Helmet of Hope

You may recognize the story of 13-year-old Sum (alternatively spelled Sun) from the July prayer letter and prayer guide.  Her story isn’t easy to forget.  Because of limited space, however, we couldn’t fit the whole story in our printed material, and I would like to share a bit more of it here. 

Sum lived in a village in Nigeria near Bogoro, which is east of Jos. Muslim attackers came to her village and attacked her family with guns and machetes. 

As her attackers mortally wounded her, they taunted, “See how your Jesus will save you.”  According to Compass Direct News, she replied that “Jesus had already saved her, and that by killing her they would only be making it possible for her to be with Him.” 

Meanwhile, Sum’s mother, who was also dying, asked her husband, “Is this the end between us, so we shall not be together again?”  With tears in his eyes and grasping her hands, he replied, “Hold on to your faith in Jesus, and we shall meet and never part again.”  Afterward, he said, “I look up to God despite what happened.  I have forgiven them.”

What an amazing testimony of forgiveness and faith! 

“But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation.  For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep we might live with Him.  Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing.”—1 Th. 5:8-11 

News sources: Compass Direct and Religious Liberty Prayer Bulletin