Marcin

"I know that life without God is like chasing my shadow. "

I was born in Poland in 1978 into a very religious family. My mother was a very religious person practising in the Roman Catholic faith, my father also but his love of alcohol never allowed him to practise his beliefs. They were also very busy people working as much as possible. The combination of religion and alcohol created an angry atmosphere in our family life causing conflicts and extreme behaviour.

My two older brothers also chose their own way of life unfortunately apart from God. No one from my family treated Christianity seriously.

The occult experiences of my two brothers also affected my life as I realised later. In my teenage period of life I got involved in the darker side of the music industry which was heavy metal and then step by step into heavier music and occult messages. It had a very bad influence on my physical and emotional life. I found I could put all problems, good and bad moments and all types of emotions into my music. It was only temporary relief for my wounded soul. In my life strange things started to happen, scary supernatural experiences. I was frightened of all those things but something was pushing me deeper and deeper into that.

In the meantime in my parent’s life Jesus Christ took the place of the anger, dissension, bad language and alcohol.

I still lived in my own world fighting with all my strength against God’s voice somewhere in the depths of my heart to not let Him change my life. However something encouraged me to reach for the Bible.

A voice in my head was saying to me that there is no sense in reading the Bible and believing in all the things written in that book because there is no any hope for a case like me. This voice, which I now recognised whose it was, kept saying to me that I was on my highway to hell, where there is no stopping nor turning back.

One evening God showed me His power and focused my eyes on one verse from the Bible that says: “If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved” Romans chapter 10 verse 9.

It was a huge step into light away from my dark world. That evening I decided to follow Jesus. In my room, on my knees I asked God to take my broken life and lead me forever. He took my fear, my sadness and depression away. He has made me spiritually a new person.

What has changed and where am I now? Now I know the purpose for my life. Since that day He leads me and corrects me everyday through His word the Bible, because I am not perfect but I desire the perfection of my faith. Now for over 16 years of walking with God I can see effects of His work and I know that life without God is like chasing my shadow.

Recently with all pleasure I serve my Lord Jesus in Ireland and taking responsibility for the work He has laid upon me. My love for Harley Davidson motorcycles that has lasted for over 16 years does not exclude living in the fullness of Christ.

Fiona

"The biggest problem I faced in my dark moods - meaning."

I remember listening to Ray D’Arcy one morning discuss what the first line of his auto biography might be and thinking it seemed there were two very different stories I could tell of my life so far: it was as if one was made in full colour, and the other in black and white, or grey.


To some, my childhood must have seemed quite an idyllic picture. I grew up on a beautiful farm, with loving parents and a houseful of sisters to play with. I never remember being bored as a child; I had a great imagination and life offered many opportunities for real, and imagined adventures. I did well in school, and grew to love the challenge of education, the ideas, the friendships, the travel, and the many great experiences that school and later studying architecture in university gave me. This was the ‘full colour’ picture of my life. However, there was also a darker version of my story that was equally real running along side this happier one. Suddenly my life would go from being in colour into black and white, as if a cloud came across my vision and everything got darker.


 At times the reasons for this would be quite clear. The idyllic farm that I grew up on also caused a lot of hardship in our family. Doing well in school did not make me a very popular person among certain crowds. And over the years it seemed that everyone I put my trust in – family, friends, boyfriends, sooner or later rejected me or broke that trust and I ended up being really hurt. It seemed that nothing about how I looked, or what I achieved, gained me the approval or attention from those from whom I wanted it most.
But sometimes there appeared to be no reason for the dark moods. I remember one Christmas sitting in our kitchen, with family all around me decorating our Christmas tree, but being so swallowed up by loneliness and depression that I could not even participate. At times like these life seemed purposeless, painful and futile. Grey.


I grew up taking it for granted that God existed. But as I encountered worldviews outside that of my own family’s, I realised that some people were very sure that God did not exist. Science had, it seemed, convincing explanations for how life on earth evolved and psychology seemed able to explain much of our behaviour. It appeared life could be explained without any need for the idea of God. At university, almost all my peers and lecturers took it for granted that there was no God, or at least not the personal, loving God described by the Christian faith.


