Returning to the Past – 67th Part

When I first came to England, I saw a Pastor’s daughter in the church and said to myself, “I’m going to invest in her.”

Do you know that voice, that desire to make someone for God? That was exactly it. I had heard that she was not firm with God. So I looked to her with the goal to help her.

I don’t know why, but I have always enjoyed a challenge to exercise my faith. Not to show off, but it was something internal that I wanted to give, to honor God and to win souls.

Sometimes there are people who are surrounded by so many others, and even they are of God, they may not be seeing the opportunity to offer Him lives.

It seemed like since I knew about my conflicts I was able to see the need of others much more intensely. But I did not do this with everyone. In this case, this young girl, a Pastor’s daughter, was my first initiative to find someone among so many others.

She worked with her father in the church maintenance she was his secretary. Her mother also worked with the part of receiving Pastors and their apartments. The couple was, and is to this day, very dedicated, honest servants. She had a younger sister too, who helped her mother a lot with the housework. The sister was very talented in all aspects. But my eyes were focused especially on the older sister, because she was the most difficult one.

I remember one day Julio had to travel he was only going to be back the next day. I took advantage of this to go out with a group of wives and invite the sisters. I asked their parents if I could take their daughters out, and they immediately gave their permission.

It was my first time going out in England, driven by this initiative. The purpose of this day out was to get close to them and present to them a wonderful Jesus. We left in the morning and we return home around midnight.

We went to several places in England by subway, we had lunch, and at the end of the day we went to the movies. I did what I think I had never done before, not even for myself, but I did it to get close to them.

You know when a soul is so valuable to you that you want to do something to get close, with the sole interest of saving them from hell?

Little by little I was inventing things to do to get close to this soul. I even went to her house to make pancakes.

We all lived in the church and even though we lived in the same place, it was very difficult to meet so I had to create opportunities. Another day, I made a special Brazilian rice and sent it to the family. Gradually, I was getting closer to her. Until one day she wrote me an email thanking me for giving her attention. Then, I asked something of her, I told her to give me the opportunity to be her friend. I did not just want a thank-you from her I wanted her to tell me about her difficulties. I wanted to be able to help her.

And that is what happened… she began to tell me about her difficulties and I was able to help her, give her advise, etc.

Sometimes as part of her job she had to come talk to me for some decisions I had to make, and in those times we shared moments of conversation.

I was not the type of person who was always on top of her; because I had many other responsibilities, but I wanted to give what I saw was necessary, especially from what I knew from my own conflicts. That is how I gave her my attention, guidance, listened without judging and gave her advice.

As I did this, I also spoke to her mother and asked her how she was doing at home. I also asked her mother to let me know if she had anything that she needed me to work on with her, since I had no way of knowing her too well because the time we spent together was so short. What we had were opportunities that were created, which I grasped to win over her soul.

That is how it was.

Do you know that my goals in relation to something, makes me do things that are not usual in my day-to-day? But these goals allow me to expand my vision, discover new things that I would never discover if I were to stay in my own selfish world.

I thank God very much for this faith, which always teaches me, which encourages me to challenge myself, and teaches me to serve, while investing in myself as a person.