From Cemetery to Eternal Life

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Z lived in Iraq, a staunch Muslim nation that considered Believers in Jesus treasonous. But Jesus had drawn Z to Himself and he prayed, repented, and committed his life to Christ. The first person he told was his wife who became angry with him. She was the daughter of an Imam (Muslim leader/teacher) as well as her brother. How could her husband become an apostate and how would she tell her family? After initial kind entreaties to return to Islam, the families tactics changed to shouts, then threats, and then gunshots. Z fled and his wife refused to go with him and his two daughters were not allowed to go either. After two weeks, Z returned home only to have a grenade thrown into the living room. He fled again and this time spent six months living in a cemetery. He was starving and cold. At night he would hug rocks to block some of the frigid winds.

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After six months, Z wife C decided she would live with him despite the cultural shame of being married to a Christian since being divorced would bring more shame. She was not king to him and took out her anger on him. Yet, over the course of the next two years, she observed firsthand as her husband lived out his faith in Jesus, in spite of great sacrifice. He lost his job, but kept his faith. He lost relations with his family, but kept his faith. C treated him poorly, pouring our her anger againt him, but he accepted her anger, returning blessing and love to her. Finally, C wanted what Z had, knowing that her family would completely cut her off. But what she saw in her husband so impressed her that she would suffer whatever she must in order to have what he had.