March 22, 2010
Katheryn Maddox Haddad has been teaching a male WEI student in an Asian country via the Internet. This student has looked into the yawning jaws of death and survived by the providence of God. He and his wife have asked us to share their story with you. (The names are fictitious to protect the innocent. We have decided not to print their picture even though they are a beautiful couple.)
FD and Noor talked on the telephone for a year before meeting in person. Even though Noor was a Muslim and FD was a Christian, they dated for two years and secretly fell in love.
Noor’s family was making preparations for her to marry a Muslim, but Noor didn’t want to marry the boy her mother had chosen for her. Every day on the phone, she begged FD to take her away with him, or she would kill herself. She bought some poison just in case. On the day before her wedding, Noor left her family to be with FD. Later, she told FD that she would have killed herself on the day of her wedding if he had not rescued her.
FD says, “I think it was very brave of Noor that she didn’t care what happened to her. I had no job, no future, no relatives out of my town, only $250, no place to live, and no nice house to keep my new bride, no nice bed for the first special night, no wedding party, no wedding dress, and no wedding band. Nothing! I believe God was watching over us.”
For seven days, FD agonized over what he should do. He wanted to flee with Noor, but he thought, “I will be killed if I do. My family will suffer. My only sister might be a victim too. How can I leave my three brothers? How can I play with their future like this? Why should I cause problems for their education and happy life? Most of all how can my parents, especially my father, face other people in society? He won’t have work to do. How can the family survive? How can my parents solve the court issues? They have never been to the police station. There were so many questions in my mind. What a painful time. (I am crying as I recall the past.)”
After hiding at his father’s house for a week, FD took Noor and secretly flew to another city. When they arrived at their destination, FD checked his cell phone and found 135 missed calls. His parents were trying to reach him. When FD called home, his father was crying loudly. Noor’s family was there with him.
FD says, “Our parents wanted us to go back, but we couldn’t. If we had decided to go back, what would have been the result? Death! Muslims are very strong in our town. I had seen them with my own eyes, selling drugs, smuggling weapons, killing poor people, killing their own daughters who had gone against their wills and burying them so that police would not know about it.”
Noor’s father, a wealthy and influential land-owner, accused FD of kidnapping his daughter and stealing his gold. He and his eight brothers-in-law went after FD’s entire family. They hired a member of Al-Quida to find and kill FD and Noor. Fortunately, nobody ever found them.
FD’s family fled to another city to save their lives. Two of his brothers were caught by the police and put in prison. FD says that the “police beat them every day. My wife’s family was bribing the police to beat my brothers as badly as they could. They were swollen, but they didn’t tell where I was. What brotherly love! (I am crying again.)”
On March 7, 2007, FD and Noor went to the court house in their city of refuge and made their marriage official.
Finally, FD took Noor in a secure place and, at great risk to himself, returned to his home town to clear his name. In court, he affirmed that he had neither kidnapped Noor nor robbed her father of his gold. When it became obvious that the judge was about to turn FD over to Noor’s family who stood behind him in the courtroom, FD ran out the door and escaped.
On August 11, 2007, FD and Noor flew to another country where FD enrolled in WEI. FD and Noor have both been baptized into Christ, and FD is now using WEI materials to teach others.
FD concludes, “Our awesome God has blessed us with a cute daughter and has given me a job. All I want to say is please continue to pray for us. Pray, also, that God can make a way for my family. Pray for my wife’s parents and her uncles that God can change their hearts.
“Praise God that Noor has the Savior now. Our greatest desire is to serve the Lord our God and to spread his true and sweet word.”
