I told Pita about my asking God for a sign, then receiving the odd card in the mail, and now this address for the soccer-playing preacher being the same of the card... I told her that this was too much to be a coincidence. She replied:
-Nothing in life is coincidence. God is knocking at your door.

What do u think ? could I continue to be skeptical after that? Sure, but then I thought: “What are the odds?”
So I drove home considering all the things that had happened ... and as i was driving, i took my leap of faith and I prayed, and I said: “Thank you LORD, for answering”.

When I got home, with tears on my eyes I felt the urge to pray and talk to God about so many things that opressed my heart. I knelt and I asked the two most important questions I could think of, and guess what? I got answers!!! 

I cant explain everything that happened, but I promise that I’ll try. I told God that I believed and then I began asking forgiveness for my skepticism, for my sins, my mistakes, my doubts, forgiveness for having chosen the easy path and abandoned my faith when I was 12 years old just to enjoy all the pleasures of this world... I promised to do my best to be good and not fail Him again.

I pledged my life to him. I asked Him to guide me, to show me the difference between good and evil, and to keep sending me signs. I also had one more question so I asked the Lord straight to the point: "is the Bible your word? is the Scripture divine truth, or just a juiced up history book with some fact and some fiction?"
Amazing enough, God answered again. I wont say that I heard a powerful voice from heaven, but two words came to my mind and Im pretty sure it was Him, because they were certainly not my thoughts. The two words that popped up in my brain were: "Clear and eloquent".

I realized that the Bible is also a message, one God wants me to read, and I can understand it, because it’s clear. Back then I didn’t know how eloquent the Book could be, because I didn’t have one, but I would later discover that God speaks to us when we read it. It’s a mind-boggling experience. For example, I asked God about the Messiah, and he showed me the prophecies in Scripture that reveal everything we need to know about Him.

The next day I was supposed to meet Pita at Palmetto and 67th because she was going to introduce me to the soccer-playing preacher. I got there first and waited for her in front of the main building. It was a High School. That didn’t make sense to me but I waited anyway. Pita showed up, and then we were told that we could find the preacher at the cafeteria. His name was Silvano.

We went to the cafeteria and Silvano was talking to a large group of people. Preaching and teaching! Then he asked me to come forward and join him in prayer! Any other time, I would have been so embarrassed, but not this time, I was glad to do it! We started praying and tears welled up in my eyes again, because we were basically saying the same things I had said to God the night before. Then he told me to go sit down and wait for him to be finished so we would go elsewhere to talk privately.

If you are wondering, as I was, why would this guy teach and pray in a high school cafeteria and not in a proper auditorium, all I can say is this was no orthodox preacher… and I liked that. He finished and came over. I said I was so happy that I could pray in front of everybody because I had prayed the night before, in private, but for some reason I wanted to show my new faith to other people, to show them that I was a believer. Silvano replied that is what God wants, because if we should acknowledge the Lord in public, so will He recognize us when our time comes.

I told him that I didn’t use to believe but I felt that God had sent me a sign, and that he (Silvano) was part of it.
-Sure! –he said, and then repeated what Pita told me– God is knocking on your door!

I said I had tried to tell my father but he would not accept it. Silvano told me it had been just the same with him about 20 years ago, that he used to play pro soccer and behaved very badly, but when he accepted the Lord he was so excited that he ran to his mother to let her know, and all she said was that he had gone mad. Silvano said it would not be easy for others to understand, but God would guide us.

Well, I sure can testify that He has been guiding me ever since. I have witnessed amazing miracles and God has given me wonderful revelations.This is something that I did read that very day that my new life started, in an abandoned little book I found at work:
“Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight” (Proverbs 3:5-6)

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Founder's story: Page 3