Body Snatchers

Reading this short article today made my blood boil:

Female Prisoner Dies in Eritrea for Refusing to Renounce Faith in Christ

Allie Martin
OneNewsNow.com
September 11, 2007

A ministry, which informs Christians about the plight of persecuted believers worldwide, says persecution is on the rise in Eritrea, a small African nation located along the southwestern coast of the Red Sea.

Open Doors USA has recently learned of the death of Eritrean prisoner Migsti Haile. The 33-year-old woman was a Christian who was imprisoned, tortured, and then killed for refusing to renounce her faith in Christ.

Haile was among a group of ten single Christian women who had been arrested at a church gathering and then spent a year-and-a-half imprisoned under harsh conditions. Dr. Carl Moeller, president of Open Doors USA, says the Eritrean government is scared of religion and its influence.

"It's incredulous for most Americans to think about a small country like this, taking out such aggressive violence against Christians -- and for what reason?" he questions. "They have a quasi-Marxist government there that is power centric and ... afraid of the force of religion in their country."

He says Open Doors is maintaining an "active campaign" to raise awareness of these types of situations to European, U.S., State Department, and human rights officials. "We have programs where people can, of course, get informed about what is happening, because you're not going to see this in the New York Times or CNN," he states.

Moeller points out that four Christians have died in Eritrea during the past year as a result of persecution. And currently more than 2,000 Eritrean Christians are imprisoned and tortured because they refuse to renounce their faith in Christ.

It's going on all over the globe.  I get anxious for God to take His revenge on the persecutors of my fellow believers, but realize that I have to simmer down and let God take care of issues like this in His own time.

In the meantime, I talk daily to our kids about persecuted people from around the world.  I think it is so important that they realize that it's real.  It's happening, and their futures may not be all about living out the American Dream, but about living out their faith in Christ in a way that may seem all too shockingly real.  I pray that if the time comes that they have to suffer for their faith that they stay strong and remember that no one can snatch them from His hand.