Pakistan: Faces of Persecution in Pakistan, Page 3

July 2001

Articles in this issue:  Indonesia, Page 1 | Indonesia, Page 2 | Indonesia, Page 3 | Indonesia, Page 4

"Remember those in bonds and those who are ill-treated as though you were there with them." Hebrews 13:3

Last June, a woman from the Obi district named Teresa (not her real name) was captured with sixteen other women and children and forced to convert to Islam. Teresa said she was so terrified that she agreed to convert or they would have killed her and her three-year-old son.

All sixteen were ceremonially bathed and then circumcised by the Jihad warriors. Later, when she was free to move about because she was Muslim, Teresa fled with her three-year-old by boat to the safety of a refugee camp.

Even in the midst of such great suffering, Indonesian Christians are strengthened and challenged by testimonies of supernatural interventions and miracles.

“Women received their dead raised to life again…”

One seventeen-year-old boy was attending school when the Laskar Jihad attacked his Christian community. A Muslim sword slashed his neck in a full circle, exposing his spine. He was thrown in a ditch and left for dead.

The village authorities gathered the bodies of the dead and transported them to the morgue, where the boy was stitched up and prepared for burial.

During the burial preparation, he suddenly began breathing. The boy later testified that he saw Jesus and was told to return because his mission on earth was not yet finished.

“Who through faith, stopped the mouths of lions…”

Pastor Yohannen and his wife relayed a report they received from Ambon, the island where the fighting first began.

Ambonese Christians testify that a leader of the Jihad movement was directing an attack against their church when, suddenly, he fell to his knees, repented of his sins, and called off the attack.

“Who turned to flight the armies of aliens…”

One story of divine intervention is so miraculous that Pastor Yohannen could not believe it until he heard the same story from several reliable sources.

Last fall, the Indonesian military sent several investigative teams to a Christian island village, each team searching for an elusive Australian who was fighting for the Christians. After several teams questioned the villagers, the Christians finally asked for a description of the Australian.

The military said that there was a mysterious figure dressed in white with a white beard and riding a white horse that repelled Jihad warriors attempts to land their boats several times to attack their village. In fact, the attackers went into confusion and a number of them turned on each other and were killed.

Upon hearing the description, the Christians said, “That’s not an Australian, that is the Lord Jesus Christ!”

“Who, through faith, escaped the edge of the sword…”

New hope is rising in the hearts of Christian Indonesians who daily wrestle with the issues of life and death. In March, Christians mounted a daring scheme to snatch by hired boats 235 Christians still trapped in the territory controlled by Muslim extremists.

Pastor Yohannen is networking with pastors and leaders in Indonesia as well as religious human rights organization International Christian Concern (ICC) to rescue 6822 more Christians by hiring boats with Indonesian Navy escort to go into the islands and get the Christians out.

During a fact-finding mission in Indonesia in February the president of ICC was arrested and detained overnight by security forces on Ternate Island, a Laskar Jihad stronghold. After his release, he returned to the states and informed government officials of the plight of the Indonesians and held press conferences in an attempt to raise political support and the $1.1 million needed to free the cornered Christians and resettle them in safe locations.

“Since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses…”

Several thousand Indonesian Christians have been martyred in the last two years. These faithful saints now stand in heaven beside Christian pilgrims of past centuries who were also tortured, slain with the sword, mocked, tormented, destitute, wandering in caves and mountains of the earth—people of whom this world was not worthy.

Having died martyrs’ deaths, they now take their place in heaven’s hall of faith, joining the great cloud of witnesses, who watch and cheer for those of us who remain. For those of us who remain, these saints have left behind a heritage of faithfulness that we are honored to pass down to our children and that challenges us to “run with endurance the race that is set before us.”

	250 Christians seeking refuge in this church in Duma, North Maluku, died when their village was attacked by Muslim Jihad warriors.

A personal message from C. Hope Flinchbaugh to friends of ICC:

You may find more facts on the Indonesian rescue in the June issue of CHARISMA magazine and the April issue of CONCERN. The above article is the complete unedited report on Indonesia that appeared in WORLD CHRISTIAN, June 2001 issue.

Indonesians need our help. I’d like to see each American Christian team with ICC as I have, giving what little is in our hands today to rescue Christians from the scourge of Muslim Jihad warriors.

Want to help? Pray.

Want to give? Call ICC at 1-800-ICC-5441 or on line at www.persecution.org.

(Click here for more information on Indonesia.)

Continued on Page 4... 

POSTED:  October 8, 2001

July 2001

Articles in this issue:  Indonesia, Page 1 | Indonesia, Page 2 | Indonesia, Page 3 | Indonesia, Page 4