.jpg)
Limitless Spirit
For the seekers of a greater purpose in life, opportunities to serve in missions and personal growth in Christ with host Helen Todd.
Limitless Spirit
Muslim woman finds Christ and freedom in the US
On a pilgrimage to Mecca with her parents, 4-year-old "Amina" witnessed the beheading of a woman. This traumatic event left her growing up in fear of Allah and the world around her.
In this episode of the Limitless Spirit Podcast, host Helen Todd interviews Amina (not her real name)—a devout Muslim from Kuwait who found Christ after moving to the United States. Throughout her life, Amina felt that the impersonal god she was taught about “didn’t match” the God who created the world. After relocating to the United States, Amina sought personal freedom and ultimately found it in Christ. In this episode, you’ll hear about Amina’s strict Muslim upbringing, her family’s challenging transition to life in America, and a co-worker’s timely invitation to church during Amina’s time of need.
Visit our website website: www.rfwma.org and find short-term missions opportunities around the world.
Thanks for listening! Visit our website rfwma.org and follow us on Facebook :https://www.facebook.com/limitlessspiritpodcast/
and Instagram: @limitlessspiritpodcast
Help us make more inspiring episodes: https://rfwma.org/give-support-the-podcast/
Welcome to Limitless Spirit, a weekly podcast with host Helen Todd, where she interviews guests about pursuing spiritual growth, discovering life's purpose through serving others and developing a deeper faith in Christ.
Speaker 2:Welcome to the Limitless Spirit podcast, where we talk about pressing issues, personal stories and, of course, the pursuit of a greater purpose in life through Christ. Today, I want to share with you an interview with a woman whose real name will be concealed for her personal protection. Her story, however, is a breath of fresh air amidst everything that is happening around the world today. A Muslim immigrant to the United States, she was traumatized by a terrible childhood experience. Yet when she moved with her family to the United States to avoid political crisis in her country, she found American culture at first offensive, yet its spirit of freedom was alluring to her. Her life took a radical turn. After several years of living in America, someone invited her to church. Hello, amina, welcome to the Limitless Spirit podcast. Thank you for having me. I appreciate it. Helen, I know that we can't use your real name for safety purposes, but I think Amina is a beautiful name. It matches you well.
Speaker 3:Thank you again for having me. This is very timely. I believe that you were allowing me to share my story. So I was born and raised in a small Middle Eastern country, very devout Muslim country, and the community I lived in is 98% Muslim population at that time and I think it still is, and I lived right in front of a mosque where I would hear the call to prayer five times a day.
Speaker 3:My family came from a Sunni background, which is there are two sects in Islam the Sunni and Shia, and Sunni is the majority Muslims in the world.
Speaker 3:So my family is very strict, strict Sunni background, praying five times a day, fasting in Ramadan, going to pilgrimage, adhering to the traditional covering. As a woman, all of that is still very important to my family there and I live with my parents growing up and my younger brother and we were a very strong Muslim family growing up. I have several aunts, uncles, cousins also as well, and you know, in the community where I lived there were no people of any other religion that I knew of, even though there were people in the country, like from Egypt or Lebanon or Syria or, I guess, palestinian background. You know Syria or I guess Palestinian background. You know people that probably practiced Christian faith. But I just want to say in Islamic culture, the culture I came from, it was not very accepted to share the message of Jesus with Muslims. So not a lot of evangelizing, even to this day, is happening in the community where I come from.
Speaker 2:Well, because it's illegal, correct? So I mean technically, that's absolutely not allowed.
Speaker 3:Yes, it is not accepted, definitely not accepted. And they will get in big trouble if they do share. But sometimes they have to share in hiding, you know. So I started wearing the headscarf covering called a hijab from the age of three and I started wearing the full covering, where you, I'm sure you have seen Muslim women in the Middle East, where they were all black but you only see the eyes, and that is where I started wearing from the age of 10.
Speaker 3:When I went out in public, I always was accompanied by my father or my uncle or my brother or a male in the family, and definitely with my mother. I never went out by myself. It was just not accepted. So you know, I mean, we had everything. My father worked for the government, my mother was an Islamic school teacher. We were not poor. We came from a good family, well taken care of, and I had everything.
