I had my annual retreat last weekend, our church finally had a retreat after a few years of not having any.
I was ask by Pastor's wife, to give my testimony, so I did.
I saw how some people were touch by my testimony. They came later to asked me for more details.
So...I got the idea of posting parts of my testimony for everybody to read it and see how God had worked in my life without me knowing it. And for some others to understand why I am the way I am.
Part 1
I grew up Catholic, I went to a Catholic school, I participated in every event my church had.
I was one of those people who made the sign of the Cross every time they passed by a Catholic church. I use to kissed the Saint's feet or touched them and then the sign of the cross again.
Now looking back to all those rituals I did...I ask my self...What was the meaning of all of that? and Why we were so focus on the Saints and Mary? instead of learning, Why Jesus die on the cross?
The only thing I can say it made sense was, that my church and my mom took the time to put the fear of God in me. They always said to how God will punished me if I did something bad (in a way that was good) I always thought of that "punishment" before I was about to do something stupid, that thought of God punishing me was enough to stopped me for making irresponsible decisions and that is why I didn't get into much trouble trough out my life.
When I was a teen, my country got into a civil war that started in 1977 and has never end.
Those were very dark days, people were dieing here and there. Life didn't mean anything to a lot of people, those days "life" didn't have any value.
I just started my high school when these events were taking place.
As a teen I was trying to live a normal life, but it was hard to live a normal life when you wake up every morning wondering if that day will be your last day on this earth!!
Everybody had that fear those days, it was nothing you couldn't done. If you didn't have enough money, you couldn't leave the country.
In those days I just started high school, my school was 1.5 hours or so away from home...to get to school I needed to take 2 different buses...one from my house to downtown and a second one from downtown to my school.
It was kind of adventure to travel in that kind of conditions. But I needed to go to school.
I started school at 8 am, lunch at 12 and off at 7 pm. high school in a Catholic school was different than the rest of the schools in the country...High school in El Salvador is different than the high schools in the US. In El Salvador you get your Bachelor's at the same time as you take the regular classes for high school. The teachers for my vocational classes were business men, they were professional men that work all day and after 5pm they came to school to teach their classes.
We always said the Rosary before we were dismissed. I knew that some of the nuns were worry about us traveling at night.
This particular night I left the school, took the buss to downtown, got off and started walking 1/2 of a mile or so, to the next buss stop. I always walked in a hurry, because I was always afraid to walk on those ugly streets.
At one point I saw 2 boys seating on a step door, they were dirty and I could see the evilness in their faces, (some of these boys have to still and hurt people to survive). We looked at each other and I instantly knew that I was in trouble...They let me passed, stud up and they started to follow me, I saw the entrance to an ally, I started to pray to the virgin Mary (that's all I knew at that point) and at the same time I knew that if they push me into the ally, I'll be robe and rape or worse kill.
At the same time I was praying and having all those though running trough my mind...I felt this WARM embrace covering my whole body...I immediately had this warm feeling of peace (I didn't stop walking fast) ....something told me "everything will be OK".
The boys were still behind me, they were whispering to each other, but I couldn't make up what they were saying...Finally I saw the buss stop and many people waiting for the buss, I walked faster and went to the first girl I saw, and I told her that those two boys were following me, she told me to stay with her to keep each other company. The buss came and everybody gather around the buss door and all of a sudden this woman screamed saying "those two boys just yanked my watch" and of curse the boys ran and nobody would dare run after them...that could be somebody's death sentence, because these boys never work alone.
Now looking back to that particular night...I cry every time I think that my Lord Jesus Christ was the One with me that night, the one who protected me...His mercy is so immense that even duh I was praying to the virgin Mary, He took petty on me and saved me from those two boys.
Now that I have a relationship with the Lord, I can see how much He loves us, He knows that we are sinners full of pride, but if we ask Him to come into our lives, He won't think it twice! He will rejoice as we come to Him.
I give all the glory to the Lord Jesus Christ, because He didn't save me once, but many, many times...at that time I didn't even know that He was walking with me, waiting for me to start walking with Him.
Because of the testimonies I have, nobody can take Jesus away from me, He was, He is and He will be with me for ever and ever...Amen
No comments:
Post a Comment