Two German women murdered in Yemen were Brake Bible College students. Anita G. (24) and Rita S. (25) were working at the Al-Dschumhuri hospital in Saada, Yemen as part of their summer internship. The hospital is run by the Dutch humanitarian organisation Worldwide Services. The women were taken hostage north of Saada on 12 June along with a German couple, their three children, a British engineer and a South-Korean woman. (At the time of writing, the fate of the others was still awaiting official confirmation.) The two women came from a Russian-German Baptist Church in the Gifhorn area near the city of Wolfsburg in Germany.
On Tuesday evening, the German TV news networks had this as their top story. The principal of the Bible College featured on many of the reports. While there is shock and sympathy in the secular media there are also many aspersions being cast which are only adding to the pain. The college has stressed that the women were not involved in evangelism but only in humanitarian work in a local hospital. If you understand German you can read the statements from the Bible College
here.
CEF Europe has had a close relationship with Brake over many years. Many former Brake students have taken our Leadership Course at Kilchzimmer and are serving the Lord across the globe. As former students ourselves, we are also deeply troubled by the news of these murders.
© from the German Evangelical News Agency IDEA in English
I know Anita and Rita very well because I went to school with them for more than 2 years. Rita and I where friends and had many occasions were we would talk a lot about the future and what would happen after we would be graduating. I remeber very well the times with our group in the school lounge or at some local places. We had a blessed.
Rita and Anita are now at a better place and I know that we will see each other again.
" We have to learn to live every day as it would be our last day"
Dietrich Bonhöffer
I think this is a very encouraging quote from Dietrich Bonhöffer who suffered and endured Nazi Germany until his death. He is one of my Heros. Anita and Rita are now at the same place joined by those who lost their life for Christ.
Even though it is hard to understand "why" this must happen we still have the same God who has everything in his hand and under his control.
"God is good and what he does is good"
A quote that is sometimes easier to accept and sometimes so hard to accept as a Christian who is still human. But one day we will! For the Lord`s decrees are just, and everything he does is fair. (Psalm 33, 4)
The unbeliever does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him. And he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. The one who is spiritual discerns all things, yet he himself is understood by no one. For who has known the mind of the Lord, so as to advise him? But we have the mind of Christ (1 Corinthians 2, 14-16)
We will understand the "why" at one time of our life or when we have joined together with all Saints of time. :)
Please pray for all affected, especially the families, friends, school colleagues and staff in Brake.