STEEMCHURCH: Hearts of fire for love of Jesus
Hello friends, I want to share this story inspired by a book called "Hearts of Fire"
![](https://steemitimages.com/DQmQjSG9RuHjMiT2Jqdrv5uzkvhmSPUtQJahSKBE1X23qmA/image.png)
I am inspired, because this book is a collection of lives that have suffered because of their faith. In many parts of the world, being a Christian or defending an ideology means suffering. Kidnapped! Beaten! Imprisoned!
Adela is a real character, who lives the reality of many Christians around the world. Unfortunately nowadays there are countries and organizations of extermination towards Christians.
Adela, a 17-year-old girl, loves to serve God and children from her village in Indonesia.
"Mom, he looks like a monkey!" Adela murmured as she watched the young man waiting in the living room behind the kitchen door. She arrived at the house every day at about the same time, she did not know whether to feel angry or annoyed when every day, Metu appeared confidently to the cabin and repeated the same request.
Actually Adela had already answered him many times, but he refused to accept the answer or simply did not seem to listen to her.
"I do not want to get married, I'm too young, and even if I wanted to, I do not want to marry you!"
Metu did not argue or be offended. He sat patiently and again explained to Adela that she should be his wife. "That's God's plan, even if you say I look like a monkey." *
The girl smirked. Then Metu repeated the question. "Will you marry me?".
Adela knew that it was not a case of answering her then she sat on that old wooden chair, until her stubborn suitor left.
"Since you do not answer me," he said, "my jacket will wait for the answer.
The young woman could not help feeling flattered, "he said. After all, Metu does not seem so bad "
Three months later they got married. It was a traditional wedding, according to the customs of the village.
One month after the wedding Adela became pregnant, and although it was a normal pregnancy, the delivery was difficult and the baby was stillborn. Adela and Maru were disconsolate.
But 5 months later, Adela stayed on tape again. This time the baby was born three months earlier than normal and was not expected to live.
My baby is not going to die! "She replies stubbornly.
In her heart she was fully convinced, refusing to accept the opinion of her family and neighbors. I was not willing to lose another child.
To the amazement of her family and the villagers, Cristina developed into a healthy child, to whom, two and a half years later, her Christian brother joined her.
Life went on with little trouble for Adela and her village, until just after Christmas, when a young merchant, returned to the village after a failed attempt to leave the island.
"They did not let me leave," he said, "to the village
Who? and why? "asked one of the neighbors.
"A group of Muslims stopped me for no reason, I protested and told them that I needed to go out to bring food, they felt aggrieved and seemed offended by the fact that I was a Christian.
Around noon, the noise could be heard among the neighbors.
Adela, who was at home, ran out and could see the columns of smoke rising in the distance, a neighboring Christian village had been set on fire. They had to flee their homes, three thousand armed Muslims were on their way and there was little hope of stopping their impending rage.
He ran inside again calling his children, hurriedly grabbed a few things. When he went to the door, he saw his Bible on the table ... he grabbed it and fled.
"Mom, are we going to die?"
Metu and the others had tried to stop the Muslim attacks, but these were many and were well armed with machetes torches and guns.
Now the whole village burned in flames and the cries of Akbar! Ala Akbar! (Ala is great) they were heard everywhere.
"Run! Adela, run, take the kids!"
Quick, they have to get into the jungle! "
At that moment Adela feared for Metu's life. He had gathered the children of the village, returned the children and looked at Metu for the last time. In an instant he remembered a bold young man of 17 who, uninvited, had sat down in that old wooden chair in his mother's house, with his stubbornness to propose marriage.
"Now only God can separate them"
Quickly Metu, Adela and several inhabitants of the village found themselves, after having crawled for several hours, found a hut in the jungle. They were so exhausted that they will find it impossible to move forward, the children were soaked and covered with mud. Cristina and Cristiano fell asleep almost immediately.
Adela could not take it anymore. Like the rain, her tears ran plentifully down her face as she let herself go, crying.
At dawn, Cristina and her little brother woke up thinking that what they had lived was a nightmare.
Finally Cristiano complained: "Mamita I'm hungry". Adela's eyes dilated trying to hide the tears, but the moment she took the baby in her lap I cry uncontrollably.
"Mom, are we going to die?"
Adela answered- "Cristina and Anto, please look at me and listen to me well, if those Muslims catch us, they will ask you to become Muslims, if you say no, they will kill you." Adela looked her children in the eyes. I knew there was only one correct answer, but how can we expect such small children to be completed with such courage?
