On Easter Sunday, April 19,2019, Rebekah woke up, excited to go to church and sing the song she had practiced with her sister Verlini—a song, she says, that’s all about Jesus’ suffering and love for us. She was standing in the church bookstore, when the bomber detonated the bomb in his backpack in Zion Church in Batticaloa, Sri Lanka, killing 30 people and injuring hundreds of others. That day, in a coordinated operation, Islamic extremists targeted and bombed two other churches and three luxury hotels in the island nation.
Recently, Open Doors CEO David Curry spoke with Rebekah about that day and her faith as she continues to follow Christ in the midst of so much grief. Rebekah’s young nephew was killed; and her niece was blinded in the blast. Third-degree burns completely cover the left side of Rebekah’s body and parts of her right side. She spent 60 days in the hospital.