Good afternoon, Bishop!

My name is Marcos Silva, I am 30 years old and I have been a member of the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God for 24 years. I have been a pastor for 10 years. I am married and have a million reasons to thank the Lord Jesus and you as well.

What prompted me to write this letter was the deep sense of gratitude that came over me yesterday, as I finished reading your book “Nothing to Lose”. Bishop, what God has done in my life is glorious, and I am sure that He used the Universal Church to accomplish this great wonder in my life and in my family’s life.

I was born in Belém do Pará – Brazil, into a very simple family. My grandparents (from my mother side) raised me as their own child, along with my nine uncles and aunts. Bishop, my parents were troubled. My mother was an alcoholic. She drank to the point where she’d create a scandal, she would sleep drunk in the street and had several lovers. She and my father fought a lot. My father also had several mistresses and did not care about me. Eventually, they separated.

Yet there was also great suffering at my grandparents’ house. We were very poor. My grandfather, an uncle and two aunts had leprosy, another uncle was a drug addict and, whenever he used drugs, he would break everything in the house and want to kill us. Another aunt had a risky pregnancy and began going out of her mind. My youngest uncle lived a life of crime. When she was pregnant with me, my mother sought out the evil spirits and they told her that I could not be born. Consequently, I suffered from various illnesses.

Bishop, it is very difficult to talk about all of the suffering that my family and I endured. When I was only 6 years old, in 1988, I came to the Universal Church with my grandmother, and since then I have never left. Even as a child, I began learning what it meant to live by faith, and I grew up with my life based on these teachings.

God made a turnaround in my life. Slowly and with a lot of struggles, one by one in my family started to seek this God that my grandmother and I had come to know. The result: everything changed radically. My grandfather, my uncle and my two aunts were cured of leprosy.  One of my aunts is now an assistant and the other is an evangelist. My uncle is a pastor in a UCKG in São Paulo. My other uncle was delivered from drugs and is currently a member of the Church. My aunt, who was going crazy, is now healed and along with her husband and two daughters are all assistants in the Church. My uncle, who was a young delinquent, is now a pastor of the UCKG and is in charge of the State of Paraíba – Brazil.

My parents, who were separated and were totally destroyed are now together and are also assistants in the Church. Most of my family is in the presence of the Lord Jesus.

Therefore, Bishop, I am grateful to our God everyday for what He has done for me, and I would also like to thank you for having listened to the Voice of the Holy Spirit and have opened the door where I, my family and thousands of people found salvation, this door is called the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God.

Thank you!!

Marcos Sérgio Silva Melo – Campos dos Goytacazes (Rio de Janeiro – Brazil)