The Testimony of Hilda From Beirut I was born in Beirut in 1965. When I was 9, the war started, and with it, the long devastating years of all the Lebanese started. With this war, and my house in the midst of demarcation line, questions began to haunt me day and night. Is this life? Death was our daily bread, tears and destruction everywhere. My parents, being from Christian background, could not answer my questions as they themselves did…

I was born in Saudi Arabia as a member of a Muslim family. We were a very happy family, and I loved my relationship with them. I also felt very happy because I did all the things that God asked me to. I had learned one sixth of the holy Quran by heart and a lot from the Hadieth. When I was a teenager, I was an Imam for the mosque. I was always very serious to do all that God ordered me to do--fasting during Ramadan, praying five times a day…

  I grew up with my grandparents in a devout Muslim home. From a very early age I practiced fasting in Ramadan and on the Islamic holy days, read namaaz daily and read my Quran, even memorizing large parts. Because we lived in South Africa which was under apartheid in those years, we were “non-white” and classed as Indians/Asians. As a result of apartheid we were not allowed to go to a school or college of our choice and were forced to attend sc…

A Doctor Meets the Great Physician My head ached and felt heavy on my shoulders as I struggled to wake up and to focus. I wondered how I had ever gotten home alive from the drunken revelry of the night before. During the day, I worked on my residency at Universite Saint Joseph, one of the finest medical colleges in Beirut, Lebanon. Each night I drank and caroused with women. Born in the Republic of Lebanon, I attended church-affiliated schoo…