Bishop RE Howard, General Overseer - Church of God of Prophecy

28 WWM APRIL 2010
The Courtroom Became a Chur
The article below is a follow-up to the story we ran in the
February 2010 issue of the White Wing Messenger
entitled “Alaska Update” on page 20. This is a testimony
of the power of God.
Regarding the situation in which the four Muslim men
had threatened Dirie’s life, the police put out an emergency
restraining order against the Muslims. During the first week
of December, Dirie asked me to go to court with him for
a hearing in which the judge would listen to both Dirie
and his four attackers, and then decide whether to give a
continuance of the restraining/protective order.
I went to court with Dirie, but the four men had not been
found, so the police had not been able to serve them their
subpoenas to appear in court. The hearing was postponed
for a couple weeks to give time for the subpoenas to be
served. It’s hard to believe that here in the good ole USA,
there are these Muslims literally looking for a Christian in
order to kill him.
Dirie asked me to go with him again to court when it
was re-scheduled. I told him that I would if he would just
let me know the day and time. The date came, but Dirie
had been working some double shifts and was tired and
had forgotten to tell me about the new date. When he
remembered it late in the night the night before, he didn’t
want to call and disturb me, so he decided to just go by
himself the next day.
The hearing was at 8:30 a.m., and Dirie arrived there
first. Right at 8:30, between 50–60 Muslim men entered the
courtroom, with the four men who had been served the
restraining order a few weeks before. They had gathered
together a bunch of the Muslim men and had driven them
to the courthouse in two big buses.
So there stood 50–60 angry Muslims and one young
Christian boy (I call him boy because he seems so young).
The judge, fearing what might happen, called in a large
contingent of police officers to stand in the courtroom. The
judge asked why all those men had come and was told that
they were there to stand with their four brothers against
this “man who has left our religion and our god, and is
trying to lead others into his Christianity.”
The judge asked Dirie about this claim. He gently said
that he wasn’t trying to make anyone do anything, but
that he had chosen to follow the Lord Jesus Christ, and no
one could persuade him to stop. The judge asked more
questions of the four men and others.
Finally, the judge turned to Dirie and asked if he would
like to say anything to the four men and the others. Dirie
told me that he could feel the Spirit and anointing of God
fill his being. Boldness began to rise up within him, and
the Word of God began going through his thoughts. He
faced all the Muslims and said the quote from David when
facing Goliath: “You come to me with sword and shield, but
I come to you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.”
Dirie later told me that he quoted a number of scriptures
and witnessed to the Muslims of the Lord Jesus Christ and
His great love for them. He said, “Pastor Arleta, I think I