{"id":1440,"date":"2022-01-01T06:59:00","date_gmt":"2022-01-01T06:59:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.persecution.com\/stories\/?p=1440"},"modified":"2022-01-11T16:47:40","modified_gmt":"2022-01-11T16:47:40","slug":"villagers-threaten-to-burn-christian-family-alive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.persecution.com\/stories\/villagers-threaten-to-burn-christian-family-alive\/","title":{"rendered":"Villagers Threaten to Burn Christian Family Alive"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Laila\u2019s husband was away, and she was left to care for their two children alone. It was a cold winter in Central Asia, and her landlords had just kicked her out. \u201cIf you don\u2019t leave, we\u2019ll burn the house \u2014 and burn you too, if you stay,\u201d they had told her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Laila and her family had been rejected for sharing Christ in the village, so they decided to shake off the dust, pack up and leave. The family had endured many difficulties and would continue to do so, but they felt it was worth it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It all began when Laila picked up a piece of trash from the floor.<\/p>\n\n\n\r\n\t

\r\n\t\t
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Request your free magazine<\/p>\r\n\t\t\tSubscribe<\/a>\r\n\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t<\/div>\r\n\r\n\t\n\n\n

FINDING GOD THROUGH TRASH<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Laila sat in a hospital waiting room while her husband prepared to undergo surgery for bleeding ulcers. He was not expected to survive, and she felt absolutely hopeless. Noticing some discarded trash under a bench, she picked up the crumpled piece of paper, smoothed it out and saw that it was a Christian newsletter sharing the testimonies of other Christians. \u201cI wanted to find other stories like this, so I asked my sister-in-law,\u201d she said. It turned out that her sister-in- law had also become interested in Christianity and had been secretly attending a house church. She invited Laila to come with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"a<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI came right in and joined in with the worship,\u201d Laila said. \u201cIt felt good and natural. The pastor said, \u2018Jesus is alive!\u2019 I had never heard things like this. There was an invitation for people to come for prayer, and I went immediately. I was weeping as I prayed the prayer of repentance.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Christians took in Laila and her children, loving them and praying for Laila\u2019s sick husband. They told her that God might heal him. When Laila next visited her husband, he was about to undergo a fourth surgery. As a nurse, Laila knew that little could be done to help her husband\u2019s condition, so she decided to take him home from the hospital and start praying for him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She told her husband about her experience at the church and took him to church with her. After church members shared the gospel with him, he also accepted Christ. \u201cWe and the church leaders were sure he had been healed,\u201d Laila said. \u201cI went back to our village, but my husband stayed to fellowship with the Christians for a week. When he came home, I could see how healthy he was! He was joyful and full of energy, playing with the children.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“You Are Not Our Family”<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The family immediately began telling their neighbors about Christ. About a month later, the local imam came to see them and told them it was wrong of them to bring their \u201cnew faith\u201d to the other villagers. Several people in the village even wanted them to leave. Their landlord, however, told Laila that he\u2019d been a secret believer for many years, after coming to know Christ while in a Russian prison. He allowed the family to stay where they were living, but when he died of a chronic illness, his Muslim relatives told Laila and her family they would be evicted. The new landlords said the only way Laila\u2019s family could stay was if they went before the village leaders to renounce Christ and recommit to Islam.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"three<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI had learned in the Bible that Christians must suffer for the faith, so I thought, \u2018Well, here it is,\u2019\u201d she said. \u201cAnd I made my witness stronger. I shared Christ with them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At that point, the landlords kicked them out and told them they\u2019d burn them inside the house if they stayed. When the couple asked for help from relatives of Laila\u2019s husband, they were told, \u201cIf you will not deny Christ, then you are not in our family.\u201d Laila\u2019s brother-in-law advised Laila\u2019s husband to divorce her and return to Islam.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finally, Laila\u2019s husband said, \u201cLet\u2019s go. We have shared the gospel with everyone in this village, so we can move to a new place.\u201d They gathered up what they could and left the rest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Blessings Follow the Suffering<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Laila and her family continue to share Christ everywhere they go. They are ready to start their own church, composed of believers who converted to Christianity after hearing the gospel through Laila and her husband. VOM is supporting them in their work. \u201cMany people have come to the Lord through our ministry and testimony,\u201d Laila said. \u201cMy father-in-law even came to Christ, just before he died from cancer.