Speaker 3:But I noticed from the young age I would open the window in my room and I would look at the creation of God. I would just see the blue sky and the clouds and the palm trees and the camels and the desert that's where the background is and the birds, and I would often wonder. It's amazing how beautiful God made this creation. But the God that I followed Allah is not a personable God to Muslims followed. Allah is not a personable God to Muslims.
Speaker 3:For me, god was always distant, far away. Judge, made rules and regulations for me to follow. I honored God. I honored Allah in my prayer times and adhering to the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad and everything. But still, the more I prayed, the more I was seeking God with my heart. God was so distant and far away. The more I was seeking God with my heart, god was so distant and far away. But I often wondered how is this creation God created match his nature For me, even from a young age, I realized it did not match. You know, because God now I know the God is God of love, god of acceptance, god of mercy, compassion, kindness, fruits of the spirit. You know, but that's the God I thought I was worshiping, but it wasn't, and that's what I was looking for. So I was really looking for God from a very young age and I did not know how to find him. So what was your?
Speaker 2:life going to be like? How did you imagine your future at that time? What was the best possible outcome for you?
Speaker 3:You know, in Islamic culture girls are because it's an honor-shame culture. Girls usually stay home a lot. They cook and clean, take care of the family. They're expected to learn how to take care of the family. They can get an education but they cannot get jobs and basically we raised up to be married off one day to maybe a nice man that will take care of them. In my culture there's men that have several wives, so it's accepted to live with several wives. So that's what I thought my life would be. I would just be raised up to be married off one day, maybe to my cousin. It's common to be marrying the first cousin. Arranged marriages are common and that's what I thought my life would be. It would be people coming and looking at me to be married off to their sons one day. I didn't know how else different it could be. I knew that even if I got an education I would not go anywhere past that and were you okay with that?
Speaker 2:Or maybe were you deep inside longing for more.
Speaker 3:I think, honestly, every Muslim woman is longing for freedom in her heart. She really wants more than that, more than like to go and look at the world and experience different cultures. You know, just see what else is out there. Every Muslim woman wants that, but unfortunately it's restricted according to the religion and the culture which the religion is the culture. So in a way, if you can imagine, they expect this way of life. They don't expect any different, unless someone gives it to them, you know. Then they go out and their eyes are open to see what else is out there. But this is normal, this is a normal way of life.
Speaker 2:And what did you know about Christ at that time? Did you just know that he was one of the prophets?
Speaker 3:So, yes, I just shared with you two different ways Acknowledge many Old Testament prophets like Adam, moses, abraham, ishmael, isaac, jacob, jonah, david, jesus. You know all these are Old Testament prophets, but they highly regard prophets. But there's no prophet greater than any prophet. Even Muhammad is not greater than any prophet, but they highly regard these prophets. Prophet is a messenger from God that brought a message from God to the people. Okay, so that's how they see it. So, yeah, to me Jesus was just a prophet. Definitely. He came as a miracle into this world from the womb of Mary and by the spirit of God. He had the power to heal the sick and raise the dead. He did great miracles and also what I knew of him is that he did not get crucified on the cross, that he was taken up into heaven and he is returning on Judgment Day as a Muslim. That's what I knew Then.
Speaker 3:The other answer I want to give you is I learned English in a Catholic convent.
Speaker 3:So when I went to the Catholic convent, it was not every day, but it was like twice, two times in a week, and I remember walking into the convent and I would see the crucifix of Jesus and I would see a picture of Mary carrying a baby, and I would see saints and different pictures of Jesus. It was not the crucifix picture, necessarily, but he had different pictures. To be honest with you, I was very confused by the Catholic Christian faith because, by the way, to Muslims, catholic and Christian is the same thing. It's not. They don't know the difference, how they worship. So to me, I was very confused with what I saw. I thought that Christians are worshiping a human being and if it's in the form of an idol made as a sculpture, then it's idol worship, and Muslims do not accept idol worship. They don't worship an idol. So I don't know, from a Christian perspective, what Jesus was to them, but they were worshiping a human being and for me, what Jesus was was just a prophet.
Speaker 2:And so, since they consider Jesus a prophet, do they ever teach any of his teachings?
