“I FORGAVE MY FATHER’S KILLER”

Calls for revenge can be deafening in the Middle East and North Africa, where lives are regularly torn apart by national conflicts, community tensions, and personal feuds. But SAT-7 is sharing a radically different message through the stories of Christians who choose to follow Christ’s call to forgive their enemies. 

Rania Nassar, 50, grew up in an atmosphere filled with bitterness, hatred, and feelings of revenge after four men in her family were killed. The rest of her family harbored negative feelings for decades, and these affected her own life, too. 

During the civil war in Lebanon, a renowned political figure ordered the killing of Rania’s father and his three brothers when she was only five years old. Following the murders, her mother left after bitter fights with her late husband’s family. Rania, whose childhood was thus marred by loss and grief, was later put in a boarding school for two years. 

Despite the negative atmosphere in which she grew up, the fear and anger that filled her family, and the fact that the killer lived in the same neighborhood as she did, Rania never allowed room in her heart for vengeance. 

“I knew who the killer was, but I didn’t want revenge,” she told the SAT‑7 ARABIC program You Are Not Alone. 

At 27 years old, Rania went to church, poured her heart out to the Lord and told him she was tired and needed healing. 

“I asked the Lord to teach me to love my enemies, because my enemy is alive and exists. I started fasting every day until noon for three years,” she said. 

Pursuing Forgiveness

Rania’s journey towards forgiveness moved forward after she asked the Lord to let her meet the man who killed her father and tell him that she forgave him. 

Her prayer request was soon answered in an unexpected way. 

“I was at a wedding sitting opposite this woman who started all of a sudden telling me her life story and crying,” Rania said. “It wasn’t a great time to share personal stories, but I opened up to her and told her everything about me and the name of the killer. It turned out he was the husband of her best friend. I saw this as a sign from God to approach him. I asked her for help to connect myself with him.” 

Deathbed Repentance

Rania finally managed to contact the man who had taken her father and uncles’ lives and offer her forgiveness. It was clear that the Lord had been working in the man’s heart, too. 

Now on his deathbed in the final stages of cancer, he shared how God had brought him to repentance and how he had asked God for a message that he was forgiven. Rania’s call was the Lord’s answer to his prayer. 

“He took off his oxygen mask and knelt on the ground crying. He cried for three days…  When he died [a month later], I cried, because I was joyful that he was saved,” she said. 

As well as telling her incredible story on SAT-7, Rania visits schools in Lebanon to share it with the students. 

“We must continue to share what Jesus did. It wasn’t me; it was Him,” Rania said. “If Jesus asks us to forgive our enemies, then it can be done. I am a weak person, but I opened my heart completely for the Lord to work in me.” 

The SAT-7 ARABIC weekly live program You are Not Alone shares inspiring stories of faith, healing, and hope to encourage believers across the Middle East and North Africa and bring a Christian perspective on events and issues in the region.