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| Roy Pontoh
15 years old
Indonesia
1999
The teens could tell that the shouts and chanting were getting closer and closer. An older teen looked nervously at his friend. "The Muslims are coming. We'd better hide the kids," he said. Others, following his lead, helped the smaller children find hiding places in the buildings nearby. Then they hid themselves.
It was January and a crowd of mostly Christian children and teenagers had gathered for a Bible camp at the Station Field Compoelx of Pattimura University on the island of Ambon, Indonesia. When the camp was over, cars came to take the laughing, rejoicing children back to their homes. But there were not enough cars to hold the young people.
Mecky Sainyakit and three other Christian men had gone to Wakal village to try to rent additional transportation to take the rest home. But they had not yet come back.
What the kids waiting for rides home didn't know was that on their way to the village, the men were attacked by a Muslim mob, who pulled them from their car and out onto the road. Mecky and one of the other men were stabbed to death, and later their bodies were burned by the mob. The two other men escaped with their lives.
Before long, the mob reached the University. They found many of the teens and forced them to come out of hiding.
Roy Pontoh was forced from his hiding place and made to stand before the mob.
"Renouce your Jesus, or we will kill you!" thye threatened.
Roy was terribly frightened. Though trembling, he answered, "I am a soldier of Christ!"
At this, one of the Muslim attackers swung a sword at his stomach. The sword hit the Bible Roy held, and ripped into it, knocking it out of his hand. The man's next swing sliced open Roy's stomach. His last word was "Jesus."
The mob dragged Roy's body out and threw it in a ditch. Four days later, his family found it. Even though they are wracked with grief, Roy's parents stand proud of their son, who stood strong in his faith to the end. | | |
| Pastor Florescu
Romania
1960s
The Communist torturers came towards Pastor Florescu again, this time with red-hot iron pokers. "Who else believes as you do? Give us their names." Florescu would not speak. They had already cut him again and again with knives and beaten him very badly. When he refused to cooperate, he was returned to his cell. Starving rats were then driven into his cell through a large pipe. He could not sleep, having to defend himself at all times. If he rested a moment, the rats would attack him. He was forced to stand for two weeks, day and night. The Communists kept asking him to betray his brethren, but he resisted steadfastly.
In the end, they brought his fourteen-year old son and began to whip the boy in front of his father, saying that they would continue to beat him until the pastor told them what they wanted to know. The poor man was half crazy. He bore it as long as he could. But when he could stand it no more, he crid to his son, "Alexander, I must say what they want! I can't bear your beatings anymore!"
The son answered, "Fathe, don't do me the injustice of having a traitor as a parent. Withstand! If they kill me, I will die with the words, 'Jesus and my fatherland."'
This enraged the Communists. They grabbed the young man and beat him to death, his blood splattering over the walls of the cell. He dided praising God. | | |
| Zenobius and Zenobia
Aegaea, Cilicia
(near Kalamaki-Aydin, Turkey)
285 AD
"I love Jesus Christ more than all the riches and honor of this world. Death and the torments with which you threaten me. I do not consider a disadvantage, but my greatest gain." Having said that, Zenobius, the Bishop of the Church of Aagaea, looked steadily at Lysias, The Roman proconsul.
Lysias had offered Zenobius great wealth, honor, and position if he would follow the command of the Emperor and serve the Roman gods, but threatened him with torture if he did not.
On a tour through the provinces of Cilicia, Lysias had been holding criminal court against Christians in town after town. He had been in Aegaea only a short time, but he had already tortured five Christians to death. Now he looked forward to tormenting the bishop himself.
"Put him on the rack!" the proconsul ordered. "We will see how much pain he stand."
While the executioners were busy with Zenobius, his sister Zenobia, having heard what was happening, came running in. She cried with a loud voice, "you tyrant! What evil thing has my brother done, that you toruture him like this?" She too was seized by the servants, stripped naked, stretched out, and roasted beside her brother on a red-hot iron bed.
The tyrant mocking the martyrs said, "Now let Christ come and help you, seeing you suffer these torments for Him."
Zenobius replied: "See, He is already with us, and cools, with His heavenly dew, the flames of fire on our bodies; though you, surronded as you are with the thick darkness of wickedness, cannot see it."
That made Lysias furious. "Throw them into boiling pots of water!" he hollered. Miraculously, the boiling water did not kill the two believers, and they continue to praise the Lord Jesus. Lysias was almost beside himself. None of the other Christians had survived his torments like these two had. "Get them out of my sight!"
"What shall we do to them next?" the executioners asked.
At his wits end, Lysias ordered a gorm of death that was sure to work but seldom used on Christians because it was quick and painless: "Their bodies were buried in a cave near the place where they were executed. | | |
| "My Life Is a Prayer"
Mary Khoury
17 years old
Damour, Lebanon
During the Lebanese civil war, 1975-1992
Mary Khoury and her family were forced to their knees before their home. The leader of the Muslim fanatics who had raided their village waved his pistol carelessly before their faces. His hatred for Christians burned hi his eyes, "if you do not become a Muslim, " he threatened, "you will be shot."
Mary knew Jesys had been given a similar choice, "Give up your plan to save sinners, or You will be crucified." He chose the cross
Mary's choice was similar. "I was baptized as a Christian, and His word cam to me: 'Don't deny your faith.' I will obey Him. Go ahead and shoot." The report of a gun from behind her echoed in the valley and Mary's body fell limply to the ground.
Two days later, the Red Cross came into her village. Of all her family, Mary was the only one still alive. But the bullet had cut her spinal cord, leaving both her arms paralyzed. They were stretched out from her body and bent at the elbows, reminiscent of Jesus at His crucifixion. She could do nothing with them.
More words from the Lord came to Mary. Even though she was now handicapped, she knew God had a plan for her life.
"Everyone has a vocation," she said. "I can never marry or do any physical work. So I will offer my life for Muslims, like the one who cut my father's throat, cursed my mother and stabbed her, and then tried to kill me. My life will be a prayer for them."
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