A Florida judge ruled that Rifqa Bary will remain in foster care until another hearing on Sept. 3. Authorities are still working to decide whether the case should stay in Florida or return to central Ohio.

Bary disappeared for several weeks last month and was eventually found living with Rev. Blake Lorenz, who leads Global Revolution Church, and his wife in Orlando.

Bary apparently met Lorenz through Facebook.

She claimed that she fled to Florida because she feared that her father would kill her over her religious conversion.

Asked at the hearing if she wanted to say anything, Rifqa Bary replied, "I love my family. I love them so much ... yet I'm so in fear of my life." She then expressed her devotion to Christianity.

Her father, Mohamed Bary, has said he would never harm his daughter over her religious conversion. In an interview with 10TV News, he said it appeared that someone was putting thoughts in his daughter's head.

"Not at all," he said. "It is completely false. Honestly, it is not my daughter who is speaking. I feel that she has been coached to say these things."

During the court hearing on Friday, he told the judge that his daughter would be able to practice Christianity if she came home.

"She is my daughter and I love her," Mohamed Bary said. "I love her and want her to come home."

The teen's mother, Aysha, broke down and cried as she told the judge, "I love my daughter and need my daughter back."

Before the next hearing, he said, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement will finish investigating how the teen came to Florida and whether she is in any danger.
     
The girl has since been assigned to a foster family approved by the Florida Department of Children and Families and is not with Lorenz, authorities said.

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