Revival in the House of Islam
September 4, 2013
Moroccan teenager followed Jesus into ministry
October 4, 2013
When Hasiba looks into the eyes of former prison inmates, she sees her own story. Forced marriage, suicide attempts and a homeless life. Except for one thing. She was rescued by the redeeming love of Christ.
Hasiba lives in a North African country. When she was eight years old she lost her mother. Her father soon remarries, and his new wife is not kind to her four new stepdaughters. Hasiba is forced into an arranged marriage when she is 13 years old to a man is almost 5 times her age. Her husband does not treat her kindly either, and after four months she escapes home to her father, hoping that he will protect her from her violent husband. But her father only walks her daughter back to her new home.
After two months, Hasiba runs away again. But this time to live on the street. Vulnerable and desperate, she meets a drug dealer. She moves in with him, and soon she is addicted to drugs.
Desperate
Hasiba tries several times to commit suicide, but in strange ways she is rescued every time. She becomes pregnant with the drug dealer and gives birth to a daughter while she lives on the street.
One day she meets her sister who takes Hasiba with her home. But her sister treats her so badly that when Hasiba suddenly discovers a large sum of money in the house, she is takes the money and runs off. But the money brings her little joy as a man she meets on the street steals the money from her the following day.
Unexpected help
After a while Hasiba meets her brother on the street. He asks if he can help her, but she declines. No one has ever helped her without also exploiting her. But her brother is allowed to take her daughter with him home.
What she doesn’t know is that her brother joined a housechurch and is now a believer in Christ. He now takes Hasiba’s daughter with him to the housechurch meetings. Her daughter soon accepts Jesus and starts praying for her mother.
One day when Hasiba’s brother and daughter is walking through the city, they find Hasiba completely wasted on the street. Her brother tells her that he loves her and would like to help her.
– That was the first time in my entire life that I heard someone tell me that they loved me, remembers Hasiba.
She chooses to go to her brother’s home. In the car she finds her daughter, who is now 8 years old. Her daughter invites her to come to a prayer meeting in the housechurch, insisting that Jesus can help her. Hasiba is surprised, but agrees to come along. At the house church she is greeted in a friendly manner by everyone, but no one tells her what they are doing. Yet she notices a strong atmosphere of love and peace that she has never encountered before.
Peace
Hasiba loves to read and is allowed to borrow some books. One of them is a bible that she opens to read the same evening. Her eyes randomly stop at the following verse: “He will carry all your problems.” She starts talking to this unknown “he” who she doesn’t know who is, but she feels the same peace that was present at the housechurch meeting.
The following day the pastor comes to visit. He helps her understand who she was talking to while she was reading the bible the day before. Hasiba gives her life to Jesus and starts attending all there is of meetings and fellowships. She is spiritually starved.
Caught by her past
But her past catches up with Hasiba. Her sister has reported her to the local police for theft, and she has to serve a jail sentence. As by a miracle, her sentence is reduced and she only needs to serve four months of the two years she is sentenced to. While she is in jail, she shares the gospel with other inmates at the same time as she also hears many tragic stories, not unlike her own.
A desire is planted in her heart to do something for these women when she is released from jail. While Hasiba is serving her sentence, her brother has to go away for a period of time, and her daughter gets to live with the pastor. Soon both Hasiba and her daughter captures the heart of the pastor, and after Hasiba is released from jail they marry.
Gallery for women
Hasiba also discovers that she is artistically gifted, and after a while she opens a combined studio and art gallery where she paints and creates pictures with different materials. Yet the purpose of the gallery is greater that exhibiting and selling her own art.
She has a passion to help girls and women who might have experienced some of the same things as her. Her gallery and studio is open for girls who live on the street and women released from jail with nowhere to go. Hasiba provides a place for them to live while she tells them about Him who can give them inner peace.
At the same time the women learn skills that they can make a living from. Many of these women have not only produced beautiful pieces of art, but the broken pieces of their own lives have been mended under the watchful care and prayers of Hasiba.
–The love I found when Christ found me simply spills over. I can’t contain it, and now the same love is giving these women a new destiny in Christ, she says.
Hasiba and her husband is now part of Miracle Channel’s local follow up team on the ground.
You can be instrumental in helping women like Hasiba tell their stories and provide follow up for Muslim viewers seeking Christ. Simply make adonation to Miracle Channel today.
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