A Town without Churches

In an Egyptian town without a church, Christians must ride in open-top cattle cars to get to a place where they can worship together. Joseph (a lay pastor whose name has been changed) explains, “We take them not in proper cars or micro-buses, but trucks—the same trucks we use to move animals.” A year ago, a man fell out of a truck and died.

Joseph was given land to build a church, but Muslims and government officials have been opposing the project for ten years. He was ready to give up—until tragedy struck, and a door opened where he had expected none.

Very active Christians in their community, Joseph and his wife were well known for their faith and service. He went door to door encouraging Christians, provided basic medical services to all faiths, offered vocational training to Christian women, repaired roofs for the poor, provided other housework, distributed free food to the elderly and infirm, and conducted prayer meetings. The government forced him to stop the prayer meetings, but he still sought ways to help the community.

One day when he and his wife were riding on a motorcycle, a group of Muslims ambushed them. He was knocked to the ground with clubs, and the couple were shot and left for dead. Then the villagers began celebrating the hated Christians’ death.

Miraculously, however, the couple survived. Many more bullets were shot than actually hit them. Because Joseph’s wife was wearing a large coat that made her body look like a wider target than it actually was, she was hit only in the arm. Joseph lost much blood, but because an elective surgery had been canceled the day before, the doctors were able to give him a large enough blood transfusion in his blood type. Still, many of the bullet fragments could not be removed from his body, and he suffered internal infections that caused his flesh to rot inside him. He spent 70 days in the hospital, and to this day he is still bedridden, partially paralyzed, unable to eat solid food, unable to use the bathroom normally, unable to work, and facing large doctors’ bills. He and his wife struggle, but they have not given up their faith.

Joseph’s wife says, “There is a great work the Lord is doing in our lives; we may not know what the reason is now, but maybe some day we will.”

Now they are hoping that they may have new leverage in their ten-year-old effort to build a church. Joseph has told officials that he will not testify against the attackers if the government allows him to build a place of worship. He hopes that his personal tragedy may enable other believers to gather together without having to ride in dangerous cattle cars.

Joseph says that his Muslim attackers wanted to “break the hearts of the Christians.” Pray that God will turn these believers’ heartbreak into an opportunity for them to spread the Gospel and to grow in their faith.

Source: Compass Direct News