Beautiful Yubelina

In jauary this year i received my monthly newsletter from voice of the martyrs. yubelina's picture was on the cover. her face took up the entire cover. When i saw her face, i felt compassion for her and wanted to know what happened to her.

radical muslims overtook her villiage in indonesia and she was burned. but do you see her? i mean really ser her? she is beautiful! What pain she must have gone through and still has the most beautiful smile i have ever seen! matthew 10:28 KJV says,"And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell." They tried to kill her, but could not remove the spirit of the lord from her.

sometimes when i look at her picture, i am ashamed of my bad attitude. I've never felt pain like she has before, but i can be the ugliest person my husband or children have ever met. she is an inspiration to me and the children.

i received the april newsletter. It mentioned Yubelina's photo, and how many people were disgruntled by their using it as the cover of their magazine. Some people even asked to be taken off of their mailing list because they were offended by her face. really? offended? it pains me to think that her brothers and sisters in Christ were ashamed to look upon her beauty. One pastor even said he would not show graphic images to school aged children. My children are 13, 10, 4, 2, and 1. I explained what happened to Yubelina and then showed  them her picture. no body winced or screamed or cried. they showed genuine concern for her but also commented on how beautiful she is and how much her face reflected to joy of christ.

in that issue, they have an address where we can send her pictures and letters. they also have quotes in her language we can use on our drawings. we love you, you are beautiful,thank you for encouraging us, and stay strong in the lord. the boys drew pictures for her today. tyler drew her pretty flowers wrote "anda cantik" which is "you are beautiful." daniel drew her tulips and wrote "kami mencintai anda" which is "we love you."  i am so moved by their compassion for others.

yubelina and other christians like her are now in our prayers. we thank the lord we have the freedoms we have in this country to worship how we please, read our bibles and meet with other christians. we will defend those freedoms as long as we live. if we don't excercise these freedoms they will be taken away. they are precious to us.