Speaker 3:Yes, in the Quran there is several surahs about. In fact, there's a lot written about Jesus, about Isa. Isa alayhi salam is the word Isa is the word for Jesus and written a lot in the Quran about. Of course, I share with you the miracle birth that he did. He had the power to heal the sick, raise the dead. There's some miracles recorded in the Quran that's not even in the Bible actually. So that is there. But you know, many of the stories in the Bible are not in the Quran. It's just basically that he is the one coming back on Judgment Day. But he's going to come back and promote Islam and correct the Christians and if they don't accept them, they're going to be killed and the Jews are automatically going to be killed. By the way, muslims do not know that Jesus is from a Jewish heritage. That's not in the Quran. So I was taught very strongly to hate the Jewish people and I didn't even know that Jesus' heritage was Jewish.
Speaker 2:Well, that is interesting.
Speaker 3:Yes, I know it's powerful right, but there's many things missing. There are many holes in the Quran about what the Bible says.
Speaker 2:Now I remember in your testimony that you had this very traumatic experience as a child, making a pilgrimage with your parents to Mecca and witnessing the beheading of several women. Tell me a little bit about that and what impact it made on you.
Speaker 3:Well, it was actually one woman and if you look, throughout history there has been beheadings in Saudi Arabia multiple times, several times, and it is always almost done publicly to put fear in the people of not to do certain things. So my family and I went and did Hajj pilgrimage, and then we were going to the city of Medina, and in those days the roads were not very good as they are now. And so we were walking to Medina doing our pilgrimage journey, and suddenly a crowd started to gather. I was holding my father's hand and my father and I got pushed to the front of this crowd and now, see, the circle has been formed and there must be two or three hundred people in the circle, a round circle, and men, women and children.
Speaker 3:And in the center of the circle was the Arabic woman. She was dressed completely in all black. Nothing you could see, not her hands, face, feet, nothing. She was sitting on a box and she was like like this, you know, in the front, like this, with a head in the front, and this man next to her did a traditional Islamic prayer on the floor and he got up from the floor and he pulled out a very long golden sword and he just suddenly beheaded. The woman just just came down, the sword came down and I remember seeing blood splattering everywhere on the desert it's a desert out in, outside the city, and I was shaking, my legs were shaking, my heart was pounding like it's coming out of me or something, and the commotion in the crowd that the men are chanting allah wa Allah Akbar, allah Akbar, which is God is great, god is great.
Speaker 3:And the women are screaming and crying. And at that day, at that moment, I pulled my father's hand. I said father, father, what is happening? And my father said if you don't listen to the teachings we're teaching you, you live as a good Muslim and die as a good Muslim. If I don't do this, this could happen to me one day. And that day I was overcome with fear, complete fear of God and fear of my father and fear of my, the religion I was raised in.
Speaker 2:That day, changed for me. So that was kind of the turning point, when you felt like maybe this is not what you want in your life.
Speaker 3:Well, it was scary. I mean, honestly, there's beheadings that happen a lot over there. Stonings and beheadings are very common. You don't hear about it in the media but it's very protected. But seeing it with your eyes it's very different. In real life, I'm telling you honestly, there's one thing to watch in a movie and there's another thing to watch in a movie and there's another thing to watch in person and it shakes you up. And I guess it just brought me awareness of what I am in and that I should take it seriously and that I should fear God and fear my future.
Speaker 2:So, in his divine providence, God arranged for your family to come to the United States and your life suddenly changed, and you mentioned that at first you were traumatized by the American culture because it seemed promiscuous to you and, let's face it, in some ways it's definitely not what we want to see. But you said that eventually this life in America started seeming appealing and even blessed. So what changed your opinion of the American culture?
Speaker 3:Well, you know, as soon as I came to America, I one word came to my mind, and it's freedom. And there's freedom in this country, freedom to worship how you like, freedom to drive a car as a woman I would not have been able to drive a car in those days in my country Now the rules have changed a little but freedom to drive a car, freedom to go out and buy whatever you want by yourself, freedom to just enjoy life, you know, and experience new things, that just was not available for me when I where I was raised. And this is available to not just women, but all people, all backgrounds, and people are accepted. That's one thing I noticed is people from all different backgrounds are accepted in this country. So that's one first thing I experienced.
Speaker 3:But of course, the West, any part of the West, not just United States, even Europe, is considered in the eyes of Islam. I'll just be honest with you. I don't want to offend anybody, but I'm speaking truth. It is offensive. And the way they dress, the food they eat, the mannerism, sex before marriage, pornography, drinking, you know, all these killings, gangs, all rapes, all these things that sometimes the media promotes as a good thing, it's not accepted in the Islamic culture. That is why they keep the woman so protected and away from all this, so that you would not look. It would not be shame the family, you know. So when I came here, my family also tried to keep me away from a lot of things, thinking maybe I would become those people, and so it's very strict.
