A crowd started to gather.
The men were chanting in Arabic,
"Allahu Akbar!"
And my father and I
as I was holding his hand,
we were pushed to the front
of this crowd.
In the center of this crowd
was an Arabic woman
dressed just like this.
And she was tied up and
she was sitting on a box.
Next to her
was an Arabic man
and he did a traditional
Islamic prayer on the floor.
And he got up from the floor
and from his side
he pulled out this
very long golden sword
and he beheaded the woman.
My legs are shaking
and my heart is going fast.
My father said,
"If you don't listen"
"to the teachings"
"we're instilling in your life,"
"this will happen to you one day."
"I will say to those called 'Not my people'
塑ou are my people', and they will say,
塑ou are my God." (Hosea 2:25)
I was born and raised in a
small country by the name of
Kuwait, a community of
98% Muslim population.
Two of my uncles are Imams
and one is president of the mosque
where I would hear the call to prayer
five times a day.
As a Muslim,
the word "Yehudi"
which means "Jew"
was instilled in me as a
bad word, as a cuss word.
Jews should not exist.
They should be killed.
And I never thought to question
why would I hate them?
I never met Jewish people
in my life. They never did
anything to harm my family.
I just hated them.
Just the word brought hatred
in my heart.
It's very important to learn
the Quran and the Hadith
and even memorize it in Arabic.
I even entered a competition
where you recite a long chapter
in front of Islamic leaders and teachers
And I came second place!
I thought I did a good job
but my father said,
"No, that's not good enough."
Most of my life for me
it was alone, by myself.
Broken person in need of
love from my family, but
I never received it from them.
I tried to experience this love
from Creator God, from Allah.
In my prayer times
I lifted up my hands
and I cried out to Allah for help.
Please have my father stop
beating my mother.
Please have my father stop
beating me.
But no help came.
God is not a
personable God to Muslims.
God doesn't say, "I love you".
Saddam Hussein's forces came
in the middle of the night and
invaded the small country of Kuwait.
And then they came to my city
and they destroyed property
and they looted people's homes
and they stole possessions
and they killed the men
and they raped the women.
Then we were granted
asylum status to stay in the US.
My grandmother
suddenly got very sick.
She had a heart attack
and she went to the hospital
and two days later she passed away.
I was devastated
because I lost my best friend.
And this lady approached me
and asked me if I was okay,
and I said "No Paula,"
"my grandmother died."
And I just started to cry again.
At that moment
I was hurting so much
only crying helped.
Paula came to me and
put her arms around me
and she gave me a hug.
Then she asked me a question,
"Would you like to go to church with me?"
When I walked into this church
I experienced love from these people
and acceptance from these people
like I've never before.
Fellowshipping together,
there were men and women together,
they didn't have to be separate.
No one was judging each other,
and they knew I was Muslim.
They were so friendly to me themselves
accepting of me and loving of me,
and that was really surprising to me.
And for the first time in my life
I heard a message from the Bible.
I started reading the message about
Jesus when he walked into
the synagogue,
he was given a scroll from
prophet Isaiah,
and he opened the scroll
and he started reading that scripture:
"The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord"
"is upon me"
"because He is anointed me"
"to preach the gospel to the poor."
"He has sent me to heal"
"the broken hearted,"
"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."
The first time I heard these words
of freedom and healing and liberty...
I'm desperate to be freed
from bondage.
I was held captive in Islam,
and I wanted to be freed from that.
I was blinded with so much
hatred in my heart.
The darkness broke from my eyes.
The veil came off my heart.
I knew the decision I was making
to leave Islam is a big decision.
By Sharia law, Islamic law,
it's the death penalty.
But I'm desperate to know
a living God.
In that day
I gave my life to becoming
a follower of Jesus.
This is the God of Israel,
God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
And the nation of Israel
is God's heartbeat.
And I said, "God forgive me!"
"I did not know I hated your people."
I love the Jewish people because
it's their God,
their Messiah that I'm following,
and he told me to love them.
I never knew what happened
to the six million Jews that died.
I never heard that in Kuwait in history.
Now that I met Holocaust survivors,
I know their story,
and I've shared my story with them.
Your God, your Messiah
changed my heart,
giving his life for me
so I can have life everlasting.
He rescued me, he saved me.
He came and brought joy
in my life again,
and I'm a blessed woman!
And I start crying
and they start crying, and
we are able to relate to each other
and they embrace me
and they love me and they
experience some healing, I believe,
when they hear my story.
It is a privilege to have that in my life.
I am ONE FOR ISRAEL!