ICC Note: According to a video message recorded from a hospital room, Valdemiro Santiago, a pastor in Brazil who was recently stabbed during a church service, has forgiven his assailants. The pastor was stabbed in the neck and the required 25 stitches to treat his injuries. The attacker, Jonathan Gomes Higino, has been apprehended by the police and confessed that he was upset over remarks that the pastor made during a service last summer.
By Ruth Gledhill
01/12/2017 Brazil (Christian Today) – An evangelical pastor in Brazil has forgiven the worshipper who stabbed him in the neck during a televised service.
Valdemiro Santiago, 53, named by Forbes as one of the richest pastors in Brazil and who is founder of the World Church of the Power of God, suffered wounds in his neck and back after the stabbing in his church in Sao Paulo on Sunday morning.
The knife attack took place when he was laying on hands during the service, according to Veja.
Santiago, who received 25 stitches in hospital, released a video message from his hospital saying he forgives the attacker.
He said: “I was imposing my hands, just hearing a miracle, a testimony, and someone came in behind, I do not know, I did not see who it was, and stabbed the neck, or a razor, I do not know.
“Pray for me. I forgive the person who did this.”
Brazil’s Bishop Jorge Pinheiro, who was in church at the time, told AFP a man with a 35-centimeter weapon stabbed Santiago as the pastor was ministering to a young man. He said: “We are in shock. We could never have imagined that such a thing could happen in a church – to see the pastor holding his neck with blood flowing from it.”
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