I grew up in Syria, where life was difficult. The government in Syria was under heavy sanctions and life was tough. My sister, Mariam, was already living in Canada. She invited me to immigrate to Canada, agreeing to grandfather me to this country. She also asked me to be a Godfather to her son. So, in 1989 I immigrated to Canada with a refugee application.
For about two years I was a single guy living on my own. Then I met a Canadian woman and we were married. She got pregnant and we had a son together, Alex. At first the marriage was okay, but it did grow very rocky over time. Our relationship eventually grew worse. We fought a lot every day and our home life was stressful. She would nag at me and make my life so difficult. I hated all the fighting and strife. There was no peace at all.
My wife and sister didn’t get along either. Eventually my sister decided to withdraw from my life for about a year and a half.
After nine years of marriage, in 1999, my wife and I decided to get separated. When I was single again, my sister reached out and found out I was on my own. Mariam asked me why I had kept this information from her. I didn’t know why and didn’t know what to say.
For a while my estranged wife and I lived in the same house while I figured out where I was going to live. After four months, she said she would like to buy the house from me, which we arranged; she paid me out.
We decided on 50/50 custody of our son. The plan was that I would have Alex for a week and then he’d go stay with my ex the following week, back and forth. This was very devastating for me.
The night I moved out, I was so sad about everything. I had never imagined that I would ever get a divorce. That’s not how things were done in my family. I was a family man. My mom and dad had stayed together and that’s what I had wanted for myself too. I wanted to forget my troubles, so I went to the bar to drink. Afterwards, as I was driving to my new place, I decided to drive by my old house, the one my ex now lived in. I saw a strange car parked in the driveway. The hour was late and so whoever it was, was sleeping over that night.
Horrible thoughts entered my mind. She had probably moved on to someone new and it devastated me. At that moment, I decided that I should kill myself. I was driving on the street close to my house and facing 14th street. I planned to drive right into a concrete wall, end it all.
Just before I carried through with the plan, I heard a voice say, “What about Alex?”
I stopped the car and cried. Then I drove home. I did not know then that God was protecting me from killing myself by reminding me about my son.
A few days later I saw my sister and she asked me, “Jack, why don’t you come to church with me?” She attended an Arabic church with an Egyptian Pastor.
“I don’t want to.” Back home in Syria, I had attended the Orthodox Church with my family. It was a very traditional church, very liturgical and quite boring. Services were two and a half hours long. As a young man, I’d go inside for the last fifteen minutes. My friends and I would leave early so we could watch all the girls coming out. That was my experience with church. I never read the Bible.
After that I tried to avoid my sister. If God was really good, why would he allow this divorce to happen? I started blaming God for everything bad in my life.
A year later my dad in Syria was very sick. My sister and I flew together to see him. We landed in Damascus and went to the hospital. I saw him for only five minutes. Each of us siblings had five minutes with our dad, one at a time. They then took him to surgery. He had a massive heart attack and passed away. This made me even more angry at God.
I found out much later, after I became a Christian, that my sister had prayed to God before travelling to Syria, asking him to give her at least five minutes with our dad. In her five-minute time slot, she witnessed to him, begging him to receive Jesus as her Savior. I used my five minutes and lied to my dad. I told him we were all in Syria because we were going to baptize my brother’s daughter.
Back in Canada, life felt so empty. The weeks that I had my son things were okay. When he was with my ex, I would go to work and go through the motions. I went through my days like life meant nothing. I missed my son a lot when he wasn’t with me. In the evenings, I went to night clubs to try to forget about how sad I felt, I would go out with different women, but it all felt meaningless.
In the spring of 2003, my sister could see how unhappy I was. One day, Mariam said to me, “If you ask God for help, and have faith in him, he will do something for you.”
When I was alone at home, and my son was with my ex, I started to cry and decided to test God in that moment. I prayed, “If you are up there, and if you are a living God like my sister says, if you find me a good woman I promise to give you my heart. But it must be a woman who loves me without any condition.” Feeling angry and like God likely wouldn’t answer me, I went to a wall and punched it, leaving a big hole in it.
Three days later, in the month of April, about ten months after my dad passed away, my good friend, Maen, reached out to me. He’s Syrian and immigrated to Canada from Kuwait. He asked me to come over and have a drink with him.
I said, “Sure.” At this point I had been divorced for nearly two years.
Going to his place, we sat and had a visit.
He said, “Jack, can I ask you a question?”
“Yes.”
“How come you’re not finding a woman? You’re a young guy, only 36 years old. You don’t want to live your life like this.”
“Well, I can’t find anybody.” Two months before, I had flown to Montreal, to meet a lady that a family member had suggested. That didn’t work out and I had kind of given up on finding anyone. I wanted someone that would be a good match for me, that would be peaceful to live with and that would love me for me, without any condition, a good woman.
“I think you should find a woman and get married.”
“Why? Do you have somebody for me?”
“Yes, I know of this girl in Toronto, who is working on her landed immigrant process. I know her sister and brother-in-law. Would you like to talk to her?”
“What is she like?”
“She’s a great person. She’s quite religious and is involved in church. She volunteers at Sunday School with the kids.”
“Sure. What does it hurt.”
He called her, but she wasn’t there, so he left her a message. Later, she called back. I listened in as Maen chatted with Sahar.
“I’m here with my friend, Jack. He’s a great guy, single, handsome, but he is divorced and has a son. Would you like to come to Calgary and meet him?”
