Remembering the Day I Met Dear Fatima

“I am from Ghana. We were very poor and I grew up in the dirt.  My father had four wives and we were fourteen children.  We were taught to hate. At age twelve my family packed a small bag and I was given to an elderly man to marry.  I can still see him shuffling across the floor to take me with him. Very soon after we married I ran away. I made a living on the city streets.”

I met Fatima for the first time about eight years ago. A very timid woman, it took a couple years to persuade her to join us for our International community meetings at church. She was curious, but also apprehensive. Later, I learned she was a Muslim, working as a nanny and had accompanied the family who employed her to church.

Six years ago on a glorious Resurrection Sunday Fatima received Jesus as her Lord and Savior and I have never seen anyone so grateful to be a Christian. She always knelt or lifted her hands throughout worship services and during conversations with her; she would often drop to her knees anywhere giving praise and thanksgiving to Jesus lifting her hands and heart to her Savior. Fatima’s salvation will always mark a special moment in my life personally. She received Jesus the day my mother died and moved to heaven to be with Jesus.

While in the states one summer we sought out and bought Fatima a Bible in her native tongue. She always slept with her Bible either by clutching it to her chest or under her pillow. For many of us, several Bibles line the shelves in our homes, for others their Bible has been put aside collecting dust. But for Fatima, her Bible was a treasure!

Fatima died suddenly last week and my thoughts keep turning to the importance of how we care for people and how significant it is that we recognize our moments of opportunity when they arrive. Death is so final and over the past few days my thoughts have turned to some missed opportunities I might have taken. I can personally never do anything more for Fatima, but how my heart is comforted in knowing Jesus did what none of us could ever do for her and today, for all eternity, Fatima is resting in the arms of Love Himself!

Today I’m so grateful to Jesus for rescuing Fatima!