This is the story of Arianna, who was born in Afghanistan and raised to a Muslim household. Because of the war, her family moved to a very conservative small town in Pakistan. There was no cinema nor playgrounds, and a Mosque in every street. Women always had to cover up, and could never go out alone.
From a young age, Arianna was always fascinated with stories of prophets like Noah. But Arianna struggled with the fact that her prophet Muhammad consummated marriage with a 9 year old girl. As a child, she was taught that all religions where foolish – Hindus where foolish to worship idols and Christians where foolish to think God had a Son. She was taught that only Islam was correct and the best to follow.
Arianna lived a typical good Muslim life. After finishing her studies in another country, she got married to a Muslim man. But in 2015, she experienced a shocking event. A Turkish article talked about a 9 year old girl that married a 40+ year old man, as arranged by the little girl’s father. The girl died on her wedding night because of excessive bleeding. Arianna felt angry at the husband and the father, and felt sorry for the innocent girl.
She came to realize that these monsters, followed the same prophet Muhammad that she followed. She determined that this could not be from God. So Arianna prayed. She was open to seek God. And she said the day she found a reason to doubt the Qur’an, that that would be the true religion to follow. She studied Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Zoroastrianism, but none gave her a reason to doubt the Qur’an. Then she looked at Christianity. The Qur’an says that Christians worship the trinity of the Father, Son and the Mother. But the truth is that Christians’ trinity is actually the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. This was a sign for Arianna that the Qur’an may be wrong.
So Arianna started to learn more about Jesus. Jesus was gentle and amazing. The last straw for Arianna, was learning about her Prophet Muhammad’s torturing tendencies. In a story, three people tried to steal a camel from Muhammad, but where caught. The three men had killed another man in the attempt. So Muhammad ordered to cut off an arm and a leg on opposite sides, burn their eyes with hot iron, and let them suffer and die slowly in the hot desert. Arianna researched to see if Jesus did something horrible like this. She found quite the opposite. When people wanted Jesus to condemn a woman caught in adultery, Jesus told them that the one that had no sin to throw the first stone. This story convinced Arianna of the loving kindness of Jesus. She decided to follow Jesus from then on.
Her Muslim husband was originally open minded about it. Arianna’s mom wanted to kill her, even though she was the only child. Her extended family learned about her decision when her testimony video was shared with everyone. Her father’s family still accepted her somewhat, but her mother’s family excommunicated her. It was a tough time for Arianna that drove her into depression. But the Lord has helped ease the pain and Arianna is doing better now. She continues to pray for her husband and her Muslim family to turn to Christ one day. Watch her amazing testimony here:
This is the story of Bilal from Wardak, Afghanistan who was raised as a Hazara Muslim. During the 90's, there was a civil war in Afghanistan that forced his family to Pakistan. Bilal's dad went to Kuwait to work at an Iranian restaurant. Bilal's dad became a follower of Christ there. Bilal's mom met an Iranian woman at a beauty parlor that told her about Jesus.
Bilal's dad decided to tell his wife that he accepted Christ. It was great timing, because Bilal's mom also was curious about knowing who Jesus was, but did not believe yet. It wasn't until sometime after, through prayer from her husband, that Bilal's mother dreamt of Jesus. She dreamt she was in a narrow dark road. Suddenly a man comes with bright clothes and a couple of cross chains. He gives Bilal's mom the crosses to give to her family, and was told to not look back. She understood this was Jesus telling her to let go of her past in Islam, and look forward to a life following Him. This was the dream that made Bilal's mom decisively believe and follow Jesus.
In the 90s, their family decided to return to Afghanistan. Bilal grew up with his parent as Christians, but all other extended families as Muslim. It was a confusing time for Bilal.
Bilal attended an international private school. His Muslim friends where children from high ranking officers of the country. His Christian friends at the school where westerners. He had an oral communication class where they would often debate Islam and Christianity. This made him learn his Bible better to logically defend the Christian faith.
In 2015 there was a great threat to Bilal's school, where the Taliban killed over 140 students at another school. The school was shut down. His best friend JP from South Africa was attacked by the Taliban and most people in their family died. This life event affected Bilal greatly and motivated him to join the army. He desired revenge. But God had different plans for him. Bilal's family was forced to flee the country and now the Afghan tribes that Bilal wanted revenge against, are the same people that Bilal is now reaching with the good news of the Gospel.
Listen to Bilal's amazing testimony here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQd2hKZmXU8
Torai is originally from Afghanistan. He was raised as a strict Shia Muslim. He became a teacher in a Mosque at a young age. He read the Qur'an fully 105 to 150 times in Arabic, and even memorized a good portion of it. But the language was foreign to him. Torai thought he was talking to God, but he didn't really understand what he said. He couldn’t remember ever missing any of the five daily prayers. He was very devoted, but something was missing in his life.
