"We Die With Gratitude"

This story was taken from Jesus Freaks by D.C. Talk and the Voice of the Martyrs. It took place in China sometime during the late 1960's.

'The two Christian girls waited in the Chinese prison yard for the announced execution. A fellow prisoner who watched the scene from his prison cell described their faces as pale but beautiful beyond belief; infinitely sad but sweet. Humanly speaking, they were fearful. But Chiu-Chin-Hsiu and Ho-Hsiu-Tzu had decided to submit to death without renouncing their faith.
Flanked by renegade guards, the executioner came with a revolver in his hand. It was their own pastor! He had been sentenced to die with the two girls. But, as on many other occasions in Church history, the persecutors worked on him, tempting him. They promised to release him if he would shoot the girls. He accepted.
The girls whispered to each other, then bowed respectfully before their pastor. One of them said, "Before you shoot us, we wish to thank you heartily for what you have meant to us. You baptised us, you taught us the ways of eternal life, you gave us holy communion with the same hand in which you now hold the gun.
"You also taught us that Christians are sometimes weak and commit terrible sins, but they can be forgiven again. When you regret what you are about to do to us, do not despair like Judas, but repent like Peter. God bless you, and remember that our last thought was not one of indignation against your failure. Everyone passes through hours of darkness.
"May God reward you for all the good you have done to us. We die with gratitude."
They bowed again.
The pastor's heart was hardened. He shot the girls.
Afterwards he was shot by the Communists.'