God’s Divine Appointment Book

This is Part 2 of Aisetta’s story; Part 1 is below.

It’s a rare thing to meet someone with a genuine hunger for God like Aisetta has!  We met with her four more times while we were in Chicagoland.  We did a discovery Bible study on Jesus calming the storm, showing us how He is able to rebuke the powers of chaos and fear and speak calm and peace into our lives.  Together, we studied the Genesis account of the creation of human beings, and saw God’s intention that men and women reveal His image and live in relationship with Him.  We read the story of Jesus’ healing of Jairus’ daughter and the woman with the hemorrhage, and reflected on His power to overcome death with life and uncleanness with purity and healing.  We were able to share a few of our own testimonies of God’s restoring power after traumatic experiences.

Along the way, we heard more of Aisetta’s story.  Arriving as a refugee, she had been enrolled in World Relief’s resettlement program.  World Relief had recruited volunteers from local churches to help new arrivals with getting settled.  Aisetta expressed deep gratitude for the volunteer family who had taken her under their wings and helped her with housing, shopping, English classes, finding a job, dental care, learning to drive, and many other things that could have been overwhelming.  They also took her to church, and there she had her first experiences of the Body of Christ.  And when she listened to the pastor preach, she said, it had seemed like he was speaking directly to her!

The Spirit was at work in her heart, and after some months, Aisetta put her faith in Jesus, and then decided to be baptized.  She looks back on her baptism as a turning point in her life.  Before that, she said, she had often felt depressed and her life had seemed dark.  She usually wore black clothes and kept her apartment dark, with the shades drawn.  She kept to herself and had few friends.  After being baptized, suddenly she felt that light had come into her life.  She began buying colorful clothes and letting sunlight into her rooms, going out with friends and feeling hopeful.  Aisetta had a real experience of being buried with Christ and raised to new life!

Aisetta has had no contact with her family in Guinea since she ran away; because of her feelings of betrayal, she doesn’t have any desire to renew those relationships.  It’s unusual for an African to be completely cut off from family, and it’s a painful and lonely situation to be in.  She has friends that she made when she first arrived who are Muslims from other countries, but because they put pressure on her to come back to the mosque, she avoids them now.  We pray that God will grow in Aisetta a desire to someday reach out and share the new life she has found with her Muslim friends and perhaps even with her family back in Africa.

We’re grateful for the small part we’ve been able to play in Aisetta’s remarkable story, encouraging her on her journey, and look forward to the new chapters God will be opening up for her in the future.


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