My Testimony
Praise Him Brothers and Sisters,
To start of my name is Bro. Charles Romero and congregate in a Apostolic Assembly church. In my local church I am very involved. I am the vice-president of my youth group, help my pastor with the 20/20 Vision program, choir member, head of evangelist and a choir member of my sector choir. I am a sophomore at my local high school and am 16 years old.
My family is a very well know family. They are the Moyas. I also am a fifth generation apostolic. I was baptized on March 17, 1996; and have been converted know for about 1 yr. 2 mo. I received the gift of the Holy Ghost on June 15, 96. God is so awesome because I always asked the Lord not to allow me to wait more than 3 months to receive it and he gave it to me two days before it was going to be three months I had been baptized. It was also awesome because I had received it in my room while I was in prayer. Praise God!
You know I grew up in the church knowing the truth. I thank God for that everyday. My mother and father have now backslid. But I thank the Lord because the Bible says, "Bring up a child in the way he should go and when he grows old he shall never depart from it". I have always thirsted the Lord since a child. I remember the times I would go to family things on my other side of the family and they would get mad at me for telling them the word of God. You know after my family left church I still felt a calling of the Lord. I felt as if I was separate and different. Through everything I heard the voice of the Lord. Even when I was a child to when I was living in the world, doing the things of the world.
The Lord has guided me. I remember when my family stopped going to church I would get up early on Sundays and wake them up and say, " Get up there is Sunday school ". To hear them say we don't go to church anymore. And I would go to me room and ask God why, why Lord, why don't they want to praise you anymore? I made a covenant with the Lord that if he protected me and help me I would serve him the rest of my life, no matter what happened. Little did I know one day these words would come back to me.
Well I began the doing the things of the world soon. I started Junior High and got to know about Gangs and different things. I started to smoke and ditch a lot. I would always get into trouble. Suspended for different things and just being stupid with my chooses. At the end of the seventh grade I started to seek the Lord. I started to visit the UPC church that I used to go to as a child and would remember the things the Lord had done for me and my family. Soon in the Summer time I started going to the Catholic church ever morning for mass. I don't know why I started to do this. It was just that I wanted something easy, something I could live without it interfering with my secular life. I never was taught to be Catholic but always against it. My family got really upset with me because I would go so often and I was getting so involved.
Soon I gave that up. I was back to just myself again. I was starting the eighth grade and I thought I was really bad. I started now to dress like a gangster to comb my hair back to talk like them. All of my friends were involved with this and I had so many enemies again me because I thought I was hard. I got into fights over some color and did not let myself be disrespected. My family did not know anything that was happening. They would just yell at me a lot and I would get so mad all the time with them. My mom and I were always arguing and I would yell and cuss at her. I was never taught to be like this I don't know why I did it. I soon got kicked out of my school and sent to a country school I hated. The school did not even give me a chance to say good bye to my friends but my dad had to take me straight to a country school and enroll me.
I hated this school. I thought I hated my mom and dad to. I sure did act like it towards them. Now I was really mad and this is when my family and me started to really get into it. There was never a day we would not fight. Summer came soon and I ended up going to my families houses' away from my town. I would go and we would go out and party meet girls and drink. We did things that we though was fun. I started to do drugs this summer and drink a lot. Of course my family never found out. I would cover it up. There were many times me and my cousins and friends did things that I could have gotten into trouble for. Thank God he keep me in his arms.
The school year was beginning. It was my first year in High School and I was getting into trouble already. I was on school suspension already the second week of school and had people ready to fight me. I was transferred to another campus soon. I had a lot of friends there that I had went to school with before. This was the begging of my worst year in the world. Soon I started going out more. I would go to parties and lie to my mom an dad as well as girl's houses. I was asked if I wanted into a gang that all my so called " homeboys" were from. I didn't want in knowing someday that God was going to help me and I would began my service to him. Through out these years this is what I felt like. This is what keep me of doing worse things and doing many things. Anyways my friends still considered me part of them because I help them fight, partied with them and did other things with them.
I soon started to smoke heavily. I started also to do drugs everyday. Everyday at third period and after school I would get high. I would go home and run to the my room and go to sleep or not come home so my family wouldn't know. I started to see many girls. Also I got so bad that everyday before school I had to have a shot (liquor). Me and my friends would get into my mom and dad's liquor and get drunk when they weren't home. Then someday I left the bottle under my bed so when I needed some I would have it there. I became really into liquor. I even took a bottle of it to school each day along with the joints I hid in my binder. I just was so frustrated.
