This testimony brought me to tears and I’d like to share this with you. Read it slowly and give it the attention that it deserves!

A testimony sent by email

Bishop Macedo,

My name is Pedro Dante. My wife, Antonia, and I are sending you this email and are eager for it to reach you. It’s the story of how I found God.

Bishop, I have a degree in medicine and was once devoid of this faith, the same faith that my wife and nonna (grandmother, we’re Italian, Bishop) embraced after coming to the UCKG. I always depended on the work of my own hands and my education… proud of my work as a doctor through which I saved lives. My wife fought for me for 12 years, for my salvation. I never allowed her to say anything to me about God or the UCKG. We always had the best financial situation, and never depended on anyone. Very wisely, my wife kept fighting for my salvation in silence, because she knew her husband: a proud man that would never allow her to speak about GOD or her faith.

Then in September of 2008 the unexpected happened. Since I’m a well known and respected doctor, I got a call from a friend asking me to go to Campo Grande in Mato Grosso do Sul (Brazil), to handle a case of Dengue Hemorrhagic Fever. In this particular case I was going to perform an autopsy; to examine a dead body and gather data to help in the development of a vaccine against the various types of Dengue Fever.

It was a girl of 26, but Bishop, when I arrived she had already suffered the trauma of a series of respiratory failure and was in an induced coma. My medical team got busy controlling the fever and the hemorrhaging. As a doctor I had never seen such a severe case of Dengue Fever, but even so, there was something different with the look on her face.

This young woman, a warrior of faith, Bishop, was of the same faith as my wife. When I arrived with my medical team, we evaluated her case and found that she was extremely sick. She should have already been dead from her many respiratory failures. That night, when she came out of her coma, my team called me.

I had not yet talked to her because of her bad state. She said to me: Doctor, I don’t know what the LORD JESUS is going to do tonight, I don’t know what He wants, but I know that His will will be done in my life. And if He wants to take me today, you won’t be able to do anything about it. You can perform CPR on me, use the defibrillator, or anything else you deem necessary, but I’ll only come back if GOD Himself chooses to bring me back because my life is in His hands!

Bishop Macedo, to me that was just absurd, because in all my pride I would never allow a girl say something like that to me. She was really patronising. In all my life, no one had ever spoken to me like that. One small detail is that she had never seen me before. I said to the team that worked with me: Who’s the professional here? Who studied and specialised in medicine for years? Here comes this girl, this child, to insult me in this manner. Who does she think she is? While I’ve been studying and saving lives, she’s been in church serving this GOD of hers!

Bishop, I left the room of this young woman named Charlene. I left there shouting, furious at everything that had just happened… she was in this extremely critical situation, believing in what she couldn’t see, and her body was just shattered. And then, one more time the unexpected happened. Late that night, Bishop, her heart stopped beating. At that moment I remembered what she had said to me a few minutes earlier. I quickly began to do CPR on her and used the defibrillator. After 40 minutes of trying to resuscitate her I was exhausted, and my team stopped assisting and was just watching me. Then my chief assistant and friend grabbed my arm and said: Peter, stop. She’s dead. It’s finished!

Bishop, I left that place humiliated and crying. I said to my team: “I’ve never lost anyone in these 35 years of medicine, and now comes this patronising girl who embarrasses me in front of everyone with this faith in her GOD,” (I kept remembering that my wife was of the same faith and church as Charlene). My medical team hung their heads during my angry outburst. But after some minutes I was able to gather myself, took a deep breath and went out to tell the family that Charlene had succumbed to her illness.

I said to the family: I did everything I could to bring her back to life, but in the end Charlene passed away. THEN A NURSE CAME RUNNING INTO THE ROOM SHOUTING: DOCTOR PEDRO, THE PATIENT ISN’T DEAD. SHE JUST WOKE UP!!!!!!! BISHOP MACEDO, AFTER EXHAUSTING ALL OF MY STRENGTH AND MEDICAL KNOWLEDGE, AND TELLING HER FAMILY THAT SHE WAS DEAD, SHE SIMPLY WOKE UP. I HAD ALREADY ANNOUNCED HER TIME OF DEATH. SHE WAS IN ANOTHER ROOM. WE WERE ALREADY GOING THROUGH THE NORMAL PROCEDURES AND I WAS WITH HER FAMILY, AND ALL OF A SUDDEN SHE WOKE UP…

MY MIND DIDN’T UNDERSTAND ANYTHING. MY YEARS OF STUDY, MY TRAINING, MY DEGREE, NONE OF IT HAD PREPARED ME FOR THIS. WHEN I ENTERED HER ROOM, SHE WAS SITTING UP, SMILING. PERPLEXED AND UNABLE TO UNDERSTAND WHAT WAS HAPPENING, I EXAMINED HER… AND COULDN’T EVEN LOOK HER IN THE EYE.

