Source: Open Doors, February 15, 2019<\/p>\n
\u201cWe only knew martyrdom from films, but martyrdom was reintroduced and it strengthened our faith because these people, these 21 martyrs, lived among us,\u201d [says Malak, whose son was killed four years ago].<\/p>\n
Few will forget the graphic images of the mass beheadings in a video released and paraded online around the world. February 15, mark[ed] the fourth anniversary of the deaths of 20 Coptic Christian men from Egypt and one Christian man from Ghana\u2014all 21 martyrs for their faith.<\/p>\n
In the days and weeks leading up to their deaths, ISIS captors reportedly tortured the men who had traveled the 1,200 miles to Libya to find work and support their families. Militants attempted to persuade them to deny Jesus in return for their lives. They all refused.<\/p>\n
A new book, The 21: A Journey into the Land of Coptic Martyrs<\/a>, by Martin Mosebach, includes interviews with families of the men who were killed.<\/p>\n Reportedly, what he found was \u201ca completely different point of view of martyrdom… No lamentation, no mourning, no pity, but, instead, pride and happiness.\u201d<\/p>\n \u00bb Read full story<\/a> and watch a short video about a church built to honor the martyrs<\/a> (World Watch Monitor).<\/p>\n \u00bb See also Why the Church in the Middle East Won\u2019t Stay Hidden<\/a> (Frontiers USA).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Source: Open Doors, February 15, 2019 \u201cWe only knew martyrdom from films, but martyrdom was reintroduced and it strengthened our faith because these people, these 21 martyrs, lived among us,\u201d [says Malak, whose son was killed four years ago]. Few will forget the graphic images of the mass beheadings in a video released and paraded … Continue reading EGYPT: Commemorating the Deaths of 21 Coptic Martyrs<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8374","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-briefs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8374","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8374"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8374\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8375,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8374\/revisions\/8375"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8374"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8374"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8374"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}