The bride said no.

[Gregory Matthews]

From the Associated Press

Date: June 9, 2005

Country: Ethiopia

Location: Bita Genet, 350 miles south of Addis Ababa

One of the older men of the village decided that he wanted to marry a 12 year-old girl. But she was not willing. So, he got six of his friends to kidnap her she resisted, and remained unwilling to become his wife. So, after a week of captivity, the seven took her outside the village, and began to beat her. Under the normal ritual, she would have been beaten, raped by her future husband, and beaten until she agreed.

But, circumstances took a strange twist, and normal events did not happen. Shortly after the seven began to beat her they heard a sound that send terror into thier hearts. As they turned to look for the source, they noted three large, snarling, lions from the forest racing toward them, clearly in the attack mode. The girl was forgotten as the seven ran for thier lives.

The three lions raced up to the girl, and stopped. They positioned themselves around the girl, and kept thier eyes on the retreating men. Hours passed, and the lions remained in place. Then, off in the distqnce, a party of people was noted walking in the direction of the girl. It consisted of police, and her family.

As the group neared the girl, the lions rose to thier feet, and slowly walked back into the forest from which they had come.

The police have arrested four of the men, and are looking for the other three. The girl has been treated for cuts and bruises from the beating she recieved prior to the arrival of the lions.

[darlene]

Yes, I've read about this in the News. Seems like God sent the lions? Maybe an answer to prayer?

[Gregory Matthews]

Darlene:

Oh, yes, there are all kinds of thoughts that come to one's mind. But, your comment also raises questions: If God sent the lions (I do not deny that he did.) where was/is God in all of the other cases where a 12 YO is beaten and raped?

[Nicodema]

What an amazing story!! I don't have any easy answer to your question, Gregory, except that I've heard prayer "allows" God to work in situations where He might not have otherwise. WHY I don't know. WHY the sovereign God of the Universe needs our "permission" to intervene, I could not say. I've heard it said it has something to do with our free will. Again, I simply don't know. It raises more questions than it answers. But I still think this is an amazing story, and I do wonder if the girl prayed for divine intervention in her situation.

[Gregory Matthews]

Nico:

I agree.

[LynnDel]

Is this truly an AP story? Their is misspelled several times, receive is also misspelled, and there is a typo in distance. AP stories do not usually have these errors. In addition to spelling and punctuation problems, the story is not written in AP news style. What is the original source?

LynnDel

[LynnDel]

Here is the story from the

New York Post

[Ron Lambert]

The article gives a speculative explanation from a wildlife expert:

Quote:

---

Stuart Williams, a wildlife expert with the rural development ministry, said the girl may have survived because she was crying from the trauma of her attack.

.

"A young girl whimpering could be mistaken for the mewing sound from a lion cub, which in turn could explain why they didn't eat her," Williams said.

---

Not to deny the possibility of angelic intervention, but it is also possible the girl was just lucky. Perhaps angels helped the "luck" along. It is interesting that the lions simply walked back into the forest when the group including police and the girl's family approached. Why would they drive off the humans who attacked the girl, but then surrender her without protest to the other group of humans? Angels may have taken advantage of the fortuitous situation to encourage the lions to do the right thing.

This will be one of those interesting things to look up and review during the Millennium.

[Robert]

Quote:

---

WHY the sovereign God of the Universe needs our "permission" to intervene, I could not say....

---

Of course it is an assumption that "God" sent the lions, but let's say He did...why this one case? Please remember that God can't sin...and it is sin to play favorites [see James 2:8,9]

Then again the story could be made up….

Rob

[Gregory Matthews]

Re: "Is this truly an AP story?"

Yes, it is from the AP. No, it is not a reprint. The writing is mine. The spelling errors are mine. I took the basic information and I wrote it as it is listed here.

I apologize for your thinking that I had copied it from the newspaper. I did not expect that anyone would think that such had been done, especially since it did NOT have quotation marks. If I had copied it, I would have used quotation marks.

I also had thought that when I put at the beginning: "From the AP . . ." that it would be evident that I was NOT directly quoting the story.

As a third reason, the AP is in business to sell stories. If I were to copy it, they could justly charge CA/me a fee for doing so. But, rewriting the information, in a major way, and crediting them as the source, I could do what I did.

[LynnDel]

I didn't realize I was doing a critique of your write-up - apologies! Since we so often get scammed with stories of the urban legend type, I was reading it with a very critical eye.

Thanks for bringing the story to our attention, Gregory. It is very interesting, and your reason for summarizing makes sense.

LD

[Gregory Matthews]

No problem.

[LifeHiscost]

Quote:

---

Nicodema said:

Again, I simply don't know. It raises more questions than it answers. But I still think this is an amazing story, and I do wonder if the girl prayed for divine intervention in her situation.

---

For every person who prays, asking for specific deliverance and receives it, there are numerous people who's prayers are seemingly unanswered. Some of us may ask why not deliverance to all who pray for it. I believe God answers the question, "why", on a need to know basis.

I would say unequivocally the girl's deliverance was of God.

