Yarkant (Shache), Xinjiang—April 11, 1933

During the upheavals that swept Xinjiang in the early 1930s, Khotan rebel forces entered Yarkant (also called Shache), an oasis town on the southern Silk Road. In the confusion of shifting loyalties, they quickly singled out local believers in Christ who came from Muslim family backgrounds, treating their open confession as betrayal. What followed became a brief, searing chapter of persecution remembered for its clarity: when pressure rose, these Christians would not deny the Lord who had bought them.

Habil (c. 1913–1933)

The first believer killed that day was Habil, a twenty-year-old Christian teacher. When soldiers sought to violate his thirteen-year-old sister, Hava, Habil stepped forward to shield her, placing himself between the violent and the vulnerable. He was condemned for his faith and for his refusal to yield.

Before his execution, Habil traced a cross on a mud wall. Above it, he drew a crown and spoke words that summarized a lifetime of discipleship: “First the cross, then the crown.” His confession echoes Christ’s own call: “If anyone wants to come after Me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me” (Matthew 16:24). Habil’s courage was not bravado; it was love—love for his sister, and love for his Savior.

Hava (c. 1920s–before 1940) and Rescue

Hava was forced into marriage to a diseased man and became infected. The cruelty did not end with the wedding; it lingered in her body. Yet the Lord did not forget her. Swedish missionaries serving in the region later rescued her, offering protection and care. Even so, the sickness took her life before she reached twenty. Her short years became a quiet witness that Christ is worth all—when He gives strength to endure, and when He receives His suffering ones home.

Legacy of the Cross and Crown

Habil’s wall-drawn sermon remains a landmark of Christian faithfulness: suffering is real, but it is not final. “Be faithful even unto death, and I will give you the crown of life” (Revelation 2:10). And for every believer who trembles at the cost of obedience, this promise stands: “I consider that our present sufferings are not comparable to the glory that will be revealed in us” (Romans 8:18).