Miraculous Escape an Answer to Prayer for Mission Workers.
Three Christians working with Bibles4Mideast who were reported missing a week ago (see June 17th Prayer Request), have been reunited with their co-workers and have an amazing story to tell of their abduction and subsequent escape from a locked basement prison.
Bibles4MidEast organisation, which for security reasons does not disclose its exact locations and operations, said on Monday that the escape by the three men was miraculous.
They were tired and weak because of food and sleep deprivation and their long walk across the desert, but they described how they had been returning from a worship service on June 12th when they were accosted and attacked.
“Extremists jumped on us with iron pipes and stickers, took the Bibles from our hands by force, [tore them and threw them away].” Then “somebody started beating us.”
The three men were rescued when a bus of travellers stopped nearby, and intervened, taking the them to the hospital.
However, after they asked to be discharged, they hired a taxi, but the two other passengers inside the taxi pulled out a revolver and pointed it at the men.
At that point they were bound and gagged, assaulted again and locked in a cellar that smelled strongly of dead bodies.
There was only one door, and “we thought our death is near.” the men reported. But “after three or four days,” they saw a light spread over the room and sensed the aroma of a “costly perfume.”
“While we were praying we saw a small creature was going through a small hole. We got a nail from the wall and tried to make the hole bigger. We felt there would be … some chance for us to escape. So we [dug] the hole deeper and bigger. And we saw a small door opening to a narrow passage,” they said.
One hundred meters into the tunnel, it opened up into the desert outside the terrorists’ compound, they said. In the moonlight, they started following a large bird, whether eagle or falcon, they didn’t know.
“More than 42 hours we walked through the desert. It was very hot.” they wrote in the report. They rested during the second night, and in the morning, they saw a house and knocked on the door.
“Our fellow missionaries opened the door and were astonished seeing us. We embraced together and rejoiced in our Lord,” they said.
- Give thanks for the miraculous escape of these three missionaries, and for answered prayer on their behalf.
- Pray for the men ad their families as they recover from their ordeal. Pray for complete healing, and for the testimony of their escape to touch many hearts with the Love of God who answers prayer and protects His people.
- Pray for those who abducted the men, that they will encounter the truth of the living Lord Jesus and have their lives transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit.
- Pray for the continuing work of Christian mission workers in the Middle East, for protection on those involved, for open doors for the Gospel and for many to come to accept the truth of Jesus Christ and His life and hope.
Psalm 91 vs 14 – 16: “Because he loves me,’ says the Lord, ‘I will rescue him; I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name. He will call on me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honour him. With long life I will satisfy him and show him my salvation.’“
Source: http://www.wnd.com/2016, http://www.persecution.org/2016
