A Listener from Yemen

Rami is a young non-Christian Yemeni, who has been a victim of harsh social, economical, and spiritual circumstances. At 24, he married the girl he deeply loved, but only few hours after the wedding he discovered that her cousin had raped her when she was still young, and that he had even married her older sister. It was definitely not the family Rami had dreamed of! After countless conflicts, he divorced her.

His heart pounded again a few years later but it seemed that love was not destined for him! Because of his poor economic conditions, the girl’s family would not accept him.

During these difficult circumstances, Rami began listening to the TWR Arabic broadcasts. He heard about God’s love and provision, His mighty hand that heals the broken hearts and wounds. He began to correspond with TWR’s Arabic follow-up staff. 

Our Story from North Africa

I want to say thanks to God and to the programs of TWR. My wife and I have five children and seven grandchildren. Every member of my family belongs to Jesus, but, for over a year, my mother and I resisted accepting Jesus. My wife was the first to receive God's salvation through Christ. With God’s help, she accomplished much through her prayers in that the rest of my family became followers of Jesus, too. My mother and I, in a home full of Christians, remained the only followers of the local religion.

I resisted because I was very active in the local place of worship. I was embarrassed and wondered which god was the true god: the one of my religion or Christ? My wife saw that I was anxious and she said, “Come, we are going to listen to the TWR broadcast of Thru the Bible. God is going to speak to you through the Holy Bible.” I listened until nearly the end.

The host who finished the broadcast said, “Dear listeners, we leave you in God's peace. The Father, in His holy word, tells you, ‘Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.’” (Jeremiah 29:12-13)

Landa’s Story

Landa is a 24 year-old woman from a village in Elbasan, Albania. We met her a year ago after she sent us SMS messages and told us of her hopelessness. She didn’t know Christ and was ready to end her life. However, she started listening to “Thru the Bible”, “Women of Hope” and other TWR programs. She also liked the way Dr. Charles Stanley shared the message in the “In Touch” program. We called her and encouraged her by telling her that God loves her. In her village there is no church so radio has been the only source of the Word of God.

We went to visit Landa and found that she suffered from self-pity. We told her, „You are a daughter of God and very precious in His eyes.“ That day she made the salvation prayer. We encouraged her to continue to listen to the radio programs and gave her Christian literature and a Bible. We kept in contact with her through phone and SMS and we kept her in our prayers.

Later, Landa and her family moved to another village in the Lushnja area and she and her sister began to go to the church there.

If God is for us who can be against us?

A letter from North Africa:
If God is for us who can be against us? Naturally, no one can be.

That is what I often tell my wife. The women of the neighborhood often annoy her because we live very close to a mosque in a Muslim district. The women wearing Islamic scarves greet my wife and tell her, “We pray to Allah for you so that you will one day join us at the mosque!”

One day when my wife was tired of hearing this from one woman in particular, she answered by saying, “Listen to me, my dear friend! Why do you pray to Allah for me? I pray to God the Father for you so that he frees you from Allah, as he freed me!”

The lady was irritated and insulted my wife using vulgar words. My wife answered with a tender smile and said, “I thank you, my dear lady. I pray to God the Father to bless you and that He calls you to be His child.” 

From the Central Asia director:

Some time ago, I was on a trip to Tajikistan. During one of the evenings I was invited to a Tajik family for dinner. Upon arrival, the host welcomed us dressed in the typical local costume. After we conducted a traditional hand-washing ritual, we got ready to eat and began talking about this and that.

Then the host started to share about his family. He has two daughters. The elder is now old enough to go to school. On the first day in class, her teacher asked if one of the children would like to recite a poem. The daughter raised her hand and so she presented a poem about her mama. Back at home, she told us full of pride what she had accomplished that day. On the one hand, her father is very proud of her, but he also has a burden in his heart to tell the Tajik people about Jesus. He challenges her, “Why don’t you read a poem about Jesus?”. The next day, the students are asked to present something again. The daughter raises her hand again and this time she shares a short poem about Jesus.

Hussein from Egypt

In Egypt it is mandatory for young men to serve in the Military for 3 years. This is what Hussein did after graduating from college. Almost right from the start of his service he was attracted to a group of fellow soldiers who were different and had a deep belief in God. They even bore the humiliation and persecution from those in charge because of their faith without retaliating.