[:"red"] "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning." [/] James 1:17

Is it necessary for those of us who have difficulty organizing our own life so they work perfectly, to have all the answers as to why He doesn't do all the things the way we think He should, before we have the strong hope of His promises firmly in our own life of faith?

The fact that we don't have all the answers is one of the strongest reasons for us to lean on the Person Who has proven Himself faithful to His stated character, multitudenous times, if we were only open to His efforts to reach us with His grace. And what isn't answered today according to the truthful understanding of His promises, is no indication of the non-fulfillment of that promise being fulfilled in God's own good time.

[:"red"] "If we are faithless, He remains faithful; He cannot deny Himself." [/] 2 Timothy 2:13 NKJV

[:"red"] " When he cries to Me, I will hear, for I am gracious and merciful." [/] Exodus 22:27 AMP

[:"red"] "Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever." [/] Heb 13:8 KJV

[:"red"] "TO EVERYTHING there is a season, and a time for every matter or purpose under heaven:

A time to get and a time to lose, a time to keep and a time to cast away

He has made everything beautiful in its time." [/] Eccl 3:1,8,11 AMP

Keep the faith!

[Greenjeans]

Our pastor is going through a very trying time right now--He has been diagnosed with a very rapidly growing brain tumor. If something isn't done, he will be dead in 6 months! Scary for a man who is only in his 50s!

But do you know what he's telling us? This isn't about me. It's about God, His character, and the work He is doing in both my life and the lives of those around me. God's character is on trial here. The universe now has seen the Deceiver exposed at the cross. They are done with him. But we humans still tend to believe his lies. God is now vindicating His character among the human family. And if He wants to do it by laying our beloved pastor to rest "before his time," so be it. Wow! That hurt.

[LifeHiscost]

Quote:

---

Greenjeans said:

Our pastor is going through a very trying time right now--He has been diagnosed with a very rapidly growing brain tumor. If something isn't done, he will be dead in 6 months! Scary for a man who is only in his 50s!

But do you know what he's telling us? This isn't about me. It's about God, His character, and the work He is doing in both my life and the lives of those around me. God's character is on trial here. The universe now has seen the Deceiver exposed at the cross. They are done with him. But we humans still tend to believe his lies. God is now vindicating His character among the human family. And if He wants to do it by laying our beloved pastor to rest "before his time," so be it. Wow! That hurt.

---

[:"red"] "The righteous pass away; the godly often die before their time. And no one seems to care or wonder why. No one seems to understand that God is protecting them from the evil to come. For the godly who die will rest in peace.

" [/] Isaiah 57:1,2 NLT

That story touched home, Greenjeans.

At the age of 66, my father was diagnosed with ALS(Lou Gehrigs disease), with the assurance? that he had six months left to live.

Earlier in my father's life he had accepted baptism in another Christian church, not Adventist, with his reasoning that he'd had a bad experience with an Adventist so wouldn't join them. As time passed he left the church he had joined because they kept asking for money.

Although he wasn't a reqular tippler of the bottle, he did smoke but didn't seem to experience any major health problems. Finally quitting cold turkey after 47 years of smoking, because cigarettes went up a nickle to 45 cents a pack, he even said to me, I didn't need to think it was my prayers that caused him to quit. He eventually settled down to enjoy his remaining years in retirement.

Then the other shoe dropped, the diagnoses.

At the time, I wasn't spiritually healthy enough to give him any strong consolation about his eternal destiny. Much like many fundementalist Christians, I mainly told him to live correctly to find assurance.

His life became almost intolerable as his voluntary and involuntary muscles began to lose their capability. Having been raised for the most part under the mistaken idea that the ungodly would live their eternal future in an eternally burning fire, his inner fear must have been excruciating.

Because of my own spiritual lack, God finally sent a lay Bible worker from another denomination, to tell him of the simple truth, that his future could be rescued by putting his trust in the shed blood of Jesus for the washing away of his sins.

A short time later my father died, almost to the day, six months. In the funeral train, my step-mother, my brother and I rode together behind the hearse carrying my father's body, when all of a sudden my mother cried out,

"There goes my daddy, and I'll never see him again." With equal passion I responded, "Oh! yes you will."

I didn't have that thought on my own, but the previous night I had a dream, short but succinct. In the dream I was in a place of quiet green grass. Walking across the expanse

I spotted someone walking toward me from the opposite direction, almost immediately recognizing him as my dad. We ran toward each other, communicating thoughts without spoken word, meeting and then embracing.

The dream was very short, without elaboration. In the dream my thoughts were an apology to him of how sorry I was, not to be there for him when he needed me. His thoughts to me

were dismissal of any sense of lack, unconditional love.

Some sit in arguement, making effort to place a dream like this a result of evil seduction to complacency. I believe God to be Sovereign, able to do far over and above all that we dare ask or think. A word of encouragement, given by the God of all encouragement, to one of his erring children in their time of spiritual need.

[:"red"] "Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us" [/] Eph 3:20 KJV

Keep the faith!