For French practice I chose an article in a French Christian magazine to translate and respond to. Below is my translation and some of my thoughts:
New Martyr in Kenya
On February 7, 2013 at 10am, Ahmed Abdi Welli, a Somalian Christian living in Kenya, was assassinated in the middle of the street while talking with a pastor in the city of Garissa. We suspect the Al Shebabs to be the origin of the attack. The pastor with whom he was found, Ibrahim Makunyi, was injured and drove to the hospital to undergo an emergency operation.
Abdi Welli regularly received death threats because he left Islam in 1990 and was baptized 5 years later, but he remained unshakeable in his faith. Last year he declared, “I love Jesus more than anything. I have suffered persecution because I believe in him, I obey him, and I serve him. I will not live forever in this world and I want to leave behind a heritage for those who live after me.” He was the first Somalian to have openly declared his faith after conversion to Christianity.
(published in French in Rencontres: Ensemble sur la brèche, Avril 2013, magazine n° 430)
I am encouraged because I believe that Ahmed Abdi Welli is a testimony to the fact that Muslims do not have to hide when they become Christians. You might think that is a little crazy being that he was just killed. But that is just it. The worst thing that these guys could do to him was to kill him. And what happened next? He immediately entered into heaven where he no longer experiences pain, persecution, or tears. He knew that this life was not eternal and that we must live for the next life. Abdi Welli truly believed what Christ said:
“For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it” Matthew 16:25.
And now, having lost his life he has found life eternal. I pray that Abdi Welli’s dream would come true and that his life would be a heritage for all of those who still live. I pray that we would live life with Heaven in mind and remembering that our life here is short.
You can read more about Abdi Welli’s life and death (in English) here: http://somalisforjesus.blogspot.fr/2013/02/developing-story-prominent-somali.html
