A Somali pastor of a secret Christian fellowship in Kenya is still recovering from an infected wound after he and his wife and child were attached for leaving Islam.
The family have lived in Kenya since 2014, and have been pressured to recant their faith by Muslims in Wajir County in the northeast of Kenya.
On 10 August, the 33-year-old pastor’s father-in-law and another relative stopped him outside his home and began reviling him for “converting his daughter to a bad religion”, the pastor told Morning Star News (MSN).
“He was furious and took a thorny stick and hit me on my hand and shoulders, and I fell down screaming and wailing, calling for help. When they saw my neighbours approaching, they left. The pain was too much, and I was rushed to a nearby clinic.”
By 16 August, his left hand was swollen with intense pain that lasted for two weeks. “I felt like my heart was going to stop,” the pastor said. “I was in a state of restlessness, and the doctor suggested that the hand needed to be amputated.”
His hand showed improvement by 30 August, but there were signs of serious infection in his blood.
“The thorny stick used to hit part of my hand and shoulder could have been a poisonous one,” he said. “At the moment, part of my hand is still numb.”
Muslims visited the pastor in hospital and told him the infection was punishment from God. “They told me: ‘This is a curse from Allah – if you return to Islam, then Allah will heal you’,” said the pastor, who can’t be named for his safety.
“All these three weeks while I’ve been sick, they have been pressuring my wife to divorce me and return to Islam,” he continued. “But my wife has stood with me. We really need prayers so that God will miraculously heal me and get me out of the hospital.”
After fleeing strife-torn Somalia to Kenya in 2014, the pastor married a Kenyan woman and later met Christian workers who shared the gospel with him. He put his faith in Christ, and a year later his wife also converted.
In 2015, he began pastoring an underground fellowship that met in a secure place, and two years later Muslims began questioning him and his wife about why they were missing Friday mosque prayers. He told them he was busy studying computer lessons while his wife looked after their small children.
The pastor told MSN that last year, Muslim women visiting their home had found a Bible on their bookshelf and, since then, his family has been monitored and received threats from the Muslim community.
The eldest of their four children, an 8-year-old son, was beaten by other boys and received hospital treatment for injuries to his knee and foot. In May this year, the pastor’s wife was beaten by Muslim women on her way home from the market.
The family has yet to decide whether they can safely report the most recent assault to police, as they are concerned that police officers will not provide security and they will be forced to relocate to another area.
Source: Morning Star News
Please Pray
Pray for wisdom and protection over the pastor, his wife, and their four young children.
Pray that through the family’s witness, others in their community will come to know Christ.
Pray for Somali refugees and other believers who are targeted by Muslims in north-eastern Kenya.