AMAZING STORY
Hephzibah Agai: Jesus Fills the Empty Space
By Kara Pogue
The 700 Club
CBN.com -“When I was a kid, sometimes you go out playing and then you forget it’s time for the prayers.”
Hephzibah Agai was the daughter of a strict Muslim imam.
“He will go and then pray and then when he’s coming back he will have a cane. Then he will come and use it on you. Very hard. So make sure you do your five prayers every day.”
When Hephzibah was five years old, her mother died. Her father and grandmother raised Hephzibah and her eight siblings in Ghana, West Africa.
Her father sent her to an Arab school where she studied Islam along with other subjects. She had a special bond with her English teacher.
Her teacher was a Christian who told Hephzibah about Jesus.
“She talked about a lot of things about the love of Christ. And I wanted to hear more and more about Him.”
Hephzibah studied at that school from grades one through five, all-the-while learning more about Christ, but she believed she had no choice in her religion.
“I’ve seen what happens to people when they turn away from the Islam religion. You’re going to be disowned; you’re not going to be part of the family.”
After junior high school, Hephzibah wanted to continue her studies, but her father spent her school money on a lavish wedding to his new bride. Hephzibah was devastated.
“I was kind of crying every day. I have to go and beg him again.”
One night she had a dream that a man came to her house looking for her.
“He looked at me and said, ‘Hey, you, my dad is looking for you’. He said, ‘I should give you this number.’ So he gave it to me and said, ‘My dad said you should call him.’ He walked away. So in the morning when I woke up, I remember those numbers and the dream as if it was right in front of me.”
Hephzibah didn’t call the numbers right away, but kept them in the back of her mind.
She wanted to go to school so badly; she’d do whatever it took. She couldn’t shake the thought, ‘What if the answer to her problems was just a phone call away?’
She called the number she’d seen in her dream. On her second try, someone answered.
“And he said, ‘My name is Pastor Joseph Boachie. And wherever you are, the hand of God is upon you and God is going to use you mightily.’ Immediately I told him my name, he knew I was a Muslim.”
Hephzibah met Pastor Boachie in person, and made a life-changing decision.
“I prayed with him, ‘Lord, I’ve come to you this day and I accepted you as my Lord and personal Savior.’”
Pastor Boachie could see God at work. “I knew it was God’s intervention in her life.”
Hephzibah explains, “I feel I was a whole new person. And I thought something new has begun with my life.”
The next day her father told her he was sending her back to school! Her prayer was answered.
Pastor Boachie, told her that “The heart of every man, every king, is in the hands of God. So I encourage her that whether the father liked it or not, He was going to take care of her.”
Hephzibah graduated high school. She also went to church, but kept it a secret from her father.
“He warned me very strictly, ‘If I ever, ever find out you are going to church, you wouldn’t like what I would do to you.’ That was when I had to be extra careful.”
She told her brothers and sisters about Jesus and many of them became Christians too. Eventually, she couldn’t hide her faith. She told her father she had become a Christian.
“It came to a point; I had to take my cross. You can’t serve two masters at the same time. So I stood up for my faith. He said, ‘If you don’t want to pray, then you have to leave by your own. I’m no more your father.’ It kind of a bad feeling. But then when I looked at what I have in Jesus Christ, and having the support of my other brothers and sisters, I knew it’s going to be okay. Because it’s not all about my father. It’s about being saved and standing firm in your faith.”
Since then, Hephzibah has completed Bible school.
She’s living in the United States. She’s recently graduated from college as a certified nursing assistant.
Though her own father abandoned her, Hephzibah is thankful to have a heavenly father that loves her unconditionally.
“The love of Jesus is so big that it fills every empty space in your life. And even though my dad left, the love of God was so mighty that I was able to stand firm. He took care of me and so He will take care of whoever comes to Jesus.”
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