S. Michael Houdmann Supporter Got Questions Ministries

A Christian martyr is someone who died for his or her faith, rather than renounce Christ. Ever since Stephen was stoned to death outside Jerusalem (Acts 7), Christians around the world have suffere...

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September 12 2013 • 0 responses • Vote Up • Share • Report

Jack Gutknecht Supporter ABC/DTS graduate, guitar music ministry Baptist church

I have read Foxe's Book of Martyrs as Michael mentioned.. Also, I just read about John Chau:

The Lord clearly gave John Chau a desire and calling to go to the people of North Sentinel Island when John was a teenager. The North Sentinelese do not have any contact with the outside world. Their language is unknown, and tribesmen have responded violently to past contacts. 

John knew he wouldn’t have a hot water heater on the island, so he always took cold showers. John knew he would land with zero knowledge of the North Sentinelese language, so he went through linguistics training. John knew one way he could serve the islanders was through health care, so he trained as a wilderness EMT. He knew contact lenses wouldn’t work without running water, so he had vision-correction surgery. He was vaccinated against all manner of diseases, knowing islanders’ immune systems would be vulnerable to imported Western illnesses. 

John made first contact with the islanders on November 15, 2018, approaching in a kayak offering gifts. Later that day, a Sentinelese boy fired an arrow at John, which lodged in the waterproof Bible he was holding. 

John retreated and prayed for wisdom. Should he keep going? Should he turn back? “God, I don’t want to die,” John wrote in his journal that evening. “WHO WILL TAKE MY PLACE IF I DO?... Forgive [the boy who shot me] and any of the people on this island who try to kill me, and especially forgive them if they succeed.” 

The next morning, before being dropped off for the final time on North Sentinel Island, John penned a note to his family. “You might think I am crazy in all this,” he wrote. “But I think it’s worth it to declare Jesus to these people.” 

On the morning of November 17, the fishermen who’d dropped John off saw tribesmen burying John’s body on the beach. John often ended his letters, even journal entries, with the Latin phrase “soli deo gloria,” meaning, “Glory to God alone.”

Lessons:
1. We can and should learn obedience to God’s guidance and direction in our lives like John did.
2. We should learn careful, wise planning from the life of martyr, John Chau.
3. We should care more for others’ health as John did before going to the heathen there. (He was vaccinated “against all manner of disease.”)

June 26 2022 • 1 response • Vote Up • Share • Report