Lily Meshi, Director of Partnerships at Iran Alive Ministries, grew up Muslim and came to Christ after surviving an abusive arranged marriage in the United States.
“When I was 18, I was introduced to my father's business partner, who was 14 years older than me,” Meski says. allie beth stuckey “I can empathize with it.” “This marriage was arranged for me, and tied to it was the business my father helped me open.”
“I didn't like him. I wasn't attracted to him at all, but from the beginning he started manipulating me. He sexually exploited them,” Messi explained. “I just got hurt. Afterwards, I was so hurt, but I felt like I needed to be the savior of my family and I needed to continue with this arranged marriage. This marriage. has become very toxic and very abusive in every way.”
Messi has witnessed other young girls and women being forced into arranged marriages, saying it's just “culture” and “something we do as Iranians, as Muslims.” I believed it.
“This actually happened a few times, and I remember one time he started strangling me while I was sleeping. “Because I had a dream that I was with a guy. He was very jealous and very controlling. When I woke up, I felt like I was being suffocated,” she told Stuckey.
“This is the story of how I came to faith, because that relationship was very toxic and I was very depressed when I was 18,” she continues. “I felt trapped with him because of his attitude and the way he treated me. He wouldn't let me go and did everything he could to keep me in this marriage. He tried to manipulate me in some way.”
When Messi started college, he followed her and peered through the classroom windows to see who she was sitting with. When she returned home, he monitored her cell phone to see who she was talking to.
“I was very, very down and depressed and in complete darkness and thinking I was trapped in this relationship and there was no way out,” she explains. “At that time, some friends suddenly visited us. They brought Jesus movies and the Bible.”
“They were family friends from our time in Iran and had moved to Oklahoma,” she continued. “They had become Christians in Oklahoma and wanted to share the gospel with us.”
Then one of the women I watched the movie with said something that changed her life.
“Lily, I know you’ve been through a lot. When you come to Christ, all of your past goes away and you become a new creation in Christ, and in Christ all things are made whole.” Did you know it was going to be new?'' Meski recalls the woman saying.
“Those words touched my heart,” she continued, adding, “I didn’t know it then, but now I know the Holy Spirit was speaking through her. That’s what I wanted to hear.” That's why,” he added.
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