My suffering began in my mother’s womb, because of my family’s involvement with evil spirits.

My maternal grandfather left an altar to evil spirits as an inheritance for my mother. Therefore, before I was born, my mother innocently presented my life to the evil spirits, thinking that she was “protecting” me. This is how my pain began. I was always sick, so my mom went from hospital to hospital in Rio de Janeiro, where I was born in 1977.

Then, at the age of 3, I was diagnosed with intestinal cancer, which caused my mother to surrender herself even more into the hands of the evil spirits, making offerings at beaches and crossroads of Rio de Janeiro. She would often spend all of my father’s salary on rituals requested by the entities.

Meanwhile, my health went from bad to worse, and I was hospitalized at the Salgado Filho Hospital. Eventually, the doctors said to my mother: “Your better off taking your son to die at home because there is nothing else we can do”. That is when, feeling helpless and desperate, she decided to accept an invitation she received, and attended the meeting of a young pastor named Macedo, in the neighborhood of Abolição, on a Friday of deliverance. This small meeting place would later be called The Universal Church, where the lives of millions of people throughout the world would be transformed.

Feeling embarrassed for serving the evil spirits, my mother sat in the last pew, and when she came to, she was at the altar with Pastor Macedo. After rebuking the evil spirits, he said to her: “You can go now because your son is healed, in Jesus’ name!” The next day, to the doctor’s surprise, I was discharged because I was healed.

And my mother offered my life on the Altar of God.

As time went by, I grew up in Church listening to my mother explain what God had done for me, which made me have a burning desire to help others like I had been helped.

This is when, already an assistant in 1996, I would go to the Church in Botafogo, where the pastors’ meetings took place and while they were in the meeting, I circled the Church and put my hands on the door, and said: “One day, I’m going to save souls on the Altar, just like God saved me”.

Then in August 1997, God called me and my dream to live on Altar came true!

The same happened with my wife, who was born very sick.

After she was born, when the nurses handed her to her mother, they immediately took her to get tested because they noticed her greenish skin tone and diagnosed her with Leukemia. From that day forth, my mother-in-law traveled from hospital to hospital taking her to get blood transfusions.

The doctors prepared her for the worst, because they could not find a cure. They explained that my wife’s small body would not stand the treatment for a long time.

They said that she would not make it past the age of 7. My mother-in-law was desperate, and one day, while she was crying at the gate to her home, a woman walked up to her and asked if she could help. When she explained the problem, the lady invited her to go to Church because she had been cured of breast cancer. Without any other sign of hope, she decided to go and seek in favor of my wife’s healing. She was about three years old at the time.

Persevering in the chains of prayer and purposes of faith, her healing was confirmed by the doctors. My mother-in-law told them that her hope was in Jesus and that her daughter’s life was in the hands of God, and that He healed her.

Today I’m 36 years old. I am as old as the Church, which celebrated its 36th anniversary last week. I have served God on the altar for 16 years and I can say that if it weren’t for the Living Jesus of the Universal Church, we would be dead and lifeless.

This is why my wife and I are grateful for the existence of the Universal Church and we say: Thank you, Lord Jesus, for the Universal Church!

Luis Valle and Amanda Valle – The Universal Church in South Africa