I just love sharing my testimony with others and I hope you feel the same way. May I encourage you to write out your story and keep it in your purse or wallet so that at any time, you can pull it out and share it with someone, that God may be glorified!
So here is a fairly lengthy version of my story from the very beginning.
The Beginning
I was born in Toronto and am one of four children. I have three brothers, two older and one younger. I was raised in a non-practicing Catholic home. You know the kind that only goes to church for special occasions. Both my parents were born in Italy, so we were raised in a very strong Italian culture. I went to Catholic school from JK right up to grade 13. As a young child I loved to pray and I remember really believing in God and wanting to go to church. My mom worked for a sweet Christian lady who gave us a cute picture Bible for children and I read that little book all the time as a little girl. I still own it today.
By the time I started high school that child-like faith began to fade. In my teen years a friend of mine from school encouraged me to start going to church again and I did. That lasted about 2 or 3 years and I really enjoyed going back to Church. In my late teens and early twenties, I went through a phase of questioning God and His existence. I started thinking about all the other religions out there and had even more questions. I eventually renounced my Catholic faith, stopped going to Church and was open to pretty much anything. I was definitely more into the new age philosophies and beliefs. Slowly my morals and standards I had upheld for my life began to crumble. "Who's to say what's right and wrong....as long it works for you and you're happy, then it's okay....as long as you're not hurting anyone." That's what I believed and that's how I lived. I enjoyed this new way of living. It made sense to me and was so much better than following a bunch of ridiculous religious rules that I found impossible to keep.
The Change
I never ended up going to College or University. Instead I got a job working for a lawyer and I later became a legal secretary. I had taken on a second job working at a sports bar to help pay off my credit card bills. I guess you could say I was a somewhat typical young adult. Throughout the years my family went through a fair amount of struggles. My parents had a rough marriage and always struggled financially. One of my brothers became heavily addicted to drugs and ended up having to go away to the States for rehab. My other brother ended up in jail twice and you can only imagine how all this and more affected my family. It was during this very hard time that my mom finally started going to Church again and she really leaned on her faith to help her get through this dark valley. I can honestly say that my mom remained strong during this time and it was truly evident that her faith had made her strong. I was happy that she had found a way to cope with the suffering she had gone through but of course that was still not for me!
When I was 23 years old my family decided to take a trip to Venezuela. A whole bunch of us went, including aunts, uncles and cousins and we had a great time. We met this poor fisherman who talked so much about God in a way I had never heard before. He had such strong convictions and a strong faith and was so full of joy for someone who had nothing. I think God used him to plant a tiny seed in my heart to prepare me for something more. Well a few months had passed and my mom had started attending a Catholic prayer group with my uncle. She pleaded with me to come over and over again almost to the point of nagging. Her persistence paid off because I finally gave in but only to get her off my back. In my mind, I would have to sacrifice this one night, tell her how much I hated it and then I would never have to hear about it again. That was my mindset going in.
But God had other plans. I was shocked to see this tiny home packed with so many people. The evening began with singing some hymns and then praying the rosary (something I had never done before). The whole time I was on my knees (almost two hours). As we sung and prayed, I could not stop crying. I don't even know what I was crying about. But I was broken and humbled and felt a guilt and conviction that I had never felt before. It was like I was kneeling in the very presence of God. For the first time in my life I became aware of God's power, presence and existence in a way I never had before! And when it was over I felt like a weight had been lifted off my shoulders. I can't even explain to you in words what I experienced that night. When we left, I got in the car and lit my cigarette (yes hard to believe but I was a smoker - almost a pack a day). I felt heavily convicted about smoking and the first drag of that cigarette kinda felt weird so I immediately tossed it out the window and never looked back. I had tried many, many, many times to quit smoking but had never succeeded and in one night, without even any effort on my part, God took my desire for smoking away! A miracle indeed! The other instant miracle was God taming my tongue to never utter another swear word again! Needless to the say the transformation continued on and it wasn't about me following a bunch of religious rules. It was about me having an encounter with the God of the universe and being forever changed by it. I loved my new life and my new relationship with Him.
So this little prayer group in Scarborough met 7 nights a week. They never took a break. I quickly jumped in on that band wagon and I too never missed a night. Of course that came with a cost. I know that did not go well for some friends and family and in hindsight I wish I had not neglected them in that way. As the days and weeks passed I just grew more in love with my Saviour and wished I could just pray and worship all day long. As much as I loved my new found faith and life with God, I still had a strong longing to be married and start a family. I was not dating anyone at the time and I remember thinking to myself how hard it was going to be for me to find someone to date now. How on earth would I be able to find a man who loved the Lord as much as I did and wanted to live a life pursuing Him? I was almost 24 and as they say my clock was ticking. But God of course had other plans. Guess who also attended that very same prayer group.....you guessed it, my wonderful husband, Angelo. Mind you, I was almost 24 and he was only 18. Over the next few months, Angelo and I became really good friends. I was amazed to see how mature this 18 year old was. I had dated men much older than him that showed far less maturity. Well exactly 3 years after we met, we were married and as scripture says, "a threefold cord is not quickly broken". God has been entwined in our marriage from day one and after 15 years the cord remains as strong as ever. If there are any single ladies reading this, may I encourage you to wait on God to provide a man who truly loves the Lord. I heard an amazing quote once. "A woman's heart should be so hidden in God that a man has to seek Him first to find her."
Well, this is not how the story ends. Obviously since I titled this blog part 1, there most definitely must be a part 2. Stay tuned.
