Beyond GOOD NEWS from the field!
/This may be one of our most complicated yet joyously victorious stories yet, so you may need more than one sitting to absorb it all.
If you recall, a few months ago we were praying for Pastor Paul as he had been hospitalized for what were likely complications from his way too many attacks over the years [Resting with and testing: ‘His power made perfect in weakness’; Pastor Paul improves, plus an exciting report from ALG President Pastor Peter Haneef].
When Pastor Peter returned to Bangladesh (his main field of ministry) after visiting Pastor Paul in hospital in India, he travelled with his team to visit a Muslim village. While speaking to the crowd gathered, he was suddenly and viciously attacked. Lunging with steel pipes and butchers’ knives, the attackers seriously injured many, one actually slicing off Pastor Peter’s left hand and throwing it, along with his Bible, off into the distance.
Onlookers were aghast, siding with Pastor Peter and his team rather than with the aggressors, which is itself a miracle. Not only that, all—either then or soon afterwards—became Christians! And what do Christians do? Help others of course.
All the injured team members were rushed off to a ‘super-speciality hospital’ owned and run by a former military surgeon, Dr. Salmu. He took excellent care of all of them.
When Pastor Paul, newly-released from hospital in India, heard about the tragedy, he set off on the long, treacherous trip to the Bangladeshi hospital. Another Bibles for Mideast pastor, Rahim Khan, accompanied him on the challenging journey.
After first flying to the capital city of Dhaka, they took a train and then an overnight bus through the hills and mountains to the hospital. With no seats available inside the bus until the following week, they had to climb ATOP the bus for the trip. Travel (and other) conditions are so overcrowded in Bangladesh that bus-top and train-top travel is quite common, if not exactly legal.
One of many over-crowded buses in Bangladesh
Pastor Paul found Pastor Peter in the hospital’s intensive care unit, still heavily sedated, along with another severely-injured missionary named Riyas who had had his skull crushed with a steel pipe and would soon need brain surgery.
The visitors sat sitting and praying by Pastor Peter’s side until he became conscious. Only then, as he tried to hold Pastor Paul’s hands, did he realize his left hand had been cut off. He also discovered how others of his group had been attacked and many admitted to the hospital as well.
The villagers who had heard the sharing of the Gospel—all now Christians!—stood by, helping when and however they could, bringing food and other needed items for the patients.
One man from the village retrieved Pastor Haneef’s left hand from where it had been thrown, and brought it to the hospital. Doctors, however, declared it hopelessly damaged and impossible to even consider trying to reattach.
At Pastor Paul’s insistence, however, the hand was placed in a freezer rather than thrown away. It remained there for four days, at which point—again at Pastor Paul’s insistence—Dr. Salmu reluctantly agreed to at least have a look at it. His medical mind knew a severed, severely-damaged hand would be nothing but worse four days later!
At that time Pastor Paul explained the story of Lazarus who was raised up by Jesus four days after being buried. Dr. Salmu was not ready to believe, nor was he willing to try rejoining the hand. Pastor Paul insisted he was ready to take all the consequences, which is why Dr. Salmu finally agreed to at least try.
Pastor Paul then took the severed hand in his hands, prayed over it, sealing it with the living blood of Jesus Christ before handing it over to the surgeon. While Dr. Salmu had absolutely no hope for success, he soon regretted his unbelief … and accepted Jesus as the living lord and his personal saviour! The surgery was entirely successful.
Dr. Salmu appreciates the faithfulness of Christian missionaries and even made the arrangements to conduct gospel meetings in his hospital among staff and patients. On Pastor Peter’s last day in the hospital, a Sunday, they held a worship service in the hospital auditorium and invited Dr. Salmu, who agreed to attend. And what a service!
“The Holy Spirit moved throughout the worship,” Pastor Peter reports. “There were more than 300 people, including doctors, nurses, patients and bystanders. Dr. Salmu had an immediate surgery, but he attended the service for awhile and encouraged the people. At the end of the service, everyone accepted Lord Jesus as their personal saviour and Lord by their heart and their mouth.”
“I had some difficulty standing and giving a message,” he explains. “But our Lord strengthened me and gave the message by the help of the Holy Spirit. Some doctors and nursing staff also witnessed Lord Jesus in the audience. All were Muslims, but they all are Christians now.”
After the service, Dr. Salmu provided lunch for everyone.
Pastor Peter Haneef and friends then travelled back to India, to a joyful welcome home ceremony where they shared their experiences and renewed their faith and dedication.
Pastor Peter says his reattached hand is still not fully functional, but getting better every day. Please keep up your prayers for him … and for all the new Christians and for all of us here at Bibles for Mideast. We cannot do any of this without your awesome support.
