Posted with permission. Lehman Smith shares this story of recent martyrs... soldiers for Christ who paid the ultimate price for their faith. Marcus xxiv OCT MMV

Chain Mail by Chevalier Lehman Smith “Honoring
strength through faith”

Posted by: Caecus on Tuesday, August 02, 2005 - 03:09
PM

January 20th 2005 marked the 6th year anniversary
date of the shameless murder of a 15 year old boy
named Roy Pontoh. On this date in 1995, Roy attended a
Christian Bible camp on the Station field Complex at
the University of Pattimura at Hila, on the Island of
Ambon, Indonesia.


In attendance were 125 other teens and children along
with parents and counselors, who bonded together
proudly calling themselves “Gods Army”.

Finishing up to what turned out to be a successful
Bible Camp, Roy along with the other teenagers were
left in the camp with a few parents while several

other camp counselors drove to Koramil (local military
post) to seek protection from the military, requesting
escorts for the teenagers back to their homes, because
of area reports of increasing Muslim extremist
violence within the region towards Christians.

Failing to get military protection from Koramil, the
counselors, one of whom was Roy’s youth Pastor Meiky
Sainyakit, one retired police officer and two other

Christian men, began driving back towards camp when
their vehicle was stopped by an angry mob of Muslim
extremist and Laskar Jihad fighters in the village of
Wakal.

Being pulled from their vehicle, Meiky Sainyakit and
the driver were both stabbed to death, while the third
passenger, Henry Kursepuny, a police officer,

was rescued by a retired police officer within the
crowd whom dragged him to safety. Both Meiky Sainyakit
and the drivers bodies were later found to have been
burned by the mob.

Continuing on, the mob advanced towards the university
and assembled out in front of the camp, armed with
machetes, swords and knives, screaming angrily and
chanting hate, which over time attracted more
villagers, who joined in swelling the ranks of the
ever growing a crowd. Frightened at the sight of the
crowds obstreperous bbehavior the remaining parent
began hiding the children within the campuses
classrooms and closets. In hiding the teenagers and
parents could still hear the crowds chanting and
yelling out front until approximately 4PM, when the
crowd finally broke into the camp and began
systematically searching for the teens. As they were
found, they were beaten and clubbed mercilessly, then
separated from one another interrogated and verbally
harassed.

One of those teens being Roy Pontoh, who was
additionally singled out from the others and dragged
onto the street for questioning. Upon questioning Roy
was asked, ”Who are you? Though frightened he
answered, “I am a soldier of God!” at which time, he
was struck by a machete against his left arm almost
severing it. Roy was asked the same question again and
again he responded with the same answer, that produced
another blow of the machete. This time creating a
large gash upon his right shoulder. The third question
to Roy was, “What is a soldier of God?” Although in
intense pain and awareness that his answer would
likely produce immanent death, Roy bravely stated that
a soldier of God was willing and ready to die for
Christ. An answer that brought a blow to his stomach,
ripping it open. Roy waas heard shouting “JESUUS!” a
he dropped to his knees. While Roy was on his knees,
his attacker martyred him by slitting his throat with
the machete. His body was found dumped in a ditch and
found a week or two later.

When I first heard of this story, it touched my heart
deeply, in that myself as a Christian was struggling
with faith. The struggle over faith after a life time
of constant bombardment of dishearting news of
Christian and clergy misconduct, the increasing
Catholic Pedophile cases, one of which being Father
Bredermann, whom instead of healing sexually abused
boys that had come to him for counseling, ended up
sexually abusing some 20 previously abused boys, that
came to him for help over that issue. Or the Salvation
Army Captain William Douglas, who was convicted of
molesting, sodomizing and sexually terrorizing young
Indian boys in British Columbia

We as Christian men and women are also faced with
subliminal discrimination by the government whose
opinions and suspicions of any Christian group, are
that of radical bible thumpers or “potential
terrorists”. Because of some past and present
Christian based groups such as: The People’s
temple-the Reverend Jim Jones, David Koresh and the
Branch Davidians, The Order of the solar Temple,
Heavens Gate, the Church of the lamb God and Yahweh &
the temple of love, just to name a few.

