A gentle prayer and an embrace from a friend helped a Christian woman share God’s love with the broken person who assaulted her.
Christian Woman
Becky Murray, the founder of One by One, a charity in the UK, shared one of her unforgettable experiences while attending a Mission School in Mozambique. “If I’m honest, it almost shook me to my core, and I wondered if the dream was over before it even began,” Becky recalled. It was a day off from ministry when she went alone to the beach to get a little bit of sunshine.
She said that in Mozambique’s culture if someone exposes their knees, that’s an indication that maybe they are prostitute. She was wearing a “capulana”, a long piece of cloth wrapped around her. Being alone on the beach, Becky decided to roll the skirt to get a little bit of sunshine. While she was enjoying the place and the beautiful starfish all along the ocean line, a shocking event suddenly happened.
She was picking up a starfish when a man came up from behind her. “He grabbed a hold of me and put his hand up my “capulana”, um he began to do things that made me incredibly uncomfortable, and I was absolutely petrified in that moment that he was about to rape me,” she vividly remembered. Coming from a Christian family who had never been touched that way, Becky felt so scared.
She tried to say “no!” and jumped back. Thank God there’s a little café on the front of the beach. As fast as she could, Becky managed to walked to the café. “I was trembling and shivering and crying. I was petrified,” she said. Becky safely arrived at the café by God’s grace, and two girls from the mission school saw her. When the man noticed the girls, he ran the other way.
GODTV (Screenshot). (2022).Saying “Yes” To God | Becky Murray, Retrieved September 8, 2023 from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O15N_atAGWA
God’s Love
But the story didn’t end there. The next day, while she was in a lecture at the mission school, Becky stumbled upon the man who assaulted her – he was in a very drunken state. One of the girls, Meredeth, who was at the café, recognized him and immediately rushed to Becky to console her. She embraced her while asking if she was okay. “I remember saying no. No, I’m not, and if I’m really honest, I think I just wanted to, to hit the guy, to be honest, because I was so angry that he’d assaulted me in such a way,” Becky said. But Meredith did something that shifted the atmosphere.
Her Christian friend gently put her arm around her and quietly began to pray. As she was listening, slowly, her anger and fear began to lift and were replaced with love and compassion. From seeing the man as an attacker, she saw him as a broken man.
“I managed to come around and actually talk to the man. Now, as I say, my “macua” and my Portuguese were very limited. But I was able to say God loves you. And in a moment where this man should have experienced anger. Instead, he experienced forgiveness,” Becky testified.
God’s love is greater than the pain, fears, and traumas you experience!
Watch the video here and be reminded of God’s amazing grace.
Reference | GOD TV
Header Image: GODTV (Screenshot). (2022).Saying “Yes” To God | Becky Murray, Retrieved September 8, 2023 from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O15N_atAGWA
