By Victor Ochieng
Rita Chaima is a visibly joyous woman. When you interact with her, you see someone who’s genuinely happy right from the inside. When she speaks, you hear someone who’s contented and appreciative of the gift of life.
That’s not what she used to be though. Right from her childhood days, Chaima, who was raised as a Muslim, constantly struggled with a serious case of suicidal depression. Her story is that of a young person whose life was a mess because of her internal struggles.
Chaima shared this touching story in a newly released documentary dubbed “In His Footsteps” by The Last Reformation ministry.
“I just saw a cruel world and I didn’t want to be a part of it,” she recalls. Chaima reveals that she tried to take her life on three different occasions. “I was doing drugs, I was smoking, I was smoking anything… I just wanted to destroy myself.”
At some point, anger got the best of her and she made a decision to join the ISIS in Syria.
“I hated people who weren’t Muslim. I wanted to kill them,” she says. In her own confession, Chaima says she was so inspired by the ISIS videos that she felt like that’s where she belonged. “I loved to see them bleeding. I was seeing videos of decapitation and loved it.”
But before she could make her way to join the dreaded terrorist outfit, something different happened at home. Her mother brought with her several books. One of the books was actually a Bible, and that’s how she met Jesus.
How is that even possible? She started reading the Bible with one clear agenda: “To prove to Christians that they were wrong.” However, that’s not what she achieved at the end of it all. “I was wrong! And the grace of Jesus Christ started to touch me.”
Even as she was reading, she knew it “wasn’t right” for her to follow the teachings, based on her Muslim upbringing. “Intellectually I didn’t want to accept Jesus, but Jesus started to do a work in my heart,” she says.
Overcome by the conviction of the Holy Spirit, she just couldn’t resist the love of Christ and so she decided to follow Him.
After sharing with her family what she’d gone through, they rejected her, forcing her to spend most of her time alone in her room. Chaima said “Jesus was there with me. He was encouraging me. The Holy Spirit was really there. I felt it, I knew it.”
To this far, her family has totally excommunicated her.
When she went for baptism, something out of her control happened and she only came to see it in a video.
“I don’t even remember what I did. I had to see the video of my baptism. I was completely crazy; the demon was crazy, it wasn’t me. I kicked Jon. He baptized me. I kicked him.” Jon didn’t stop because of the kicks. He continued ministering and rebuking the devil to go away. Finally, she relaxed and was baptized in the Holy Spirit.
“After the baptism, I felt like the heavy weight completely disappeared. And I was so excited to go and make disciples,” she said.
“I started to want to talk about Jesus to everyone, even to the people who led me to terrorism. I wanted to go and see them, tell them that they are wrong, and that love is waiting for them.”
That’s exactly what she’s doing now; traveling and ministering to people alongside gospel minister Peter Ahlman.
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