When kindness changes everything
For years, Badah* was certain of one thing—God didn’t exist.
She lived her life in defiance, speaking out against any notion of faith. “God is a lie,” she would say. “There is no such thing.”
Living in the Middle East had made her hostile to the very notion of any God. Each time she spoke on the matter her words were sharp, filled with anger, and she never held back from telling others exactly how she felt.
And yet…deep down, something was missing.
Even though she denied God’s existence she could feel an emptiness lingering deep inside herself. Her loud arguments never filled the hole inside her, instead, they echoed in that chasm, laying bare the emptiness she felt.
Then came Sister Anissa*.
Normally Badah wouldn’t have had any time for someone like her, but Anissa was different. She wasn’t just a woman of faith—she was kind. Genuinely kind. So, when she asked Badah if her house was free to host youth meetings, Badah gave an answer she didn’t expect. Not because she believed in the message Anissa was sharing. But because she believed in Anissa. She respected her. She saw something real in her kindness. And though Badah had no intention of opening her heart, she opened her door.
At first, she only listened from the sidelines. She watched. She observed how these young people prayed, how they supported one another, how they spoke of Jesus with love and certainty. Until eventually, something stirred within her.
After watching the children she had welcomed into her house pray for weeks to a God she had never believed in, she did something truly revolutionary. She asked them to pray for her.
At first, the changes in Badah were small. But little by little, her heart softened. The bitterness began to fade. She found herself drawn to the Spark magazine, soaking in its messages, seeing lives transformed right before her eyes. And then, she believed.
“I know now that God is real,” Badah says. “I believe in Jesus Christ.”
Now, the woman who once denied God tells everyone she can that He is alive.
“I thank the Lord,” she says. “And I thank Spark, because through it, I found Him.”
*Names changed for safety.