But while science had theories to explain what I saw in front of me, it did not have the answers for what I felt inside of me. While it could tell me how the things I saw in front of me worked, it got me no closer to explaining how or why they might have come into existence in the first place. Those arguments about the beginnings of life did not add one ounce of reassurance about the biggest problem I faced in my dark moods – meaning.
Why was I here at all? Did I mean anything to anyone?


 It got to the point where I had to know one way or the other. I remember the night when God answered my question more distinctly than I remember almost any other time in my life. I was sitting in a meeting that my parents had brought me to. Outwardly I was silent, I was motionless and emotionless as we sat and listened to the speaker. Except that I was not listening. Inside I was screaming at God, desperate to know if He was really there. I must have sat there for an hour, while a battle raged within me. And then, when it seemed I had exhausted everything, there was a silence, and in the silence the words ‘I am the way, the truth and the life’ were spoken. I knew the person speaking was God. And I knew it was Jesus. At that moment I was given understanding that Jesus was the way – the path my life would follow, and the way to knowing God. I knew He was the truth about all the questions I had about life, even if I didn’t know the answers yet. And I knew He was LIFE. Living was His idea, and He wanted good and exciting things for my life. Most of all, I began to understand that He was the reason for my life, and He, creator of the world was interested in knowing me.


There was great joy and relief in that knowledge, and I became determined to become the kind of person I thought God would want me to be, but another moment of desperation occurred when I had to face the fact that there were certain things in my life I loved more than God, and I was powerless to deal with this sin without Him. On my knees crying out to God at a Youth Camp, God met me again, and this time showed me very gently that He not only had the power to forgive my sins, but also to help me stop sinning.
I could not change me, but if I would allow Him, and do the thing that I feared most – surrender control of my life to Him - His Holy Spirit would begin to change me in miraculous ways.


That began a journey for me that gave me a thirst to want to go deeper with God. I decided when I finally surrendered my ‘self’ to God, that I wanted it all, or not at all, wherever that takes me, or however difficult or unconventional that path might be. Perhaps the most wonderful thing I have realised is that God is beginning to paint colour throughout all of my life, because even though I still experience pain, and difficult times, the sense of hope and purpose I have in Him cannot be clouded out. Bad times cannot take away the knowledge of His truth, the security of His love, or the wonder of his creation.


As C.S. Lewis once said, ‘I believe in Christianity as I believe the sun has risen, not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.’

Patrick

"I've had 3,650 days of peace!"

It was a rainy day outside of Woolworth’s on Thomas Street in Dublin. I felt safe in the pram. However I remember feeling that I no longer felt like “number one.” My baby brother had come along; he was sitting beside me in the pram. 

The next time I felt like I was “number one” was a few years after I gave my life to the Lord. A pastor, his wife, and my wife prayed for me to receive the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit changed my life. When I prayed I felt like God was giving me His full attention. There are seven billion people on the earth and yet God is waiting for me! I’d spent twenty-five years looking for something to get me through the day without feeling worse than the day before. I just wanted peace. One day of peace before I die and I’ll be happy, I thought. Now I know, without the Holy Spirit, without knowing Jesus died on the cross, and without his true love for me, I would still be searching for that one day of peace. However, I do know the Holy Spirit and since then I've had 3,650 days of peace! Those who knew me then and know me now are able to see that a miracle has happened. Let that be my witness to God. I pray God’s peace over everyone who reads this.

Rafal

"My world was falling apart..."

I was born in Poland in 1975, into a Catholic family. I remember childhood very well. Ever since I remember my parents always tried to give their faith to my younger brother and I. They tried to convey their beliefs into our lives but I was not interested. I never thought about faith seriously. Since an early age I discovered my love of motorcycles, which my parents didn’t accept. As soon as I could I bought my first motorbike, I will never forget that feeling…

After the completion of my education, I began living what some would call, "a very colourful life." I began a routine of drinking until I was unconscious, broke the law and many other things that are too shameful to mention. I flew on the wild side for several years, having “fun” with my friends.

