Friday, December 23, 2011

The suffering Church and a blog by Vivian Chapman

I know this is a different kind of posting just before Christmas, but the suffering Church has been on my heart today and then a friend on Facebook led me to this Belief blog with an article My Take: Looking for faith amid persecution.

Vivian Chapman, who is a writer and producer and the wife of photographer Gary S. Chapman went with her husband as he interviewed and photographed those who had suffered from an extremist Muslim mob in Pakistani in 2009. Homes were burned with people in them.

Part of what she writes is:
Through an interpreter, we talked with a 32-year-old father of four young children who became a hero to 70 women and children. As a violent mob appeared on their street, young girls and women clutching their children began to run into his family’s three-story home.

Pleading with his father to give him the shotgun and shells that were in storage, he argued for protecting the women seeking refuge, “If we allow the mob to come into our house, what will they do? If they kill everyone in the house, then we will have to answer to God why we didn’t protect them. Give me the gun. God I put my life in your hands. I’m going to protect these lives. Help me.”

Incredulous, I wondered how I would have reacted. Would I have been brave? What would I have done? What could I have done?”
Chapman who is a Christian also states:
As the relief team took assessments for supplies, our interpreter, also a Christian, turned to me and said, “We see the destruction of their homes, but not the destruction of their lives. Jesus will never leave us or forsake us.”

Under the same circumstances, would I draw strength from that promise? Could I endure those kinds of struggles and hardships? I hope so.”
You can see the pictures her husband took here and read his blog here

Father have mercy and loving care for your suffering church through the coming year.





H.T. Jonathan Armstrong

2 comments:

Dave Moody said...

I hope to stand firm enough, that I just might be able to look these folks in the face, on that day.

Viola Larson said...

Amen, Dave, Amen.