Christian expatriates in Yemen were left shaken in June after six Christian aid workers and three children were abducted while on a day trip.
Shepherds found the bodies of two German nurses and a South Korean teacher in a riverbed in Saada, a mountainous province near Saudi Arabia known for tensions between Shiite Houthi rebels and the government. Still missing at press time were a British engineer, a German doctor, his wife, and their three children all under age 5.
The group was working at a Saada hospital through Worldwide Services, a Dutch charity that places medical personnel in developing countries. The charity is reevaluating its presence in Yemen. [...]
From here.
AD Says: Yemen is a rough country, but one in great need of Christian witness and just plain old skill and knowledge. Please pray for Yemen:
-That the remaining Christians would be brave and courageous.
-That the MBB's would be hopeful and effective in their witness.
-That the Muslim population would see the good deeds of these Christians and see the light of the Gospel.
3 comments:
Most Muslims are duly impressed by Christian charity. That was certainly the case in, say, Aceh after the tsunami.
The leadership of these Muslims, however, see this as a power challenge, and so they make martyrs--and examples--out of the aid workers.
It's tragic.
I think you are right Don. And the closer one gets to the heart of the Arab world (and Yemen is very close obviously) the harder the work becomes. Islam is largely unable to see conversion from Islam as anything other than a political statement.
Actually, there's an interesting Biblical lesson in all of this.
There's a lot of chatter about the NT's depiction of "the Jews" (esp. the Gospel of John.) But the NT shows that, on the whole, the Jewish people were receptive to Jesus' ministry and teaching.
The problem came with their leadership, which eventually felt it expedient (a political move) to get rid of him. In the course of doing this, they whipped up Jewish public opinion, which led to this.
It's hard to separate a community from its leadership, and it seems that no where on earth is it harder than the Middle East.
Post a Comment