Romans 10:9
"If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved."
Here is a transcript of the Rifqa Bary video - thanks to Pamela Geller.
This young woman's testimony is a plea to the free world to stand for its values and its principles. How far we have fallen when a young woman is pleading to be free in the land of the free, home of the brave.
Rifqa Bary: Well, I’m a Christian, and my parents are Muslim. They’re extremely devout. And they can’t know about my faith – well, they do now. But they’ve threatened to kill me. I don’t know if you know about honor killing….You guys don’t understand. Islam is very different than you guys think. They have to kill me. My blood is now halal, which means that because I am now a Christian, I’m from a Muslim background, it’s an honor. If they love God more than me, they have to do this. And I’m fighting for my life, you guys don’t understand. You don’t understand.
What did your father say to you?
He said he would kill me. Or he’d have me sent back to Sri Lanka where they’d put me in the asylum…
I ran away from home. I wrote my parents a note, I said, I refuse to deny Jesus and He’s my Lord and Savior and I pray you find His forgiveness and mercy and I love them both dearly. I wrote that, but they never showed it to the police officers. They want me back home, I can’t go back to Ohio, you guys don’t understand. That community, they’re like – I will die within a week. My life is at stake. My dad threatened me. I was ready to die, these were my thoughts, that I’ll be a martyr for Christ, let it be so! But the Lord led me here somehow through His grace. I rode on a bus for 27 hours, to 30 hours, to get here. And yes, it’s been God’s hand protecting me the entire time. But I’m fighting for my life, so that prayers are appreciated. I don’t know what – Today’s my birthday, my seventeenth birthday, and I might even die, I don’t know what’s going to happen to my own life.
Can you tell me why you ran away?
I was threatened by my dad. When my dad found out – I had a Facebook, that’s how he found out – and phone calls from the Muslim community started coming in with emails that confronted me. And I had a laptop and he took that laptop and waved it in the air and he was about to beat me with it, and he said, “If you have this Jesus in your heart, you’re dead to me. You’re not my daughter.” And I refused to speak but he said, “I will kill you. Tell me the truth.” In these words, bad words, cuss words. So I knew that I had to get away. A couple of weeks later even, I told my dad that I would fol — that I would begin to learn more about Islam, because I was scared. And I said that because when I had come to know the Lord, I dropped everything about Islam. I mean, I had to hide my Bible for years, I would go outside to pray. When my dad was asleep was when I went outside to pray. I snuck out to Christian prayer meetings in fear of my life. And finally this day had come, when I was confronted by my dad. A couple of weeks later, after I told my dad that I would follow -- I wouldn’t follow Islam, but would learn more about it. Then he put me in class after class after class after class, thinking that, you know, that my mind was gonna be back in it, but of course not, I’m a follower of God, Jesus, the true living Jesus! But a couple of weeks later my mom found a Christian book and I knew right then that it was over for me. I had to leave.
How did you end up in Florida?
Here? What happened is that night, I had to leave. So I left that Saturday night, was it? Yeah, it was Saturday night. In the morning I left to go to a friend’s house. And I asked her, I begged her to take me to church. I needed to get to church. I needed to pray, I needed to seek the Lord to know what to do. And so that entire day from seven in the morning to late at night I prayed and prayed and prayed, and finally I was able to get a ride back home to that person’s house. And I stayed there Saturday, Sunday night because my dad was coming back home from his trip that night, and so I stayed there that night and I just left. I hitchhiked to a bus station and I got a ticket to Florida because I had met them through a prayer ministry on Facebook. And this was the farthest away from Ohio – you don’t understand, if I had stayed in Ohio, I wouldn’t be alive. And so I was able to do t hat. I called them from the bus. On the bus there were nice people there that I was able to talk to, and I used their phone to call them.
Have there been any type of killings at all in your family? Have you ever seen anything like that?
I’m not sure, but in 150 generations of my family no one has known Jesus. I am the first one. Imagine the honor in killing me. There is great honor in that. Because if they love Allah more than me, they have to do it. It’s in the Koran. And you can, like, give them knowledge about it [gestures to someone off camera, who says something unintelligible]. He really will explain it and break it down. They have to do this. They just have to. Either they do that or they send me back to Sri Lanka. There’s an asylum there where they put people like me, like, think I’m crazy.
Do you really think that this is true or do you think that this is just a threat?