However at the same time, many people including my parents were saddened by my attitude, but I didn’t care. In all my selfishness I thought my life is going to look like this until the end of my days, but in 1997 the Lord God placed a woman in my way! A woman of incredible beauty and with a wonderful heart. My passion for motorbikes dropped to second place. I had one goal, to get this girl.

Unfortunately, to my surprise the problems started when we learned more about each other. She had found out about my way of life and that I liked to smoke and drink a lot and have “great fun” with my biker mates. She was a totally different kind of person; she attended church every Sunday, the prayer group during the week, she was reading her Bible every day. I realized it won’t be easy but I had to trick her. So in her presence I started to pretend to also believe in God and when I was alone I lived my own life as I used too. When she discovered my strange behaviour she wasn’t very happy. Then she boldly set out a condition: “You have to make a choice: “Me or Your awful life”.

“The choice was easy”, I said “You are what is most important for me”. However it was yet another lie. I guess I upset God with all I had done. So He allowed me to experience hardship and place me in awkward situations. I lost my driving license because of driving under the influence of alcohol, I was arrested, hand-cuffed and brought to a sobering-up centre, I lost all respect in my younger brother’s eyes and almost lost my beautiful girlfriend. My world was falling apart and my parents were fed up with me.

When everything was beyond my control I decided to go to the Sunday service to check on what was going on with this God. I was shocked from the first few minutes. I never met people like this before, filled with love, kindness and smiles on their faces. There was great music, people praying. The word of God read in such a clear way. All those things worked to touch my heart. So I decided to come for another meeting like that – the next Sunday. Probably after the fourth service I landed on my knees asking God for forgiveness. I realized that God is great, He is mighty and He is Holy and He will not allow anybody to mock Him. I invited God to become Lord of my life, to take all my broken life away and make it new. I started a new chapter in my life and in 1998 and I got baptized. My life has been completely changed since. I felt that the chains of sin were broken!

Where am I now? Today I can tell of the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, he gave me new life, the most wonderful wife, great friends surrounding me and assurance of my future. Peace for my soul through the Holy Spirit. He has given me great opportunity to share His gospel with others and what happened in my life. I praise God that He has placed me in this country to be good tool in His hands sharing my faith.

Marta

“If you ever get pregnant, there is a 90% chance you will die giving birth” 

...were the words of my doctor ten years ago. He had just finished explaining that the reason my skin and veins were unusual was because I had a very serious and unique genetic disease. I had always hoped that it was just something unique about me and I called it my “inherited charm”. I had a very difficult time reconciling myself to the fact that I had this condition, but over time I began to be able to cope with the thought of it. 


I have had faith in God since I was young girl, but after hearing the words of the doctor it seemed quite foolish of me to ever hope to have a child, until one day, seven years after my diagnoses, I felt like I heard God in my heart telling me, “Marta, pray about your baby.” It was an interesting experience for me, because even though I did not believe that something could change I began to pray about “my baby.” I didn’t know it, but as I was praying a miracle was beginning. 


God showed me that as I wait for His answer I can not be passive. Instead I need to cooperate with Him as I pray about His will for my life. I began to cooperate by doing everything that was in my power to find out more information about my disease. As I searched things out God opened the right door for me and I was able to meet with a doctor who was a specialist in my rare disease. This doctor and others never told me: “Yes, being pregnant is absolutely safe for you.” but as time went on I could see that there was a little bit of hope for me to one day have a baby. God was showing me that what may seem impossible in human eyes is possible in His eyes. Every day God was changing my life and my heart in a gentle way. I cried many times, but my faith in God was growing up and after two years I was ready to say: “God I am not afraid of death, if it is your will, give me a child and let me live.” 


