Two Kenyan teenage girls are in hiding after being beaten and starved by their uncle for accepting Christ.
Namwase Aisha, 16 and her sister Nabagabana Fatuma, 14, are being given trauma counseling and medical care after being rescued from their Muslim uncle. The uncle had taken custody of the girls five years ago after the death of their father and tried to force them to become Muslims.
“My uncle became so furious because we had embraced Jesus,” Aisha told a Morning Star News source. “He locked us inside the house and began beating us with a wooden stick, and then we were left for three days without food. At the third day, we felt as if we were going to die, and we began crying for help.”
The girls say that while being taught about Islamic jinn, or evil supernatural creatures, they were troubled and could not sleep. They said they were being harassed by these evil spirits and sought out the Christians because they wanted to be set free.
“Before leaving he church, we told the pastor of our problems, who first prayed for us to be followers of Jesus and later prayed that the evil spirits will not torment us again,” Aisha said. “After the prayers, we felt as if a big burden had been rolled away.”
The girls, fearful they will be killed for their profession of Christ, will be kept in hiding until they can flee to a western nation.
The family of Redeemer Episcopal Church in Houston were still reeling from the news their pastor and his family had been murdered when they suffered a second blow.
The son of Pastor Israel Ahimbisbwe has been arrested in the murder of his father, mother and brother.
Houston police say that 19-year-old Isaac Tiharihondi has been charged with two counts of capital murder and was being held in custody in Mississippi where he fled after the killings. He covered the bodies with blankets and towels in the back bathroom of the apartment where the victims were found Monday.
A member of the church told a local TV station that she had lunch with the accused killer after police say he committed the crime.
“It’s devastating. It’s sad. It’s unexplainable,” Nancy Taylor, who attends Church of the Redeemer, told KHOU. “We had lunch, we sat, we chatted, we talked, we laughed. It was just a real enjoyable experience and time together. … Good kid, polite, nice, respectful, grateful.”
“While I am relieved authorities have found Isaac, I am heartbroken that he has been charged with capital murder. This only adds to the tragedy of their deaths and raises more questions than it answers,” Rt. Rev. C. Andrew Doyle, Episcopal Bishop of Texas said in a statement.
A Christian family in Hot Springs, Arkansas had their home invaded by police and their children taken from them because of a “miracle supplement.”
State police and Garland County officers were looking for MMS, or Miracle Mineral Solution. The product is completely illegal and can be legally purchased online but the FDA believes there could be health concerns related to the product.
The officers were claiming that the children were being placed at risk because of the MMS in drinking water.
Hal Stanley said that he is the only member of the family that takes MMS and that it’s mostly used as a water purifier for his garden.
The couple, who homeschools their children, were kept away from their children while they were questioned by officers. Michelle Stanley told KARZ-TV that an officer said the kids looked great and the situation would be ending soon.
Then fully armed sheriffs came into the home and took the children away from their parents.
The family considers themselves “self-reliant” and avoids contact with the government. Sources close to the family say this is the motivation behind the police harassment. A court hearing is being held on January 21st to determine if the state can continue to hold the family’s children.
The Garland County Sheriff’s Department issued a statement after the media heard of their actions, claiming that the MMS story is “false.” They claim two residents close to the family who are unnamed made claims of child abuse.
A New York woman has announced that she is going to marry her biological father after two years of dating according to New York Magazine.
The 18 year old woman says that her father, who had left her life when she was a toddler, reconnected with her when she was 17 and still in high school.
“We didn’t know what was going on, but admitted that we had strong feelings for each other,” the woman told New York Magazine. “We discussed whether it was wrong and then we kissed. And then we made out, and then we made love for the first time. That was when I lost my virginity.”
“I didn’t regret it at all. I was happy for once in my life,” she stated. “We fell deeply in love.”
The couple plans to move from New York to New Jersey where adult incest is not illegal. They say that while the father’s side of the family knows about the incestuous relationship, the girl’s mother and her side of the family do not know about it. They plan to tell them after they move to New Jersey.
New Jersey enacted a new criminal code in 1979 that left the section planned for incest blank. Before that passage, incest was a crime with a maximum of 15 years in prison. Legal marriage between adult relatives is still illegal, so the “wedding” will have no legal standing.
“I just don’t understand why I’m judged for being happy. We are two adults who brought each other out of dark places. People need to research incest and GSA because they don’t get it and I don’t think they understand how often it happens,” the woman said to the magazine.
Several media watchdogs say the story could be a hoax because the woman is not identified by name.
A 13-year-old girl who escaped the Islamic terrorist group Boko Haram says her father sold her into slavery with the group.