Speaker 2:I was still very strict for me even after I came here, and so at one point you felt like you wanted to run away or experience the freedom, and you decided not to. So I want to talk about that, because I've heard this from other friends who went through somewhat of a similar experience. And it's so hard because for a Muslim person, especially a Muslim woman, accepting Christianity means like cutting yourself off from the people that you love and your family. And so tell me, how did you go through this?
Speaker 3:Well, it is an honor-shame culture. So children usually stay with the parents until they get married. The son, when they get married in the Islamic family, stays in the home with the parents and his bride joins the family and takes care of the family. But the daughter leaves the family and goes to the husband's side of the family. But it's only done after marriage. Until then the parents stay home. Until then an honor and respect is brought to the family and you have to abide by the rules and regulations. That's the only way to do it.
Speaker 3:So when I'm living in a completely different culture, trying to adhere to my culture, it is very hard and you cannot restrict a person. They want to get out and go see what else is out there and it's almost like my heart was so excited to go and experience but my parents were restricting me from going and experiencing and it was a clash. And this is very common, I'm telling you. This happens in almost every Islamic home. Children want to go out and experience, especially if they're getting educated here. They make friends, they understand and hear about different new things happening.
Speaker 3:So I did leave home once and it really hurt my family. They made it known that how much I hurt them. So I had to go back home. But I was miserable inside, in my heart. I was miserable because even if someone would have shared with me about Christianity at that time, I would have been like tell me more. I'm open to hear, to listen, because in my faith I don't have this joy that you guys have in this country, in your lives, in your family, I see that American people are happy. They had smiles on their faces, they would joke around and have a joyful experience with their families. That's not what I had. Maybe on the outside it would look like I was happy, maybe because I was with them or smiling, but in my heart I was so broken and rejected and alone and I feel like God had mercy on me in that time and really took a hold of my heart and gave me freedom and I just thank God for that.
Speaker 2:Well, let's talk about how this happened. There was finally someone who reached out to you, and I love that part of your story, so let's talk about this, okay.
Speaker 3:Well, Helen, you know, I lived in this country for eight and a half years in the US, In a city where there's obvious Christians. It's like if you're driving on a road, there's at least a church every one-fourth mile. Okay, so Christianity is obvious religion. In the city where I lived, my family and I found one mosque. So we started attending that mosque. I was going to the Islamic school, I was learning the Quran and everything. Of course.
Speaker 3:I was attending college, my father and I was making American friends and what I was trying to say is, even under the control of my family, I was still a little bit experiencing some freedom and enjoying it, but any kind of freedom to my family is a threat. So they tried to restrict me even more. They arranged my marriage to a man in Kuwait area and then. So I was like shocked by that, because I'm here in this country and I never thought that would happen, you know. So I tried to speak to my father and I said, Father, I don't want to marry this person. I know this is my culture. Maybe one day I will marry somebody that you like in America, but I don't want to be sent back anywhere or sent anywhere in the Middle East and but my father's decision was made. This is, in fact, as a woman don't have the right to speak back to the father when they make certain arrangements. So my father was even shocked that I was even speaking against this and it started causing a lot of stress in my home Every day. I was rejecting this proposal.
Speaker 3:So the person that was visiting me at that time was my grandmother. My grandmother was a very special person in my life. There's one person in my family I really loved and enjoyed and respected and she was like my best friend, was my grandmother, and she ministered to me in ways that no one else really did. When I had questions about my religion, I would ask her and she would help me. So I told my grandmother that I don't want to marry this man and my grandmother went to speak to my father for me and stood up for me. Well, that caused even more stress and there was a lot of arguing, fighting with the words. Stress just elevated in my home and my grandmother started getting sick suddenly and she started. It's like she suddenly got sick and she was like grabbing her heart. So they called 911 emergency and she went to the hospital in the ICU and found out that she had a massive heart attack. And it was devastating to see my grandmother. One moment she was okay. The next moment she was barely breathing, barely holding on, and in two days she passed okay. The next moment she was barely breathing, barely holding on, and in two days she passed away. And I was devastated. You know, I felt in a way I blamed myself, that maybe if I would have accepted this my grandmother would still be alive, and it really hurt me. I lost my best friend, my biggest support in my life. I was struggling and so my father stopped talking to me about this proposal because we were all mourning the loss of my grandmother and she was gone.
