Letters encourage widows of Egyptian martyrs

Egypt (MNN) — It’s been ten months since ISIS released a video showing the slaughter of 21 Egyptian Christians. And their martyrdom, each man left behind a family.

Tom Doyle, author of “Killing Christians: Living the Faith Where It’s Not Safe to Believe,” recently traveled to Egypt and visited the widows of the martyred men.

“We went to encourage them and to build them up. We had a national letter-writing campaign to send words of encouragement from the Scripture and from love, from people’s hearts,” said Doyle.

During the letter campaign, over 2,000 letters flooded in along with drawings from children unable to write.

When they gave the letters to the widows, “Many of them cried that they are remembered. We told them, ‘Your message, your husbands’ courage was seen around the world, and God used that for His glory.” We just wanted to thank the families, tell them we love them, we’re praying for them, and the body of Christ came together with the letters and all that came together,” said Doyle.

Most of the martyrs were still in their twenties. One man’s baby was born while he was

away working in Libya, but he never made it home to meet his child. Instead, as the men tried to cross the border into Egypt, ISIS kidnapped them. They were kept for 40 days before being killed.

Yet, during those 40 days, under who knows what circumstances, these men held onto their faith until the very end.

“They are modern day heroes of our faith,” said Doyle.

Please be praying for the encouragement of these women and their families. Pray also for God’s comfort in their lives.