Both boys responded with simplicity:
"We want to follow Jesus."
With the palm of her hand she wiped the tears that were already forming in her eyes, and asked:
"Cristina, are you afraid of being killed if you say you are a Christian?
Cristina approached her face to her mother's, looked her in the eyes and with a soft voice answered: "Mamita, please, do not worry, I'm not afraid of dying".
Metu and his brother decided to venture down to see if they could find some food.
It had been less than ten minutes. When Adela heard the screams of Metu; in turn he heard the sound produced by an atomic weapon.
Immediately he got up but having his little boy in the neck stumbled, when he turned around they had already been surrounded by several men dressed in long white robes. When he tried to get up, one of the men wielded his machete and with the top of it he hit Anto's back. Adela screamed with all her might and pulled on her child to protect him from another blow.
She is a Christian! A pig! A stinky pig! Let's break it and end it! said one of the men with contempt. I grab her by her long hair and lift her up into the air. They tore their clothes.
While he felt beatings, and outrage, in the distance he heard screams from his mother, from his other relatives and from his precious Anto, and he knew that they were slaughtering him.
"Do you renounce Jesus?" The victims responded with shouts while the murderers took advantage of their vulnerability - "We love Jesus!".
Her pretty son and family were dead, she wondered if Cristina and her beloved husband would still be alive.
She was taken into captivity with other Christians.
More than a thousand Christians in captivity in that place. He was surprised how many people were there, but he was more surprised to see his pretty daughter still alive, with her hands tied and unable to hold her.
This alive, my little Cristina is alive! That bitter taste of joy and sadness invaded his being.
When the Muslims left. The girl threw herself into her mother's arms and wept.
Mammy! Mammy!
They embraced and Cristina kept fighting to get her words out.
"I'm so sorry Mommy ... I'm sorry ... I'm so sorry, they killed everyone, I saw the body of my grandmother and Anto."
"I know, daughter, I know they killed them."
The next morning they gathered all the Christians in the field and questioned them - Are they going to convert or do they want to die?
Two weeks passed and Adela continued under constant threat. The Muslims were aware that she was influencing the other prisoners and wanted to eliminate her.
Since she encouraged others not to deny her faith, let alone give up, she was certain that they would get out of there. In his constant prayers he asked God to bring Metu back, to give him a signal to know if he was still alive.
Unexpectedly, one morning a small group of government officials boarded the Muslim population. They had gone to investigate allegations that Christians were being held hostage in the village, which the Muslims denied.
With them Metu had managed to escape from the hands of the Muslims. Now he was here to rescue his little daughter and her beloved Adela.
Adela entered as in ecstasy. She and her daughter had survived a hellish, unimaginable nightmare and now they were going home. His spirit resumed and he discovered that he had smiled again. But Cristina did not seem very convinced.
That day a Muslim entered and forced them to stand in front of the other Christians.
"Soon we will take Cristina and Adela to be reunited with her husband"
The news of Metu's arrival had been watered among the captives in advance.
They will ask you if you want to go with Metu or stay here with you, if any of them decide to leave, we will kill you all.
When the Muslims left, everything was a commission, the other Christians expressed Adela and her daughter that they were confident that if they left, they would fight until they managed to get them all out of that place, which could be a passage to freedom for all .
A few hours later, they were taken to a room, where Metu was sitting with official officials. Now she could see the anguish in her husband's eyes. How much he had longed to be with his wife and daughter again!
An official asked: "Adela, do you want to go with your husband?"
Adela stared at Metu who wondered why she was so slow to respond.
"Metu ... I can not go with you!"
They asked his daughter the same question -he answered- "no daddy I can not go with you"
They let her hug him for a moment, she seized the moment and put a paper in her pocket. Where was written all the names of the captives and the reason why he could not leave with him at that time.
"Another night of torture, will equal the freedom of all"
The next morning the village was invaded by police and relatives of each of the people who were in that place, and with that eminent test they could act to give freedom to each person.
In that moment of reunion with her husband again united after 18 months of captivity, he passed through his mind all the scenes he had lived and even the moment they tore apart his Bible. A lifetime had passed in these months, during which he went and returned from hell. He knew that his nightmare was over, and he remembered a verse in Philippians 4: 13- "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me"
I hope you liked it there, .....
Until the next story of "Hearts of Fire
Beautifull, God Bless U. AMEN!
Thank you