The following is an excerpt from a letter that I received from a former student of mine. I have tried to copy his letter the way that he wrote it to me. The wording is awkward as English is not his first language.
He wrote…
Before I came to Canada I was an eye-witness of the genocide of my wife Maria Teresa, two siblings, cousins, relatives and I was saved only by the divining miracle. It was during the apocalyptic civil war without ending and the scapegoat people were the persons who were weak.
It was on Saturday December 8, 1991 about 6:00 pm in my country time. Every night we gathered in our sitting room to pray together. Our door was closed. Someone knocked on our door. I went to ask who were there and one of them answered we are people of God who need help. I opened the door. There were two people who had in their hands the modern and automatic weapons. Both opened without mercy their guns to fire all and to kill all. They tried to kill me but they supposed to have no bullets in their guns. I cried and asked them to kill me. When they went out of my home they tried and they had the last bullets.
Immediately the members of the International Red Cross and the Doctors without Frontiers came to help me for digging only one place to bury all of them. They told me to leave the building and to go with them to save myself.
Furthermore they gave me clothing and the meals of support and sent the fax through their satellite phone. They recommended the Kenya Red Cross to give the humanitarian assistance. The day after I arrived via helicopter to Kisimayo-samalia to leave by way of sea to Mombasa, Kenya.
There was a lady French doctor who was previously a Catholic nun. She gave me the next night that God was trying my faith. In this delicate moment in was necessary to put my soul in His hands to be saved.
During that sad night we two were asking and praying together until the morning. We recited the Holy Rosary and its litany. We also did the Holy Spiritual prayer. It was amazing and what happened that we found the reading of the Sacred Scriptures the comfortable words that seemed to our God was speaking to me. First, the finding of Ecclesiastes 3 that there is something that can happen any time; a time to be born and to die. In our second reading we found the patient prophet Job in Job 1 and he said that he was born naked and he will return to it. Why do we not thank God in the bad situation? The last reading was from the Holy Gospel according to Saint John 11 about the death and resurrection of Lazarus.
That is the story he wrote to me in October 2005. Christians are being persecuted today. What are we doing about it?
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