[Part 1]
Hello, Heartdwellers Family. May the peace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. I was inspired by the testimony of fellow Heartdwellers and decided to share mine as well.
I was born in Luanda, the capital of Angola. I am the first of seven children. My parents were humble people who always took care of their children, trying to give the best possible education. When I was a year old, my grandmother told me that one day while she was walking with me, she heard a voice saying, “This boy is going to die.” At that time, we were still connected to traditions of men. She took me to a lady who had a small chapel and, in that chapel, [was] an image of Our Lady. So, in that place, she gave me out to our Lady’s protection. I think that ever since that moment the Blessed Mother has taken care of me.
I was always a very curious child, and because of that the enemy tried, and almost managed to pervert me through pornography. When I was little, about 10 or 11 years old, a family member invited me to watch a pornographic movie. I remember I was sneaking, and he saw me. Maybe he thought it was good for me. He used to leave adult magazines on his drawer and because we slept in the same room I was driven by curiosity. I would go there and look at the magazines.
During that period I thought everything was fine, it was normal to watch and see those things. But I didn’t know it was opening a big hole in my soul and it would have serious consequences later on. I started to have many impure thoughts to satisfy the desires of my flesh. I was a slave to impurity… It wasn’t until I started high school that I started gaining control over my emotions, or these feelings.
I grew up in a Catholic environment, but I wasn’t exactly a Catholic. I didn’t pray the Rosary, I didn’t believe in Our Lady, and I criticized people who did. I used to say that I was a Protestant in the church. But I remember that I liked the images of the Saints. I had a certain admiration for them. Now, I remember that I knew how to pray the Hail Mary, even though I didn’t pray the Rosary… Jesus, forgive my ignorance…[continuing]…I have never joined any youth ministry group in my church. I tried several times to finish the catechesis, but I couldn’t, there was always some distraction—it was school or friends—we used to play soccer. It was mostly on Saturdays.
In 1995, as I remember, the persecutions started. It was the moment, that year, I started reading the Bible. I read the Old Testament a lot, I liked the stories. But there were some books, like Ezekiel and Jeremiah that I did not read. They were so enigmatic for me.
During that year, my family was strongly persecuted by a family friend who joined forces with some relatives and had cast curses against us. At that time I had many nightmares about unknown animals attacking me and sometimes I heard people’s voices in my room, but I couldn’t see their faces. I got sick many times during that year. I had a lot of cramps and dysentery; the reason was unknown to us. When my father also got seriously sick, and, at that time, we didn’t know God the way we know—we didn’t have a relationship with God. We looked for several sources who told us that my father was under a death curse and that very day he would die if he wasn’t treated. Due to the panic, and we did not have anybody to instruct us or to give us guidance, we found a lady—she was not Christian, but she managed to heal my father. After that, we had some time of peace in the family.
In April 2001, I was sent to Ghana to pursue my higher education. In 2003 I was baptized, received my First Communion and Confirmation at the Church of the Lady of Holy Rosary in Kumasi, Ghana. Although I had a superficial knowledge of the sacraments, God allowed me to have them because I had the desire, I remember I had the desire to receive the sacraments.
During those four years [when] I lived in Ghana, I got a little closer to God. It was a very beautiful time, a time of spiritual growth. The church in Ghana was very lively and that included the Catholic Church as well. I was fascinated to know that the Catholic Church was not only liturgic but that the Holy Spirit also did the same thing as in the Pentecostal church. I remember a retreat we did for a week in a region called Adum Fie. It was awesome! It was the first time I had felt the presence of the Holy Spirit. I saw people falling from their seats, the whole room smelled of olive oil… I said, “Wow, how different they are!” Today I know that it was a Charismatic Renewal community…
I returned to Angola in May 2005 to start working. Unfortunately, the enemy was already working against me, and I was not aware of it. To start work, my documents were hidden. I was supposed to start in July, and I could only start in October.
In 2006, I was sent to France to attend a technical course. The night before the final exam I had a dream in which a voice told me I wouldn’t be able to complete the course, I would fail. The next morning I forgot everything I had learned, everything went dark. In the theoretical exam, my computer blocked, and it was a 6-months computer, it was still brand new. But the Lord did a miracle, they gave me another opportunity to take the following tests and if I scored 85% in all tests, or exams, I would be on probation, and I did score more than 85% in the exams. I had the help of some colleagues from Italy and India who were ready to help me. In the end, I passed the course on condition.
