Halima's Story

As a young Muslim girl in Somalia growing up in an orphanage in Mogadishu, Halima knew she had no hope of Allah choose her to go to heaven. She had no family, no clan, and no opportunity to go to the mosque or to Mecca. She was doomed to do to hell after she left this life.
Her life in Somalia, as for millions of her countrymen, was a hell on earth. She had only known war, shooting, dead bodies in the street, never knowing peace in her country or peace in her soul. Blessedly she had “good mamas” until she was seven, but after that she lived out her life under the abuse of a hellacious “bad mama.” She had no hope, but God loved her and sent an Ethiopian teacher to her school.
Faith, that was her name, told her of Jesus who could get her into heaven. She dreamed she would someday find this Jesus. “I knew my life on earth was like hell and I didn’t think it would ever be better but maybe with Jesus I have the hope of going to Heaven.”
At 14 year of age the gunmen came to the orphanage and destroyed it killing many. The “bad mama” ran away with Halima and the other children to a village. They survived there until she was 17. People from the village agreed to take her illegally across the border to Kenya. It was Halima ‘s chance to find Jesus in this Christian nation. She then went on her own to find her Somali age-mates in Nairobi and was imprisoned and assaulted by two Kenyan men as she travelled alone. After a week she was dropped in the city at night, alone and scared. She found her way to some Somalis and eventually did meet up with her friends.
Still seeking Jesus, she knew even more than ever she was damned since for Muslims rape is the shame of the woman not the men. Then she was thrown out of where she was staying because the woman recognized Halima was pregnant. This realization was the final straw…her shame was public. She lost her voice and can only speak in a whisper. But God didn’t forget Halima in her pain and suffering. She met a young Kenyan woman.
Faith, that was her name as well, and she told her more about Jesus. She brought Halima to church where she encountered the love of Jesus in his people. She believed and was baptized by a missionary. Fearing for her life she went to a town outside of Nairobi with the missionaries and had her baby, Jessie, Beloved of God. When Jessie was 18 months old they came to the United Stated as refugees to live with the Pippens who she met in Kenya.
Halima now has hope. Life is not easy but she has the peace of God and is assured of Heaven.

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CHRISTIAN JARGON: Biblical Meanings of Frequently Used Terms

We, as Christians, have developed a language, a jargon, all our own. We use words and phrases frequently assuming that everyone knows what they mean. The truth is that while it sounds righteous, spiritual, and holy (note the jargon!) often many would like to have a better understanding as to their real biblical meaning. For example, how often have you heard someone speak of God’s grace as if it was some “thing” which God hands out or sprinkles on us like “fairy dust”?

In this and, from time to time, in subsequent posts, we will present some of this Christian jargon and provide a definition that fits scripture. If there are any terms you would like included please let us know!

1. Accept Jesus - In repentance, casting one’s self by faith totally upon Christ.

2. Atonement - To make right or to make up for the wrong which man has done to God. The very nature of man’s wrong and the very nature of who God is make it impossible for atonement to be accomplished by man. Only God can make right what man has made wrong.

3. Bless, blessing - Of God to man: The intervening of God in the life and character of a person to bring about the result desired by God. Also, for God to speak well of one.
Of man to God: To speak of, describe, sing and speak well of God, and the greatness of His attributes, actions and accomplishments.

4. Born again - In redemption, one is given spiritual life and a new nature by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Jesus used the term "born from above" with Nicodemas.

5. Confess - To agree with or to “say along with God” that God’s assessment of some-thing is the correct assessment.

6. Faith, belief, trust - To accept totally as true and as a result to order ones life, attitudes, behaviors, and relationships thereby.

7. Glorify, glory -
Of God: The highlighting, making known, or spotlighting the moral perfection and total worthiness of God.
Of man: The highlighting of and making known the working of God in man that produces a reflection of God’s moral attributes and worthiness to rule.

8. Grace - God’s attitudinal disposition toward us from which He acts on our behalf for redemption and morally acceptable living.

9. Holy, saint, sanctified - Set apart. When applied to us, it means set apart to God, belonging to Him and exclusively for His use. When applied to God, it means set apart from all others, pure, without imperfection.
10. Justice - Receiving exactly, to the letter, what one deserves or has earned.

11. Justify, justification - To be made or declared right in one’s relationship and standing with God, lacking nothing for perfection and correctness.

12. Knowledge, wisdom - To know intellectually the content of God’s revelation and to discern by the work of the Holy Spirit what that information means in one’s life.

13. Leading of the Spirit - Subjective feeling that one ought to do a certain thing because God is saying so. Note: There is a deafening silence in scripture that this is a normal pattern for God’s working.

14. Mercy - acting toward one favorably. Touched with strong feeling and desire to help.

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