09/12/2021 Indonesia (International Christian Concern) – On May 13, 2018, Wenny Angelina Hudojo went to Santa Maria Catholic Church in Surabaya with her two young sons. As they were walking towards the church, a bomb blast brought them to the floor. When Wenny tried to reach for her boys, she found them severely injured. Her sons died later in the hospital.
) – On May 13, 2018, Wenny Angelina Hudojo went to Santa Maria Catholic Church in Surabaya with her two young sons. As they were walking towards the church, a bomb blast brought them to the floor. When Wenny tried to reach for her boys, she found them severely injured. Her sons died later in the hospital.
Her eldest son Evan would have turned 15 this year on August 29. Instead, on this date, the would-be celebration was marked only by prayers and flowers placed on his grave.
“Happy birthday in heaven to my angel Evan. Always be happy with Nathan in heaven. Best wishes from papa and mom who always miss you,” Wenny wrote on her Instagram, paying tribute to both of her sons Evan and Nathan.
Wenny told South China Morning Post that she could not hide the fact that she was still “100 per cent sad”.
“How can a mother not feel sad over the loss of her children? I can never hold or hug them again,” she said.
Yet three days after the suicide bombing attack, Wenny forgave the two perpetrators. It helped to lessen her burden. “My son doesn’t want me to be sad, so I have to be strong,” added Wenny. “I love them very much and they definitely love their mother. Moreover, our Lord always teaches us to love the bad people. That’s true love.”
The grieving mother also felt sorry for the young suicide attackers and viewed them as victims of their father’s extremist ideology.
Dita Oepriarto, a senior member of Jamaah Ansharu Daulah (JAD), the largest IS-linked group in Indonesia, radicalized his wife and four children Yusuf, Firman Halim, Fadhila Sari, and Famela Rizqita, by making them watch footage of suicide blasts.
During the May 13 attacks, Yusuf (17) and Firman (16), groomed by their father, travelled to the church on a motorcycle, set off explosives that killed themselves and five others, including Wenny’s children Evan and Nathan.
Not long after, their mother and two younger sisters chose to attack another church in the same way. Dita was the last one to go. He drove his bomb-laden car into a third church that exploded in a huge fireball, killing himself and seven others.
Within 90 minutes, Dita “sacrificed” his family for his extremist views of Islam.