Three months later I returned to Angola, and my life turned more to material things. The fire of God that burned in me during my life in Ghana, little by little was being suppressed by the world or by my worldly life. I started to be more interested in having money and enjoying life. Getting married, settling down, was not something for me. Everything seemed to go very well, I had a good job, good salary, even though it was a tough job. I used to work offshore. For those who know, offshore life is not easy. But when you are onshore you spend what you earn offshore.
So, because of a lack of promotion in my career, professional career, I decided to leave my job in December 2007. I didn’t look for God’s guidance because I didn’t know [about] it at that time. I spent almost two years without working. It was a very hard time because a lot of strange things happened. I had good qualifications but couldn’t get a job. Sometimes I passed the tests, but they didn’t hire me. One time I was already hired, but the next day my name was removed from the list of workers in the company database…I believe [at] that time the Lord was already working in my life. But there is something that happened before I [lost] the job. I remember in that year I was dating somebody. And one day I felt something in my spirit. I didn’t know what that was, but I knew that something would happen. In the evening I went out with the girl I was dating. After we got involved, in the morning the feeling stopped. To me, that was a sign from my guardian angel. After that, things just started going in the wrong direction and I lost my job, as I mentioned before.
Finally, in October 2009, I got a job that was lighter and gave me more time to do other things. I met a girl who was completely turned to the world. Even though I was far from God, I was aware of sin because of my background. I knew what was and wasn’t allowed in dating. And I was completely on fire and blinded by this girl. I ignored the voice of my conscience that clearly warned me about what I was doing.
In 2009 or 2010, I don’t remember the date very well, I started receiving in my mailbox a message in Spanish that spoke of the Blessed Mother. I believe they were about the apparitions in Garabandal or Fátima, but as I didn’t believe in Mary, I ignored those posts. Who is Mary, who is she? she is normal, she’s in heaven, she cannot speak to us.
But Blessed Mother never stopped interceding for me, she knew I how ignorant I was. So in May 2011, the week after I spent a day with the girl, it was on Sunday, I still remember…it was on Sunday. Because it was on Sunday, I remember I offended God. After having spent this day with the girl, on Monday when I went to work, I opened my mailbox and guess what? there was the message in Spanish that spoke of the Blessed Mother, I don’t know how, and why—I think it was my guardian angel who was tired of seeing me offending God, who inspired me, so I decided to open the message and read what was there. The message talked about apparitions of the Blessed Mother. This made me curious, and I continued to read the message and opened the various links connected to it until I arrived at the Brazilian website of a seer, a mystic that published, or posted messages from the Blessed Mother.
[Part 2]
I started to explore, to go deep into the pages, and read the messages. They spoke of repentance and conversion, encouraging us to stop offending Jesus’ sacred heart. The more I read, the more I became convicted of my sins. It was as if I was seeing myshort life; what I was doing, how I offended Jesus. That same week, I began to believe in the Blessed Mother. I spoke to my father about Fatima, and he explained to me what had happened there. I learned to pray the Rosary and started praying it alone in my room.
I still remember this same week I decided that I should stop offending Jesus, this was the first time I went to confession, and I was shaking when I was before the priest. I was really shaking my first time. Maybe the enemy tried to stop me. Thank God I had the comfort of the priest, and after confession, I was in peace. So I was determined to break with immorality, and I promised the Lord that I would not become sexually involved with a woman until after marriage. The Bible says you don’t promise anything to God, but I was bold enough and I made this promise to God.
I remember now, (I don´t know if it was after or before this promise) I was praying with eyes closed in my room and I saw light coming to me. I was scared and I opened my eyes. It happened the second time and I did the same, I was scared. Then another day it happened but I put in my mind, okay, if this is from God, then I will receive it, so I received the light. And I felt such joy and peace, I wanted to scream, I wanted to laugh, I wanted to cry at the same time—it was wonderful. I will never forget something like that.
Then, I talked to my girlfriend, the girl I was dating, and I told her that we should stop fornicating, stop offending God. And if we wanted to continue dating, it should a holy one. She only nodded yes with her head and no with her heart. As time went by, I began to love Our Lady because I was searching, I was thirsting, hungry just to know her, and I would not allow anyone to speak ill of her or Jesus. I remember one time I almost fought with one of the Jehovah’s Witness brothers because he said strange things about Jesus, I couldn’t stand it.
My girlfriend at the time told me that I talked so much about the Blessed Mother that I looked like a fanatic. It hurt me, but I was determined that I would rather be with the Blessed Mother than have a woman who didn’t believe in her, or who didn’t accept her as our Mother.
