The names of Fatima Al-Matairi anf Senait Oqbazqi Habta will never rank up there with the great revivalist of Duncan Campbell. Indeed no one has even heard of these two sisters unless you go to the web sites of a persecuted church ministry such as Open Doors or VOM.
I would like to share the stories of these two sisters. For though they are unknown to us they are known to Jesus.
Sister Fatimah lived in Saudi Arabia. It is unknown how she came to Christ. It may have been through gospel messages through the internet. It is known she was an MBB. A Moslem background believer. Saints you have to understand something. Being a woman in Saudi Arabia is no easy thing. Women have no rights in Saudi Arabia. Try walking in the steps of a Moslem woman who has found Christ. You have two strikes against you in Saudi culture. It is believed that Fatimah knew Jesus a short time before she died for her faith. From what is known of her internet journal she was passionately devoted to Jrsus. She testified of Jesus to her Moslem family. Dangerous thing to do in Saudi. She paid with her life. Her brother, a Moslem cleric locked her in her room. In the last 4 hours of her life she wrote a poem imploring her Moslem people to accept the love of Jesus. At the age of 26 this precious young sister was martyred. She may have been killed by her brother. Possibly beheaded. She is now with Jesus. She was martyred in Aug. of 2008.
The other sister is Senait Habta from Eritrea. She was a young university student who was arrested with several other young people for being part of a prayer meeting. She was put in a shipping container for two years. Imagine spending two years with over 200 people crammed onto a metal container. It is hot during the day and freezing st night. Very little food or water. Virtually no tort facilities. This precious young woman was separated frpm her family. She subcombed to dysentary anf malnutrition. She was denied medical treatment. The authorities tempted her with better treatment if she would do one thing. If she would renounce Jesus Christ and give allegiance to the state. She would.not do that. She died of ill health and went to be with Jesus in.April 2010.
These two sisters never preached revival sermons but their lives should be a sermon to us. It was said in the early church that no service was ever complete unless the martyrs were remembered. Tragically the western church does not know what the suffering church is.
It is estimated that over 300 people a day give their lives for Jesus Christ around the world. That is over one hundred thousand people a year. More people have been martyred in the 20th century than at any other time in church history.
What does this say to me? What does this say to you? Do you believe their is a persecuted church? Can you not weep over the metal containers in Eritrea or the death camps on N Korea. Will you remember the names of Fatimah Al-Mutairi and Sensitive Habta? Will you remember the persecuted and the martyrs? God does.
Posted in honor of the martyrs.
Blaine Scogin