Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. Acts 4:29
Abdul Karim (1906)
Enthusiastic Evangelist
Abdul, an enthusiastic evangelist, had both arms sliced off by an Afghan mob who went on to kill him when he refused to renounce Christ.
Before being martyred, Abdul had already suffered significantly for his faith. When he became a Christian he was rejected by his Muslim family and, when word spread that he had converted, was unable to find anyone who would work on his land, his sole source of income. But he began work as an evangelist to his people in the North-West Frontier, then part of British-ruled India, now the Pakistani province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Abdul was so passionate about telling others of Christ that he decided one morning in May 1906 to take the Gospel message over the border into Afghanistan. After he had left, the authorities in his home town, Quetta, learnt that Abdul had been detained in the city of Kandahar. He was then taken to the capital, Kabul, where, after the intervention of the British authorities, his release was obtained. This news caused fury among the local people, and he was seized by a crowd. Given the choice to renounce Christ or die, he stood firm in his faith. The mob cut off his arm and asked him again. Still he refused and his other arm was sliced off. Yet he refused to deny Christ, and was killed.
Catch on fire with enthusiasm and people will come for miles to watch you burn.
John Wesley (1703-91)