Thank you! Thank you so much!

My life changed because the doors of the Universal Church were open. I’ll summarize my story:

I grew up in poverty, everything was scarce, we couldn’t do anything and we were encouraged by my mother to conform with such misery, because we were poor and black. She taught us how to wash clothes and iron, because that was the only thing we could possibly do when we grew up – be maids, not that it’s not a worthy job, because it is. However, everyone dreams of having a good life, going to school, graduating. Nobody wants to clean floors. She always dreamed of getting out of that lifestyle, changing her situation, but she did not mean it in a harmful way. Today, I know that she intended on preparing us to suffer less, so that we wouldn’t be frustrated, in case that we would only have enough to pay rent and buy food.

I have three other siblings. She thought she was protecting us by doing this, but, on the contrary, we grew up thinking that we were incapable of doing anything and that nobody liked us. I personally felt like I was inferior to everyone else. It was like that for a while, however, I grew up and stopped accepting that situation. I would look at people with light skin and think: “It’s because she looks like that? I can have what she has. It’s because of my skin color? I don’t accept it. I’m smart. I can do it!”

I started working for a family when I was 10 years old, but I did not accept it. I went to school, but didn’t get very far, because I needed to work. I stopped before completing the 2nd grade. Even without GOD, my life improved somewhat. I started working at a supermarket at the age of 16. I stood out; I was envied and someone did witchcraft on me. I was under that spell for almost 5 months. I lost weight; I was weighing about 80 pounds. I began losing my mind, I was really going crazy. I was summoned to be hospitalized in a mental institution, but I ran away before they admitted me. I was very ill. Just because I began standing out at my job, one of the girls wanted to kill me.

When my mother started thinking of taking me to the witchcraft center, the Lord Jesus said, “No, this one is mine”. So, she took me to the Church. The Church was already closed, the services were done for the day, but my mother knocked and, thank God, the pastor came to the door. He prayed, counseled us, and I left there talking and walking, because I couldn’t even do that anymore.

Slowly, I began eating again. I became well again, but there was something evil inside me that would not let me get close to GOD. So, I did not convert. I attended Church for some time… I liked going to Church, but I was still undecided. Until I started drinking on Wednesday and only stopped on Sunday (that’s when I returned to the world, despite having been saved from that hellhole I was living in. I returned to the pit).

When I laid down in bed that Sunday, I started hearing voices and the room was spinning around me. That’s when I sincerely said that I did not want that life for myself any longer. I decided to go back to Church. It was hard, because I now understood how necessary it was to surrender my life to God, but there were many evil things: many evil thoughts, many burdens…

Okay, so I stopped drinking, going out at night, hanging out with the wrong crowd, however, I refused to let go of the anger, the hatred I had for my father, because I was abused for I don’t know how many years. I was 12 years old when I finally smacked him in the face and told him that he was never going to touch me again. I was disgusted by all that.

It was horrible to think that I had to forgive the person who made me feel so bad. Sometimes, at night, I would wake up feeling like I was having intercourse with someone, I felt all the symptoms, because he introduced me to all of those things that I did not know were wrong, and betrayed my mother. “No, God. I don’t want this!”, I thought.

So, I attended Church for a little while longer, wanting and wishing, but without knowing GOD. That’s when I had a conversation with the pastor, because I also felt rejected by God. I told him that every time I prayed, all those things my father did to me would come to mind. Then, he told me that I would always remember what happened, because our brain is like a file, and it would be stored in my archives.

He started talking about forgiveness and that I had to ask my father for forgiveness. “That’s nonsense! This pastor is not right in the head! I didn’t do anything, he’s the one that did something wrong. This is nonsense!” I left pretending that I agreed with what he said, but I was reluctant. On Sunday morning, I asked God, once again, for His SPIRIT, because I wanted Him and HE promised not to cast out those who come to Him. Why didn’t He answer me, if I wanted to be HIS? Why? And then a voice inside my head, a good voice, said: “How can I forgive you if you don’t want to forgive?”

I cried a lot. I went home and asked my father to speak to him in private. I said: “Dad, I decided to give my life to God. I want to do the right thing. I was taught that we should forgive and ask for forgiveness, in order to be forgiven. This isn’t easy for me to do, but please forgive me!” He began crying and asked why was I doing this. I explained that it was necessary and walked away without quite understanding what I had just done. But on Wednesday, as I was seeking the Holy Spirit, I had my encounter with God and that is when I realized what I had done. From then on, those thoughts no longer plagued me.

Well, I said I was going to summarize, but it is hard to speak about what God has done in my life without giving certain details, but I’m not even halfway. Today, thanks to God, through the Lord Jesus, I am converted, serve my FATHER as an assistant and married a man of God who respects me. I love and am loved. I have two beautiful children, who are already separated for God.

I keep fighting because the battles never cease, but God gives us the victory in each of them. Amen! I’m going to challenge GOD FOR THE ANSWER through faith and revolt, because it has to happen, and the aim is to thank God for these open doors all around the world, as well as the door that was not open that day when the services had finished for the day but a man of God answered the door and delivered me in the name of JESUS.

This is why I am here today. However, it took some time, I lost a lot of time by not wanting to hear the voice of God, but everything changed when I did. THANK GOD! Thank you, My Beloved Father! Thank you, Bishop Macedo!

Marcielia Gonçalves