There’s actually hundreds of cases that are backed like me. Amina and Sarah, they were forced to go back home. They were killed by their dad! This is not just some threat! This is reality! This is truth! This is reality! How many more cases do you want? There’s case after case. There’s hundreds of them. I am one. I am one of hundreds. They have to. You guys don’t understand. They have to. I don’t know what else to say, but they have to. If you want proof, there’s hundreds of cases that can validate my story. Even my friends and people from back home, they knew what would happen to me. My own brother knew about my faith and he didn’t tell my dad. What does that say? He knew the consequences! He knew!
So what do you want at this point now?
I want to be with them. I want to be free from my parents. I want to be free. I want to worship Jesus. I want to go to church on Sundays and read my Bible and see Jesus alive, whenever I want to. You talk about religious freedom? No! I don’t have that. I want to be here. I want to worship Jesus freely. I don’t want to die."
Rifqa Bary's next court date is Sept 29
A Florida trial will decide whether Rifqa, 17, a disciple of Jesus Christ, will be sent home to her Muslim parents in Ohio where her father has threatened to kill her in an "honor killing" based on Islamic Sharia law.
Prayer Pointers:
As Christians we believe the way to reconciliation with God is to accept the sacrifice of Jesus our Saviour on the cross. Good works will not gain us eternal life. Let us pray with hope in God to save and reconcile Muslim people to Him through Jesus Christ.
*Krista Bartholomew - guardian ad litum (influential to the court and judge) pray for divine favour and for God to guide her in the right direction with decisions that need to be made.
*Craig McCarthy & Barbara Joyner (lawyers for the parents Mohamed & Aysha Bary): pray blessing over them and for truth to penetrate their hearts. That the love of Jesus would shine so brightly by Rifqa and people supporting and fighting on her behalf.
*Judge Daniel Dawson: Pray this story would be more than another case and would become personal to him. Ask for the Lord to guide his heart and for peace to come upon him. He is under a lot of pressure. Pray blessing and for divine favour. Ask for the Lord to show up with dreams and visions. The Lord's justice to be released in the court room using this man as a vessel in order to do so.
*John Stemberger & Rosa Gonzalez (attorney's for Rifqa): Divine strategies to be given. Divine favour in the court room. Words would be given by the Lord to speak on Rifqa's behalf.
*Rifqa: Fire from Heaven to consume her lips that when she opens her mouth ears would be opened to listen to the voice of the Lord shaking through the court room penetrating hearts. Healing in her eye to be used for the salvation of millions and for revival to breakthrough this nation. Ask God to give back double what she has lost.
*Pastor Beverly & Blake Lorenz (entire family): Pray for peace that passes all understanding. Protection from the fiery darts of the evil. Pray off word curses form the Islamic community and for protection of their ministry. Pray for the Lord to honor their obedience and the sacrifices they have made.
"Father in heaven, we thank you now for sparing Rifqa's life and making a way of escape for her because her heart's desire is to worship you the Living God and your Son Jesus freely. We ask now that as Rifqa fasts and prays you give her wisdom from above that is pure, peaceable and full of good fruit about what to say when she appears in court. We trust you that as your Word says she will know the right words to speak when she's brought into the courtroom with the authorities. We ask Father for favor for Rifqa. We ask that you open the judge's eyes to see, his ears to hear, and give him a heart to understand this situation not from a worldly perspective but from heaven's perspective. We ask for protection to continue for Rifqa--that you would give her life to her as a prize in all the places wherever she goes, Lord. Give her supernatural peace that surpasses her present circumstances. Let this peace from you be so real to her that it overrides all her fears when she appears in court. Let her words be like apples of gold in settings of fine silver, words fitly spoken. Let her words be a testimony to your grace and your goodness. Let those who hear and see her be moved by your glory upon her Lord. Let the light of your countenance be upon Rifqa and the Christian ministers who testify on her behalf. Lord, increase faith in this circumstance. Our faith doesn't rest with the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. You are the one who gives us overcoming grace so we ask for the grace to overcome for Rifqa now. Fill her to overflowing with your great love for her. Let it encapsulate her against this storm, Lord. Your great, great perfect love casts out fear so I am asking that fear be far removed from her. Let her every breath be a testimony to Rifqa of your hand on her life. Reassure her and comfort her even this day as we pray, Lord, that her times are in your hands. We speak that none of your plans or purposes for Rifqa's life can be thwarted. You are the God who knows her intimately. You formed her in her mother's womb and knew her days when as yet there were none of them. Thank you Lord for divine protection over her life today and in the days ahead. Thank you Lord that you are a righteous and just judge. We ask that you intervene on her behalf. We pray all these things in the name above every other name in this age and the one to come, Jesus.
Amen <3
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