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Mike Riddering's Brother Recalls Slain Missionary's 'Radical' Transformation

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American missionary Mike Riddering was one of 28 people killed in a terrorist attack in West Africa last Friday.

The 45-year-old missionary from Florida had lived in Burkina Faso for five years.
   
His work with widows and orphans had become his life's passion -- a big change from the way he lived just a decade ago.

CBN News spoke with Jeff Riddering about how his brother's life was radically transformed by the love of God.

"About 11 years ago he made a decision for Christ that changed his life. He encountered God in his pickup truck," Riddering said.

"He was going down the street one day and he calls me on the phone - he's still pulled over the side of the road," he recalled. "He says, 'Jeff I think I'm going to hell.' I said, 'No you're not. You grew up in a Christian family and everything. Are you sure?' and he says, 'No, I don't love God,' and I said, 'What's happening?'

"He radically changed that day," Riddering said. "Everybody knows it, everybody in the church, his whole family knows what would happen in that church."

Mike was in the capital city with a team of missionaries visiting from the U.S. He had stopped at a cafe in Ouagadougou with a friend when al Qaeda-linked terrorists stormed in and started shooting.

He leaves behind his wife and four children, two adopted from burkina faso.

Please pray for the Riddering family during this difficult time.

Hear Jeff Riddering describe how God’s love radically changed his brother Mike’s life.

Hear how Mike Riddering was changing the lives of dozens of orphans and widows in Africa in the name of Jesus Christ.

Slain missionary Mike Riddering’s family is shouldering the burden of ministry, while coping with grief. Learn how you can pray for them.

Jeff Riddering says his brother Mike is a modern-day martyr.

Why young missionaries not to shrink back in the face of persecution.

Loving those who are different from us is central to the Great Commission. 

 

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CBN News is a national/international, nonprofit news organization that provides programming 24 hours a day by cable, satellite and the Internet. Staffed by a group of acclaimed news professionals, CBN News delivers stories to over a million viewers each day without a specific agenda. With its headquarters in Virginia Beach, Va., CBN News has bureaus in Washington D.C., Jerusalem, and elsewhere around the world. What began as a segment on CBN's flagship program, The 700 Club, in the early 1980s, CBN News has since expanded into a multimedia news organization that offers today's news headlines