Me: Prodigal, who are you with?
Prodigal: I am with a soldier from World War II.
Me: Battles have so many emotions in them. Sometimes we have to fight them though.
Prodigal: Do you have any battle stories for today?
Me: I actually I do. Get relaxed and enjoy this short story.
In the book Freedom Fighter there is a short testimony of El Shafie.
El Shafie was born in a prominent Muslim family in Cairo. His father and brother are successful attorneys and an uncle serves as a judge on a high court.
“When you are born into a family like this, you have lots of books on law, justice and freedom.” he said. While studying law in Alexandria (Egypt), El Shafie was reportedly shocked to see the harsh treatment of Christians. Building churches is illegal in Egypt, he said, and Christians are treated worse than second-class citizens.
It was about this time that El Shafie began studying the Bible and in 1998, at about 20 years of age, he gave his life to Christ and organized an underground congregation-worshiping in caves–that attracted 24,000 worshipers within two years.
But trouble began in earnest when El Shafie appealed for equal rights for Christians. He was arrested and confined in Abu Jaabel prison in Cairo, a place locals call “Hell on Earth,” charged with inciting a revolution, trying to change Egypt’s religion to Christianity and “worshiping and loving Jesus Christ.”
According to the report, while in custody, El Shafie refused to name names (of his friends and other Christians) so his captors took him to “an underground portion of the prison and tortured him for seven days straight,” shaving his head and holding him under scalding hot then freezing cold water. When that didn’t work, they hung him upside down, beating him with belts, burning him with cigarettes and tearing his toenails out. Finally, the prison guards tied him to a cross and left him there for two and a half days.
After losing consciousness, he found himself later waking up in a hospital bed. When a guard tipped him off that he was about to be executed, he escaped out of a back window, rode across the Red Sea on a jet ski, crossed the Sinai Desert and turned himself in to the Israeli government where he remained in custody for 16 months while the United Nations and Amnesty International investigated his story.
Ultimately, he was given political-refugee status and immigrated to Canada.
Becoming a Christian, cost El Shafie his home and his family, who have since disowned him, but he gained a new purpose in life as an advocate for persecuted Christians. “This whole thing changed my life,” he said. “I’m not giving up because I know people are going through that.”
To all governments that persecute Christians, El Shafie offers this message: “The persecuted Christians are dying, but they are still smiling. They are in a dark night, but they are still holding the light of the Lord. You can kill the dreamer, but you cannot kill the dream.
God sees what you have given up. He sees how it seems to be killing you on the inside. Don’t give up and keep smiling. This is a battle and the Lord will show up as that light and all will be redeemed!
1 John 4:4
You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.
Jennifer Van Allen,
www.theprodigalpig.com
www.faithincounseling.org