These groups and acts by or very own, on top of our
very own personal trials and tribulations,
consistently challenges our faith and ask the ever
popular questions, “ Where is God in all of this? And
why does God continue to allow these horrendous deeds
and acts to happen? And of course, “Is God really
there?

Faith is the only answer to this question and the
understanding that God is and has always been there.
As Christians we live our daily lives on faith, faith
that is placed upon the divine scriptures and of the
Lord our saviors Jesus Christ’ promises. Yet even
though we as human beings know this and realize
this...we often question faith or take it for granite.
Sometimes we out right refuse faith because we feel
that it is not tangible, nor something that we can
actually possess. Yet Judas saw first hand the
miracles of Jesus, but in the end betrayed Jesus
possibly for one important reason, that we must
understand, if our faith is to be supported and
strengthened.

That is, that God instilled within us “FREE WILL”. The
right to choose our own path and destiny. Free will is
what actually separates us from other species, in that
we have the knowledge to learn and to decide for
ourselves, what makes sense or what motivates our
lives. To worship what makes us comfortable to
worship, and although we have this diversity, all
roads continues to lead towards heaven and the
creator. No matter how or what religion we choose to
believe in.

We as Christians however understand that faith towards
God is the essence of the entire Christian life.
Initially it has to do with our own access to God and
our standing before God. It is by Faith that we as
Christians are justified and brought into right
standing with God.

“How can God then allow such brutality in the world
and still expect believers to continue to have Faith?

If you take moment to reflect, you probably will come
to the realization that we rarely advance in faith
without some difficulty. We as Christians are
basically incomplete without trials, after all it is
within those trials that tests our belief system,
while at the same time strengthening them. Through our
prayer requests to God along with a stern conviction,
we trust that God will deliver us from those
particular trials at the time. ( CF James 1:2f, 1Peter
1:6)

And even though after faithful prayers, if what we are
praying to overcome does not go the way that we want
or hope that it does..we still exhibit faith by
convincing ourselves that it ‘Must be the will of
God”. However our personal challenge is when we have
to put our faith on the line by ourselves, in which we
often have to do all of the time, as Roy Pontoh
unexpectantly faced, as well as our greatest example,
Jesus of Nazareth.

Pontoh being on a roadside in Indonesia and Jesus
within the wilderness of Gethsemane. Jesus whom was
praying searching for other alternatives, never
received an answer from his father. However such
silence gave Jesus the awareness and interpretation of
his fathers silence correctly. In that he must go to
the cross. But he was ready. He faced his enemies and
his betrayer courageously. Eventually coming to
realize that God is with him and although silent, has
always been with him.

Make no mistake, I am not comparing sacrifices and
tests of faith on Roy Pontoh versus our lord savior
Jesus Christ. But we have got to recognize Roy’s
strength of faith and bravery. Would we be so brave in
light of the aforementioned terror? Is our faith
concrete, secure in the fact that we can face our own
demise without questioning our beliefs and faith?

We can, if we as Christians come to realize that we
are really not alone as we undergo Christian trials.
Once we realize that we as Christians are expected to
undergo such trials, as did numerous other biblical
figures did. We can come to the understanding that
having faith will and does come with an element of
risks. Judah(Genesis 44), Ester (Ester 4), Peter
(Matthew 14) and other notable examples, one of whom
is Jesus Christ.

Our resolutions for God are also cemented when they
are done in prayer. If Jesus learned obediance through
what he suffered, and he learned it by offering up
prayers and tears to God (Hebrews 5:7), what makes us
think that it will be any different for us?

In Pakistan let us honor those that equally have stood
up for their faith and love of our God and the savior
Jesus Christ.

Let us pray for these and other brave Christians for
their safety and hopeful return to their families and
loved ones.

Amjad Masih

Anwar Kenneth

Ashiq ‘Kingri’ Masih

Aslam Masih

Pervez Masih

Ranjh masih

Rasheed Masih

Saleem Masih

Shahbez Masih

Please address your comments to the “Chain Mail” and
let me hear from you and of your opinions being of the
Christian faith.

Silentvoices05@yahoo.com

Chevalier Lehman F. Smith
PCP Bureau Chief USA