Speaker 3:In Islamic customs, even Islamic religion, there's no guarantee offered to any Muslims to go to heaven. So Muslims know that when they die, either God will have mercy on them and allow them into heaven or they go to hell, and there's specifically a surah in the Quran that says that women, majority of the women will go to hell, and that is a fear factor in a lot of women's hearts and minds. So I feared about my grandmother's future and I missed her and she was buried and she was gone and I was. It's like I became depressed person.
Speaker 3:So I went to my job after the funeral, a few days of the funeral service, and I tried to function at my work and I couldn't. I just started to cry. All I could do was cry, cry, just could not even function. And so this lady at my work her name was Paula came up to me and asked me if I was okay, and I said no, Paula, my grandmother was okay one moment, and now she's gone. She died, and I miss her so much and I don't know how to do this life. And God, my relationship with God at that point was so far away. I was praying and fasting and doing everything, but God was non-existent in my life. And so at that time I shared my heart with Paula, and Paula just took her arms and just held me, she just gave me a hug. And you know what this hug gave me peace. Peace just started flowing from top to my feet. I cannot explain this peace to you. I've not had peace like this before.
Speaker 3:And then, after that, she said would you like to come to my church with me? And that was the first time I got invited to a Christian church after living in a city for eight and a half years as a visible Muslim woman. I met many people here. I worked with people, I went to school with people, but no one ever invited me to their church, until this day, and so I walked into the church with Paula for the first time, until this day, and so I walked into the church with Paula for the first time. This was a big church which had about as big as 30,000 people attend this church. So I walked into this church as I covered because I want to. I always cover when you go to the place of worship and she took me to the very front. Imagine all those people staring at me. I'm the only Muslim girl in there, walking all the way to the front of the church and basically I just sat right below the pulpit of the pastor.
Speaker 3:And when I sat down, the service had not started yet and the people came up to me and they shook my hand and they looked me in the eye and they said hi, what is your name? Where are you from? Tell us about your family. They were so nice to me, they took great interest in me, in my life, who I was. I felt genuinely accepted by these people and I never met them before. In fact, to be honest with you, Helen, I felt like these people accepted me more than people in my mosque. They were more accepting, loving, gracious than people in my mosque. After that I sat down and I started hearing the message. Well, they had a big worship time, but there's no worship in a mosque, so I don't know what they were doing. So I was like thinking, oh, this is good music, you know.
Speaker 3:And then, after that, pastor came to the pulpit and he said everyone open your books to the book of Isaiah, the prophet, chapter 61, verse 1. So he started reading from the book of Isaiah and he started reading that the spirit he said this is a prophecy of Jesus. And he started reading that the spirit of sovereign Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He sent me to heal the broken heart and to proclaim liberty to the captive and freedom of sight to those who are bound to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor. And then he said everyone open your books to the book of Luke, chapter 4, verse 16 to 24. And he read the scripture about how Jesus walks into the synagogue. He was given the scroll from prophet Isaiah. He opens the scroll and he reads the scripture and sits down and said today, in your hearing, this is fulfilled.
Speaker 3:And that is the first time I heard a message about Jesus that he came to heal the broken heart and set the captive free. And it's like those words were for me. I just grabbed a hold of those words, Isaiah, in my heart, and I just was thinking about those words. I don't even know if I understood the message that the pastor gave on it, but those words is what I needed to hear at that moment in my life. And Jesus shared those words. So I fulfilled those prophecies.
Speaker 3:So after the sermon finished, everyone was very nice, friendly, invited me back, and one thing I forgot to tell you is when I got to the church, the people greeted me and then they said we are so glad you're here today, Thank you for coming. That is like wow, it was accepting of me, you know. So I felt really wonderful that day. That was a great day. And then we went to a Christian bookstore and Paula bought me a Bible and she explained to me the books of the Bible in Isaiah scripture. And then I took the Bible home and I hid it in my mattress, because in my home a Bible is not accepted. It's a Muslim, devout Muslim family.
Speaker 3:But when I went to sleep at night first day, second day, third day I could not sleep. I wanted to read this book. What more was in this book?
