AFGHANISTAN: Martyr’s Widow Says, “I’ll See Them Again”

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4.9 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 9 September 2023

⏱️ 28 minutes

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Summary

There had been reports of a pending terrorist attack in Kabul, Afghanistan, when Hannelie Groenewald went in work as a medical doctor on November 29, 2014. Hannelie didn’t know that the Taliban attack would target her own home and family.

When she arrived home that evening, a sea of police and military personnel were all around the smoking ruins of her house. Reporters were already there, asking her for comment. She still didn’t know what had happened; that her husband, Werner, and two teen aged children, Jean-Pierre and Rodé, had been killed in a Taliban attack on their home. She was taken to a neighbor’s house, where she read, over and over, Psalm 91, praying through its promises of help and divine covering. God’s overwhelming peace washed over her.

As a mother, she wished to have been with her children, to comfort them during the attack. But Hannelie is reminded that God is sovereign. Listen as she shares how God carried her through the days following the attack, and how Afghan people were impacted by her peace and spirit of forgiveness. Hannelie also tells of God’s blessings to her even as flames engulfed her home.

Pray for new believers in Afghanistan, that God would use the martyrs blood that has flowed there to bring forth a spiritual harvest, and that God’s church will be built up, even after the Taliban takeover of that nation in 2021.

Listen and watch Hannelie’s story on the new VOM App, and find her new book, (affiliate link) to learn more about how God remained faithful and encouraged her as she continued to serve Him.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	You can pick up your phone or turn on your television and find all kinds of people saying all kinds of frightening things.
0:07.8	It's easy to live in constant fear.
0:11.5	But listen to Honnally Grownwald, her husband and children were martyred in Afghanistan.
0:17.6	Honnally could be easily tempted to fear for her future.
0:23.3	But she's choosing faith instead.
0:26.2	I know God's with me. I've experienced him. I know he's real.
0:30.1	And I think if we live in fear, God's not maybe that real for us.
0:34.7	So we have to get to the point where we really believe what God's character is and that he is really the God that he sees in his word he is.
0:43.9	Jesus never promised his followers an easy path.
0:47.1	In fact, he told his disciples that the world would hate them.
0:50.6	He sent them out as sheep among wolves.
0:53.6	Jesus' words came true in the life of the Apostles and they're still coming true today in the lives of his followers around the world.
1:00.7	Join host Todd Netletons. We hear their inspiring stories and learn how we can help right now on the Voice of the Martyrs Radio Network.
1:08.4	Last week we were introduced to Honnally Grownwald who followed God's call to Afghanistan with her husband Werner and her children Rode and John Pierre.
1:18.6	When we left off, she had just realized that there was an attack in her home in Kabul while she was working in her job at a medical clinic.
1:29.0	If you missed any of last week's program, I want to encourage you go to vormradio.net and listen to the first half of that interview with Honnally.
1:37.8	Let's pick the story back up.
1:40.0	Honnally wouldn't have normally worked on that particular day, but she was called into the clinic because there had been reports that there would be a terrorist attack.
1:51.0	I was supposed to be at home and that's the big thing for me why I struggled to accept that I didn't die that day.
1:57.1	I wanted to die with my family. I wanted to be there to hold my children because they were not with Werner when the attack took place. Werner was downstairs and they were upstairs.
2:05.8	But it was like kind of a normal day and four o'clock when I went off duty, when we were in the car and the driver took me home, we received a school and our office manager telling the driver that there's been an attack on our home and office, but he didn't elaborate on that.
2:26.4	So at that stage, I still didn't think it was so serious and immediately I found Werner and he didn't answer his phone.
	...

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