We found out that I was pregnant in June of 2009. We were overjoyed but difficulties were still in my way. The hospital that I hoped to deliver my baby in told me that my case was very serious and that they would not be able to take me into their facilities. In another hospital some doctors told me that they had a woman 15 years ago with the same disease and she died while giving birth. During this fragile time of my life someone also carelessly said that my getting pregnant was like “a declaration of war on God”, they thought that I was being much too presumptuous by getting pregnant. All these opinions were very stressful but God never left me alone, instead He prepared for me the best medical care in Ireland and in January 2010 we received our beautiful baby boy Samuel Korneliusz. 


My little baby is healthy and is the joy of my life. When I look back I can see that it is very important to give God all control of our lives. He understands us. He knows our dreams. He prepares great things for those who are looking for His will and allow Him to work.

Marco

"I kept trying to make the change happen in myself..."

I was born in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil a place well known for its beautiful beaches, Carnival, samba dancing and of course soccer. “Being from Brazil it surprises most people that I’m not much of a soccer player, but I still cheer for my home team ‘Flamengo’ when I watch the games live on the internet. And this year I had my green, blue and yellow flag out for the World Cup until the Netherlands dashed our dreams.”

“Soccer may have not been my thing, but dancing certainly was! It was always a big part of my life and an activity of joy and passion. As a kid one of the moments I will always remember is going to camp with my best friend and entering a dance contest and winning with my Michael Jackson impersonation. M.J. was my hero at the time and that was a great memory.”

“I had a great childhood, but it wasn’t trouble-free. I grew up as an only child in a single parent home with my mother who worked as a housekeeper trying to keep food on our table. I saw my father briefly every 15 days or so, and although I always tried to do my best in life I always wished I could have spent more time with him in order to have his input for my life’s direction.”

In Brazil they require 3 years of service in the military after which you can continue your education or go to work. “I served my mandatory years in the military and did well at keeping a good front of strength, but deep down I knew something was missing. I had no hope or plans for the future. I knew my life needed a change, but wasn’t sure how to make that happen.”

I kept trying to make the change happen in myself by not letting my friends or the media influence me, but this change in my own strength was always short lived and I felt stuck in a cycle I couldn’t get out of. Then one day someone invited me to church and I heard about Jesus transforming tasteless, stagnant water into wine for a party and I knew deep down I could trust him to transform my own life, so I surrendered myself to him completely and that is when the change began to happen. I knew I had been forgiven for past mistakes, was beginning to feel healing of past hurts and was given new meaning for my life and future. It was a brilliant time!

“At that time the creative ‘Brazilian’ within me began to expand. I became part of an R&B group that became quite well known for its singing. I also joined a dance and drama group that performed all over the city. It was in one of these skits that I was asked to play the comedic part of a man from the country, kind of a ‘Brazilian bogger.’” People loved it and were constantly coming up to me telling me how great my part was.

“Shortly after doing the dramas I was asked by a friend to go into one of the shanty towns (favelas) to do clown work with kids. I said sure, but wasn’t sure who my clown would be and how he would act, then it came to me to combine my drama act with the clown and I named him Jeca and in that moment Clown Jeca Brazil was born.”

“I think a clown should be family friendly at all times. There is no real need for innuendo and double meanings when you are working with kids. I see a lot of that going on and it frustrates me a little because I don’t think you need to be crude to make people smile.”

“Clown Jeca has been a gift from God to me and others. I have loved the opportunities in Brazil to bring Jeca onto a children’s television program, into schools and even to walk freely in the toughest slums of Rio, which even the police are scared to enter. It is amazing how a clown can soften the hardest of hearts as he lights up the eyes of children.”

In the years since my wife and I moved to Ireland I have seen Jeca reborn. It started with a few small acts for friends, then some birthday parties and now getting opportunities to do charity work. I see that Jeca is ‘growing up’ and I have great dreams of more things in Ireland. I dream of more charity work, educational projects in schools and camps, and maybe even open doors into kids television shows.

The future is bright!