Today, Rita Chaima is a radiant young woman beaming with the love and joy of Christ.
But that was not always the case for this formerly depressed and suicidal Muslim who wanted to join ISIS and watch Christians die in a bloodbath.
“When I was a little girl, I always asked myself, what am I doing in this world because I just saw a cruel world, and I didn’t want to be a part of it,” said Rita in a documentary entitled “In His Footsteps” by The Last Reformation.
The darkness she saw all around her only fueled her depression and hatred for herself and humanity.
“When I grew up, I started to be really bad. I was hurting a lot and I hurt people because of it. I tried to kill myself three times, I was doing drugs, I was smoking, I was smoking anything… I just wanted to destroy myself.”
After being influenced by a Muslim friend during this destructive period in her life, Rita decided she wanted to go to Syria to join ISIS.
“I wanted to go to Syria because I hated people who weren’t Muslim. I wanted to kill them. I was bound to dangerous things. I loved to see people dying. I loved to see them bleeding. I would see videos of decapitation and loved it on the Internet, and yeah it was my life.”
But God had different plans in store for this Muslim out to destroy Christianity and all that it stood for.
Soon after these thoughts surfaced, Rita’s mother brought a stack of free books home for her. One of those was a Bible.
Seeing it as an opportunity to prove this so-called infallible book wrong, Rita pored over the pages of Scripture day and night.
But instead, she met the real Jesus.
“I started to read the Bible to prove to Christians that they were wrong,” said Rita. “But I was wrong! And the grace of Jesus Christ started to touch me.”
Intellectually, her mind rebelled, but her heart simply couldn’t resist.
“I was reading things like ‘pray for your enemies,’ ‘love them,’ and I was someone who wanted to kill them… Intellectually, I didn’t want to accept Jesus, but Jesus started to do a work in my heart.”
As soon as she informed her family of her decision to abandon the Muslim faith and follow Jesus, they disowned her—but thankfully, Rita had found a new family.
“Today my family abandoned me. I am alone, I have no home. My family abandoned me, but I have a new family, and this family is all around the world, and it’s my family in Christ.”
And Rita’s miraculous salvation story was just getting started.
When it came time for her to get baptized, a supernatural event unlike anything she’d experienced before completely took over her body, and a demon manifested within her.
“When I got baptized in water a demon manifested, and it wasn’t me at all. I don’t remember what I did. I had to see in 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, and I said sorry.”
As the screaming and flailing persisted, Jon continued to speak life into Rita and commanded the demon to flee in the name of Jesus.
Eventually, an unexplainable peace washed over Rita, and she felt the evil presence leave her.
“After the baptism, I felt like the heavy weight completely disappeared,” she explained. “And I was so excited to go and make disciples.”
She felt like a completely new person, ready to go and spread the Gospel of Truth to everyone she met, even those who led her down a destructive path in the past.
“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.”
Now, that’s exactly what she does, sharing her testimony far and wide with gospel minister Peter Ahlman, along with her other brothers and sisters in Christ.
