Nice catch by Richard Bartholomew.
Last year a 17 year old girl named Rifqa Bary ran away from home and became a cause celeb for religious right and conservative groups in the US.
This week it was announced that Bary, who is in foster care in Ohio, has uterine cancer. One of the people involved in keeping her in the spotlight has been Jamal Jivanjee, who is has publicly been a part of  Liberty University’s Dr. Ergun Caner’s stories about his past.  Jivanjee runs a ministry in Florida called Illuminate and also runs a website about the teenager.
Another key player in what became a circus around a teenagers life has been Brian Williams, who bought Bary a bus ticket to Florida. Â Williams runs Jesus Power USA.
Now Williams has come out with a bizarre statement on Jivanjee’s Facebook page.
As strange as that is, Williams  responds at Bartholomew’s blog.
It’s because she is a minor and although the prayers of many are needed and appreciated, it is not the entire world’s business about her health condition. Rifqa has been and will continue to be supported through continue prayer from the family and friends closest to her, and most of all by Jesus himself. Just because her story of apostasy has been widely circulated it is not advisable to broadcast her health condition to the entire world. This is a spiritual war te young lady is facing. The heavenly strategy in such times is not fanfare, it is simply faith and trust in God’s power to deliver. Jamal’s intentions are pure and sincere. I have no broadcast the news of her health circumstances because I am more concerned about the numerous outsiders who have little interest in Ms Bary as a person, and more an interest in generating hits to their blog, or using her as an opportunity to be seen in the public light. With all of our governmental problems, even federal law protects indivuals from having there medical records and circumstances known to the public. Given the past 9 months Ms. Bary has endured, I believe that as a 17 year old she is also entitled to that same level of privacy. All prayers are appreciated and welcome. God is good and nothing catches Him by surprise, He is Jehova Rapha, He will glorify His name through Rifqa’s life in whatever way He deems. Regardless if she fits into the idealism of American Christianity, her life is a testimony, if she lives or if she dies, Christ will be glorified. In regards to spiritual warfare, we know what we are up against, and we will continue to support her in prayer. God bless you. – Brian
Williams is associated with Lou Engle’s bound4life and IHOP (International House of Prayer).
He flat out lied when asked by authorities if he knew where she had run off too in 2009.
Engle is a New Apostolic Reformation ‘apostle’ and according to Florida authorities, Rifqa describes Engle as “like her hero.”
Engle is a New Apostolic Reformation ‘apostle’ and was the featured speaker at TheCry Vancouver last year.
What is the New Apostolic Reformation? More here.
Engle has told this teen she has supernatural powers of healing and a ‘special’ role to play to the world as a prophet, she is an Esther and a holy warrior.
Florida courts sent Rifqa Bary back to Ohio in October where she remains in foster care.
The Rifqa has aggressive uterine cancer statement comes from Jivanjee and John Stemberger (Florida Family Policy Council). Â The Bary family and Rifqa Bary’s attorney have refused comment. About 200 news outlets have picked this up citing Jivanjee and Stemberger as source.
This is tragic news; I don’t care who you are or what religion you practice, please pray or make dua that Rifqa come through her surgery successfully.
I’d also like her to be reunited with her parents; I still don’t understand why certain Christians think it’s appropriate to interfere with parental custody the way they did. If a Christian girl converted to Islam and ran away to Florida, I can just about guarantee the reaction from the right-wing blogosphere would be very different.
Uterine cancer… often caused by STDs. Her parents might have asked those tacky questions and questioned her morals; that might be why, along with the Christian-Muslim issues, that she might hay wanted to run away.
If her parents were as old-school Muslim as she feared, she might have gotten nervous, even if she had been sexually proper.
My bad. It’s cervical cancer that is caused by a STD, the HPV virus; the big push in the news is a HPV vaccine that is being urged upon teenaged and pre-teen girls.
Uterine cancer isn’t one that so caused; it doesn’t have a tie-in to sexual activity.
That being said, it’s still something that would raise questions.
If this is true, I can appreciate the family, guardians and lawyers may wish to guard her privacy, but it’s not looking good for the religious right is they can’s even get an official confimration given the gravity of cancer.
I am very concerned about Rifqa. How many medical opinions wer obtained? Are her parents and the muslim medical community in on this knowing they could not hurt her as she was under watchful eye. I have not heard of 17 years olds having this, and it is hard to detect.
All this aside praying for Rifqa…for freedom. Reality is her parents do NOT want her to be a Christian.
Praying that truth and justice reign, that all lies are exposed and ‘if’ she has uterine cancer she is healed.