Bookstore Manager Gives His Life for The Gospel

A fellow brother in the Lord, Rami Ayyad, gave his life on account of the gospel this weekend. This twenty-six year old manager of the only Christian book store in Gaza, The Teacher’s Bookshop, was found dead Sunday, October 7th.

From the Christianity Today article:

"At 6:25 a.m. Sunday October 7, Ayyad's body was found near the bookshop. "Signs of bullets and knife stabs could be clearly seen on his body," the Bible Society release said. Unconfirmed reports added that his head had been severely injured.

Ayyad leaves behind two young children and his pregnant wife, Pauline. Ayyad helped lead Gaza Baptist Church's Awana club and directed the church's summer children's camp."

AsiaNews reports that "He went missing Saturday October 6th in the afternoon and his body was found yesterday in a city street, tortured and with two bullet wounds to the head. Authorities from Shifa hospital confirmed that his body carried diverse knife wounds."

I also found this quote from a non-Protestant encouraging:

"David Maria Jaeger, an Israel Franciscan in the Holy Land said: 'Ayyad was an intrepid Christian, a glory for the entire community of believers in Christ who live in His homeland. The fact that he belonged to the Protestant community underlines that what unites us outstrips what divides us. And its not the first time in the Region that the protestant evangelicals enlighten us and teach us to have faith in Christ, free from conditioning, free from fear and a presumptuous “prudence”, which all too often burden so many of us Christians'."

I am a BookStore manager in Birmingham, AL and I doubt seriously that I will ever be threatened with my life because of the work that I do. There is another world out there that we – I - do not see.