Shanti was raised in a Christian home in Bangladesh. When she was still quite young her father died. Her mother struggled to feed her family. When Shanti was 13 years old, her mother gave her to a Hindu man in marriage.

According to custom, when Shanti went to live in her husband’s family, she was expected to take his religion. But Shanti refused.

Image © Stan Myers from GoodSalt.com

Her husband’s family treated her badly, and everyone worked to separate Shanti from her Christian faith. But Shanti clung to her God.

Shanti was expected to serve her mother-in-law, who treated her as a slave, shouting at her and denouncing her. Because Shanti refused to give up her faith in God, she was considered unclean and not allowed to work with food or utensils in the kitchen. But her mother-in-law made sure there was plenty of other work for the girl to do.

Shanti’s husband, Bhudroy, was much older than Shanti and treated her kindly, but he was powerless to help his young bride, for he didn’t dare defy his mother’s orders.

There was no escape for the young bride, for the couple was expected to remain with the family until after the first child was born. Three years after they married, their first daughter, Reena, was born.

Shanti tried to share her faith with her husband whenever she could, and over time he began to believe that Shanti was following the right religion. An Adventist pastor lived in the same village as Shanti. He visited the family and explained the church’s beliefs, hoping to make Shanti’s life a bit easier. Shanti’s mother-in-law refused to listen to the pastor, but her father-in-law listened. The pastor returned to visit the family often, sharing his faith and Bible promises with the family members who were open to hear them.

As he worked in the village, the pastor found a number of people who were interested in learning about the Bible. The pastor arranged to hold evangelistic meetings. Without Shanti’s knowledge, her husband asked the pastor to study the Bible with him. Then he was secretly baptized. Shanti didn’t know about her husband’s interest until after he was baptized, but she was thrilled.

Shanti’s mother-in-law, however, was very unhappy to learn that her son had abandoned his gods to worship his wife’s God. She growled under her breath when she saw Shanti and Bhudroy going to church together. She often tried to prevent them from attending church. She would hide some household valuable and demand that the couple find it before they went to church. These searches often made the couple late.

To be continued

Produced by the General Conference Office of Adventist Mission.
Find more mission stories at www.adventistmission.org

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