{"id":4393,"date":"2023-02-25T20:09:01","date_gmt":"2023-02-25T20:09:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.persecution.com\/stories\/middle-east-the-greatest-gift-ive-ever-given\/"},"modified":"2023-02-25T20:09:01","modified_gmt":"2023-02-25T20:09:01","slug":"middle-east-the-greatest-gift-ive-ever-given","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.persecution.com\/stories\/middle-east-the-greatest-gift-ive-ever-given\/","title":{"rendered":"MIDDLE EAST: \u201cThe Greatest Gift I\u2019ve Ever Given\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last week\u00a0<\/a>we heard Gary Witherall talk about how God called him and his wife, Bonnie, to evangelize Muslims in the Middle East. In this second part of our conversation, Gary describes the day Christian persecution hit home as his wife, Bonnie, was martyred in the clinic where she served Palestinian refugees in Lebanon.<\/p>\n

Gary talks about hearing God\u2019s voice in that time of grief as he sat on the floor; in the next room was the body of his martyred wife. Faced with the choice of bitterness and hatred or forgiveness and love, Gary chose forgiveness. In that moment, Gary prayed, \u201cLord, you have forgiven me of all things. Today I forgive whoever killed my wife.\u201d Gary calls that forgiveness the greatest gift he\u2019s ever given anybody.<\/p>\n

Listen as he shares the responses of friends and neighbors when they saw that forgiveness in action; his wife had just been martyred for her faith yet Gary still loved the Lebanese people.<\/p>\n

You\u2019ll also hear about how God has brought fruit from Gary and Bonnie\u2019s sacrifice, and how God is still using Gary today to share His love around the world as he continues to serve with\u00a0Operation Mobilization<\/strong><\/a>. You can learn more about Gary\u2019s story by reading his book,\u00a0Total Abandon<\/em><\/strong><\/a>\u00a0(affiliate link).<\/p>\n

Never miss an episode of VOM Radio! Subscribe to the podcast<\/a>.<\/span> Or you can listen in the brand new VOM App<\/a> for your smartphone or tablet.<\/p>\n

Listen to this episode on VOMRadio.net<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last week\u00a0we heard Gary Witherall talk about how God called him and his wife, Bonnie, to evangelize Muslims in the Middle East. In this second part of our conversation, Gary describes the day Christian persecution hit home as his wife, Bonnie, was martyred in the clinic where she served Palestinian refugees in Lebanon. Gary talks about hearing God\u2019s voice in that time of grief as he sat on the floor; in the next room was the body of his martyred wife. Faced with the choice of bitterness and hatred or forgiveness and love, Gary chose forgiveness. In that moment, Gary prayed, \u201cLord, you have forgiven me of all things. Today I forgive whoever killed my wife.\u201d Gary calls that forgiveness the greatest gift he\u2019s ever given anybody. Listen as he shares the responses of friends and neighbors when they saw that forgiveness in action; his wife had just been martyred for her faith yet Gary still loved the Lebanese people. You\u2019ll also hear about how God has brought fruit from Gary and Bonnie\u2019s sacrifice, and how God is still using Gary today to share His love around the world as he continues to serve with\u00a0Operation Mobilization. You can learn more about Gary\u2019s story by reading his book,\u00a0Total Abandon\u00a0(affiliate link). Never miss an episode of VOM Radio! Subscribe to the podcast. Or you can listen in the brand new VOM App for your smartphone or tablet.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":182,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[102],"class_list":["post-4393","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-vom-radio","tag-middle-east","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"\nMIDDLE EAST: \u201cThe Greatest Gift I\u2019ve Ever Given\u201d - Stories<\/title>\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\/middle-east-the-greatest-gift-ive-ever-given\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"MIDDLE EAST: \u201cThe Greatest Gift I\u2019ve Ever Given\u201d - Stories\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Last week\u00a0we heard Gary Witherall talk about how God called him and his wife, Bonnie, to evangelize Muslims in the Middle East. In this second part of our conversation, Gary describes the day Christian persecution hit home as his wife, Bonnie, was martyred in the clinic where she served Palestinian refugees in Lebanon. Gary talks about hearing God\u2019s voice in that time of grief as he sat on the floor; in the next room was the body of his martyred wife. Faced with the choice of bitterness and hatred or forgiveness and love, Gary chose forgiveness. In that moment, Gary prayed, \u201cLord, you have forgiven me of all things. Today I forgive whoever killed my wife.\u201d Gary calls that forgiveness the greatest gift he\u2019s ever given anybody. Listen as he shares the responses of friends and neighbors when they saw that forgiveness in action; his wife had just been martyred for her faith yet Gary still loved the Lebanese people. You\u2019ll also hear about how God has brought fruit from Gary and Bonnie\u2019s sacrifice, and how God is still using Gary today to share His love around the world as he continues to serve with\u00a0Operation Mobilization. You can learn more about Gary\u2019s story by reading his book,\u00a0Total Abandon\u00a0(affiliate link). Never miss an episode of VOM Radio! Subscribe to the podcast. Or you can listen in the brand new VOM App for your smartphone or tablet.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.persecution.com\/stories\/middle-east-the-greatest-gift-ive-ever-given\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Stories\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-02-25T20:09:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"vomtechsupport\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"vomtechsupport\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.persecution.com\/stories\/middle-east-the-greatest-gift-ive-ever-given\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.persecution.com\/stories\/middle-east-the-greatest-gift-ive-ever-given\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"vomtechsupport\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.persecution.com\/stories\/#\/schema\/person\/5ff286fd5505fccd2d5ebfd9d4203216\"},\"headline\":\"MIDDLE EAST: \u201cThe Greatest Gift I\u2019ve Ever Given\u201d\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-02-25T20:09:01+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.persecution.com\/stories\/middle-east-the-greatest-gift-ive-ever-given\/\"},\"wordCount\":260,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.persecution.com\/stories\/middle-east-the-greatest-gift-ive-ever-given\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/assets.persecution.com\/stories\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/VOM-Stories-VOMRadio-Placeholder.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Middle East\"],\"articleSection\":[\"VOM Radio\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.persecution.com\/stories\/middle-east-the-greatest-gift-ive-ever-given\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.persecution.com\/stories\/middle-east-the-greatest-gift-ive-ever-given\/\",\"name\":\"MIDDLE EAST: \u201cThe Greatest Gift I\u2019ve Ever Given\u201d - 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