Egypt Church Deacon Had Premonition of Palm Sunday ISIS Terror Attack, His Widow Says
Her husband somehow knew what would happen to him that fateful Palm Sunday in Egypt.
Michael Nabil Ragheb, father to a 3-year-old and deacon in Saint George church in Tanta, Egypt told his wife Sara a day earlier that he would soon be among the martyrs in heaven and that he would be missing her and their daughter who was then celebrating her third birthday, Open Doors USA reported.
On Palm Sunday, April 9, Michael asked his wife and daughter to sit at the last benches of the church, instead of close to him near the altar. He was in charge of leading the church choir that day.
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After putting on his deacon rope, "he asked me to wait for him after the service. But he never came back," Sara said.
It was on that day that Islamic State (ISIS) suicide bombers attacked two churches in Egypt—the Saint George church and St. Mark's Coptic Orthodox Cathedral in Alexandria—killing at least 49 people, including Sara's husband.
The widow said when the bomb exploded, she thought it was doomsday. "It was about ten past 9; it was in the middle of the mass. All of the sudden, I heard the sound of a big explosion, the church shook like there was an earthquake going on. The smoke filled the church, and it became dark while I heard people screaming. I was screaming, too. I was screaming the name of my husband and rushed to the place of the deacon choir, where I hoped to find him alive," she recounted.
"What I saw on my way to him was horrible, like a massacre had just taken place. The bodies of dead church members and even body parts were scattered among pools of blood. Then I saw my husband. I was in shock. He was just lying there, in a pool of blood like the others. Gone to heaven like he had sensed would happen," she said.
Sara said even as she grieves, she does not worry, knowing that her martyred husband is now in heaven. "My husband lived a life of heaven on earth. He was always praying and reading the Bible. I am happy for him. He is in a good place now—in Heaven—in front of the throne of grace. He is there with Jesus," she said.
Sara's family is part of the 9.5 million Christians living in Egypt, which ranks 21st on Open Door USA's 2017 World Watch list of top 50 countries for Christian persecution.
Coptic Christians have been targeted in a series of terror attacks in Egypt, as ISIS encroaches further across the country.
For years Muslim imams have been allowed to preach hatred and violence against Christians, CP earlier reported.
Despite the attacks they have been facing, Coptic Christians have not wavered in their faith, observers noted. For instance, as shown in a video posted on Facebook following the Palm Sunday bombings, hundreds of Copts enthusiastically chanted the Nicene Creed in Arabic outside a church.
"The Copts are an inspiring group that has been under so much pressure for their faith and yet they are standing strong and really showing the love of Jesus in the face of great opposition," David Curry, president of Open Door USA, told The Christian Post.
