From Broken to Blessed

Samira’s marriage was in jeopardy.

“When our daughter was 7 years old, I discovered my husband was having an affair with a 17-year-old girl.

My husband was so obsessed with this girl that he couldn’t see anything else around him but her. He completely abandoned his family emotionally. This 17-year-old was the daughter of one of our family friends.

The thought that my husband was leaving his marriage and daughter to be with her drove me crazy. My heart was broken. I felt so humiliated and helpless. Why did God allow this darkness to come into my life? Why didn’t He do anything about it? I cried a lot. We were on the verge of divorce.”

One day, as she was sitting at work, a dear friend noticed the depth of her sadness.

“She turned to me and said, ‘You seem very sad. You are obviously in a very difficult situation. Do you want to see a change in your life?’

When she said that, it was as if a light turned on in my heart. I eagerly accepted her offer. She connected me to another woman who had also come out of a terrible storm in her life. That friend slowly brought God into my life with a series of lessons that she gave me in weekly Bible stories.

Through those Bible stories, I gradually realized that the light of Christ had come into my life. The love and care of my new friend drew me into the process of Christian discipleship without me even realizing it. Each week, we would read a Bible story that had a call to obedience and a practical exercise that I committed to do that week.”

One of the most difficult acts of obedience that Samira learned from the discipleship sessions was to forgive her husband’s family. After a few months, miracles began to be done in her life.

The first miracle was freedom from the prison of religion (Islam). “I even prayed the Islamic prayers and fasted during Ramadan while I was learning about Jesus and attending the discipleship sessions. I was so devout in my religious practices that it seemed impossible for me to leave them. Wow, what a great and unique feeling it was to be freed from that! I felt light as a feather.”

The second great miracle was the healing of Samira’s broken marriage. “A year after I came to faith, my husband gave his heart to Christ because of the changes he could see—I was not the same person anymore. My callous heart became soft and pliable. And because of the changes in my life and the healing of my marriage, my mother also believed in Christ.”

Now that Samira and her husband had come to Christ and their family followed suit, the persecution began.

“Our church was scattered.

God opened the way for us to emigrate. It was very difficult to emigrate and leave our homeland. We went through lots of ups and downs, but by God’s grace and mercy, we got through them one by one. Along the way, I learned how to leave control of everything to God.

And the more I trusted, the more God worked in my life and those around me.”

Today, Samira’s husband is free from his weaknesses and blind spots. “He changed so much that, I’m proud to say, he truly became a man of God. After 20 years together, we love each other more now than ever before. Our only daughter is also very passionate about her faith in Christ.”