CEE Story From The Mission Field
An Amazing Faith
May 21, 2002
When God begins to move and draw people to himself, Satan gets his feathers ruffled and starts trying to erect barriers and quiet the testimonies. As missionaries in Macedonia will tell you, Satan has been working overtime among one family there. Here is their story:
At a home Bible study in Macedonia, a Roma (gypsy) Muslim was saved. She began witnessing to her family in another district and they wanted to hear more. The family consists of two brothers, their wives and children, and their mother and father. They all live in a three-room house. They invited the missionaries to begin a Bible study in their home and soon one of the brothers, three of his four children and his parents all accepted Christ and were saved. The brother was a natural leader and quickly learned the truths of Scripture and began to grow. That is when Satan began to attack him and his family.
First, the brother went to Germany to try to get work to make money for his family. In order to go, he had to take out a loan. Once in Germany, he was arrested and put in jail because of problems with his visa. The good news was that he had his Bible with him and spent the long weeks of confinement studying and growing as a believer. Upon his return home, still with no money, he had to repay the loan in order to keep items in his home from being repossessed.
Unfortunately, there was also a glitch in the government paperwork and his family had been taken off the list of social and medical welfare recipients. This meant that what little stable income they had was gone, he had no hope of repaying the loan, and some of his furniture, including his stove, was repossessed. Also during this time his niece developed a hernia but couldn't be treated for it, and his grandmother had a heart attack. She had to lie about her identity to be treated. Finally, his 13-year old daughter became mysteriously ill and died very suddenly.
While all this tragedy has been hurled at this Macedonian family, God's name is still being lauded. They are clinging to their faith and sharing it with others even in the midst of their sorrow. Most of the extended family has yet to meet the Lord and is still entrenched in their Muslim culture, but this family followed their new faith and chose to have a Christian burial for their daughter.
Though they carried out traditional funeral procedures, they preached a Christian message at each turn and in doing so had plenty of opportunities to share the gospel with their family -- the missionaries in Macedonia were amazed at how plentiful the opportunities were. During the wake, around the table, at the burial site -- over a weeklong period, many times were used to talk about Christ, and not just preach about Him, but really discuss and debate with the Muslim family the authenticity of the Christian faith.
This precious family of believers has suffered but they have also known the comfort of Christ and have testified to its goodness. Although Satan thought he could drive them away from their faith, God has instead drawn them closer and worked through them to reach others. Isn't that amazing?