BookPoint Book Reviews

 

Song of the Nightingale - Helen Berhane

ISBN - 978-1-85078-864-5, Price £8.00, 16- pages, Publisher - Release International

This is a true story of faith and persecution in Eritrea; some of us will have heard and read about the Christians who are captured and imprisoned in shipping tankers. Acts 16:16-40 tells about Paul and Silas who were put into prison for doing God's work, Acts 16:25 says that at about midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns, and the other prisoners were listening to them. Although that was over 2000 years ago, little has changed over the years. It's now the 21st century and we are still reading about people being put in prison for believing in Jesus. Reading this book of Helen's horrendous torture, humiliation, pain, hunger and fear, it was hard to imagine that this sort of thing is still happening today. 

What I learned from this book is the strength, faith and trust that Helen had in God while she was going through her terrible ordeal; nothing and no one was going to stop her from spreading God's word to everyone she came into contact with: other prisoners, guards, even the people who interrogated and tortured her. 

I would recommend that everyone should read this book, to remind us all that we must continue to do all we are capable of doing to help persecuted Christians all over the world who are suffering for believing in Jesus Christ. 

Helen is a singer, and continued to sing while she was locked up in the tanker; the other Christians joined in and sang with her; nothing could stop them from singing even though they were beaten for this. Richard Wurmbrand, another Christian who was imprisoned for believing in Jesus, said "I imagine that nightingales too would sing even if they knew that after finishing they would be killed for it." 

Helen sends out a message for all of us who are Christians and live in the free world: "You must not take your freedom for granted...If I could sing in prison, imagine what you can do for God's glory with your freedom." A real challenge for the church in the west.