Sahar said, “I am currently in the process of applying for permanent residency. Also, I am flying to Kuwait in four days to spend Easter with my family. I’ll be there for quite a while. I don’t have time to come to Calgary now.”
The two chatted for a long time. Maen was very insistent with her, kept asking why she wouldn’t come. He made it clear that it would be better for her to come to Calgary instead of me flying to Toronto because, if this did work out, we would live in Calgary because I have a son, with joint custody. I would not be moving to Toronto
Knowing she was religious, Maen tried another angle. “Maybe it’s God’s will for the two of you to meet and get connected. Plus, with the war in the Gulf area, you can change your ticket to Kuwait without any penalty. Just change the date of your flight, come to Calgary for a few days and you’ll be back in Toronto in time to make that flight to Kuwait.”
After Sahar considered this scenario, she decided she would make the arrangements and fly out to see me. She postponed her trip to Kuwait by a week and flew to Calgary the next day.
Maen, his wife and I went to pick Sahar up at the airport. At first sight, I didn’t like Sahar very much. She was a beautiful lady, but she wasn’t my type. My ex was blond with blue eyes. I wasn’t used to an Arabic looking woman. But I thought, she’s here in Calgary, I’ll spend time with her, get to know her.
We all went together to see family. Sahar was very shy and quiet. I wasn’t sure about her at all. We spent the next three days together, I took her to different places in Calgary, showing her the city and area. During that time, nothing was happening in my heart or in hers. We felt nothing for each other.
I took her back to the airport and shook her hand. There were no sparks between us. She didn’t reach out for a hug and so I didn’t either. I thought she was very cold and not interested in me at all. She was a very conservative, reserved woman, typical of Syrian women.
Before she went through security, I asked her, “Could you give me a call once you’ve arrived back in Toronto? I want to know that you arrived safely.”
“Yes, I’ll do that.”
A few hours later, she called, letting me know she had a good flight and that she’d arrived.
“Okay. Thank you for letting me know. Have a nice life. I wish you all the best.”
“Thank you.”
Two days later she flew to Kuwait, but she had to go through Europe – Amsterdam, Dubai and then to Kuwait.
I received a call from a strange number, it looked like a European number.
“Hi Jack, this is Sahar. I’m calling from Amsterdam. I just wanted to say thank you for taking me around Calgary. You’re a really great guy. I wanted to tell you that I’d like to stay friends with you.”
“Okay. I think you’re nice too. I like you and yes, we can stay friends.”
Sahar called me again, when she reached Dubai. “Hi Jack. I wanted to say that I miss you. You’re a very nice guy. I think I have some feelings for you.”
“Wow.” I was surprised how fast her feelings were changing for me, but I was okay with it. “That’s awesome. I think you’re a very sweet girl.”
We talked a bit more.
When she reached Kuwait, she called me again. “So now that we’re friends, we should stay in touch and keep talking.”
We decided to use video messenger, like msn messenger. Calling would have been too expensive. We talked this way for a few days.
Then Sahar said, “I think I have very strong feelings towards you.”
“I think my feelings are growing for you as well.”
We kept video chatting this way for a month and a half. After that time, realizing that we were both mature, I was 36 and she was three years younger, I decided there was nothing stopping us from moving forward.
I asked her, “Would you like to marry me?”
“Yes.”
I asked her to put her mother on the phone. I asked for her mother’s permission and blessing to marry Sahar.
She said, “Whatever God wants.” This was the typical Syrian response.
We decided that we would get married in Syria. I suggested that Sahar fly to Calgary so that we could get to know each other a bit better before the wedding. She flew to Canada on July 10, 2003 and we spent some time together. Later in July, she flew back to Syria to prepare things for the wedding.
Alex and I flew to Syria in August, just before the big day. We had a beautiful wedding on August 16, 2003. The timing of our relationship went very quickly, from April to August, only four months.
Flying home to Calgary, we arrived on September lst, and our lives together began. Sahar didn’t have a job for the first few months. I worked during the day in an HVAC shop. I would arrive home and Sahar had my clean clothes laid out on a chair for me, dinner was ready and she had a smile on her face. Sahar was so beautiful and always happy.
My new life felt like a dream. Compared to my first marriage, this was amazing to me. Sahar and I had the best time of our lives. There was never any fighting or strife between us. This was the type of marriage I had always desired and dreamed of.
Although I had promised God that, if he’d give me a good wife like this, I would give him my heart, I forgot about my vow. God has ways of reminding us of our promises. Even if I forgot, he didn’t.
Submitted by: Jack Nachef
Jack’s story is continued in the next Real Supernatural Story – #28
*****
Once we get to Heaven and God shows us a reel of our life, we will discover how many times we were rescued, protected or redirected by supernatural means. What a divine privilege it is that, during our time on earth, God gives us snapshots into the supernatural realm, unusual happenings that announce that Heaven is present and involved in our lives.
For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways.
Psalm 91:11
If you would like to share a personal story of supernatural protection or angelic activity in your history, please reach out. Private message me on Facebook messenger or email me and I will explain the details. I would love to share your testimony on my blog as an encouragement to others. As it says in Hebrews 3:13 – Encourage one another daily, as long as it is called ‘Today’.
Also, you are welcome to share this story with your friends and family, or with anyone who needs some encouragement.
