After befriending a Christian man and his mother, Latifa* from North Africa hoped to convince them to become Muslims.
“I was shocked,” Latifa recalls. “To me there were no Christians in North Africa.” She returned to the Quran to prove them wrong. “I kept meeting them because I wanted them to become Muslims.”
But something was stirring in Latifa, then aged 26. “I used to go home and read my Bible, then call the mother even in the middle of the night and talk about it. I couldn’t stay away from my Bible. It was breathing life into my soul.”
This continued for six months until, at an Easter service, Latifa became a Christian. “Everyone was surprised, including me.”
Sadly, Latifa’s family greeted the decision with hostility. She received death threats and was driven from home.
Amazingly, after getting engaged to the man who first introduced her to Jesus, Latifa’s family accepted the marriage and the broken relationships were restored.
However, when the couple sought to live where Latifa’s mother is from, persecution resumed. The wider family issued death threats and intervened to get the couple twice evicted from their home. They also got the husband fired from his job, made threats about their daughter, and put pressure on Latifa’s mother. “My mother asked me to never visit her again,” says Latifa, now aged 42.
Will you write to Latifa – who has also had to battle cancer – to encourage her in her faith?
*name changed for security reasons
Send your messages to letterstonorthafrica@opendoorsuk.org
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Please note this campaign ends 31 August 2022
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