I was brought up as a Muslim in a Pathan family. I was told to go to the mosque without being given any choice. While we were at the mosque, we used to read Muslim booklets in Arabic without understanding what we were reading.

When I was ten or eleven years old, we were given books in English which explained about Muhammad and Islam. I believed in God but I really didn’t understand much about Islam. I saw a lot of hypocrisy in my father. He was very religious and used to go to the mosque two or three times a day. Sometimes he would spend the whole day there as he wasn’t working. He got involved in so many activities to do with the mosque, but at home he was completely different. He always used to put my mum down and exploited her position not giving her any freedom. He was an abusive and violent father to us also. At the same time, he would go out and act religious after committing all these sins against his own family.

As a result of all this, I became rebellious and broke away from the restrictions of home and of how we were supposed to dress and behave. I stopped practising all the religious traditions. When I was thirteen or fourteen, my parents separated. My mum still carried on being a fervent Muslim, but we were glad that my father had gone because we had more freedom. Being from a broken family, I started to escape into all kinds of dodgy activities. At that point, I left home and things started to go downhill.
I still believed that there was a creator but I didn’t pray or become religious. I was leaning more towards New Age ideas. I met someone who was interested in prophecies about the end of the world and because of his interest; we went along to a satellite link of Billy Graham’s preaching which had been advertised as talking about the last days of the earth.

When we got to the Church, we were late and a lot of what Billy Graham said went over my head, but when he talked about Jesus, I felt a conviction in my heart that this was a turning point in my life. I just knew that Jesus was true and that I had to make a response to him. I felt a bit scared about this and couldn’t wait to get out of the Church, but I still knew that I had to go back again. There was one more evening meeting left and so we went back. The same conviction happened again and I knew that I had to respond. At the end of the meeting, I felt really burdened and forced myself to get up out of my seat and go forward. When I got to the front, someone led me in a prayer to Jesus. I still didn’t fully understand what was happening but people were trying to explain things to me.

After a few days, I had a real hunger to be with other Christians and as I trusted my life to Jesus for his forgiveness and a new beginning, he returned me around and changed me completely. Now I am a Chris tian, God has helped me to forgive and forget the past and God fills every part of my life. He is everything to me and has given me all that I now have. He restored me to a normal life with a husband and family which I thought I would never have. Despite troubles that still occur in life, I know that my security lies in Jesus Christ.

Jesus said, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me ” (John’s gospel 14:6), and ” I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes Him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life ” (John’s gospel 5:24).

Jesus is the only way to God because He is the only one who can forgive our sins. He does this through the sacrifice of His death on the cross in our place and so deals with God’s condemnation and punishment of all that we have done wrong. Without that forgiveness, we would all have to pay for our own sin in hell forever but Jesus paid the price for us and then rose to life again. God’s forgiveness through Jesus Christ is open to anyone who will place their trust in Jesus as their Lord and Saviour.

God loves us and has promised forgiveness and a new life to all who put their life in Jesus hands. This promise is for all who want to turn from evil, ask God’s forgiveness through Jesus Christ, and ask Jesus to be their Lord and take control of their lives but the power of his Holy Spirit. By this simple trust, we can be freed from any punishment on the Day of Judgment and find a whole new living relationship with the real God who loves each one of us, with His Holy Spirit living within us to help us to follow the right way.

Millions of people from every country in the world and every faith background have found that their lives changed beyond all recognition when they placed such simple faith in Jesus Christ.