I began praying the Holy Rosary every day. I attended Mass almost every day, except Saturday. I started confessing my sins once a month and received Jesus in the Eucharist, with respect. Before my conversion, I had never confessed, and when I sinned, I spent days and days without taking Communion. And when I went to take Communion, in my mind it was like, okay, now you are forgiven. Time is gone by, so now you’re forgiven, now you can approach The Blessed Sacrament. Yeah, nobody taught me…that is not an excuse, but it is reality. Well after I started to give my life to Jesus through Our Lady, I spent three years reading and learning about the Catholic faith—the true, traditional Catholic faith—the lives of the saints, and the various apparitions of Our Lady.
The Rosary was my favorite prayer. At this point, three years after my conversion, I was heavily tormented by demons, especially those of impurity. My refuge was the Eucharist, confession, and fasting. I started fasting Wednesdays and Fridays on bread and water because I was atoning for my sins against God, because the Blessed Mother always spoke of the consequences of our sins, so I wanted to repair those sins. The enemy was furious and wanted to bring me back to worldly life, but I was determined to be with God. I had been converted out of love and not out of fear. So I decided to stop offending Jesus; not because I feared going to hell but because of love for Jesus.
Here I will tell you two tests that God allowed:
First, at one time, the enemy assailed me with doubts about our Lady and even Jesus. He said that it was all idolatry and that I would go to hell. I think I also had thoughts that said the Bible was all an illusion of men. This lasted I think a week or so. In the end, I said, if I go to hell for believing in Our Lady or for doing good, I would rather continue like this. After a few days, these doubts stopped. Then I learned that there was a saint who suffered the same temptations…
The other one was heavier. At a certain point, whenever I stared at a woman, offensive words would come out from my mind and when it was Our Lady, a great offense would come. It seemed like I intentionally offended her. This test lasted longer, but God gave me the grace, the strength to resist. The enemy hates Our Lady and especially hates all those who are under her cover… In 2014 I felt the Lord calling me to be a catechist (evangelist), something that I readily accepted.
The Battles:
In June 2015, I had a totally strange, unknown disease to me. It was something I hadn’t had before. It turned out that I was under a death curse. I only realized this in 2015, but then I found out these curses had been cast on me in 2013.
I remember praying at 3 am for three days, asking God to reveal to me who was hurting me, and three times I dreamed of 3 of my family members. They were people I liked, but unfortunately, they were rooted in witchcraft, and for some reason, they wanted to take my life.
Those were difficult years of warfare, but I always had the strong presence of the Blessed Mother during that trial. Through the Rosary she protected me. Whenever I got sick, I asked for strength to go to Communion and God would give me the strength. In many dreams or nightmares I had, I always had Our Lady with me, protecting me through the Rosary. When I went to church, one particular day I went to church and approached the image of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, and I felt her heart and her comfort.
The Eucharist gave me the strength to rise amidst the pains caused by the illness that afflicted me. It was four difficult years, but the presence of our Lord was strong in my life. Today I know that everything was allowed to purify me and make me grow in faith.
During that time of spiritual battles, I had the help of many brothers from other denominations. The Lord showed me that He is a God of Catholics and Protestants. In October 2019 I was delivered from the evil that had afflicted me, in a non-denominational Church. In October, the person who persecuted me, encountered death, after I was set free. In the same month, the Lord let me know that he had chosen someone for me, and in October 2020 we were married. So in July of this year, our baby was born. The curse that I had was a curse that would not allow me to have anybody, but the LORD set me free. And I have a family now.
How I met the Heartdweller Family:
It was in 2018 that I found out about the Heartdwellers Brazil channel, which translates Mother Clare’s messages. I have a brother who had stopped believing in Our Lady and didn’t pray the Rosary. We had some conversations about Our Lady, but he had his ideas, so one day in 2019 he started praying the Rosary. I wondered what had happened and he told me about the messages that Mother Clare had published about the Virgin Mary. At the time, many people left the channel and questioned whether Mother Clare had been deceived into publishing such messages. Then it became clear to me that the channel was real. So I decided to join the Brazilian community.
In 2020, because of a message that one of the administrators posted about the Virgin Mary, I decided to seek Mother Clare’s help through Mother Elisha to find out if what had been posted was true. After meeting Mother Elisha, I decided to respond to a request to be a translator and thus joined the community of Heartdwellers Ghana. All the events in my life had the hand of Our Lady. From the day my grandmother introduced me to Our Lady, my baptism in a church consecrated to Her, my call to conversion through her messages, my knowledge of the community of Heartdwellers through her. When Jesus invited us to be a priest, I immediately said yes. And today I am a priest for the Heartdwellers Ghana community.
Thank you, brothers, for your patience in listening to my little testimony of how Blessed Mother has been a blessing in my life. May Mary Most Holy intercede for you all!
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