When I left her I called my wife who was in Campinas (Sao Paulo, Brazil) where we lived. She was still awake preparing things because we were about to move to Portugal. I said to her: Antonia, help me, because I don’t know what just happened. I don’t understand any of this.

I explained everything that had happened that night. Antonia said: Pedro, honey, I knew this would happen one day. I knew GOD would knock you off your feet and that you would find Him. Don’t worry everything’s going to become clear. GOD did all of this just for you.

I cried a lot that night. I wasn’t able to sleep one bit. I was just waiting for morning to come so I could go and talk to the young lady.

Early in the morning I went to see her. Bishop Macedo, she talked to me about JESUS, about His sacrifice for me. She said that her life was in the hands of GOD, and that she was never afraid because she knew who she believed in. Then she invited me to go to the cathedral on Sunday morning, before returning to Sao Paulo. She said I shouldn’t waste any more time, and that I should attend a meeting at the UCKG immediately.

Then I told her that my wife, Antonia, had been a member of this church for 12 years, and that she had always wanted to take me with her, that she had always fought for me. Charlene said: GOD heard your wife’s prayers, doctor. He saw everything she did for you. Last night MY GOD was forced to use a “dead” person to save your soul. He had already tried to use many living people, but you never paid attention to what GOD was saying through them.

I went to the cathedral in Campo Grande where the bishop was preaching that GOD works when medicine can’t work anymore; that this is the GOD of the UCKG. I thought that Charlene or someone else had told him what had happened, but it was GOD speaking to me. I participated in the meeting, a little perplexed by that. I left there with those words ringing in my ears, trying to understand everything that had happened. I spoke on the phone and exchanged emails with Charlene’s pastors and their wives who had been closely following everything (they live in Porto Alegre). They are: Pr. David Windsor, and his wife Jecy, Pr. Cristiano, and his wife Paola, as Charlene refers to them, friends that are closer than family. In one of his emails, Pr. David wrote: Dr. Pedro, from the very beginning the target was not Charlene, because she was already saved! GOD was targeting you!

Bishop, I went back to my wife, Antonia, in Sao Paulo. In fact, she told me that I wasn’t the same Pedro that she had last seen! Though we had scheduled a flight to Portugal, we went to the UCKG in Sao Paulo, where we asked the pastors if we could speak with either Bp. Romualdo, Bp. Jadson, or Pr. Edson, but the pastor said that Bp. Romualdo was travelling, and the other pastors were not available to speak. Even so, my wife and I attended the service.

Bp. Jadson called all those who wanted to surrender their lives to GOD to come forward. I went and gave up my life. Immediately a PEACE and JOY came over me. It was like several TONS were lifted off my shoulders. Now I understand all that GOD did to save my soul… the sacrifice of HIS SON, MY LORD JESUS. TODAY I CONFESS THAT HE IS MY LORD. Now I understand that what happened in Campo Grande was for me to find GOD; to have an encounter with God! Today we live in Portugal. I’m building my own hospital. My children belong to the UCKG together with my Antonia. My nonna (who has now passed on) and who fought for me, can now smell the fragrance of JESUS in me. She also belonged to the UCKG. During the recent earthquake in Italy she went to be with JESUS. But I’m at peace because she was saved, and if the same happens to me, I’m certain that I’ll be saved too.

My good, Bishop Macedo, this is how I found God. I tried to summarise and not get into too many details… but this is it. God saved me and now I recognise that only He has dominion and power over everything, and that everything is possible for those who believe, even in death!

Days after all this happened in that hospital, another patient was admitted with Denge Hemorrhagic Fever. She died. But one detail, Bishop: this patient was involved in occult practices and her face was dark and sad. She died with a look of agony, the total opposite of what I had seen several days earlier… the power of GOD.

Charlene has totally recovered without any recurrence… a person who had 13 respiratory failures, internal hemorrhaging, who had no heartbeat and did not breathe for 40 minutes, and who had both normally occurring and induced comas. After all of this, she woke up smiling… a real miracle of the power of GOD! She told me that she’s not against medicine, that medicine is from GOD, but that it has its limits, and our GOD has no limits! Every day Antonia thanks GOD for what happened because without it, the old, proud Peter would never have recognised this miracle.

I hope you get this email, Bishop. Forgive me for everything that I used to say about you and your faith. I’ve already asked Antonia to forgive me. Please Bishop, my sincere apologies and my utmost thanks for you having persevered in the face of so many difficulties (I read your book) to rescue so many souls, including my own.

One more thing, before I used to be known as “Doctor House, the unbeliever”, now I’m known as “Doctor Pedro, a man that’s been born of GOD.”

In faith,

Pedro Dante and family.