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Incident
happened in |
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The
two Christian girls waited in the Chinese prison yard for the announced execution.
A fellow prisoner who watched the scene from his prison cell described their
faces as pale but beautiful beyond belief; infinitely sad but sweet. Humanly
speaking, they were fearful. But Chiu-Chin-Hsiu and Ho-Hsiu-Tzu had decided
to submit to death without renouncing their faith. |
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Flanked
by renegade guards, the executioner came with a revolver in his hand. It was
their own pastor! He had been sentenced to die with the two girls. But, as on
many other occasions in Church history, the persecutors worked on him,
tempting him. They promised to release him if he would shoot the girls. He
accepted. |
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The
girls whispered to each other, then bowed respectfully before their pastor.
One of them said: ‘Before you shoot us, we wish to thank you heartily for
what you have meant to us. You baptized us, you taught us the ways of eternal
life, you gave us holy communion with the same hand in which you now hold the
gun. You also taught us that Christians are sometimes weak and commit
terrible sins, but they can be forgiven again. When you regret what you are
about to do to us, do not despair like Judas, but repent like Peter. God
bless you, and remember that our last thought was not one of indignation
against your failure. Everyone passes through hours of darkness. May God
reward you for all the good you have done to us. We die with gratitude’. |
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They
bowed again. |
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The
pastor’s heart was hardened. He shot the girls. |
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Afterwards
he was shot by the Communists. |
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From:
Jesus Freaks, Eagle Publishing, Printed
in United Kingdom 2000, pages 109-110 |