As Hannah told me her story, a question quickly floated to the front of my mind.
"How did your Christian family and friends react to this radical change? What did they do?"
"I’m not entirely sure that my Christian friends and family knew the extent I had gone to follow this religion. I know they had an idea that I was dabbling in other religions and diligently searching, but I don’t think they understood how deeply involved I was in it. I lived a sort of double life. In my early days of practicing Islam, when I visited my family back in my hometown, I acted like a Christian. I even attended church at times. Then when I went back to where I was living in Wilmington, I lived the Muslim life again.
This constant alternating between faiths and lifestyles had me in a world of confusion. It seemed to be a bottomless pit of mental torment. I lay in bed at night praying to Allah (the false god), asking that if he was the true god, that he would please give me a sign and make it clear. Needless to say, I never got the affirmation I was looking for.
Still, I continued my search... This made life more difficult, as I was a wretched person, so very miserable. I was deeply depressed, and it seemed everyone else around me would notice that my emotions were stricken. The one person that I think it affected the most is my mom. I was more open with her than a lot of other people in my life. She knew the struggle that I was going through, and she knew exactly how complicated my life had become by exposing myself to false religion.
It had gotten to the point that every time I visited her, we would get into a heated argument as to whether or not my beliefs were correct or if hers were. I challenged her to the point of blatant disrespect and didn’t even realize it. The enemy was undoubtedly at work causing discord in my family. While it hurt me to know that she was hurting, I still found myself wallowing in my own world of selfishness. Not caring about what others had to say about my new life change, I only knew that I had a newfound passion and I loved it, completely blind to the fact that it was damaging nearly every part of my life."
The Valiant Rescue
Okay, now it's time to get to the good stuff! The part where Jesus rides in on His white horse and saves the day! "Tell us, how exactly did this go down? How did Jesus draw your heart back to His?"
"This is kind of cool. One week I was visiting my dad during the summer of 2011. I got into a car accident while there, and I ended up being stuck without a car for weeks. I was so upset because I had registered for my classes in Wilmington, and here I was, inevitably stuck in Pinehurst. If I didn’t get a car soon, I wouldn’t have the means to be back in class that fall. These several weeks felt like some of the worst weeks of my life. I did a lot of praying. Although I was calling out to the wrong god, I still believe in our Father’s grace and mercy, He heard my cries because He is near to the brokenhearted and the crushed in spirit. Little did I know, the Lord works all things together for our good, for those that are called according to His purpose [Romans 8:28]."
"One Sunday afternoon a friend sent me a text message. She asked if I wanted to come hang out with her and several other people that I hadn’t