{"id":20364,"date":"2024-11-13T16:26:43","date_gmt":"2024-11-13T16:26:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.opendoorsuk.org\/?post_type=news&#038;p=20364"},"modified":"2024-11-18T17:03:37","modified_gmt":"2024-11-18T17:03:37","slug":"central-asia-baptism","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/connect.opendoorsuk.org\/ireland\/blog\/news\/latest-news\/central-asia-baptism\/","title":{"rendered":"Samila gets baptised after encountering Jesus through YouTube video posted by Open Doors"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"930\" height=\"399\" src=\"https:\/\/connect.opendoorsuk.org\/ireland\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2024\/11\/13.11.24-CA-women.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-20365\" srcset=\"https:\/\/connect.opendoorsuk.org\/ireland\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2024\/11\/13.11.24-CA-women.jpg 930w, https:\/\/connect.opendoorsuk.org\/ireland\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2024\/11\/13.11.24-CA-women-300x129.jpg 300w, https:\/\/connect.opendoorsuk.org\/ireland\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2024\/11\/13.11.24-CA-women-768x329.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 930px) 100vw, 930px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For years, no one apart from her daughter had hugged Samila*. She has a severe skin condition that, though not contagious, makes her a social outcast where she lives in Central Asia. So when a local Open Doors partner embraced her, Samila cried.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It was a powerful demonstration of Jesus\u2019 love \u2013 one brought about by a YouTube video posted by Open Doors.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Shunned by family<\/h2>\n\n\n    <div class=\"float-right-wrapper\">\r\n        <img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Samila gets baptised after encountering Jesus through YouTube video posted by Open Doors\" src=\"https:\/\/connect.opendoorsuk.org\/ireland\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2024\/11\/samila-box-updateArtboard-1.jpg\">\r\n\t\t    <\/div>\r\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Samila is a teacher and lives with her 13-year-old daughter. She was married but, because of her illness, her husband left her. Relatives also abandoned her. To them, Samila is \u2018unclean\u2019 and cursed. It\u2019s the same on the street, where people avoid her. To cover her shame, she wears a hijab, revealing her face only at school.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In search of healing, Samila explored several avenues, including saying Islamic prayers, touching the graves of sheikhs and travelling to holy places to fast and leave prayer ribbons. But nothing worked. The pain remained \u2013 and so did the isolation. As she contemplated suicide, the only thing that stopped her was what would happen to her daughter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Embraced by Jesus<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As disappointment and desperation grew, doubts around Islam deepened, and so Samila began to explore Christianity \u2013 and that\u2019s how she stumbled across a video posted by Open Doors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Beneath the video, she posted a comment asking for help, and as conversations began she asked for a Bible. Given her illness and the dangers of converting from Islam to Christianity where she lives, Samila was reluctant to receive the Bible in person, but when our local partner said that God loves her and doesn\u2019t look to her face but her heart, she agreed to meet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On meeting, our local partner listened to Samila as she shared her story, and at the end they hugged, bringing Samila to tears. She then went on to read her Bible daily and regularly attended a house church, where she was warmly welcomed, all whilst getting in touch with our local partners to ask questions. After six months, Samila gave her life to Jesus and she recently got baptised alongside two other new believers (she is pictured above, on the right).&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Whilst Samila hasn\u2019t yet been healed of her skin condition, she knows with deep assurance that she\u2019s a beloved child of God and part of a worldwide church family. After years of hurt, her heart is beginning to heal \u2013 and she\u2019s overjoyed!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>*Name changed for security reasons<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>God often reaches out to people in the unlikeliest of ways \u2013 and that certainly applies to Samila from Central Asia, who recently followed her conversion from Islam to Christianity with baptism. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":20365,"parent":8268,"menu_order":0,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[151],"class_list":["post-20364","news","type-news","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest-news","tag-central-asia"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v20.8 (Yoast SEO v28.5) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Samila gets baptised after 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