“Surpresa Sithole, one of the four international directors
of Iris Ministries, had to attend the tragic funeral of his brother Pastor
Sithole and his cousin after a group of radical religious anti-Christians cut
him up into pieces because he was preaching the gospel. Pastor Sithole will be
greatly missed.”
This was a report
from Heidi Baker on October 22, 2007.
Her and Rolland, Heidi’s husband, run Iris Ministries where my friend is actually in school
right now.
But the reality and worthiness of the Gospel really hit home
reading this urgent prayer request.
There were actually several prayer requests, but this particular one
stood out at me. It made me realize the
presence of darkness out in the world – the opposition that Christians face on
a daily basis across the globe.
I guess the frustrating part is that there are so many
Christians here in America who will read something like this and think how
pathetically sad it is that that had happened to somebody, then they’ll
promptly go back to retreating to their pew on Sunday mornings where they play
a Christian one day a week. It drives
me nuts at the insensitivity of Christians in the States. The least they can do is actually get on
their knees and pray. It demands
nothing of us but our time.
Oh, wait.
I forget how much value we’ve placed on time in
America. We don’t have much of it.
But dang it, if there’s something this intense happening in
the Kingdom, especially in the realm of spiritual attack, why do we just sit on
our hands, kick up our feet and not do anything about it? We’re all the same under Christ. Under Christ we are all brothers and
sisters. We are family. Pastor Sithole was my brother. I lost a brother. My brother was chopped into pieces by religious fanatics because
he was preaching about our Jesus.
While I am incredibly saddened by the loss – sincerely – I
am rejoicing that he ‘went out’ doing something so awesome. I hope that I can go out whatever way brings
God the most glory. If it’s while
sleeping in my bed… great. If it’s
while getting slaughtered in a jail cell because I told someone about Jesus…
(though hesitant), great!
Seth Barnes wrote in one of his blogs,
“I want to live the kind of life so that when my eyes snap open in the
morning, the demons say, ‘Oh no, he’s awake again.'” I’m pretty sure that’s how I want to
be. In all honesty, I wish that’s the
way that we were as a church. I think
it’s rather unfortunate that we’re not.
I’m pretty sure the demons shrieked every morning Pastor Sithole woke
up. They knew that he knew how to kick
their smelly butts.
Keith Green, an awesome Christian hippie and musician from the 70’s, wrote a
song called Asleep in the Light.
He says, “the world is sleeping in the dark that the church can’t fight,
cause it’s asleep in the light.” How
true is that?
When are we going to wake up? When
are we going to realize the immensity of the Kingdom? When will we stop hiding our ‘faith’ inside a building on Sunday
morning and actually start living it?
Jesus is on the move – are you?
