Two Towers

He sat quietly in an adjoining room from were we were having lunch. I asked him to please join us but he was too shy and just glanced up at me. That was when I noticed that he had a huge scar on his neck. I asked him if he could tell us what had happened to him. The team from Alaska and I stood along side this 20 year old man who told us that he was captured in the fighting near his village on the island of Halmahera. He was then asked if he wanted to die of convert to Islam. He replied, "I don't want to die and I don't want to convert to Islam either." He was then cut with a machete over the left ear. It is a seven inch scar now. He was asked again--and he said, "No, I will not convert." He was then cut on the other side of the head. He showed us large cuts on his back, both his shoulders, and both arms. The cut on his neck where they attempter to kill him is a large cavernous wound. It is hard to even look at--it is a miracle he was not killed on the spot. He fell to the ground and was thought to be dead. He was then thrown on a heap of the dead bodies and they were all set on fire. He said, "It was a miracle because all the other bodies burned but mine". After the jihad soldiers left, he fled to the jungle for 34 days and didn't eat for the first eight days. He is an evangelist now and has been sharing his testimony throughout the region. I sat with him and saw a 20 year old who loves the Lord with all his heart and a saint that did not love his life even to the death. I sat in a car later that day with him and told the team--we will see him honored in heaven. He passed the test. He will be confessed to the Father from the lips of Jesus.

Later in the day, we prayed with Dion Patiasina, a pastor's wife, whose husband was hunted down by the jihad and murdered. She lived in fear for nearly two years as she and her two children was also hunted for 20 months and was able to elude capture during the entire time. She and her children would flee to the jungle for weeks at a time to seek safety. This was a constant hell to live in the fear of being killed and the memory of the murder of her husband. Her husband was the pastor of this village that was attacked in early 2000. He laid his life down to protect the villagers he served. He was a good shepherd who did not flee when there was trouble. It must have been all these thoughts that flooded her mind as she wept with her faced cupped in the hands. She sobbed as she tried to catch her breath only to sob even harder. There were several of the team in the room and we all wept with her. There was a commitment made to help her and her son. It would take less than $ 100 USD to provide food and housing as well as keep her son in school. She told us there were many times she would have to wash cloths by hand to earn enough to pay the bus fare to get her son to school. It is only pennies to travel on the busses. She is destitute and in poor health. She had relied on the help of other refugees to give her and her 11 year old son food and most recently IFC has been providing food for these desperate people over the last three months. Prior to IFC's help several children had died of malnutrition. IFC made another food delivery to this group the day we spoke to Dion. She is one of the real heroes who has been tested with fire.

I went to bed that night with a blanket of humility and gratitude over me--I had two divine appointments on that day. A 20 year old who would not deny Christ and a pastor's wife who let us in on her suffering. I walked among the towers that day.