Frequent beatings, public humiliation, and torture including torture with freezing cold air was what Czech Christian missionary Petr Jasek endured for a year in a Sudanese hell hole of a prison. Arrested for spreading the Gospel and convicted in a kangaroo court trial, he was sentenced 24 years to life in prison but was just miraculously released following an order coming from the President of Sudan himself (we have been following his story). He never gave up his faith in prison, but it was a long an horrible ordeal:
Jašek was moved from prison to prison – five in total – with 'each getting worse and worse', he told Czech reporters on Sunday.
He said: 'The first two months were probably the most severe for me because I was placed in a cell together with members of the Islamic State, who humiliated me as a Christian. It then escalated into humiliation and physical beatings, and psychological torture and humiliation.'
One prison was known as 'the refrigerator' because prisoners were subjected to constant blasts of cold air; he said it was 'terrible'.
He said one of the hardest blows for him during the imprisonment was finding his father had died a month after it had happened.
He had been nicknamed 'Karl Marx' by other prisoners due to the bushy beard he grew, but that was shaved off just before his release. Friends said he looked well, though he has lost 25kg in weight.
Czech foreign minister Lubomir Zaoralek praised his courage, saying: 'The conditions were very heavy. I am convinced that he is really an extraordinarily brave guy. Most people could not stand it.'
Jašek had an emotional reunion with his wife Wanda, who was sitting on a crowded train when she got the news of his release. A close friend described how tears were streaming down her face, to first the surprise, then delight of other passengers.
Jašek urged supporters not to forget the two men still in Sudan's Kober prison, sentenced to 12 years each for aiding him.(source)
One can only imagine what he went through that he has not spoken of. And yet, as Christ Himself says, all of this is pain and torture now is a small price to pay for the glory of Heaven.
This life is not easy. Being a Christian in today's times is an arduous task that is only getting harder. As the Western world has turned against the Faith which made it, so is the darkness of the old world returning with a vengeance. But as the saying goes, "this too shall pass," for life is in the greater understanding a drop in the proverbial bucket of eternity, and that eternity can be spent with God or separated from God.
The Hellmouth, which for centuries in Anglo-Saxon art was a common depiction of hell
No matter how difficult something is, nothing is impossible with God. For those who believe and persist in the Faith, the worst of this life is but a fleeting moment. However, for those who refuse to believe and obstinately reject Christ, then the misery of this life is just the beginning.
Choose wisely.
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