MY TESTIMONY

  Hello everyone.

I am Danilo, I am a native of Lima, Peru, but currently I live in Buenos Aires, Argentina, this letter is very special to me, because it tells the most beautiful part of my life, which is how I was able to see God in all these years. My life began not very well, I was born with a malformation in the chest called Pectus scavatium, which brought me many respiratory problems at birth and I was hospitalized for several periods of time during the first years of my life, the doctors did not think I could live long, but thanks to the faith of my mother God gave me the opportunity to move forward, heal me.

During my childhood and adolescence I always attended Jordan Baptist Church in Piñonate, and there I was able to learn and listen to God, and in the camps I was able to receive Christ in my heart from a very young age, and every Sunday I attended, I felt very good being there.

Much later when I entered the university it was difficult, personal and family problems began, also the environment at the university was very different from what I lived before, and it was where I made some bad decisions and I was moving away from the Lord, but without stopping going to church. Everything got worse when I was about to finish my studies, it was difficult for me to find a job because I needed to graduate and I could not pass my last exam, which led me to great anxiety and discouragement, and I felt that my life had no meaning. But the doors were opening, I passed the exam and I could graduate, and I could see God behind everything, in the summer of 2019 in a word of life camp in Peru I dedicated my life to God, I understood that the purpose of our life was to serve Him and not us, from that moment I started to get involved in the church and try to serve Him in whatever I could.

To serve him I started helping in the senior youth meeting where I was serving all that year, but inside me I wanted to get a job, but I left everything in God's hands, my priority was to serve him, I had several opportunities to get a job but the doors were closed until the last moment, that was where I learned to tell God thank you for the good, bad and opportunities, three days after making this prayer if I asked for it I was called for a job which gave me better opportunities than I imagined, at that moment I knew that God heard me and was guiding me. I was in that job for 4 years, and it was always difficult for me because I knew that the work could not neglect my communion and service to God, but when the pandemic came the hardest test of my life.

In the year 2020 the pandemic began, at the beginning it was not very difficult because I was with my family, but little by little it became more complicated, my family was divided into two for reasons of care and needs. In October of the same year I was given a great responsibility in the church that would be my service during the following years in the area of online transmission of worship services and the future anniversary of the church, but a month later my great test began.

On November 15, 2020 I received the news that my first cousin died at the age of 24 in a traffic accident, that hit me like a blow that I never saw coming, he was the person I grew up with and he was my brother more than a cousin, we lived many things together and now he was no longer with me, nor with his son who was born 3 days after his death, but that did not destroy me, by the grace of God, I clung to him and I could fulfill my service in the anniversary of the church.

The end of January 2021 was an uncertainty in my life, the COVID-19 came to my family, I was alone at home without being able to do anything, the only thing I did was to pray for them, serve in the church and work. On February 1, 2021 they called me and I received the news that my grandmother passed away, the virus attacked her illnesses and she passed away at 79 years old, it was even harder because of the love I had for her, but God once again sustained me.

A week later on February 9, 2021, I received another call, it was my sister and she told me that my father passed away at 55 years old, that was the biggest blow of my life, something that finished me down, but I truly met my God there, the God who embraces his children, he took my hand and lifted me up, he held me, he gave me strength to serve him when I could not do it and he comforted me even when I was alone. If before I learned to thank God for a rejected job, that day I learned to thank God for taking away 3 people who were pillars in my life, to thank him because I did not understand, to thank him because it was his will.

From then on I received God's grace every day, I began to be a pillar for my sisters, niece, and mother. I had to mature in many aspects, learn to depend on God both spiritually and mentally, I had no time to be sad. And in January 2023 in a camp I decided that all that God did for me I had to thank him, and I remembered that at some point in my life I told God that I would give him a year of my life and also at some point I had the interest to study about him, so God opened the doors and I made the decision to come that same year to study at the Bible Institute of Word of Life in Argentina, Even though I made a decision, it was very hard for me to leave my family, but during that year God showed me that he had everything under control and that he was taking care of them, so now I know with more firmness in my heart that I have to serve him every day of my life and wherever he wants me to go, and I pray to follow and understand his will every day.  

In this year 2025 I am currently in my third year with the desire to continue studying at the Bible Institute for a third year, and continue learning to listen to God to understand little by little where the Lord wants me to be to serve Him. And I know that he will be there for me supporting me spiritually, emotionally and physically, that's why my favorite verse is Joshua 1:9 and I know that he will never leave me. 

Behold, I command you to be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid or dismayed, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.         Joshua 1:9