| I was my parent’s first child. Born and raised in the deep south of the United States. The main religions are Baptist or Catholic. Both of these types of religion are considered Christian. I was raised Baptist. My father left my mother when I was 5 years old so I grew up without a father. My mom and grandma (the mother of my mom) started taking me, and my younger brother and sister, to church just before my father left. I grew up going to church Sunday morning, Sunday night, and Wednesday night. We were also at church for special meetings on other nights of the week. There were other church activities that my mom had me involved in. She was of the opinion that as if I stayed busy doing something for God that I would not get into trouble. I also attended the School that the church had and learned all of my studies according to the Christian point of view. I was considered very knowledgeable as a Christian. I debated, gave speeches, and taught some of my peers even, things that I had learned from the bible. I learned many things about God. I learned to be very close and to love Him very much. Life was very difficult, but we never had to do without anything that was necessary in life. We knew that God had been taking care of all of our needs. We never had much but we were content with what we had, and we were happy. After I had reached the age of 16 I started working. After I finished school I started to work in the larger companies. My career took me to Chicago IL. I had relocated there alone without my family. I was away from home for the first time by myself. I met many people from all over the world during my career in Chicago. I had friends from Costa Rica, Cuba, England, Germany, Mexico, France, Italy, and Jordan. After I had spent one year at my job, I had planned to go home for the holidays (Christmas). I missed my family a lot. I put my request in for time off. I was so excited to be going back home to see my family. Two days before Christmas I was informed by my boss that I could not leave. I was the only person available to take care of the pending appointments. I was so unhappy. I was sick for my home. I was very close with my family and it seemed it had been a long time since I had seen my mother. Here it was the holiday and I felt so alone. The day before the company closed a lot of people came to do their business because it would be 3-4 days before the company opened again. I worked in a bank at the time and had many abilities including investments. The most important thing that happened that day was the husband and wife from Jordan came to see me at work. They noticed how sad I was even though I tried to hide it. They invited me to their house for the holiday. At first I was a little uncomfortable. I only knew them from my work. I didn’t mix my work with my personal life. I thought about it, and I was so lonely I thought that at least maybe I could be with some people for now. Maybe I would feel a little bit better and not think of how much I missed my family. I had never heard of Islam. I was not even familiar with the term. I thought that Islam was a race of people from the Middle East like we have Spanish, French, and German. I was thinking this is Christmas so I need to get a gift for these people who invited me to their house. So I bought them a gift. I was so thankful that they invited me even though I did not know them very much. I was very surprised when I arrived at the house. There were so many people there. I felt so out of place when I noticed all the women were covered and I was the only one not covering my hair. The sisters put me to work right away in the kitchen and I fit right into place. After the food was finished cooking everyone came into the kitchen and dining area to eat. The sisters were in the kitchen and the brothers were in the dining area. They were right next to each other and they were all married. During dinner the husband (Abdul) started asking me questions about my belief in God. |