29 year old. The other two did the same, before dragging his body to a mosque, praising Allah that ‘an apostate was dead’.

David was described as a gifted evangelist who led many to the Lord … Some Somalians called him ‘The Great Thinker’.

taken from Heroes of our Faith (22nd April)

Patrick Sookdheo

term 8 week 1 getting to grips with suffering

I’ll be honest - Josef Ton has had a huge impact on my thinking about discipleship, and over this half term our homework will focus on listening to a series of talks he gave on being a Christian Pastor in Romania under the Ceausescu regime. So here is the first one:

Also for next week, read and pray through Matthew 10 with the question of how Jesus is training his disciples to suffer in mind. This passage will be a focus of our next session together.