Page 8 - Voice of the Persecuted Christians - Jan-Mar 2022 - 121

others, I will also acknowledge before my Father in heaven. But whoever disowns me before others, I will disown before my Father in heaven.”
her. To add even more pressure, she was separated from other Christian prisoners.
had to run after one of the guards while another pushed us from behind. Our feet became full of thorns. After
a long time they made us lie down on the thorns and three men beat each woman. They were well trained in torture – they beat us in one place
on our bodies again and again so we would not pass out and get relief on that part. They wanted maximum pain. After my beatings they made me sit down and said to me, “You are young, well educated, and you should get married and have children. We are giving you an opportunity to go because we love you and have pity for you”.
‘They were polite and tried to convince me. While in pain I answered one word: “God gave me life; to give Him my life is a small thing.”
‘When they knew I would not give in they reverted to cruelty; they hit me in the same place on my back. I could not tolerate the pain – it was beyond
‘I prayed: “Forgive them for they not know what they’re doing”. I don’t know how. So I finished that night in victory!’
what I could endure and I said to the Lord, “Don’t test me beyond my ability to cope.” but I then saw the suffering as a great privilege and felt the Holy Spirit’s presence. I received grace to endure the pain and when I looked
at the people who were beating me I realised I am suffering now but this will take me to glory; now they are laughing but their end is loss; they are in a worse situation than me. I started to love them and at that moment a verse from the scripture came to my heart and I prayed: “Forgive them for they not know what they’re doing”.
During the daytime the prison guards would shut the door of the container and the window fully. ‘I was not able to breathe. The guards waited outside for me to call them but I prayed, “please God help me!”
However, when they realised that she was determined not to renounce her faith they sent her to another prison in Wia, on the Red Sea coast, one of the hottest places in Eritrea.
‘God gave me the word in 1 Peter 4:12- 14: “Do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice that you participate
in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed. If you are insulted because of the name of Christ, you are blessed, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you.”
Twen was placed in an underground cell but she says, ‘I had a heart
full of joy because I was with other Christians’. In fact such was her delight at once more being able to share fellowship that she described meeting them as ‘the day I was released! I remembered the meaning and the depth of Psalms 133:1-3’.
‘When I received this verse, I felt the Holy Spirit in my heart. I started to rejoice and to breathe – I don’t know how. It was like Daniel’s friends alive in the fire. God wanted to show His glory in my life.’
‘They tried to scare us with warnings that unless we renounced our faith we would suffer this or that but our position was to be faithful even to death.’
I don’t know how. So I finished that night in victory!’
There in the shipping container Twen says she learned the importance of Christian fellowship and says her suffering would not have felt so bad
It was not long before their resolve would be put to the test. The guards started the beatings in the hottest season. On one night they took Twen and others barefoot to an area with thorny ground, where they made them run across thorny ground. ‘We
It was not just the beatings that prisoners were made to suffer but also the effects of dehydration – they were given just one cup of water and one piece of bread a day. Thankfully Twen managed to survive.
if she had had other believers with
Unsurprisingly she questioned why all this had happened to her while at
Twen spent nearly two years in Wia, where conditions were brutal.
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