His Great Sacrifice, Our Great CommissionНамуна

Excerpt: ...And I Sat There by Hazel Hoskins
It was Sunday night. As I sat toward the back of this unpretentious place of worship, I thought of the thousands of Christians all over the world who at that moment were kneeling at an altar of prayer: our loved ones in America, believers in China, India, the Islands of the Sea; and these precious Africans, their dark faces glowing with light from an inward source. This verse kept coming to my mind, "I WILL BUILD MY CHURCH, and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it..." (Matthew 16:18)

Just three years prior, these people had been persecuted like the early Christians. Because they had burned their fetishes, the enraged members of the secret society beat them unmercifully, cut gashes in their heads, and poured hot coals in the open wounds. Numbers of them were imprisoned for many months. As I looked at Moses, the pastor, who had received the greatest amount of persecution, I thought of what he had told us the day before. He said he had felt no pain, but thought only of the price Jesus had paid for the forgiveness of his sins.