A few years ago there was an attack on a Christian church. All of my family was living in the city where that attack happened and they go often to that church. Very sadly, many worshipers were killed and many of them were my family members. I cannot describe how painful and tragic that was. I still cry when I remember. My mother has raised me and my siblings. Our father was not living with us as he had his own family. We moved from that city to another city. While pursuing my studies I tried to find a job. I applied for many office jobs, but all the time I was offered a job for cleaning because that is what Christians deserve according to our culture. I could not complete my graduation because my mother could not afford the expense. So, only half way through my study, I left and started working at the age of 17. Five years later I got married and moved and since then I have lived there with my wife, our children and my mother. I learned some cooking skills and got a job as a cook. I also joined another Christian church and I was given more responsibilities in the church. Since then I have focused primarily on the spiritual needs and study needs of my kids. I know the importance of study because I had to give up my studies and I still have nightmares where my mind tells me in dreams that I am studying again. I see myself sitting in college with my friends, but then I wake up in the middle of the night and I see it is just a dream. So now I have to focus on my children’s study. Otherwise they will suffer like me.
Several years ago my wife , my brother, my mother and I saved some money, and with our life savings we bought a small house in a place where 70% of our neighbors were Muslims. One of the Muslim families kept telling us to sell our house, but we said we cannot. Finally, because of their brutality and threats, we locked our house and rented a house which was far away. I would visit our house often to see if the situation there was getting any better, but instead it got worse. That family broke into our house and put their own locks on my house and told everyone that we had sold it to them. It was time to go to the police, but they are not like the police in your country. They are very brutal to Christians. So I had to consider whether or not to report this to the police. If the police were to pursue the case it would have to be taken to court and I knew I could not afford that expense. I would have to stop sending my kids to school and pay a lawyer, and this could also affect my job. So I kept silent and my mother and my brother had to move in with someone else. My mother is old and she has eye problems. Twice she has had surgery and if she does not put medicine in her eyes, she suffers a lot of pain. I cannot afford the medicine, so she works cleaning the houses of Muslim families to support herself. I cannot keep my mother and brother because where I live is a very small place. There are cases where Muslims take the properties of Christian people and charge them with blasphemy. To be found guilty of blasphemy against Islam, the penalty is death. They also take Christian women and girls and force them to accept Islam. I have to save my family! I do not care for the house when I have daughters, a wife and a mother. I cannot lose them! My children complain to me that they are forced to read the Quran, the holy book of the Muslim faith. They must read verses from the Quran in school. My youngest child has to memorize verses of the Quran. Sometimes I cry, but there is no Christian school where I can put them. There is one Catholic Missionary School but the school fees are more than I earn. I ask my Heavenly Father; Where should I go? What is the purpose of my life? My family is suffering! I cannot bear to see that! One of my children will be going to college next year at the age of 15. That child’s IQ level is very good and my child wants to go to NASA. I say okay so my child will not be discouraged, but inside I know what the situation is in our life. I keep asking God, praying that someday we will live a happy life. The local churches are not properly settled by government help (the government builds the mosques) it is by their own help. Normally people sit on the floor because there are no chairs. Just a few churches have chairs. That is why instead of building churches, Christians need to build schools.
(To be continued…)
