In the excellent book, “We Felt Like Grasshoppers (the story
of Africa Inland Mission)” by Dick Anderson.
He shares the story of a young Christian in Zaire (now Democratic
Republic of Congo) in the 1930s who was willing to suffer for Christ.
“A young man, blind
in one eye, asked if he could go to teach the Babendi. Paul Stough warned Tomasi that they might
beat him, starve him, perhaps kill him.
‘But Bwana’, he replied, ‘The Lord Jesus suffered for me; certainly I
can suffer a little for him.’
“The Bendi Chief arrested Tomasi, put a rope around his neck
and commanded the soldiers to force him to run to the government centre. Wherever they rested, villagers enquired why
he was detained. He replied, ‘For
preaching the gospel of Jesus who died for your sins’ and went on to tell them
the way of salvation. Imprisoned at the
government post, he passed on the same message to the guard. Next morning the judge ordered him to be laid
on the ground and lashed with a hippo-hide whip. He thanked God for the soldier assigned to
flay him, ‘My preaching the previous night made him friendly and he did not hit
me as hard as he should.’ Released, he continued to preach and God established
churches among the Babendi.” [p. 318-319].
No comments:
Post a Comment