Pray for Meriam and Her Little Ones

May 29

Thirty years ago, as of this writing in 2014, two businessmen who were living in a country where religious tolerance is unheard of formed an underground branch of the Full Gospel Business Men’s Association. Before long, many other believers were added to their number and their monthly meetings at an American sponsored restaurant called “The D.I.” were well attended.

Each month a different one of these men testified as to his experience in coming to know Christ as his Savior and each month one of them gave a little talk regarding faith in the unchanging and eternal God who gave Himself that men might be free.

At one of these meetings, an unlikely speaker took his place at the podium. He was from an African nation and although he was attired in western clothing, the scars that covered his face and arms seemed to indicate that he had been involved in some tribal ritual. That presumption was quite far from the truth.

A hush fell over the auditorium as he began to speak. He told of the take-over of his country by the Communists and the imprisonment of anyone who had been in a position of influence under the previous government. Consequently, he and his family were cast into prison.

The treatment of prisoners was abysmal. Many were tortured and beaten, he among them. The scars he bore were not from primitive pagan practices but because of the severe lashings and beatings that were inflicted upon him.

When he had been beaten to within an inch of his life, he was cast back into the prison population where he was nursed back to health by a group of people who seemed to enjoy safety from the heinous treatment of the sadistic guards. This kindly group were known as “the Pents.” They were a group of Pentecostal Christians.

According to the testimony given by the speaker, every time one of them had been abused by a guard, some dire fate fell upon the guard—he became ill or a member of his family died. Without fail, when one of the Pentecostals had been subjected to the horrific treatment that was rampant in the prison, a high penalty was extracted upon the one who inflicted that treatment. Consequently, the Pents were left alone by the guards.

The speaker was persuaded by them to accept Christ as his Savior and he became one of them. From that time until he was unexpectedly released, without papers and without any way to support himself in his native country, he remained safe under the protection the Lord put over His people.

Because he had no way to support himself under the Communist regime, he fled to the country where he lived and worked under the auspices of a company that supplied manual labor to the wealthy kingdom that was growing beyond its ability to sustain itself without foreign technology and foreign labor.

With all that said, may I ask YOU to pray for Meriam Ibrahim, that the judge in her case, the guards in her prison, that the person tasked with administering 100 lashes to her will either be touched by compassion and release her and her children to her husband or that they shall experience the same fate as befell the sadistic guards in this tale of another time and another place where man’s inhumanity to man was rampant.

May the U.S. officials who are doing nothing in the behalf of this American man and his family be compelled by the demands of decency to move in the behalf of this woman and her babies—or may they feel the retribution of the mighty God who loves her and her children and died for them that they might live eternally.

May our concerted prayers “set the captive free,” Isaiah 61:1, Luke 4:18, as we beseech the God of mercy and grace, the Christ who died that we may live, in the behalf of our sister and her precious little ones--let us beseech Him that THEY MAY LIVE!