Egypt: Martha Samuel

Children starved to coerce mom to renounce Christ

Authorities in Egypt are starving two children, ages 2 and 4, to force their mother to abandon Christianity and return to Islam, according to reports from several ministry organizations.

The Egypt for Christ Ministry is reporting the woman, who converted to Christianity about five years ago and was arrested as she tried to leave her home country just days ago, also has been sexually assaulted by police officers.

The woman, identified by the ministry as Martha Samuel, also has been beaten and tortured in effort to force her to return to Islam, with police promises for her release if she accepts, according to the reports.

The Assyrian International News Agency said Samuel was arrested last week as she, her husband and two sons were trying to leave Cairo for Russia after her name was placed on a list of people barred from leaving Egypt.

Other news links for this story:

Object of Worship

As a father and a grandfather and a Christian, this makes me sad:

In this April 8, 2008 file photo, mother Sushma holds her daughter Lali at their residence in Saini Sunpura, 50 kilometers (31 miles) east of New Delhi, India. The baby with two faces, two noses, two pairs of lips and two pairs of eyes was born on March 11 in a northern Indian village, where she is doing well and is being worshipped as the reincarnation of a Hindu goddess, her father said.

Source: Yahoo! News

“This is my future.”

Namrata Nayak

I learned about this astounding child from Steve Schippert. Here’s a little bit of what The Anchoress has to say:

Namrata Nayak knows who she is. At 10 years of age, she understands the world in ways many of us never will, no matter how long we tread the stony paths.

[…]

But I will let her speak for herself, because Namrata Nayak does not need anyone to speak for her. Observe her astonishing and heroic witness.

“The world has seen my face destroyed by the fire, now it must come to know my smile full of love and peace…I want to dedicate my life to spreading the Gospel.”

“[W]e forgive the Hindu radicals who attacked us, who burned our homes…They were out of their minds, they do not know the love of Jesus. For this reason, I now want to study so that when I am older I can tell everyone how much Jesus loves us. This is my future.”

And here:
“Christmas is a time to thank the baby Jesus who saved me from the fire and saved my face which was disfigured and wounded…There is so much pain and suffering, and I don’t know how long the special forces will protect us,” she told Asia News. “But Christmas is a time of gratitude. I am afraid that my people will still be attacked, but this is our life. If God has saved me, he can save other Christians too.”

God bless you and keep you and use you even more, Namrata.

“The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them” (Isaiah 11:6).

“Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child shall in no wise enter therein” (Luke 18:17).

The Meaning of Is

Here’s part of the story:

Flirting goes high-tech with racy photos shared on cellphones, Web

Passing a flirtatious note to get someone’s attention is so yesterday. These days, young people use technology instead.

About a third of young adults 20-26 and 20% of teens say they’ve sent or posted naked or semi-naked photos or videos of themselves, mostly to be “fun or flirtatious,” a survey finds.

A third of teen boys and 40% of young men say they’ve seen nude or semi-nude images sent to someone else; about a quarter of teen girls and young adult women have.

[…]

Most of those surveyed (73%) said they knew sending sexually suggestive content “can have serious negative consequences,” yet 22% said it’s “no big deal.”

Adrift.

And so the moral decline continues.

Still Far to Fall

That’s the title of Tony’s piece this morning over at WorldMagBlog. Here are just a few chunks thereof:

Nobody knows where the bottom is for our economy, but the experts agree we aren’t anywhere close to it yet.

We were spiritually poor as well, none of us attending church, mostly because we only knew the kinds of churches where people eagerly look for the failings of others, places where drinking and pornography were regularly denounced, but in which gossip ran rampant.

I carry it in me like a poison, this fear, not for myself any more, but for them, that they will want more food than we have, that they will have to sleep in someone’s basement.

And yet the lover of our souls tells us to worry not for tomorrow, because today’s troubles are sufficient. Let the children come to me, he says, and he may as well have said that we’d best bring them. Because if we are not leading them to him then we are leading them astray, and only God knows what he will do to such parents as that.

Things are going to get worse for many of us. Our children will be watching. The truth is, I don’t know if I trust the Lord to take care of us. And yet these little ones will be watching, and listening, and storing up memories of what it means to be a Christian in times of hardship.

Thanks again, Tony! This dad needs reminders like that.

Feeling Sorry for Yourself?

Then you should click the link and read the full article:

Afghan girl begs for bread, prays for help

Little Banafsha wakes up in her small mud home, has a cup of tea and braces herself for the day ahead.

She is just 11 years old, but she is the breadwinner for her family. Literally.

Without the bread that she begs from strangers, she, her sisters, her baby brothers and her mom would all go hungry.

[…]

She is not bitter, explaining: “My two younger sisters also work. They beg for bread and sell gum. There’s no choice.”

[…]

“A few days ago, some girls were kidnapped around here, and many people have gone missing. The girls’ mother still comes around here looking for them, but they still haven’t been found,” Banafsha says.

This time of the year, the sun begins to set at 4:30 p.m. in Kabul. But Banafsha continues to roam the dark streets. The 6 o’clock rush hour is her peak business time.

Her eyes well with tears, but she doesn’t allow them to fall, quickly wiping them away and biting her thumb like the vulnerable child she is.

She prays every day: “I say, ‘God, take me out of this poverty and have my father go work so I can go to school.’ ”

[…]

…among the estimated 60,000 other street kids in Kabul, dreaming of a better life.

So?

What of it?

Who will care?

Who will do “to one of the least of these”?

Especially in the name of Jesus?

Where is the Heavenly Father?

I don’t know much of anything about Aschiana, but to the extent that they’re helping this little girl and thousands of others like her, God bless them!

OK, next subject? Now we can move on to our own “real living.”

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Above all, love God!