Almost 2000 years ago:
Luke 23:26 (NLT)
The Crucifixion
As
they led Jesus away, a man named Simon, who was from Cyrene,[a]
happened to be coming in from the countryside. The soldiers seized him
and put the cross on him and made him carry it behind Jesus.
[a] Cyrene was a city in northern Africa.
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April 2, 2015
Maundy Thursday (Western Churches):
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-32169080
Kenya attack: 147 dead in Garissa University assault
.At
least 147 people, mostly students, have been killed in an assault by
al-Shabab militants on a university in north-eastern Kenya.
Heavily armed attackers stormed Garissa University early on Thursday (Thursday April 2, 2015), killing two security guards then firing indiscriminately on students.
Four of the gunman were eventually surrounded in a dormitory, and died when their suicide vests detonated.
It is the deadliest attack yet by al-Shabab.
The militants singled out Christians and shot them, witnesses said.
.
( http://www.fivedoves.com/letters/apr2015/friedrichw412-1.htm )
https://twitter.com/hashtag/147NotJustaNumber?src=hash
https://twitter.com/hashtag/147notjustanumber
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2) February 12, 2015:
On
February 12, 2015, (Thursday) the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant
(ISIL) released a report in their online magazine Dabiq showing photos
of 21 Egyptian Coptic Christian migrant workers that they had kidnapped
in the city of Sirte, Libya, (northern Africa)
kidnapping and beheading of Copts in Libya
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2015_kidnapping_and_beheading_of_Copts_in_Libya
We
need to look at those 21 young Christians in the face. Rather than deny
Christ they underwent martyrdom in Libya and before having their throat
cut by ISIS - in reading their lips (which was done) they were
continuously pronouncing the name of Jesus. Like the martyrs of old.
THE NAME OF JESUS
Their
Bishop says: That name whispered at the last instant was akin to the
sealing of their martyrdom. Coptic Christians are strong people,
tempered by 1400 centuries of Islamic persecutions. They are heirs to
that St. Athanasius of Alessandria,
http://rorate-caeli.blogspot.com/2015/02/the-heroism-of-christian-martyrs-lets.html
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For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: | ||
Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. |