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It hasn\u2019t been easy, and their family has suffered. Their oldest son was beaten at school for refusing to memorize the Quran. The teacher hit him on the head with the Introduction to Islam<\/em> book when he didn\u2019t recite the Arabic verses well. \u201cHe kept this to himself for a long time,\u201d Laila said. \u201cHe did not even share it with us, his family, until one day the beating was very severe. At that time, he asked me if there was any place we could go to worship God without persecution.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other children in the village point at their sons and chant, \u201cChristian! Christian!\u201d Their youngest son has scars on his head from rocks thrown by taunting children. When Laila confronted the parents of the rock-throwers, they told her it was right for their children to target hers because Laila\u2019s family believes in \u201canother God.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Laila\u2019s family remains faithful despite these hardships. \u201cChrist is worth it!\u201d she said. \u201cBlessings follow the suffering. After we suffer, we receive new blessings from Christ. And also, we follow Christ\u2019s example \u2014 He suffered, and so we will also suffer.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Laila\u2019s husband was away, and she was left to care for their two children alone. It was a cold winter in Central Asia, and her landlords had just kicked her out. \u201cIf you don\u2019t leave, we\u2019ll burn the house \u2014 and burn you too, if you stay,\u201d they had told her. Laila and her family had been rejected for sharing Christ in the village, so they decided to shake off the dust, pack up and leave. The family had endured many difficulties and would continue to do so, but they felt it was worth it. It all began when Laila picked up a piece of trash from the floor. FINDING GOD THROUGH TRASH Laila sat in a hospital waiting room while her husband prepared to undergo surgery for bleeding ulcers. He was not expected to survive, and she felt absolutely hopeless. Noticing some discarded trash under a bench, she picked up the crumpled piece of paper, smoothed it out and saw that it was a Christian newsletter sharing the testimonies of other Christians. \u201cI wanted to find other stories like this, so I asked my sister-in-law,\u201d she said. It turned out that her sister-in- law had also become interested in<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1441,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[80],"class_list":["post-1440","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-field-stories","tag-central-asia","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"\nVillagers Threaten to Burn Christian Family Alive - Stories<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"After the family shared Christ with neighbors, the landlords kicked them out and told them they\u2019d burn them inside the house if they stayed.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.persecution.com\/stories\/villagers-threaten-to-burn-christian-family-alive\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Villagers Threaten to Burn Christian Family Alive\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"After the family shared Christ with neighbors, the landlords kicked them out and told them they\u2019d burn them inside the house if they stayed.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.persecution.com\/stories\/villagers-threaten-to-burn-christian-family-alive\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Stories\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-01-01T06:59:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-01-11T16:47:40+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/assets.persecution.com\/stories\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/IMG_3345-cover-eyes_Laila-1024x683.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"683\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Megan\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:image\" content=\"https:\/\/assets.persecution.com\/stories\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/IMG_3345-cover-eyes_Laila.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Megan\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.persecution.com\/stories\/villagers-threaten-to-burn-christian-family-alive\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.persecution.com\/stories\/villagers-threaten-to-burn-christian-family-alive\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Megan\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.persecution.com\/stories\/#\/schema\/person\/ea63eedbbbed48d27a0f5da18832377a\"},\"headline\":\"Villagers Threaten to Burn Christian Family Alive\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-01-01T06:59:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-01-11T16:47:40+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.persecution.com\/stories\/villagers-threaten-to-burn-christian-family-alive\/\"},\"wordCount\":965,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.persecution.com\/stories\/villagers-threaten-to-burn-christian-family-alive\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/assets.persecution.com\/stories\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/IMG_3345-cover-eyes_Laila.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Central Asia\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Stories from the Field\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.persecution.com\/stories\/villagers-threaten-to-burn-christian-family-alive\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.persecution.com\/stories\/villagers-threaten-to-burn-christian-family-alive\/\",\"name\":\"Villagers Threaten to Burn Christian Family Alive - 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