Christianity, the Congo, Persecution, and Helen Roseveare

Tremendous faith amidst tremendous suffering:

While Western elites, politicians and media outlets all hyperventilate about the supposed problem of “Islamophobia” in the West, the real truth is this: throughout the world the most persecuted religious group is Christianity, and it is so often mainly Islam that is doing the persecution.

We just read recently about the shocking news of 70 Christians who were beheaded in a church service by Muslim militants in the Congo. Open Doors, which is a Christian ministry to the persecuted church worldwide, said this about the horrific attack:

Seventy Christians have been found beheaded in a church in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), in what’s the latest devastating attack on believers in the northeast of the country. According to field sources, at around 4am last Thursday (13 February) suspected militants from the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) – a group with ties to so-called Islamic State (IS) – approached homes in Mayba in the territory of Lubero, saying: “Get out, get out and don’t make any noise.” Twenty Christian men and women came out and were captured.

 

Shaken by this incident, people from the local community in Mayba later gathered to work out how to release those held captive. However, ADF militants surrounded the village and captured a further 50 believers. “We don’t know what to do or how to pray; we’ve had enough of massacres” All 70 of those kidnapped were taken to a Protestant church in Kasanga where they were tragically killed.

 

Muhindo Musunzi, director of the Kombo primary school [which belongs to the CECA20 church], says that prior to this incident, churches, schools and health centres had all shut their doors because of the chaotic security situation. “We had to move all activities towards Vunying,” he said.

 

Field sources report that, until yesterday (Tuesday 18 February), some families had not been able to bury their dead because of insecurity in the area. Many Christians have now fled the area for their safety. “We don’t know what to do or how to pray; we’ve had enough of massacres,” says an elder of the CECA20 church. “May God’s will alone be done.”

They continue:

“Open Doors strongly condemns this heinous act of violence against civilians and calls upon civil societies, governments and international organisations to prioritise civilian protection in eastern DRC where armed groups, such as the ADF, are operating,” says John Samuel*, Open Doors’ legal expert for the work in sub-Saharan Africa.

 

“The violence takes place in a context of impunity, where almost no one is held accountable,” he continues. “This massacre is a clear indicator of widespread human rights violations against civilians and vulnerable communities, often targeting Christians, perpetrated by ADF – a [so-called Islamic State] affiliate.

 

“We further call on the international Christian community to remain in prayer for Christians and vulnerable communities in eastern DRC,” adds John Samuel. “Pray for an end to violence and that government at all levels will diligently, impartially, and transparently address the violence and its effects. Pray for the church in Lumbero as she seeks to bring physical and spiritual assistance to the families affected.” https://www.opendoorsuk.org/news/latest-news/drc-attack-church/

Helen Roseveare

This is not the first time that Christians have suffered greatly in the Congo. Many others have as well over the years. One famous missionary to the Congo was the medical doctor Helen Roseveare (1925-2016). We all need to be aware of her story. But first, a brief timeline of the Congo is worth mentioning here:

1885 Comes under Belgian rule
1960 Gains independence
1965 Coup, renamed Zaire
1997 First Congo War
1998-2003 Second Congo War
2018 First free, general election

Roseveare was an English doctor and missionary who worked in the Congo, ministering with the Worldwide Evangelization Crusade for twenty years (1953-1973). She had become a Christian while a medical student at Newnham College, Cambridge in 1945 and then became involved with the Inter-Collegiate Christian Union, attending prayer meetings, Bible study classes, and evangelical events.

So she was in Africa during some very tumultuous times. In the 50s she helped to build hospitals and training centres there. She returned to England for two years (1958-1960) and then resumed her work in the Congo. In 1964 she was taken prisoner by rebel forces and she remained a prisoner for five months, enduring horrible beatings and rapes.

All up some 27 missionaries were killed, and countless Africans were murdered during this period. She later discussed a brutal rape she endured on October 29, 1964: “On that dreadful night, beaten and bruised, terrified and tormented, unutterably alone, I had felt at last God had failed me. Surely He could have stepped in earlier, surely things need not have gone that far. I had reached what seemed to be the ultimate depth of despairing nothingness.”

