As Told by Federico and Typed as Told
(Translated from the Spanish)
May 4, 2012 Santa Cruz, Bolivia
I was born the 28 of March, 1953 in Santiago, Chile. My father was a carpenter and my mother was a housewife. I have one brother and one sister. They took care of me in a family with moral principles related to politics. All of my extended family belonged the communist party. Therefore, I only went to the church three times in my life -- when they baptized me as a baby (which was a social act), when I made my first communion (which was obligated by the school as I was the godfather of a child), and finally, the day of my marriage. After the overthrow of Allende, my family when to Bolivia and later I went there as well.
A lady from Brazil that had practiced macumba was changed by Jesus Christ and she became a missionary in Bolivia. She had a prophecy for me. She said that when the pastor of the church was preaching, she had a vision that his face was changed into my face. She said that I was preaching with a white tunic and a stole. I said that this was crazy and my wife said the same thing. We did not believe in God.
When I completed 23 years, I was in a party playing the guitar when a man entered and he preached the gospel. After he had explained the condition of all of us that were there, I felt that the Lord had touched my heart. I listened attentively to the message, and when he finished speaking, I felt that I lacked something more. Everyone had left except me. This man asked me if I wished to received Jesus. And I said yes. Then I knelt and received Christ in my heart. This night was very important for my life, because when I arrived at my house, I found that my wife was very sick with a migraine. I had too much shame to confess to my wife that I had received Jesus. Therefore, I maintained silence. But I lay down with her and put my hands on hear head, in silence, without words escaping from my mouth. I said to the Lord, “If it is true, everything that you have said to me today, I ask you to heal her." Immediately, my wife said, “How strange, my migraine has suddenly left and I do not know why.” I knew in my heart the reason for this but I said nothing. That was my first night.
Two weeks later, when my wife saw that there were changes in my life, she asked me what had happened. I answered that I had received Jesus. She was very angry and said that I was very intelligent and how could I do this. (It was assumed that only the dumb receive Christ.) After that, we were in problems for five years because she did not want to accept my conversion. But after five years, she was touched by Jesus. From that moment she began to attend the church and to be involved in the ministries of the church. She has become very involved in the ministry of the women, the Sunday school, and the new work at kilometer 18 near the airport.
From the time of my conversion I began to attend a church, though it was not the Anglican church. The pastor where I attended had problems and had to return to his country. Before he left, he searched for a church for us. He brought us to the Anglican Church although he was a Pentecostal pastor. When I entered in the Anglican church, this coincided with the birth of my third child. I was without work and had only 12 dollars in my pocket. I was in the hospital visiting my wife and new baby. There was a woman in the bed next to my wife’s bed that did not have clothes for her recently born child. She covered her new child with part of the bed sheet. She had no family to help her. I went out into the street and bought clothes for my baby and for the baby of this woman. After being with my wife for the entire day in the hospital, in the night I went to my house. My two children that were in the house had the custom of when they were afraid they would come to my room and turn on the light and jump in the bed with me. That night I was sleeping when the light was turned on in my bedroom. I thought it was my children who were afraid and wished to jump in bed with me. But when I did not hear any noise, I sat up in the bed and looked around. My children were not there. It was a very great light that illumined my room, and in the midst of the light, I heard a voice that said, “For what you have done to one of my little ones, you have done it for me.” The light disappeared and I remained very moved that the Lord had spoken to me. From that moment on, I had no more doubts of the palpable presence of the Lord, and until this very day, I have remained working for the love of the Lord.
It is not important what happened with me, but what God wishes me to do. We are working in two projects at this moment, and if the Lord considers it his will, we will continue preaching and planting churches.
