CENTRAL ASIA: OPEN DOORS YOUTUBE VID LEADS SAMILA TO JESUS

God often reaches out to people in the unlikeliest of ways – and that certainly applies to Samila* from Central Asia, who recently converted from Islam to Christianity and got baptised.

For years, no one apart from her daughter had hugged Samila. She has a severe skin condition that, though not contagious, makes her a social outcast where she lives in Central Asia. So when a local Open Doors partner embraced her, Samila cried.

It was a powerful demonstration of Jesus’ love – one brought about by a YouTube video posted by Open Doors. 

Shunned by family

Samila is a teacher and lives with her 13-year-old daughter. She was married but, because of her illness, her husband left her. Relatives also abandoned her. To them, Samila is ‘unclean’ and cursed. It’s the same on the street, where people avoid her. To cover her shame, she wears a hijab, revealing her face only at school.

In search of healing, Samila explored several avenues, including saying Islamic prayers, touching the graves of sheikhs and travelling to holy places to fast and leave prayer ribbons. But nothing worked. The pain remained – and so did the isolation.

Embraced by Jesus

As disappointment and desperation grew, doubts around Islam deepened, and so Samila began to explore Christianity – and that’s how she stumbled across a video posted by Open Doors.

Beneath the video, she posted a comment asking for help, and as conversations began she asked for a Bible. Given her illness and the dangers of converting from Islam to Christianity where she lives, Samila was reluctant to receive the Bible in person, but when our local partner said that God loves her and doesn’t look to her face but her heart, she agreed to meet.

On meeting, our local partner listened to Samila as she shared her story, and at the end they hugged, bringing Samila to tears. She then went on to read her Bible daily and regularly attended a house church, where she was warmly welcomed, all whilst getting in touch with our local partners to ask questions. After six months, Samila gave her life to Jesus and she recently got baptised alongside two other new believers (she is pictured above, on the right). 

Whilst Samila hasn’t yet been healed of her skin condition, she knows with deep assurance that she’s a beloved child of God and part of a worldwide church family. After years of hurt, her heart is beginning to heal – and she’s overjoyed!

*Name changed for security reasons