Going back to the Past – 18th Part

Going back to that time, I remember traveling one hour to take a fresh lunch to Julio. When I got to the church and I had to “reheat” the food again because of the distance. I did that every day when he did not come home for lunch, It was 1 hour to go and 1 hour to return.

Julio’s auxiliary got married, and after the Honeymoon, he came back to the church where he worked. His wife was a 15-year-old girl, I tried to help her in everything that was possible. I introduced her to the place and offered myself to take her to buy things for her home.

It was great for me to have a wife with me. It was an opportunity to work on her. I did not have much sense in what I might help in. But I tried to offer myself to help. At the time, I had to teach her everything. There were things that bothered me, because since she was very young, she did not have much initiative but we had peace while we were together. At the time I taught her more of the physical aspect. I did not know how I could be help in her spiritual life.

Soon after a while, another pastor who had assisted Julio in Cascais (Portugal) came, and this pastor also came to help Julio. There were two couples with us. They both lived near the church.

This pastor and his wife came with a girl who they had just adopted. The name of the little girl was Marcinha. She was a lot like me and I had already heard about her, but since she was far I hadn’t had a chance to adopt her.

The little girl was five years old. Julio and I loved spending time with the girl, and the wife was very jealous of her and I. Amazing, I could not believe that the wife was jealous of the child.

This wife was close to me in Portugal while her husband helped my husband. She told me her trajectory in the church and in the work of God. Including the problems she was facing with another regional wife. At the time I was 18 years old (in Portugal) and I was already giving her advice.

When I was in Portugal at 18, I went to a wives’ meeting with that regional wife. And I remember that when she asked me, in the end, what I wanted to speak, I said, “It’s no use preaching the word of God if it’s not practiced.” I was straight-forward, implying that I “knew” there were problems with the wife, who was in Cascais.

Well, after all, this wife that I defended from my regional was not innocent, as she told me. Now she was the one who was having problems with me.

There was no specific reason. She gave me “a long face” and simply said that everything was fine, when the environment and attitudes that she had were irritating.

We who do the Work of God, cannot have problems with anyone because that does not help to serve God. Instead it disturbs a lot, and we not focused but worried.

Then one day … I just could not take the situation anymore. My father held meetings in church, on Wednesdays and Sundays. And one of those days, my father was in the room next to the altar with the pastor and I told my father that I was having problems with this wife. And the pastor, her husband, immediately said that everything was ok.

My father called my attention. And said “Vi, this is pettiness, you cannot be like that.”

My parents are great! sometimes too much.

Both my father and my mother always said I’m wrong in most of the situations and I learned that they didn’t want me to give any reason for “debt” with anyone. I have to learn to give, to trust, in conclusion … to serve.

I knew there was a problem. But I did not try to justify myself, I left it in the hands of God and I decided to give her space. If she didn’t want my help, I had to respect that.

So from there on, I continued to do what I always did. I left that situation aside. Treated her well, but leaving her place.

After a long time, they left our church.

For dinner, Julio used to go to the auxiliary’s house to have a little soup before going to the radio. And from there, we just saw each other at 3 in the morning. Some days I accompanied him, on other days no.
(It was right around the time of this photo, which was taken on a day when my sister came to visit.)