At 14 I was already a sad example of a teen, with an uncontrollable narcotics habit. Marijuana, cocaine, glue, alcohol — even a dangerous mixture of cocaine and crack — were my usual “menu”. A time bomb that gradually exploded.
I sang in a rap group. The lyrics in the shows I performed spoke of respect, a sense of right and wrong, and humility, but I didn’t live that out. I increasingly spiraled downward and lost myself, all the while dishing out good advice to others.
I had been with several girls, but it had never gotten serious with any of them and that just made me emptier.
Things got really bad after an accident. I was hit by a speeding car. If I had died then and there, my soul would have been lost because I was stoned on marijuana and alcohol. With my leg in a cast I fell into depression. I started to think about my life and knew I needed to change… but didn’t have the strength.
One day I was watching a TV program of the Church and noticed something different. All of a sudden I realized I wasn’t happy and that my life was an illusion. The seven years of drug use had been a waste. I sang and did shows, but it was an illusion. I dated girls, but nothing ever came of it. My life was one big lie. Other people looked at me and thought I had everything, but inside there was only anxiety, depression, and one huge void.
So I came to the Universal Church and started out on a different path.
The assistants and pastors helped me a lot. I joined the youth group and found people who believed in me and had the power to help me. I was baptized in the Holy Spirit — my life made a one-eighty. I was freed from drugs, and my emptiness was filled with God’s presence. Depression turned into joy and the will to live.
After some time I was raised as an assistant and met the woman who is my wife today. Then a desire to serve God on the altar arose in me. When I saw other young people going through what I had gone through — needing direction, someone to guide them — I realized that this is what I wanted to do. I admired pastors and bishops giving words of faith to people, and the example of men of God on the altar, and received the call to be like them.
Today I am happily married and transformed. I feel honored to be a pastor of the Church, and to be the region coordinator for the youth group in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. My Wife and I are dedicated to it — to seeing destroyed young people being blessed, born of God, and going through the restoration of their lives and families. This is our salary, our pleasure, our joy.

Pastor Augusto