Under a tree close to the house, the young woman sits surrounded by her mother, siblings, and her young son, Steve. As we talk with her, she’s helping her mother sort grains from one gourd bowl to another.
On September 14, 2018, Peninah went to the market like any other day. She left her cell phone at home, not expecting that anyone would look for her. However, when she returned, there were several missed calls. She knew something was wrong.
As a truck driver, her husband, Paul, was on his way back from delivering goods at the Somalia border. “A friend of Paul told me they had left in the morning, but as they traveled towards a town near the border, they met al-Shabaab,” Peninah says.
The radical Islamic terrorist group al-Shabaab is, in many ways, the Eastern African version of al-Qaeda. Al-Shabaab has terrorized Somalia for the past decade and is recently focusing its attacks on the neighboring country of Kenya.
The radical extremists lined up everyone from the truck and demanded they recite the Shahada—a Muslim profession of faith. But as a strong Christian, Paul told the men he could not deny Jesus and recite the Muslim creed.