FROM PERSECUTION AND PRISON TO PERFECT PEACE.

MELINDA’S STORY

I grew up in a Muslim-majority country. As Christians, my mother, sister, and I faced discrimination. But my mother never backed down from her beliefs and instilled in us the courage to do the same.

My mother, a primary school principal, raised my older sister and me on her own. She was a woman of strength, grace, and unwavering faith. After our father left us, she struggled to provide for us, yet never complained.

My sister, who was eight years older than I, was my role model. She was brilliant, compassionate, and deter mined. She completed medical school and dedicated her life to helping women. This inspired me to pursue a career in audiology so I could help people communicate and connect with the world around them.

We were three accomplished, educated women, but our Christian faith made us targets. We were repeatedly confronted by radical individuals who insisted we convert to Islam. We were harassed, threatened, and ostracized. One day, I had finally had enough. I looked my persecutors in the eyes and asked, “Why should I leave Jesus, my God, for a story you made up about Muhammad?”

I was arrested and imprisoned for eight months. It was the darkest period I had faced, but strangely, it was also the most profound. I held on to every promise of Scripture I could remember. I repeated Bible verses over and over, especially those where Jesus spoke of persecution, such as Matthew 5:10-11. I experienced a peace that didn’t make sense… a strength that wasn’t my own.

There were nights when I thought I wouldn’t survive. Matthew 14:28 31 became my guiding light. Each time I felt like drowning in despair, I remembered Peter walking on water as long as he kept his focus on Jesus. I learned that if I did the same, I could walk through any storm.

When I was finally released, I re turned home a changed person. My faith had been tested and proven. But soon after, life tested me again in an even more painful way. Within five years, I lost both my mother and my sister to cancer. It felt like my entire world had collapsed. The silence in our home was deafening. But even in that crushing loneliness, I knew Jesus was with me.

Jesus has never left me, not in prison, not in grief, not in my darkest moments. His presence is constant, His love unshakable.