UBE’S
Journey FROM MUSLIM TO CHRISTIAN By Dr. Brenda Wilder
U
be is a Hinds Community College student from a small country in Africa. Her country is ruled under a dictatorship, and both of Ube’s parents secretly were active in an Islamic political group. Her grandfather was an activist and has been arrested, so the Islamic religion was important to the family.
In Ube’s country, girls must abide by a set of rules which are not written to read, but understood by the people. Women were taught to be submissive to men, which made Ube mad. As a nine-yearold, Ube was required to wear the Islamic scarf and did not know who God was; however, there was a rebelliousness against the Islamic religion within her. Ube enjoyed activities such as Kung Fu, Taekwondo, and biking. Every summer she would learn new skills, including crochet, playing guitar, and developing a mini-business selling wallets. Ube discovered books and learned the French language first, then English. She was hungry for the opportunity to read and traveled to the largest library in their country’s capitol city to read. While in the capitol city of her country, Ube discovered a Catholic church with
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beautiful architecture and felt a weird attraction to the church; however, it was only open to tourists. She sneaked into confession where the priests spoke in Latin. Ube saw a cross with Jesus hanging on the wall and began having feelings never experienced when attending the Muslim mosques. She cried about Jesus being in pain on the cross and wondered why that happened. Ube would tell her parents she was going to the library in the capitol city but was really returning because of the church. At the age of seven, Ube’s dad would wake her at 3:00 AM and beat her with a copper device because he felt she was not following the Islamic religion, which included praying five times daily. It was humiliating to have her brother watching as she was beaten. A Revolution came to Ube’s country, which closed churches, locked Christian websites, and children were taught in school that Christians were evil. After the revolution, Ube desired to travel and study abroad. She was still confused about religion and would go to the roof and talk to God like He was a person. She asked God for guidance to find the right religion. She truly wanted God and felt peace when talking to Him. At the completion of the senior year of school, students must take an exam that the government uses to choose the
WOMAN TO WOMAN WITH JOANNE : THE MAGAZINE • Issue 30, May 2020
college path for the student. This exam was haunting Ube because it would choose her career major. Ube was so concerned about the exam that she became depressed, developed a rash, and thyroid problems, and as a result, froze when she took the exam. She did pass, but the score was not as high as Ube had hoped, and she was placed in the English major for college. Her chosen college was three hours away from her parents and in the countryside. The major was too easy for Ube, and her depression continued. For her second year of college, Ube applied for a highly selective international scholarship where only sixty out of six thousand students are chosen through a background check and interview. Ube was interested in studying mental health. She contacted the American Embassy and was accepted for the scholarship program. Her major would be psychology, and her placement was at Delta State University in Mississippi. Ube became involved in the Delta State community, and when she attended a community church, she had the same feelings from long ago when she was in the Catholic Church in her home country. She began regularly attending church and Bible studies, each time bringing a list of questions she wanted to ask. In October of 2016, Ube decided to officially announce that she is a Christian and was
