Page 10 - Voice of the Persecuted Christians - Jan-Mar 2022 - 121

guards came back in the morning they were surprised to see the dead snakes.
When she reflects on her time in prison and all the suffering she endured and witnessed, she has this message for Christians in the ‘free’ world: ‘Your prayers saved me. This victory is a victory for all of us.
‘The grace of God made everything possible. I feel so blessed to participate in Christ’s suffering. Even now I do not have any grudge or hatred against those who put me in prison and tried to make my life miserable. I cannot think anything against them but love them.’
Twen was brought up in the capital Asmara. She would spend nearly three years in a prison not far from the city
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‘Then I thought back about the bite on my foot and that it would be swelling but my whole body was already swelling. It was a miracle I survived; like Daniel not being eaten by the lions.’
Despite the swelling in her foot Twen was then forced to walk across hot sand; unable to lift her feet because of the swelling the sand would burn her feet.
‘When the guard pushed me to run forwards the swelling burst. The pain was excruciating – the worst I had ever felt. I cried like a child. No one could comfort me.’
Key decision
There’s nothing good in prison,’ Twen told me. ‘Everything is painful: the food, the water,
the lack of clothes. In the first few years when I was sick I was not allowed to see a doctor. Every day the guards speak to you using abusive words, they belittle you, mock you and try to break you. But in all of this the grace of God was with me.
‘What made the suffering
easier was the fact that I was prepared. The day I decided to choose the Bible over the letter was the thing that sustained me in prison. It never came to my mind again whether I should renounce my faith or not as I had already made that decision.’
Tom Hardie
As well as having to deal with her own physical pain Twen had to watch as others suffered similar brutal
‘The grace of God made everything possible. I feel so blessed to participate in Christ’s suffering’
SUDAN
ERITREA Asmara Wia
DJIBOUTI ETHIOPIA
treatment. On one occasion twin sisters were beaten next to each other so not only did they suffer physically but also had to listen to the screams of their sibling. After two hours both of them lost consciousness. Twen held one of them in her arms as she died.
In total Twen spent 16 years in prison, finally being released as part of a government ‘goodwill’ amnesty for 200 prisoners of faith.
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