|
By Edson Dias da Silva, BRAZIL
I was born into a Catholic family in a beautiful city in Brazil. I had two brothers and a sister. When I was seven years old my parents decided to live in a small town far from the city to be near our grandparents. We lived there for five years. During that time my parents became involved with spiritism and fortune telling. They were trying to find the right way to God. My father and my mother drank a lot and they fought a lot. Many times we children saw them so angry at each other that they almost killed each other.
My siblings and I attended the Catholic church. I spent much time learning about God because I wanted to be a priest. I believe the hand of God was on me during that time. I remember being very sick one day. I asked God to heal me and He answered my prayer.
When my parents went to the spiritist, I saw manifestations that frightened me. I recall spending a whole day playing outside with friends. I was afraid to go home. Outside the house I could hear my parents fighting. They were very drunk. I knelt down and prayed before I went in. I said, “God, if you exist, stop this fighting and give peace between my parents.” Just then the fighting stopped. It was about 10 PM, but my parents did not correct me. They just said, “Hi, son. It is very late. Please go have a shower and go to bed.” I was surprised. I was ten years old at the time.
We had a neighbor who read palms. My father used to go to him to have his palms read, and one day he took me there. The man tried to read my palm, but he couldn’t read my life because only God knows everything.
When I was 14 my family moved back to the city. I had a part-time job with a company that worked with children and youth. They trained teenagers to be good workers in the future. To work for this company you had to be in school and participate in sports. This company chose national football.
I played football for my company and got many goals. My picture was always in the paper. A second divisional club read about me in the newspaper and asked me to come to play on that team. At that time I needed that part-time job to have two hours of sports a day and school. Therefore, I studied at night. I did this from age 14 to 17 years.
Brazil has three divisions; third division is lowest and first division is highest. I jumped to the first division and I trained with the professional division for six months. When I was 17 they came to me and asked me to sign a contract. I could have a big salary. I could become famous and rich.
During this time I started to be involved with typical teenager activities. My friends and I were always out looking for fun. I’m grateful that I never got involved in drugs, probably because I loved football. At that time my barber was preaching the gospel to me. I didn’t like that, but he gave the best hair cuts. I had to pass his shop to go to my house from the bus station. I could not find a way of escape from him.
One day I felt lonely and upset about my life. I went looking for the barber to talk to him. I went to his house but he was not at home. However, I learned that he was at a house church so I went there to find him.
There were six or seven people in attendance. An old lady was preaching the gospel. I listened to the preaching and saw a manifestation of God’s power. A girl in her twenties was acting very strange. She moved around the house speaking in an unnatural voice. Everyone there understood that she had a bad spirit. I didn’t understand because I had never seen anything like that before. Two strong men tried to stop her but she threw them out. I was afraid so I stayed back close to the wall.
The old lady said, “Stop! Get down on your knees. We have one Lord in this place and His name is Jesus. Leave this body now in Jesus Name.” And the spirit left. The girl said, “Can you tell me what’s happening to me? Where am I? What’s going on?”
The old lady said, “You’ve had a very bad experience with evil spirits. Now you should confess Jesus as your Lord. Give your life to Him now. Those spirits want to kill you.”
The girl said, “Of course I want to see Jesus.”
When they started to pray for her she began to have bad manifestations again. Once again the old lady commanded the spirits to leave. The girl fell down but after some time she was better. The people explained the gospel to her and she invited Jesus into her heart. I saw her face change. She had been sad but now she was happy.
The old lady continued preaching. When she finished she asked if there was anyone else who wanted to trust in Jesus. I responded and invited Jesus to come into my heart. That day I accepted Him to be my Lord and Savior. The preacher woman prayed over me, “Jesus, I want to give this young boy into Your hands to change his life. I know he is thirsty. Please give him eternal water. Save his life for your kingdom.”
The preacher did not know about my life so I was surprised that she said those things. At that time I was trying to be a great football player. I wanted to be rich, yet something was wrong with my life. I needed Jesus.
I became a strong believer and got involved in a small church in my neighborhood. I was also baptized there.
The barber who witnessed to me began to teach me the ways of God. He gave me a Bible and every day for two hours he taught me. We studied together for three months. The neighborhood church I attended is still my church today.
Shortly after, my club asked me to sign on with the Cruzeiro Football Club, a Division One club. It was amazing! Finally I had a chance to be famous and rich. However, the night I went to celebrate that promotion the director of the club asked me to lie about my age. I was very disappointed. I said, “I can’t lie; I am a Christian now.” The director told me to decide which was more important to me, to be rich or religious. I decided to give up my professional football life.
I got involved with the church and grew stronger day by day in the Lord. I was involved with discipleship, worship and evangelism. I felt God calling me to be a pastor. During that time I became friends with a beautiful girl, Ivana, and fell in love with her. Together we prayed to see if God was calling both of us to the same ministry. God called us by dreams to work overseas. We each had a dream about the same country. We began to ask God for direction and for His plan for us together.
We decided to get married the following year. We shared with our pastor God’s call on our lives. He said we needed much more preparation. He advised us to wait one year after marriage and then apply to a Bible College. When we finished our studies, the Christian work in the country we dreamed of had closed. We decided to go to an English-speaking country to learn to speak English. From there we visited the country of our dreams twice. Then we decided to go to England to finish our course. However, immigration sent us back to Brazil.
After 11 years of marriage we were blessed with the arrival of a baby. Our daughter was born just before Christmas 2009. When she is six months old, we will head out as a family to serve our Lord in the land of His calling.
I am so grateful to God that I made the decision to follow Him instead of fame and riches.
Top of page >
|