Yet then she sensed the Lord saying to her: “You asked Me, when you were first converted, for the privilege of being a missionary. This is it. Don’t you want it? … These are not your sufferings. They’re Mine. All I ask of you is the loan of your body.”

As she also famously said: “God never uses a person greatly until He has wounded him deeply. The privilege God offers you is greater than the price you have to pay. The privilege is greater than the price.”

Her incredible story is told in her various autobiographical books, including Give Me This Mountain: An Autobiography (1966), He Gave Us a Valley (1976), and Living Sacrifice: Willing to Be Whittled as an Arrow (1979).

Biographies include:

Alan Burgess, Daylight Must Come: The Story of Dr. Helen Roseveare. Michael Joseph, 1976.
May Beth Lagerborg, Helen Roseveare: Though Lions Roar. CLC, 2012.

Also see this inspiring 36-minute interview with her: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJCCx-qiZ24

Quotes

“If you think you have come to the mission field because you are a little better than others, or as the cream of your church, or because of your medical degree, or for the service you can render the African church, or even for the souls you may see saved, you will fail. Remember, the Lord has only one purpose ultimately for each one of us, to make us more like Jesus. He is interested in your relationship with Himself. Let Him take you and mould you as He will; all the rest will take its rightful place.” Give Me This Mountain

“Go ahead and make me more like Jesus, whatever the cost. But please, when I feel like I can’t stand anymore and cry out ‘Stop!’ Will you ignore my quotation mark and remember that today I said ‘Go ahead’?” Give Me This Mountain

“I fell into most of the traps possible. I made myself almost ill through my preoccupation with my own holiness, or rather lack of it! It took a long time to recover from that mistake which need never have been made. Of course, I can never be holy! How simple, when one realizes that the Lord knows me as I am in all my weakness, loves me, and waits to impart himself, his own holiness, his life, living in me…The Lord allowed a growing realization of failure in each of the different roles mentioned, in order that he himself might fill the vacuum. He longed that I would become more preoccupied with Him and less with myself.” Give Me This Mountain

“I suddenly knew with every fibre of my being that these twenty years had been worthwhile, very worthwhile, utterly worthwhile, with no room left for regrets or recriminations.” He Gave Us a Valley

“To be a living sacrifice will involve all my time. God wants me to live every minute for Him in accordance with His will and purpose, sixty minutes of every hour, twenty-four hours of every day, being available to Him. No time can be considered as my own, or as ‘off-duty’ or ‘free.’ I cannot barter with God about how much time I can give to serve Him. Whatever I am doing, be it a routine salaried job, or housework at home, be it holiday time and free, or after-work Christian youth activities, all should be undertaken for Him, to reveal His indwelling presence to those around me. The example of my life must be as telling as my preaching if He is to be honored.” Living Sacrifice

“It would seem that God had merely asked me to give Him my mind, my training, the ability that He has given me; to serve Him unquestioningly; and to leave with Him the consequences….How wonderful God is, and how foolish we are to argue with Him and not to trust Him wholly in every situation as we seek to serve Him!” Living Sacrifice

“To love the Lord my God with all my soul will involve a spiritual cost. I’ll have to give Him my heart, and let Him love through it whom and how He wills, even if this seems at times to break my heart. To love the Lord my God with all my soul will involve a volitional and emotional cost. I’ll have to give Him my will, my rights to decide and choose, and all my relationships, for Him to guide and control, even when I cannot understand His reasoning. To love the Lord my God with all my mind will involve an intellectual cost. I must give Him my mind, my intelligence, my reasoning powers, and trust Him to work through them, even when He may appear to act in contradiction to common sense. To love the Lord my God with all my strength will involve a physical cost. I must give Him my body to indwell, and through which to speak, whether He chooses health or sickness, by strength or weakness, and trust Him utterly with the outcome.” Living Sacrifice

The second-century church father Tertullian once said that ‘the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.’ Several days ago 70 brave Christians lost their lives in Congo. Seventy years ago Roseveare and others paid a very great price to serve the living Christ.

Such is the story of the church. It will forever continue, despite all the suffering and martyrdom.

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