My name is Lorance, 25 yrs., married, born in Romania but as you notice my
family name is of Islamic origin. My mom is Christian and my dad is Muslim, my
dad who is from Syria was in Romania doing his studies so he met with my mom who
is originally Romanian and they got married.
When I was 2 yrs. my parents moved to Syria. Life in Syria wasn't so bad but
something did bother me very much" the sound of the mosque that kept yelling
from time to time". Since I was young my mom kept teaching my sister and I about
Jesus Christ, who wonderful he is..... oh I almost forgot I'm very lucky cause
my dad is not so much into Islam, in fact he gave my mom permission to get us
baptized.
I remember when we had religion class (in school) we were separated into two
groups, Christians into one group and Muslims into another group, and since my
last name was Muslim I had to be in the Muslim one, it was very bad, It was
boring, and it was terrible, I always wished that I would join the Christian
group but unfortunately my last name made me stay in the Muslim group. Despite
that I rejected Islam and all its belief, all the time I knew in my heart that
I'm not a Muslim boy but a Christian one.
Since young I felt lonely, I had many friends but despite that I felt that I
don't belong to this world, that this world is only for the rich kids and
popular.
Let me just tell you something horrible about Syria, I remember clearly on the
way to school the school bus used to pass round road where all the criminals
used to get hanged there and shown to the public. They used to hang them around
6 o'clock in the morning and then they would allow everyone to watch them while
they were hanging with a rope around their neck. Can you imagine the view, and
especially for children (4 yrs.+ ) who would watch.
In 1989 My parents decided to emigrate to Sweden. With many difficulties my
parents managed to gather the required amount of money to buy tickets for
Sweden, but my dad stayed in Syria (it was too risky for him) so there my
sister, mom, and I were heading to Sweden with not much money in our pocket.
Fist we arrived to Helsinki in Finland, there we stayed one night at a hostel,
then we were suppose to go to take the ferry boat to Umea in Sweden.
Unfortunately the boat wasn't available until the next day so we had to wait
till the next day, we had some money (but mom used to say its money for black
days = emergency) so with that mom decided that we would wait, and there we
found a little bench and behind us was a little store (selling cigarettes, hot
dogs, soda, etc.).
We were hungry but I didn't want to ask mom to buy something for us, I knew we
needed the money for worse days. Suddenly the owner of the store was closing his
store leaving home but before he left he brought us a bottle of Fanta and some
bread and some cans of sardines and he just put them on the table without saying
a word. Then we started eating and after eating we waited, on that little bench
we waited, and suddenly it got so cold, actually it was freezing. Since my mom
were young she used to have a big problem with coldness, from time to time she
used to get in a position that she would stop moving, and she would start
shaking and shivering, and in many cases close to die and that what exactly
happened to her, she started shaking and shiver, and she kept saying, "Oh my God
I'm going to die," and I was so afraid, so I started massaging her to get so
heat in her body and veins, and from the other side my sister was crying cause
she was missing her ex-boyfriend.
It was terrible, but amazingly I didn't even want to think that my mom wouldn't
survive but I remember I prayed to God to help us. After that my mom said we
have to continue walking, cause if we would stay we would all die of the
coldness, so we kept walking, on the way I saw some alcoholic people on the
street so I got scared and on the way we saw a captain who later we found that
he was the same captain of the boat that we were suppose to take to Sweden the
following day, and he was nice and he let us sleep in the boat, in fact he gave
us some rooms onboard of the boat.
The next day I woke up and I was happy that the nightmare was over. Later when
we arrived in Umea, Sweden the police was standing at the other side checking
everyone's passport but fortunately they seemed to ignore us, cause they didn't
ask us anything at all and they let us go out of the boat. When we passed the
police security my mom asked me to wait in the same spot that I was and not move
form there till my sister and she would go to the emigration office, but she
also told me that if she doesn't come back in 30 minutes to go and find a family
or someone and ask them for help to let them adopt me.
I was so afraid, I was 13 years old in a strange country, I don't speak the
language, how would I communicate with people? And how would I survive without
my family? I was so afraid, like never felt before, but when I turned to my
right I saw a church on the other side so I prayed to God like I never had
prayed before, and suddenly I saw my mom and my sister returning back so I asked
what's wrong and she told me that on her way she felt like something pushing her
back (and thank God she did return or else if she would have gone to the
emigration office they would have send them home to Syria since the rules had
changed a week ago concerning the emigration for Romanian citizen, and all they
citizen of Romania they were sent back).
Exactly after she came back with my sis the church bell started ringing and
ringing so mom said ok lets go to the church and ask them for help, so we
crossed the street and outside the church we found a young girl in her twenties,
her name was Maria, she was working there as a summer job, so we explained to
her what had happened to us, so she took us home and she gave us food and she
let us stay there, then we met her family, a wonderful family, praise the Lord
Jesus Christ for everything and for leading us. Fortunately Maria had friends
who are working in the police so she took us there and they helped us, and
within 6 months or so we had the Swedish citizen ship, and 2 yrs. after that my
dad came to Sweden.
Brothers and sisters, if you don't see the hand of God in every step that we
took, then you are missing the real story. First God send the young man in
Helsinki to give us food, and what did the man give us? He gave us fish and
bread (remind you about the bible?). Second, he led us to meet the captain so he
would help us to give us a room in the boat to sleep. Third, he let the police
security to ignore us of not asking for our passport. Fourth, he brought back my
mom and sis and he lead us to the young woman Maria to help us to take us home
and this young girl she had friends at the police who helped us with the
emigration. The lord Jesus Christ helped us all the way and he is still helping
us always.
Folks, don't believe in the creation, but believe in the Creator who created
everything. If a guy build you a house, when is done, do you go thanking the
stone or the builder? The answer is clear so please trust in the Creator our
Lord Jesus Christ and commit all your life to him only, he is the one who shed
his blood for you. Amen, in the name of Jesus Christ Amen, even so come Lord
Jesus.