Personal Testimony
"Our God knows all. He is faithful. He is a miracle-working God. Im praying that people will know the power of the prayer of faith."
- Joshua Chege
BY M. Van Wave, Living Stones News Special Assignment Reporter
Gods promises save Kenyan family from assassins
If you want to meet real heroes of the faith, heres your chance. Rev. Joshua and Hannah Chege are natives of Kenya, Africa, who have recently moved here to pastor the congregation at Prince of Peace Fellowship, 1830 East First Street, in Duluth.
"My prayer is that our experiences will be a blessing to someone who is suffering, or maybe has doubt, that our God is faithful. Our God is a miracle-working God," Chege said. "Our God is able. There is nothing impossible with Him. His promises are true."
Missionaries introduced Chege to Christ when he was a boy and forever won his heart for missions.
"I truly wanted to be a missionary. I knew all the blessings we had were because of the missionaries," he said.
After years of Bible school training, Chege married Hannah, and together they worked as missionaries in several African countries where they established numerous churches.
They believed the God of the Bible. They believed His promises, and they taught their five daughters to do the same. But it wasnt until one night in March of 1991, that they would experience the incredible power of those promises in an unforgettable way.
Chege said that in the midnight darkness, men huddled outside the Chege home, poised to carry out their plans. They could see into the houseit was just the Chege family at home. There were 30, maybe 40, of them--the Cheges were outnumbered. They would stop this preacher of the gospel once and for all.
With frightening suddenness, the assassins broke through the doors of the Chege home. In the commotion, Chege said that he ran to his wife and screaming daughters and held them as the assassins rushed down the hallway.
"There was no time," he said. "I could only pray, Lord, thy will be done."
Chege described the events that followed.
"There came a bright light into our home," he said. "Our mouths were shut so that we stopped screaming, and each of us was instantly transported into separate rooms in the house. The attackers were breaking things and ravaging the whole house. They could not see us, but we were able to see them. No doubt this was Gods miracle. He sent a...
...guardian angel in time of need.
"The attackers had been guarding all exits," he said. "I supposed they wondered where could they be hiding. "They furiously threw belongings aside as they searched the house again and again. Still, though they continued to look through the house for hours, they couldnt find a single member of the my family. Mystified, the attackers gave up and left the house. We were unharmed."
For Chege and his family, it was fulfillment of the promise in Isaiah 54:17, "No weapon made against you will prevail."
He continued to preach the gospel another five years, adding more new churches to those already established.
But, as Chege explained, "It says in John, chapter eight, the work of the devil is to lie, kill and destroy. No doubt the devil was not happy with what we were doing."
In March of 1996, Chege had gathered pastors for a weekend seminar.
"As we were praying throughout the night," he said, "we heard commotion outside. We didnt know who the people were."
These attackers would take no chances. No one would be allowed to escape alive. Not this time. Every precaution had been takentheir plans were sure. They had everything they needed.
"They were well organized and armed with machetes and gasoline," Chege said.
"In another night of terror, the attackers streamed in and ruthlessly began slashing the pastors with their machetes. They dragged me and Hannah into a bedroom, telling us to say their last words before being killed.
"I stood on the Word of God. My God, in my Bible, tells me that I should not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul," Chege said, and added with conviction, "The Word is spirit. It has life in it and authority.
"Suddenly, something like a white sheet divided us," he added. "Hannah and I were on one side, and the attackers on the other. On our side we heard encouraging words saying, Youll not die, but live to declare the works of the Lord. We could not hear anyone else. The Lord poured something on us that was moving throughout our bodies like oil, making our bodies cool.
"Then the sheet that separated us from their attackers disappeared, and our enemies began wielding their machetes, cutting every part of our bodies," Chege said. "Yet, throughout the ordeal, neither I nor Hannah experienced any pain."
This is incredible considering the scars Joshua revealed. On his right hand, a thumb had nearly been severed. Scars on his left hand run around his wrist and up his arm indicating the near loss of that hand, and there are slash markings up and down his legs--including those from the severed tendons of both knees.
Chege said that the attackers, determined to totally destroy us and the visiting pastors, then sloshed gasoline throughout the house.
"They poured gasoline over me and set me on fire, but because of that oil, I never felt any pain. Since they had poured gas in every room in the house, the fire exploded like a bomb. The attackers ran away from the fire--it was so huge," Chege said, "and they locked the doors."
In those desperate moments, trapped in a burning inferno, Chege said that the Lord woke His own rescue team from their sleep--one, just a 12-year old boy who, seeing light from the fire, ran to unlock the kitchen door so they could escape.
Chege was pulled from the burning house just before the building collapsed. Their release took place under the watchful eye of their attackers who completely surrounded the burning house, yet couldnt see anyone escaping.
At the same time, Chege said, that God woke another rescuer from his sleep who, also seeing the light from the fire, jumped into his van.
"Hannah caught sight of headlights and, though badly cut and beaten, she managed to get to the gate to let the van through. Attackers had chained it shut," Chege said. "By the gate there was someone standing. Hannah did not know who he was, but she asked him to help her open the gate. He drew his sword and cut the chain and the gate opened. The one who opened the gate was, no doubt, a guardian angel of the Lord."
The van moved through and, once loaded with the Cheges and the pastors, sped off to the hospital. Again, all this while the attackers continued their vigil.
"Guardian angels blinded their eyes, and they didnt see the van," Chege said. "God is able to do what is impossible in the eyes of man. God is a miracle-working God."
American doctors had come to practice in the hospital just three days before the Cheges arrived, and they were able to save Cheges legs and both hands.
While Joshua was recovering in a hospital bed, he said that the Lord spoke, "Joshua, you have been praying for divine healing. You must forgive your enemies."
Hannah, too, encouraged her husband, "Lets forgive."
"God healed me mentally, spiritually and physically," Chege said.
As part of that healing, the Cheges then came to America for physical therapy. A physician in Columbus, Ohio, Dr. Jim Hicks, saw the Cheges and wrote: "Of the hundreds of consultations I have performed, I have never experienced the heart-breaking magnitude of such human torture and suffering as evidenced by their visible wounds, numerous scars, and stitches."
When the Cheges visited Duluth for a missions conference, concerned members of Prince of Peace Fellowship saw to it that Hannah received the medical help she so badly needed.
"We now are pastoring at the same church that saved and helped us when we were so weak financially and physically," Chege said.
Considering their extraordinary experiences, he added, "Our God knows all. He is faithful. He is a miracle-working God. Im praying that people will know the power of the prayer of faith."