He moved to Norway in 2010. There, he lived with an atheist roommate that believed religion was a big problem with society. One time when Torai was reciting the Qur'an, Torai was even made fun of by his roommate because he didn't even understand the Arabic he was reading. That led Torai into atheism.
As an atheist, he met some Afghan refugees that had ill intentions towards him because he didn't believe in God anymore. They told Torai that he was 'lucky' that they weren't in Afghanistan, insinuating that he would have been badly hurt otherwise.
He met an older lady she called 'mama'. She was a follower of Jesus, and told Torai that Jesus was not only the Son of God, but also God himself. That shocked Torai. She also introduced Torai to a pastor that helped him see that his sin separated him from God. Torai became interested in knowing what Christians believed and started to read the bible. He had a dream where he was crying and alone. Then in the dream, 'mama' pointed Torai towards a bright light in the sky. She told him that God loves him and that he was not alone. Following the dream, Torai continued reading the Bible and realized that Jesus was the light of the world. Torai wanted to believe, but wasn't fully ready. Then Torai watched the Jesus film and at the end of the movie, the image of Jesus talked to him. It said 'Torai, I did this also for you'. Torai was emotional and thanked Jesus for HIs sacrifice and became a follower of Christ.
Today, Torai has witnessed his faith to thousands of people around him. He has seen 75 people, out of which 11/12 are from Muslim countries, being baptized in his church. He has decided to hold a part time job, but his main focus now is to share the good news of Jesus. Watch his amazing story here!
Yalda was born in the 1980s in Afghanistan, when the nation was under strict Islamic control. Her family crossed the border to Pakistan by foot, and stayed there for a year and a half. They were afraid even of going to the hospital because they were refugees without documentation. Yalda’s mother saw the need to deliver her brother by herself in an apartment. Yalda had a very difficult upbringing. Eventually, her family made it to New York, because they were sponsored by a Christian family. They did their best making ends due as translators. Even though they were living in the US, they did their best to keep their Islamic tradition and beliefs.
Yalda closely followed the teachings of a mystical Sufi poet called Rumi, whom dedicated his life to look for Allah. It had never even cross Yalda's mind to leave Islam. She knew that in Islam’s teachings, if you deny three times to come return to Islam, you would be killed. Yalda was interested in attending church, but even suggesting to go to church would get her punished.
When Yalda moved out, she stopped praying and fasting. She got married, but eventually got divorced. Then she remarried again. Yalda never hated God, even though she was raped and had a very rough upbringing. But Yalda thought God hated her because of all the trauma she went through in her life. At the time, an extremist suggested her to die in Jihad, but Yalda didn't think that killing people was the right path either.
Yalda fell into depression and planned to commit suicide after her husband left to go to work. But for some unexplained reason, her husband came home early that day and it prevented the unthinkable. For the first time she cursed God because she felt God didn’t let her end her life. Later on she felt wrong about cursing God, and apologized to Him. She hadn't eaten for 3 days, but finally her husband was able to convince her to go eat. At the parking lot, her husband asked her to pray to God for a sign. She did pray accordingly, but as she was ready to leave, Yalda saw the reflection of something shiny on the floor. She got down and picked up a shiny gold cross. She suddenly felt as if the world stopped and light surrounded her. All Yalda could say was 'I knew it was you, thank you Jesus'. She was immediately in tears. Her husband saw the cross and started to tear as well. Yalda was seeking God, and Jesus answered.
Yalda had a friend called Erika whom she knew was a lesbian. Interestingly, Yalda saw that Erika’s new webpage said she was now a follower of Jesus. Yalda decided to reach out to her friend Erika, and she shared about Jesus with her. Yalda learned to repent from her sins and got baptized. Watch her touching testimony here.
From Jihadist to Jesus!
David is an ex-Muslim from Afghanistan, and more than that, he used to be a terrorist. Earlier in his life, his biggest wish was to kill a Jew and go to Heaven. There was an emptiness in his heart, so he dedicated his life to pursue filling up that void.
He studied martial arts and became a grandmaster in Kung Fu. But that didn't satisfy him as he hope it would. He then decided to go deep into Islam, but he unexpectedly found out that that didn’t satisfy him either. He wanted to go to Syria to become a terrorist and engage in holy war, but the door unexpectedly got closed before him.
Because of his hatred for Christians in alignment to teachings of Islam, he went to Sweden with the purpose of learning the Bible in order to use it back against Christians as his personal Jihad against them. It was during this time that David had a dream about Jesus. In the dream, Jesus told David that he didn't have to die for God because Jesus had already died for him. The person of Jesus Christ changed David from a man full of hatred, to a man full of love. So finally, the emptiness that had tormented David for many years finally left, albeit in a very unexpected way.
One can clearly sense David's passion as you hear him speak. Enjoy this short six minute testimony and be encouraged that nothing is impossible for God.
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