THE STORY OF HAJIA BINTA FARUK’S CONVERSION
I was denied my rights in the family; my father had me thrown into prison on false allegation. He had initially gone to a Sharia court but I protested against that since I am now a Christian. So, he took me to a Magistrate court at Hadeja. The Magistrate ordered that I be remanded in prison for calling my father, my neighbour. I was in detention for six months without trial and bail until some Christians on prison visitation, learnt that I was there for becoming a Christian. The matter was reported to the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) Chairman who wrote a petition that led to my proper trial. The Magistrate sentenced me to two years imprisonment plus a fine of five thousand Naira. One Christian Women Fellowship in the area paid the fine while I was taken to prison. That was September 5, 2000. Some inmates asked me to appeal but I told them, confidently, that the Lord Jesus would do a great Appeal for me. At midnight, I prayed: ‘Lord, I want you to deliver me from this prison before December. If you don’t, the people will ask me, where is your God?’ I reminded him of how He answered Hezekiah. On October 2, 2000, less than a month after my imprisonment, a letter came from Abuja ordering my release and I was set free. My prison experiences brought me closer to God that I developed more faith in God’s ability to see me through.
After two months, I decided to go and share the Lord Jesus with my grandparents. The moslem youths were looking for me everywhere, to kill me. They hid me until I couldn’t be hidden. I fled to the bush for four days. On the fourth night, I woke up with a snake beside me. That day, I told God that I wanted to go back to Islam. I couldn’t continue like that in the bush but He quickly reprimanded me. He asked “Upon all the sufferings you’ve been through, you still want to go back? If I didn’t shut the mouth of the snake, wouldn’t it bite you while you slept? I repented and told him that I was sorry; I will never go back to Egypt”.
I found out that God actually took me to prison to teach me some things. One was to read the Bible and two, because of a female Christian warder who left and married a Moslem and God shut her womb. In the prison, God told me in a dream that she was going to have a baby. When I told her, she became angry, tortured me, called me names, but I kept praying for her, that the name of the Lord be glorified since I had said the Lord told me. Later, she actually had the baby, and that converted her and her husband. Eight moslems in the prison gave their lives to Christ. They were baptized in the Holy Ghost before I left. Seeing what the Lord used me to do in the prison, I knew that I would do better outside. One day, some moslem youths came and kidnapped me. They laid me on the ground, raised their cutlasses to kill me but their hands remained hanging in the air. That happened to three of them and the others fled. They were later taken to the police who wanted them killed but I told them it was the Lord’s battle not theirs. I told them that I had forgiven them. As I was leaving, they asked for their hands to be restored. I said “In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, let your hands come down” and their cutlasses dropped. Today, they are Christians and live with me. On another occasion, another group of moslem youths kidnapped me. They were taking me to Sokoto. On the way, scorpions emerged and started to sting them. They dropped me, begged me and even gave me money to take me back home. Yet on another occasion, they kidnapped me and wanted to inject me with poisonous material but they couldn’t find those materials and had to let me go.
The Bible says we must start from our Jerusalem. Moslems and Fulanis are my Jerusalem. Many of them live in ignorance, not having heard of Jesus till today. And if I am one of the fortunate ones that God brought out, I need to go out and say something to them. That is why I say I would fight the cause with my blood. I am not limiting myself to Nigeria; I intend to go to the Middle East, planting a church in Saudi Arabia where my children are. I tell God that my children in Saudi Arabia are Ambassadors of Christ and they must become Pastors in Saudi Arabia.
So, any time I hear a moslem is converted somewhere and is persecuted, I take them in. I have forty-nine under my roof right now. They call me “mama”. The oldest is eighty-nine years. She became a Christian and her children threw her from upstairs to die, but God preserved her. A Pastor found her and brought her to the centre. Some come with their ears cut off, others are stripped naked etc. I pray for people to join me in this crusade. Thank God. He is raising men among the coverts in the centre and in my family.
My immediate elder brother who is a soldier has become a Christian. My mother became a Christian since 2002. My elder brothers who wanted me dead or back to Islam are now Christians. One of them, a Senior Lecturer at the University of Maiduguri had to relocate to Imo State because of persecution.
I testify that Jesus is Lord. Some people came to attack us. The first time they came, they saw a pool of blood: the house became a pool of blood. The second time they came, the house became plain land. The third time, they saw ocean. The last time, the house became a pillar of fire. Sometime later, something happened that led to their arrest and the Commissioner of Police sent for me. On getting there, the police brought the criminals who said that I didn’t know them but they knew me. They were all Moslems, some of them from Republic of Niger. They then narrated how they had to attack me, but I was delivered by the Lord. That day, the Commissioner of Police lined up his men in the office and asked me to pray for them.
Instead of leaving me alone, my former husband began to persecute me. While leading some assassins to my place to kill me, the vehicle in which they were travelling was involved in an accident. He, alone died in the hospital after confessing that he wanted me dead for I was bringing shame to his name. It pains me because both of us were in the same room the day I heard the voice. After that I prevented him from destroying a copy of the Bible, something I used to enjoy doing. He knew how violent I was, destroying Christendom. He should have learnt a lesson from my conversion and repented. That is how many others die without repentance even though they are exposed to the gospel. The good Lord who is always my Shield and Protector will always save and hide me in His shadow. My life is in God’s hand.”
Binta Faruk Jalingo was a staff of the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) Yola. She runs Tabitha Evangelistic Ministry, a home for the persecuted (Converted Muslims) in Miango, Jos Plateau State, Nigeria. I don’t know how your feeling will be but as for me, the name Jesus is the most powerful, if you believe the same,
God bless you
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THE STORY OF HAJIA BINTA FARUK’S CONVERSION