I had a best friend who had the same name as me. I showed him really how to do the things that I did. We became real good friends where we did everything together. People called us Batman and Robin because we would always stick up for each other. We would always help each other out with the next " high ". Soon we both were looked up to by everyone in the school. We had gained our respect.
I felt so lost I felt like why am I so unhappy but yet I feel like I have it all. My family started to not even care what I did because I didn't listen in the first place.
Christmas vacation had come and it was the end of the first half of my Freshman year. I still was doing all the things I use to do. On New Year's I went with my mom and dad to my aunt and uncles house. All my family that had backslide (aunts and uncles) were there. My cousins invited me to a party and I felt I shouldn't go. I don't know why I felt this way. As I sat there my mom and dad were allowing me to drink with them, but I declined and had one glass of champagne. I sat on the couch and waited for the New Year to come, even though I was miserable.
The Year came and I sat there hearing a voice. A voice I had heard before, the voice of God. I didn't have to answer back, I didn't have to say Lord I am here. He told me, what is that you want? What is it that you are seeking? Why are you so blind, I am right here. Why do you live in this sin, in these lies from the devil? You were not made to live like this to do these things. Don't you know I've been with you always, even through you are a sinner and you have left my will. You have been called since you were a child. You have been anointed to be a servant since your birth, come back. You made a promise as a child, you promised to serve me always to never leave me. I come to you with this covenant giving you a chance. A chance to find life and joy to fulfill your covenant with me. Through you I have planned to bring your family back. Through you I will work. You have always been my child and I have chosen you as a child to do my work. This is your chance. There is not much time left for time is coming to a end. Come Back!
When I heard these word I was so afraid. Was I going to hell, was I going to be left? My promise had been revealed to me. I went home thought about it and relized the change I needed in my life. I went to the Apostolic church with my Grandpa the next Thursday and I went to the alter and let it all out to the Lord. I couldn't handle the hand of God. I felt so clean so forgiven. I know I found what I was looking for. In two weeks I came to the Apostolic church in my town and let the hand of God take over. I was so glad so much joy there was.
I went back to school. You should have seen my friends faces. The way I looked, the way I dressed, the way I combed my hair, and even the way I talked. They were so confused and afraid when I started witnessing to them. It was only the hand of God that could have changed me. Praise God! People started to ask me what it was and I told them. A lot of my friends were afraid of me. Even my best friend. I was more respected though. My friends would not cuss around me and when they did they apologized.
Imagine seeing a person only after two weeks and a 360` change. Thank is only God who can do that. You see I thank God and give Him all the glory because He came to me I didn't have to come to him. He choose me before I chose Him. I thank Him because He showed me that I was nothing and what he had to offer is so much more than what I had.
A few months later I was baptized in the name of Jesus name by my uncle and received the Holy Ghost about three months later. I ask for your prayers because of my family. They make it extremely hard for me to serve the Lord because they are not serving God, Yet. But I thank God I am able to suffer as he did. Please pray for my family as well.
Have you ever lost a shoe or keys and they were there right in front of you. They were there all the time but you couldn't find them. That is like what God did for me. I thank the Lord because he forgave me and liberated me from the lies Satan had me chained with. Through it all God was there and today he is still there for me. My cousin Shadra Moya, Author Terrasses and Percilla Cota are all baptized in Jesus Name and filled with the Holy Ghost within a years time. Praise God! Yes I know the Lord is using us to bring our family's back. There could be no other answer.
Brothers and sisters it brings tears to my eyes right now to know what the Lord has done. If only you could see. Don't ever give up what you have. He is everything. Even when it is hard to reach Him at times. But remember we must, "count it all joy when you fall into divers trials and temptations. Knowing this that the trying of your faith worketh patience, James 1" We need to be strong and pray for one another. But we all must seek the righteousness of God and his Kingdom first. Let us not be selfish in our prayers. If my family were selfish in there prayers I would not be what I am today. And if I was selfish with my prayers my family would not come back, but in Jesus name they Will!!!!
God Bless You all and I hope I can be a blessing to someone with this testimony. This is not even half of what I have thankful for. God Bless!
In His Service,
Bro. Charles