Last week I went to an event at Christchurch put on by Christian Friends of Israel which is in the old city in Jerusalem, to hear an African man speak who is visiting Israel.  Hes an ex-Muslim who knows Arabic and studied the Koran, accepted Jesus in the early 90s and runs a church in Uganda, he also supports Israel, and because of his belief in Jesus, he has had no less than nine attacks on his life, more recently resulting in deliberately someone tipping a bucket of acid on him scarring up horribly and losing sight in one eye.

Hes in Israel to give his testimony as well as receive specialised surgery to rebuild his face which is costing in the region of $128,000, in which the government of Israel paid $100k of it.

Pastor Uman Mulinde wears a kind of surgical stocking on his face, and one of his ears is shriveled, but he still speaks confidently, and is awaiting three more surgery sessions here in Israel, and his survival and determination serves as powerful witness to the doctors and surgeons in Israel treating him.

A little oddly perhaps, there wasn’t that many people I knew at the meeting, this might sound strange but actually the body of believers in Israel is quite small, so its like most people know most other people, both foreign Christians involved with probably at least 50 ministries here as well as local Israeli believers.

On the screen a little later there was a shocking picture of a pile of charred bodies, probably in excess of 100 of Ugandan Christians murdered by Islamic terrorists in this country in their church.   An awful tragedy perhaps necessary into giving Christians in western nations a sense of urgency into praying regularly for protection of those in danger, and for the hearts of those to be changed causing violent attacks.

Here at Christchurch inside the Jaffa gate of Jerusalem’s old city, Pastor Uman speaks abount his testimony and the attack.

He doesn’t speak to any kind of bitterness or revenge, just for the west not to be duped into accepting Islam as something that would ever compromise or be prepared to coexist with other cultures.

These days many people consider Israel to be the worst nation in the media today for accusations of ‘apartheid’ and ‘ethnic cleansing.’    Sometimes groups aiming to do “peace and reconciliation” are more there to delegitimise Israel both vocally, including sadly, some Christians and attempt to sanitize it completely from the scriptures, being completely unaware of terrible things that happen in mostly Islamic countries today.

This article from another blog explains it well:

http://www.calvinlsmith.com/2012/06/why-on-earth-are-we-wasting-time-on.html

This was a really good event that Christ Church put on, and it was a priviledge to see this brave man speak.  I don’t have a web site for him, I will see if I can find and add this later, hes still needs prayer and donations for his treatment and for his ministry to carry on.