“I promise in the name of my goddess that tonight you will die, and there is no one on earth that can save you from my hand!”
It was a sunny and hot in June day at the Adventist Hill Tracts School and Seminary (AHTSS) in Bangladesh. Next to the school is a Seventh-day Adventist church, and next to the church is a big Hindu temple. A Hindu priest lived in the temple and worshiped the idols every morning and evening.
One of the teachers at the Adventist school is Mr. Tripura. Besides helping students prepare for their exams at AHTSS, he is also in charge of looking after the church that is beside the school.
On this particular Friday morning, Mr. Tripura went with some of the students to visit some people nearby. When they returned to the Adventist church, they saw that someone had occupied the church’s land and had put a fence around it. Mr. Tripura and the students went up to the fence and tried to pull it out of the ground.
Leave the Fence Alone!
Suddenly, the Hindu priest came out from his temple and started shouting at them, demanding that they leave the fence alone. Then the priest started calling Jesus very bad names and saying terrible things about him. Mr. Tripura asked him to stop using such awful language against our Creator and Savior, Jesus Christ.
The Hindu priest became even more angry and told Mr. Tripura, “I will see you tonight. I promise in the name of my goddess that tonight you will die, and there is no one on earth that can save you from my hand!”
But Mr. Tripura had great faith in God and told the Hindu priest, “My God is a living God, and He will punish you before sunset tomorrow night. There is no one in the world who can save you from my Almighty God’s hand.”
A Big Surprise
Many villagers had gathered around and they all heard this conversation between Mr. Tripura and the Hindu priest. The villagers knew that the priest was a powerful man and that if he wished, he could destroy a man’s life by the power of his goddess—so they were afraid of him. They were sure that Mr. Tripura would be killed by the priest that very night.
Early the next morning (on Sabbath), the villagers came back to see what had happened to Mr. Tripura. Going to his house, they were surprised when Mr. Tripura opened the door.
“Why are you all here at my house so early in the morning?” he asked the villagers.
“Sir,” they replied, “we love you as our neighbor, and we couldn’t sleep the whole night because we were so worried about you. We heard what the priest said to you yesterday, and we thought he killed you last night and we came here to pay our respects.”
To be continued next week.