Speaker 3:So I started reading the Bible on my own. I don't know where to start, so I just started from the first book, which is Genesis, which was actually good for me because the stories are familiar. They are in the Quran as well. I started reading Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, all the books of the Bible. And you know, what I started seeing was how God of the Bible was a personable God to the people. He spoke to the prophets. He did great miracles for the people. He heard the people's cries when they prayed to him, the children of Israel. They were held captive by Pharaoh in Egypt and God sent Prophet Moses to rescue them and did great miracles to bring them into the Promised Land. Even when they were complaining, even when they sinned against God, God still had mercy on them and had compassion. This kind of God I don't know. It's not in Islam. This is the kind of God I was wondering if this is the God you know.
Speaker 3:And then I remember in the book of Psalms I like Psalms because David he genuinely cries to God from his heart and us for help. And he cried out to God many times when he got in situations and his God came and helped him. And I said where is my God? I called to God many times when he got in situations and his God came and helped him and I said where is my God? I called my God many times, my God did not help me. And then, after that, I started reading the New Testament. I started going to the church and hiding from my parents because I had many questions, and I started reading the Gospels from the book of Luke.
Speaker 3:I started reading the story of Jesus and then something was happening to me. When I started reading the story of Jesus, and then something was happening to me when I was reading the New Testament and it was being explained to me, I started understanding who Jesus was, that he had to come from God into this world through a miracle, Because he came as a miracle. He had the power of God to heal the sick and raise the dead. Not only that, he had a heart of compassion and mercy for all people. The more people were rejected, the more he went and accepted them and had mercy and love for them. You know, like the woman with a blood issue, she was desperate to be healed and he healed her, the woman that should have been stoned. He saved her life. Knowing her sin, I felt like I could put myself in those women lives. That's who I was, the rejected woman. And then, finally, I read that he had to come from God because we were without hope, living without hope, without forgiveness and mercy. And he came to give us that forgiveness and mercy and gave his life so we can have everlasting life. He died for us on the cross. I'm telling you, Helen, I just.
Speaker 3:The more I was reading the Bible, my eyes were like scales kept falling out, several scales. My heart was being overwhelmed, Like it was taking it in and being filled with the word of God. I started seeing miracles. By the way, as a Muslim, I prayed five times a day and more. My prayers never got answered, but when I would pray to God of the Bible, I called him God of the Bible. Guess what? My prayers started getting answered. My little prayers were getting answered. I started seeing miracles happening in my life and I got into impossible situations. I just called to God of the Bible and he came and helped me many times.
Speaker 3:And so then, after that, after about two and a half years, I was reading the Bible and this pastor asked me the next step is to get baptized. Am I ready to get baptized and accept Jesus? And I said, Pastor, I would like to get baptized. Can we go to the Jordan River in Israel? I didn't know if this is what Christians do or not. I don't know, you know. Know if this is what Christians do or not. I don't know, you know. He said no, we have a tub in the church. In the tub, I don't know anything. Okay, so I'm just going by anyway.
Speaker 3:So this this day came where I'm standing in the tub, in front of the 30,000 member church and I, he said, you know when you're when I'm standing in the water. He said that if you accept Jesus, when I put you, put you back in the water. This is a symbol of your old life passing. When you come out of the water, you are a new creation in Christ. God has forgiven and forgotten your sins in the lake of forgetfulness. He said, if you accept Jesus, his spirit will come and live inside of you. And I said what a privilege to have the creator, the living God spirit, living inside of us. Muslims do not have this privilege. And then he said if you accept Jesus, he will come and answer your prayer according to his will. And I said, Pastor, I already see this miracle happening in my life. And then he said if you accept Jesus, 1 Peter 2 says you are a royal priesthood, a holy nation and people of his own possession. Oh my goodness. And I said, wow, royalty in the eyes of God. From where I come from, it is such an honor to know this God.
Speaker 3:And that day I got baptized and I came out of the water and this piece, the same piece that Paula hugged me and I got, came over me again. And that day I accepted Jesus. I knew it, I knew this is the truth and this is the God came and rescued me, saved me and gave me this new life to follow him, the true, living God, you know, and all I can say is it was like a miraculous experience for me. That day I could not not believe this message. There was nothing in me that was not believing 100%. I believed everything, and it's all because of the Spirit of God and the Word of God. It did it for me in the miracles. So after that, I don't know. I'm just telling you my life has been blessed even more and more and more and more. I see an evidence of a living God in my life and I love it. I thank God.
