Rasheed & Razan
My name is Rasheed, I am seven years old. I have a twin sister, and sometimes
she gets on my nerves.
Sometimes its fun and sometimes it is not fun having a Muslim Dad.
Because when we are having fun, if we do one thing wrong he yells at us
and that ruins the whole fun time.
One time my Dad hurt me real bad. He picked me up by the arm and
by the neck and threw me against the wall, and then he smacked me a lot
and hit me. It felt like over an hour that this went on.
My other sister and me went over to my mom's house when she wasn't
home and acted like we went there to get our swimsuits, but my sister took
pictures of me and wrote my mom a note. The pictures showed all my bruises.
Then the police came when we got home from a boat trip and took my dad
to jail. They took me to the hospital in an ambulance to make sure I
was OK.
I didn't see my Dad after that for a long time. It was all in the
news papers. That has been hard for me because of my Dad, my friends cannot
come over to my house to play with me because they are afraid of my Dad.
My friends talk behind my back and I don't like that. I love my Dad and
I forgave him. I hope that he finds Jesus.
My Dad teaches us Arabic and that is fun and when we watch old videos
of my sister and me when we were first born, but I don't like going to
the Mosque and praying to a person that is dust.
I feel good when I am with my Mom, and I like it when I go to church.
I don't like the divorce very much. I also love Jesus and my mom, and
she loves me a lot too! And I am glad that she has Jesus in her heart
and like John too. John is my stepfather and he loves Jesus. I like the
fun times with my Mom and she takes me to the movies and ice-skating.
I want to talk about Dylan; he is my dad's girlfriend's son. They
live together with my Dad. They are not married, but they live with my
Dad. Dylan is very bossy and has a bad temper, but Sam, his mother is nice,
but she doesn't have Jesus in her heart either.
Thank you for reading my letter. Please pray for them to find Jesus.
Rasheed
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Hi, my name is Razan. Having a Muslim Dad is very hard to deal
with when he is not a Christian.
I asked my mom, that how come when I am with my Dad, I cannot stay
without her very well, and I cry for her, but when I am with my mom, I
can stay without my Dad, and I don't miss him or cry?
Me and my teacher were talking about divorces, and she said it was
hard because when you are little and when you have to switch back and forth.
Because my mom is a Christian and my Dad is a Muslim and I cried. I don't
know, lets forget about that stuff right now.
Let's talk about my Dad's family: Dylan he is very bossy. Sam
is nice, but sometimes she can get on my Dad's nerves. Little Christopher
cries a lot.
One time my brother didn't want to go to sleep and my Dad got mad
and left marks on his face, and the police came and my brother went into
the ambulance and I cried. They let me in the ambulance to see if he
was OK and he was OK.
I stopped crying and I stopped getting scared.
The hardest thing about my Dad is he abused us. My Dad yells at
us really loud. He calls us names. He calls us stupid, and stuff, but
my Mom says we are smart and she never calls us bad names. My mom calls
me 'angel', and 'little bit'. My mom takes us to the movies and lets
us get stuff and she doesn't have that much money and she still spends
money on us getting cash. And I love her very much.
Once when we didn't know Jesus very well, we all went to church,
my dad even went with us. My Mom was singing at church. I started crying
because Jesus touched my heart and my mm asked me if I wanted to talk
to the Pastor. I said yes and after that my Dad said come here, but I
didn't want to…so I just stayed with my mom because I love her very much.
Razan
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These stories were recorded verbatim July/2001
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