Twenty-six year old widow renews her faith after tragedy
Peninah is a twenty-six-year-old Christian widow from Kenya, who lost her husband two years ago. The man was a truck driver, and he was murdered by jihadists after not renouncing his Christian faith.
Open Doors shared the following story about the Christian woman and her husband, who was tragically murdered by Islamists:
On September 14, 2018, Peninah went to the market like any other day. She left her cell phone at home, not expecting that anyone would look for her. However, when she returned, there were several missed calls. She knew something was wrong.
As a truck driver, her husband, Paul, was on his way back from delivering goods at the Somalia border. “A friend of Paul told me they had left in the morning, but as they travelled towards a town near the border, they met al-Shabaab,” Peninah says.
The radical Islamic terrorist group al-Shabaab is, in many ways, the Eastern African version of al-Qaeda. Al-Shabaab has terrorized Somalia for the past decade and is recently focusing its attacks on the neighbouring country of Kenya.
The radical extremists lined up everyone from the truck and demanded they recite the Shahada—a Muslim profession of faith. But as a strong Christian, Paul told the men he could not deny Jesus and recite the Muslim creed.
“If you want to kill me, I will remain in Jesus, and if you let me go, I will remain in Jesus,” Paul boldly told his abductors.
Paul’s fellow workers recited the Shahada, and al-Shabaab let them all go, but Paul remained firm in his conviction.
“Then, they shot him,” Peninah shares.
In the days after the tragic loss of her husband, Peninah’s faith was tested.
“I asked God if this was His plan or the devil’s. I lived a life full of questions. I almost lost my faith,” she says.
The grief and unanswered questions left a devastating wound in her life. And the responsibilities as a single mother at the age of 24 nearly crushed Peninah.
“Life became hard, I struggled because I was alone, I became dependent with no one to help me. Even food was a challenge to get,” she shares.
But through God’s plan, a friend connected Peninah to Open Doors. We were able to help Peninah through trauma counselling.
“The training helped me heal my wounds, to share my suffering and accept the Lord to lead my life. It taught me that all the hardships we pass through did not happen because God had left me but because there is a reason. It restored my joy, talking to people and growing my faith. I almost lost my faith because what happened was too heavy for me,” she shares.
Source: Open Doors