Hey everyone it's Leslie Ludi host of the Set-A-Part-Grel podcast biblical encouragement for women of all ages.

Today we're going to take a look at another woman who has greatly impacted my life and I know that

her story can impact your life as well.

Her name is Esther Ankin and she was a Korean Christian

who stood boldly for her faith in the Second World War

when the Japanese were taking over her country.

She was a young woman from a privileged family

and she was teaching at a Christian school.

The Japanese were putting a tremendous amount of pressure upon the Korean Christians to deny their faith and to begin showing worship to their false gods.

And so many Christians around her were giving into that pressure because they knew

that the alternative was either imprisonment, torture, or death. And Christians in

her school where she worked were putting a lot of pressure on her saying you know

you're going to bring a lot of persecution to the school to the students and the

teachers if you don't go along with this but she said I cannot deny my God and so when they went there was a certain day where they all went at her Christian school to this shrine the Japanese shrine and all of the Japanese officials were there and they were going to make sure that every one of the students and teachers bowed at the shrine of the Japanese Sun God.

And even though it was a Christian school and most of the students and teachers proclaimed to be Christians, Esther on Kim was the only one who had resolved in her heart that she would not bow.

And so when she stood there with hundreds of people, one of the officials said,

everyone must bow to the Sun God, and as he shouted the words, the entire group

bent the upper half of their bodies, bowing solemnly before the shrine.

And Esther, as this young 20-year-old girl, was the only one who remained standing and looking up at the sky.

The fear and uncertainty that had sort of gripped her heart

all the way as she went to the shrine that day, she just wasn't sure if she could do this.

As soon as she took that step, all that fear vanished, and she was just

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