Praise the LORD, my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name. Praise the LORD, my soul, and forget not all his benefits – who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion. Psalm 103:1-4
Sabir John Bhatti and Family (1998)
Praying for the Sick
Almost an entire family, including children and babies, was martyred in 1998 because of Sabir’s Christian witness in his community. He was actively involved in praying for the sick in the city of Nowshera, in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province of Pakistan. This seems to have angered Islamic extremists who most likely targeted Sabir and his family to dissuade other Christians from carrying out a similar ministry.
Nine Christians, eight of them members of Sabir’s family, were murdered by a group of extremists. Most of them had their throats slit with knives. Those martyred were Sabir and his wife Ruth, daughter Shaheen, daughter-in-law Rosina, one-year-old grandson Mohsin, eight-year-old grandson Romi, ten-year-old granddaughter Sobia, a one-month-old grandson and fourteen-year-old family friend Ifzal.
And every tear is wiped away
By your dear Father’s hands for ay;
Death hath no power to hurt you more,
Whose own is life’s eternal store.
Who sow their seed, and sowing weep,
In everlasting joy shall reap,
What time they shine in heavenly day,
And every tear is wiped away.
The Venerable Bede (673-735)
Translated by John M K Neale (1818-66)