Violence and bloodshed spread across Zaire
like wildfire. But nowhere were the effects as chilling as in Kinshasa, the
capital. The soldiers and police formerly the people’s protectors, had become
the ones most feared. They had been given a license to steal and kill at will,
trapping the eight million residents of the capital in a nightmare of fear.
Pastor Paul Ratsara, president of the newly formed West
Zaire Union had moved his family to Zaire from Madasgascar. Ratsara, on
business for the church, parked his car and began walking to the travel agency
and as he did do, he heard footsteps and then a voice saying, “get into the
car!”
Seeing that the young man demanding that he get in the car
had a gun, he determined he would comply and pray that he would be able to
negotiate once he was inside the car. He knew that often after robbing their
victims the abductors would throw the victim in the river to be eaten by
crocodiles.
So, Pastor Ratsara began to pray and to give over the items
from his pockets that the abductors demanded. He also thought about how God had
led him from being an ancestor spirit worshipper destined to take over from his
grandfather and father who led their people, to becoming a Christian and
eventually a Seventh-day Adventist minister.
Paul was a very good student and read many books and one day
he found the New Testament. Reading it, his
life was changed.
Back to the Kidnapping experience, as Paul was praying, the
leader of kidnappers realized that this was truly a man of God and told his
partners in crime to give back the things they had taken from him and told Paul
that he was free to go. Paul asked that they take him take him back into town, which
they amazingly did.
To read the full first chapter on line of this amazing book
click here.
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