Coptic Christians find strength in faith and community of asylum seekers in Virginia
(Worthy News) – Fayza Estephanos knows exactly how long it has been since she learned that two of her brothers were among 21 Egyptian Coptic Christians kidnapped and beheaded by the Islamic State in 2015 — three years, six months.
Speaking through an interpreter at her home in Centreville, Virginia, the 43-year-old asylum-seeker from Egypt works hard to tamp down her emotions as she tells how her brothers never renounced their faith, even under torture, even under the threat of a horrific death. Her own faith, she said, was tested between the time her family first heard of her brothers’ abduction and watched a videotape of their slaughter on a Libyan beach.
“I spent two days in the hospital. I was unable to talk or utter a word because of the shock,” she said. “That was the situation. My brother, father, sister — the same thing. The shock was not just our family. It was 13 families from the same village that went through the same thing. Every household had this shock.” [ Source: Washington Times (Read More…) ]