Today i finally met someone who died, went to heaven, met Jesus and came back to life to tell it as it is!
Riaya from Kazakhstan gave one of the most amazing testimonials i've ever heard about the living God. She's a student here at the University of Nations and she shared her incredible story with us today at our monday morning worship time.
Riaya was born a muslim and when she was 10 years old, she experienced first hand war. She saw her whole neighborhood maimed by the effects of war. It was a risk to go out to the streets, but to get food at the only bread factory, people would wait in lines for days to get food, and would kill each other for food. Although she was a muslim, she never ever saw the muslim god alla answer her prayers. the muslim god is a god of punishment, and fear. distant and asks for sacrifice to get into heaven. So while she was waiting in line, instead of praying to alla, she called out to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (because she learned that He exists in the Toran, where her ancestor line comes from Isamiel (who believes in alla, the muslim god), the brother of Jacob in the Book of Genesis in the Holy Bible), and God really answered her prayer!
She met Jesus when a Korean mission came to Kazakhstan to teach Taekwondo for free. They talked to her about Jesus. Ria was a woman, where in the Muslim culture woman are looked down upon. And that He knows the number of hairs on her head. A personal God who is Love, and not a punisher, not a fearful God, but a God of love who wants a personal intimate relationship with her. and since Ria had seen so many lambs sacrificed for Muslim sacrifices, when she heard that Jesus was the lamb to die for her sins she instantly understood it. And decided to go to church. There she went to recieve a prayer and the pastor laid hands on her head, and she fell down and saw a vision of Jesus Christ on the cross and Jesus talked to her saying "Riaya you deserve to die, but I died instead of you, recieve my love, just receive it, i took your sins, i took your shame, i took the judgement and become my child by just believing in me!"
Some time (maybe a few months? or year?) after that had happened, muslim bombers planted bombs in the church that Riaya went to, and Riaya was leaning next to the bomb when it went off, and died right there. But she went to Heaven and met Jesus and Jesus said with the most gentle voice "welcome home Ria, i'm so happy to see you" and she could see Jesus looking into her and seeing her weakness but loving her for who she was and embracing her with His love. He was so beautiful, glorious, indescribable. Jesus then gave her a choice. would you like to go back or stay here with me? and Riaya anwered, "i lived a life. i lived for my desires, my plans, it was all about me. but give me one more chance because it's all about you. and He said, alright Riaya, i will let you go. I will see you soon!" and Riaya came back to life. and Riaya felt in her spirit that she had unfinished business on earth. When she returned, her sister was praying for her on her side even though she had died, and God had moved her sister to pray for her. Her head was split open, and parts of her brain came out, and all her skin was burned and she had no skin left and she was blind. But God healed her completely, God is a resurrector, and she got her sight back, her skin has no scars, but only the scar on her head, like the scars that Jesus has on his hands and ankle. Check out the pictures! she has skin like a baby! nothing about her suggests she had such an unrecoverable accident.
So to make it short, Riaya is here on earth to tell people that Jesus is real, Heaven is real. and she has seen two visions from God, and one of them tells her that Jesus will come back in her generation. More than anything today while listening to Ria's testimony, although she is probably in her late 20s, i could see a 12 year old girl, filled with love, passion, and contagious energy that only shines with Jesus's love.
