I returned - part 1

My sister's testimony:

"I can affirm that my testimony is very strong.

When I came to the Universal Church my mother had invited me and I was very young, very rebellious, I was full of fears, I couldn’t sleep alone, I felt a huge void in me. I even went to the point of finding refuge in addictions, I had lots of friends, went to a bunch of parties, but there wasn’t a way to fill that void.

I was always a good student in school, I studied in the best private school in Porto, until I was 15 years old when I begged my dad to let me go to a public school because in the private one they controlled me too much. My dad agreed, but it was that year that I reached rock bottom, I involved myself with awful friends and even failed classes because I skipped them.

Ever since then my parents, especially my dad had a great difficulty dealing with me, because I had become a rebellious youth and totally revolted, nobody could control me, my interior was a disaster. My mother was anguished and desperate seeking all kinds of places and spending all kinds of money, but even like that nothing worked, on the contrary I was more revolted. There were times in my life all I wanted was to die and I would tell my mom that one day I would just commit suicide, all I wanted was to vanish from everyone and everywhere.

Until one day I went with my mother to the Universal Church, I’ll never forget that Thursday, I remember because it touched me inside, I felt like I had finally found my way. After that day all I wanted was to participate in the meetings, I began to go on Sundays to seek the presence of God and little by little I began to be liberated, finally my fears and traumas were gone, I began to give my first steps in the faith and to open my heart.

Some time after, a desire to serve God was born inside of me, to give to others what I had received. I continued with my encounter with God, to have my experiences, until I was asked to serve God in the church, it was a very special day for me in my life, something new began too flow inside of me.

My parents began to see a complete transformation in my life. Everything began to change.

The time passed and I wasn’t in any rush to have a boyfriend, but I always prayed for God to place the right man in my life, whose purpose also be to serve God, and for that person to complete me. I think that it was due to my lack of anxiousness that it wasn’t long before the right person came along. I didn’t date him right away, first I did a purpose with God, because I was conscious that this would be for my entire life and I couldn’t go wrong. God confirmed my vow and with the local pastors’ blessing we began to date, he had been a helper too but longer than I had been. After a year we got married and everything was going fine, we continued to serve God, but my husband had the desire to serve God on the altar and he said that the day he conquered everything he wanted he would leave it all to serve God on the altar and this did happen.

We had a good house in a nice place, a nice car, a jet-ski, we always travelled and stayed in nice hotels, ate at nice restaurants, finally, the Lord had fulfilled His promise because he never fails, but my husband hadn’t kept his end of the promise. He had obtained everything but he hadn’t left it all to fulfill his promise with the calling that was inside of him. His vision was no longer the same; he barely had time to serve as a helper, until he decided to stop being a helper momentarily, because he wasn’t being an approved helper.

I confess I went through terrible moments because I continued to be a helper alone, until I allowed the sadness to overcome me, because I felt as though my castle was tumbling. I went to church alone, to the vigils alone, in the end it wasn’t what I had dreamed and hoped for. Until one day, it seems like from night to day we lost everything we had fought so hard to conquer."

Catia Rubim

To be continued next thursday...