Below is an exciting report from Safaa Fahmi, missionary to Egypt:
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
Greetings and love in His loving Name.
I returned yesterday from Sudan, it was a great trip and I can easily see God’s hands dividing the water before us “to make for Himself an everlasting Name”.
The Sudanese students who studied with us in “HIU in Egypt” asked several times to extend our work to reach Sudan, but we could not do that for two reasons. (1) lack of money for plane tickets. (2) Our schedules were tight. For more than a year I was praying for Sudan asking God to open the door … and … He finally did.
The trip to Sudan in Numbers:
* Two weeks of extensive teaching. (Six subjects, 2 counseling, 2 N.T., 2 O.T.)
* No. of students: 48 , 80% of them are ministers and evangelists. 45 men and 3 women.
Next time there will be more than 100 because we will choose a better timing (this time it was in the midst of the midyear exams).
* 10 are studying for the MA level and 38 are studying for the BA level.
* The students represent 7 denominational churches.
* 3 of the students are the presidents of their denominations. We are expecting 5 more presidents of their denominations in the next conference. They already enrolled but they could not come, some because of war in their areas and the rest because different reasons.
* 15 students came from Sudan Church of Christ which is completely different from our churches, they are a blend of the Episcopal and the Presbyterian beliefs and system.
* The Students came from Khartoum in the North, Nubba mountains in the mid-west, Cordovan in the South-west and from Southern Sudan.
(Above - the 3 female students)
* Egypt is about 100 years more advanced than Sudan , although the bed was not comfortable and the rest room and the shower were very primitive and need God’s grace and peace inside for one to be able to use them , yet we enjoyed very much working with them there, they are hungry and thirsty for learning God’s Word.
The Story of
Gabriel Coko Toto
Gabriel is one of our students who came from the Nubba Mountains area. He is a convert from Islam since 1984 and he became an evangelist 1986. In 1989 he was found by the Sudanese authorities, they arrested him accusing him of terrorism. They tortured him for days with electricity shocks, burnt his back and his thighs with very hot iron and hard beat him until bleeding to deny his Christian faith but he refused. They crucified him on a military tank in the burning sun heat of Sudan (110-115F). He was dehydrating but still insisting on his faith so they covered his hands except one finger with plastic bags and put his hands in boiling oil until everything melted, the plastic bags, his flesh and even his bones except the finger which was kept to remind him of all what he went through because of his faith ..…
He was hospitalized for nine months for fear of infection, then he was rescued by the members of his church. He was not afraid after passing through all this to go
back to evangelize and tell people about Christ “if we live we live to the Lord and if we die we die to the Lord…whether we live or die we are the Lord's.”Gabriel lost nine fingers but he has now nine children. He is 49 and when I asked him about the story of his hands, he laughed and said, "I replaced every finger I lost with a child that will be a soldier in God’s Army."
Pray for him and his nine children. (Above - Gabriel & Safaa)
Every time I go to Sudan or work with Sudanese, and I see their misery and their spiritual and physical hunger comparing to the blessings I am blessed with from God, I feel a big responsibility towards them and I understand the meaning of Paul’s words …"the necessity is laid upon me, yes, woe is me if I don’t preach the Gospel."
May God Bless you all
No comments:
Post a Comment