The girl, whose identity is being withheld by authorities, said that she was being ordered to become a suicide bomber. The information from the girl coincides with a rise in terrorist attacks by young girls and women wearing bomb vests. Officials are concerned that the terrorists are forcing captive women to commit attacks.
The girl said her captors told her the only way to get into paradise would be to let them use her as a homicide bomber.
“When I was told I would have to die to enter paradise, that I would have to explode a bomb and die, I said I cannot do it,” she said. She eventually allowed them to strap a bomb vest on her after she noticed they were burying alive members of the group and girls who would not follow through with terror attacks.
“I was afraid to be buried alive,” she told reporters.
The girl was initially arrested at a hospital after she arrived with a leg wound. She told a taxi driver to take her a hospital and she left the bomb vest in the back seat of the taxi. Officials say they will keep her in protective custody while the investigation continues.
She says her father is now a full member of Boko Haram.
Officer Rafael Ramos, murdered at the hands of a madman on Saturday, was remembered as a man with a deep commitment to the church and a passion for ministry.
Ramos, 40, had been working to become a chaplain and was just hours away from completing the New York State Chaplain Task Force at the time of his death.
“Ralph Ramos was a long-standing member of 14 years at Christ Tabernacle. When he was not working, he was highly involved in our church. He served as an usher, was part of our marriage ministry and life group ministry. He and his family are well loved throughout the congregation,” said Rev. Adam Durso of Christ Tabernacle Church.
“Ralph was definitely a family man. He always talked about his kids and how well they were doing athletically and academically. He loved his church and family. He leaves behind his wife, Maritza, and two sons, Justin and Jayden, plus a host of family and friends. This is a tragic loss for us as a church, but we are committed to Maritza, Jayden and Justin to give them what Ralph gave us week in and week out.”
The daughter of Eric Garner, the man who died after a chokehold incident with the NYPD, reached out to the son of Ramos after Jayden Ramos posted a tribute to his father on Facebook.
“It hit my heart because I know what it feels like with this upcoming season and you don’t have your father around,” Emerald Garner wrote to Ramos. “I know firsthand what you’re feeling.”
When God gave me and Jim our five beautiful children, I wanted to create traditions in our family that they could remember over the years and pass down to their own children (as Little Lori is now doing).
One of those traditions that I dearly love is reading the “Legend of the Candy Cane” at Christmastime. I believe it’s so important to honor the birthday of Jesus at Christmas in everything we do, so this was a perfect blend” of the “sweet” things that go along with Christmas!
Our children also love reading the “Christmas Story” (another family tradition) along with the “Legend of the Candy Cane.” In fact, some of them even learned to read with these family traditions! Continue reading →
I can look back over my life of nearly 75 years now and count on one hand the number of Godly women that have impacted my life so dramatically as Grandma Maxine Smith. I loved her dearly, and she loved me. It seems that God always sent me exactly who I needed when I needed them and Grandma Maxine came into my life at a time when God was restoring the things I never dreamt would be restored – the love and affection of a Grandma, for instance. You see, all my Grandmas had gone to heaven and God must have known how much I still needed one, so He sent me Grandma Maxine to fill a huge hole in my heart and fill it she did, right along with Grandma Irwin, my natural Grandma who had gone to be with Jesus many years before, and with Vestal Goodman, another of my adopted Grandmas. Vestal held us all together when we were being torn apart in our great time of testing back in the ‘80’s. She was a great woman of God, and she loved us unconditionally. Continue reading →
A new study from LifeWay shows almost a quarter of American families have sought help from church food pantries to meet their needs.
The survey of 1,158 families found that 22 percent have “relied on a church program to feed their families.” Only 26 percent of those families were churchgoers and only one third said they were Christians.
“There is an abundance of food in the U.S., but plenty of people still go hungry,” LifeWay Research vice president Scott McConnell said.
The food bank network Feeding America said that 50 million Americans struggle to put food on the table.
“Many churches respond by faithfully following the biblical principle of being open handed to the poor and needy by maintaining well-stocked food pantries to share,” McConnell said.
First of all, I’m thankful for the call God put on my life even before I was born. The Holy Spirit has been at work in my heart all my life and He called me to be a born again member of God’s own family. God continues to work in my life and will make sure I get to heaven safely because I trust in Him. It was God Who gave me the Dream, Vision and Purpose of my life’s work, and it is He Who enables me to keep doing it as long as He gives me strength!
Even though the going gets rough in life at times, we are tested and purified by fire:
1 Peter 1:7 ESV So that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Continue reading →