Here is the interview with Gladys Staines. The first few minutes are about her agreeing to a film being made about her experience ‘The Least of These’. Then the interview turns to the events surrounding her family’s death, and her own response of forgiveness and testimony to Christ.
…and don’t forget that it’s a Bring and Share meal next week as we bring the term to a close.
Only a couple more weeks of term to go! Don’t forget that on 2nd July we’ll be wrapping this module up and having a Bring and Share meal together!
In the meantime, there were two parts set to this weeks homework. The first was to visit Open Doors UK (though if you are involved with another organisation that supports persecuted Christians, visit them!). Open Doors is a Global Church Partner organsiation at MIE. Click on the ‘Get Invovled’ tab, and pick any of the actions to perform that will enable you to do something immediately practical to identify with our brothers and sisters. Advocacy, letter writing, giving, fundraise, pray… the choice is yours.
…and ahead of next week, watch this video exploring the dynamics of forgiveness. It’s only 10 or 12 minutes, but it sets up a couple of key ideas we’ll be working with next Tuesday evening.
Discussion Starters:
How has this term changed the way you think about being a Christian? What inspires you? What has caused anxiety? Why do you think that is?
Do you think it is getting harder to be a Christian in the UK? Why / Why not?
How confident would you be facing a growingly hostile context?
How does the prospect of that impact how the Church might pray for and prepare (and where appropriate, parent / grandparent) children and young people? How should this affect children’s and youth work?
How is your Rule of Life shaping up? What changes did you (plan to) make? Have you kept them going? Reflect on your experience of trying to keep a Rule of Life.
How is your Rule of Life shaping up? What changes did you (plan to) make? Have you kept them going? Reflect on your experience of trying to follow a Rule of Life.
How could DTP develop going forward?
Would you be interested in teaching this material in a small group? ...or in developing DTP for a wider audience?
And don’t forget to read the Article from Premier Christianity. You can go to the original article here:
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.
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.
