tells the stories of eight
Christian women in the underground church and the valiant struggles of their
costly faith. It was written and published by staff personnel at Voice of the
Martyrs (VOM) and published in 2003 under ISBN number 978-0-88264-150-08. Very
appropriate for such a volume, the widowed and former Missionary to the
Philippines, Gracia Burnham, wrote the Foreward.
“Either you marry or you
die… If you are a Christian there is no
place for you in this city … you will die here alone”. Those parting words,
spoken by Tara’s father to his sixteen-year-old pride and joy, raised only one
thought in her mind: she must escape for her life.
Beaten to the brink of death, Tara was
the favorite daughter of a prominent Pakistani Muslim. She was locked into her
room as a prisoner without food or medical attention when she was caught reading
a Bible. She had no notion of converting to Christianity; she was only completing
a research paper for her Muslim school . None of that kept her from being sent
to school in the school of suffering, imprisonment, and finding God real.
In Indonesia, Adel and the neighborhood children, along with the
other Christian captives, faced death at the hands of their marauding Muslim
neighbors on a religious jihad. Amid the
horrors of that imprisonment, she found
hope. Purnima became a
Christian at thirteen in her Buddhist country of Bhutan. Exiled to Nepal
because of her decision to believe in Jesus, she grew up in a refuge camp and
went through her own school of suffering while in prison. Although she was a
child and imprisoned; she became a soul set free.
Aida of Leningrad became
a voice for Russia’s voiceless, in spite of her imprisonment. Sabina,
with her husband Richard, became an extraordinary witness for God’s love while
serving her time in a slave-labor camp carrying rock with which to build a levy
on a Danube canal project. She shared that love throughout Richard’s fourteen and one-half years of
imprisonment and while assisting Richard in the founding of the Voice of the
Martyrs in America, after they were ransomed for a price and escaped to
America.
Nine-year-old Ling
lived in China where she became an exceptional Church Leader and colporteur-evangelist following her imprisonment in her Graduate
School of Suffering. Gladys Weatherhead Starnes grew up
in Australia, but became a missionary worker in the Mayurbhani Leprosy Home in
Orissa, India as Mrs. Graham Starnes. Gladys was widowed when radical Hindu’s intentionally
burned her husband and children to death in a burning building. Gladys went on
to become a lifeline of forgiveness, especially when she came face to face with the
convicted Hindu extremist that led the murderous assault on her family.
In 1989 two young Vietnamese
refugees made it to Hong Kong. When Mai encountered God in her life, she
listened for his call in her life. Leaving the protection of her brother, she
gave up her pursuit of freedom in the West and returned to Vietnam and the
family that had forsaken her. She heard God calling her back to Vietnam to
preach Christ to people who had never heard of him and that is what she did.
I read these stories aloud to my wife, an
avid reader whose eyesight is failing. Being the wife of a retired pastor, I
thought she would especially enjoy this simply-written series that recognizes
how significant women have always been in forwarding the Christian mission. She and I each enjoyed the stories immensely and it became a time of bonding together as we wind down our seventy years of marriage.
I discovered, however, that a few of the stories
were so graphic and abusive of women that some of the incidents mentioned caused her not to rest well after I read to her at a late hour. A very sensitive soul, she dreamed
bad dreams. So, I leave that word of caution.
For the most part, however, the book was well-written in a simple and
readable format. And as it turned out, with the order in which I pursued the
stories, we finished with one that was not quite as intense as some had been
while still leaving us with a good taste in our mouths from a pleasant reading
experience, but also leaving us with a greater awareness of some of our brothers and sisters in the faith who need our prayers
.
From
walkingwithwarner.blogspot.com …
both Tommie and I recommend
this book for your family reading pleasure, as well as for a realistic
introduction to the life some Christians face in other countries and cultures.