Speaker 2:Now you have a marriage arranged by God, not by your parents. So I have to ask you and you travel the world and tell people about Jesus and my goodness, your testimony alone is so compelling. I can see how it can touch so many lives and is touching so many lives. I have to ask the last question so what about your parents? How did they react to the news that you are now a Christian?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so I realized after I became a follower of Jesus that, yep, that I have to tell my parents. I tried to hide it from them for a few months, but you know, it was getting impossible for me to live with them. Being in a Muslim home with a Christian heart, you know, to follow God. And so this day came. I went home and they were having dinner and I told them the Bible says to be bold, right, so I basically told them to put their food down. They were having dinner and I said get on your knees and repent and ask Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, and if you don't do this now, you're going to hell. I said that you know, I really did receive boldness, and I want to say that was not taken well with my parents. They were very angry. My father just threw whatever he had in his hand and just walked very fast towards me and said what have you done? You have disgraced the family name. You are an infidel, you're no longer our daughter and you should be killed. You have just put down our whole family and what we have instilled in your life and you need to convert to Islam like that. And my mother also. She was crying and screaming and all, and then he left. So my mother said that if I don't leave the home now, my father would kill me. So I left the home, I went to the church and they allowed me to stay with a girl at the church. And you know, the Bible says when your father and mother forsake you, the Lord will receive you. And I just want to say God really just took care of me every way.
Speaker 3:It was hard hard to not be without my parents. I lived with them most of my life, you know, but God was my everything. I relied on him, I trusted him. I saw the miracles he did. He brought the people in my life. He took care of me. It was hard, but he took care of me.
Speaker 3:And for two and a half years I didn't see my parents. I would call them, I would go see them. They would not answer and I missed them a lot. But God was everything to me at that time and I prayed for them a lot. I have good news to tell you, though my relationship with my parents has now been restored, and it's taken many years, a lot of praying, but I decided that I'm going to love my parents and honor them because I'm supposed to as their daughter. They're all I have as my parents and I'm going to love and honor them, no matter how much rejection I face. This day came where my husband and I did share the gospel with them. They didn't accept, but I'm still praying for them and I'm believing God. He's going to save them one day, and it's in his hands now. So, but I choose to have a relationship with them. You know, until whenever we are back to being with God again, until that day.
Speaker 2:I thank you so much for sharing your story, amina, and you know it makes me very hopeful for the people that, as a missionary, I may not be able to reach personally, you know, for one reason or another, but I do believe that people who seek God with all of their heart, no matter where they live, no matter what God they worship at the moment, if they truly are seeking God, he makes a way for them to find himself, whether it's through other people or divine revelation. I've met people from the Islamic world who just saw Jesus in a vision and gave their hearts to him, but he makes a way. Jesus in a vision and gave their hearts to him, but he makes a way. And so it's an incredibly hopeful story and I hope that it will encourage others and perhaps it will reach people who are in the same position that you were in once, and it will give them the idea that there is a God who loves them, who knows them and who has something wonderful in store for them. So thank you for being bold and sharing your story, and I know you're getting ready to leave on another mission overseas, so I wish you all the best. Thank you so much. Thank you so much.
Speaker 2:Amina's story is remarkable and simple at the same time. The world is inflamed by the clash of civilizations, religions and political and economic interests, but the simple and timeless truth of the gospel captures hearts of people and transforms lives. Your and my part in this is simple Share the news. If your life has been changed by Christ, you are equipped to help someone else to do the same. This is what World Missions Alliance is all about to equip every Christian to be an ambassador for Christ and to ensure that every person in this world gets to hear the gospel message. I invite you to check our website, rfwmaorg, and discover opportunities for you to travel the world and serve in the Great Commission through short-term missions.
Speaker 1:Again, the website is rfwmaorg. Until next time, I'm Helen Tarn, Transformed by Christ. You are equipped to help others experience this transformation. Christ called his followers to make disciples across the world. World Missions Alliance gives you an opportunity to do this through short-term missions in over 32 countries across the globe. If you want to help those who are hurting and hopeless and discover your greater purpose in serving who are hurting and hopeless, and discover your greater purpose in serving, check out our website, rfwmaorg, and find out how to get involved.