It was these young fellows that encouraged Hussein to listen to the Arabic radio broadcast of TWR. The Arabic team has come to know Hussein over the years as a deep and earnest thinker, with a heart longing for truth and justice. This young man was showering the team with many questions, hungry to know many things, eager to find real life. “You are the light that helps me to gain insight,” he once shared with them.

All of a sudden Hussein stopped writing. When finally, after some time, they heard from him again, the joy of being reconnected was soon overshadowed by sadness and compassion as he cautiously shared the reason for his long silence. He had been handed over to the authorities by one of his relatives. For a whole month he was imprisoned in a dark room all by himself. The guards would torture him using a combination of freezing cold and boiling hot water and electric shocks! At his release his relative warned him that he would have to go back to his inherited religion if he did not want to be imprisoned again.

Miracles are happening today—Ukraine

Ukraine is the second largest country in Europe. The population is estimated at 46 million and the official language is Ukrainian. Russian is also widely used, particularly in the cities. TWR has been preparing radio programs in the Ukrainian language since 1962. Today there are two recording studios in Ukraine where national coworkers produce the programs.

North Africa: Liberating Souls

I am your sister; my name is Halima, thank you very much for your efforts and perseverance in the work of the Lord. You are my family, the family of God. All my hope rests on my Lord Jesus Christ. I have had some difficult times during my conversion to Christ. As Jesus said, the world will hate you because of my name. The first opponents to persecute me were those of my house. Listen to my small history!

I am an aged woman of 40 years. I'm not married. My mother is a Moslem, and the first to perse-cute me. She tells me, “Allah knows that you are going to abandon Islam to follow Jesus of the pa-gans, this is the reason he did not give you a husband.” She tells me, “You lost your happiness!” I cried much that day! In the evening, I listened to one of your broadcasts on TWR. The program was about perseverance in the walk with the Lord and not to take my eyes off Him in all circumstances. Toward the end of the program you recommended to listeners to read Psalm 121. So I read the Psalm that says, “I raise my eyes unto the hills. From where will my help come? My help comes from God, who has made the heavens and the earth....” I read it as a prayer, the Psalm that you had recommended. And God granted me my prayer.

Rabije from Albania

As a way to deal with their poverty, Rabije’s parents arranged her marriage at the age of 17 to a man much older than herself. Soon after, her husband began abus-ing her physically. Every night, he would show her the gun he had in the closet, telling her that her end could come at any time.

When she got pregnant three years later, her husband divorced her. Although she did not know how to feed the baby, she had a terrible fear in her heart when think-ing of abortion. For the next several months, Rabije and her mother were living off of what their neighbors would give to them.

The Albanian Project Hannah team met this shy, pale faced, young lady when she was eight months pregnant and had not been eating for days. Her face showed hopelessness and fear for the future. After providing money to buy food for a few days, the team aired the story and asked listeners and partners for support. In this way, food, clothing, furniture, medical help and even a house was provided.

Three months after initially meeting the team in Albania, Rabije is a different per-son. She has a beautiful baby girl and is coming to church regularly. She is attend-ing a professional course so that she might have a job and be able to provide for her family.

Today, Rabije wears a smile in her face because she was touched by the hand of God. Is there a woman around you that needs to be touched by God’s hand through you?

Alahm from the Arab World

Alahm is 27 years old. Since accepting Jesus as her personal Savior through the TWR broadcasts, she has been listening secretly to the daily programs at night in her bedroom. Although she is not highly educated, she always takes time after each program to meditate on what she has heard, memorizing verses and even parts of the program.

The members of TWR’s Arabic team are the only Christians she knows, as it is too dangerous in her country to declare her faith openly and meet with other believers. Once a week, when she is alone and can talk openly, she calls her spiritual family and shares what is on her heart and asks for prayer.

Laifa from North Africa

Allow me to present myself. I’m called Laifa, which means “abject.” My mother gave me this strange name because all of her offspring died a few months after birth. So among five children, I’m the only child who survived.

My mother said that, thanks to my unpleasant name, death believed that I’m entirely unpleasant, and did not approach me… I told myself that if death did not come to me, I would kill myself; I would be finished with the world that tortured me, and rest forever.

I hardly finished this reflection when my friend called me and said, “Come quickly! Listen to this broadcast in the Kabyle language on a station called Trans World Radio.” I fortunately had time and listened to the entire broadcast. The message touched me deeply. In my anguish, I was as the jailer (in Acts 16); I was going to take my life, but Jesus gave me life. I gave my heart to Jesus; I’m happy and alive.