When I gave my life to Jesus Christ and accepted Him as my Lord and Savior it was out of love and fear. I didn't have this great, powerful, and extravagant encounter with God. My "come to Jesus" moment was more like a movie that opens up in the middle of a developed story line. The story line is about my life and in this first film I realized the prequel at the moment I give my life to Jesus. I see and realize the story of how He has been protecting me and guiding me through out my life. The more I know who God is, the more I see His hand in my life and how He worked with me in every moment in my passed. It's like He was the last piece of the puzzle for me to bring my life back in a complete circle. Now looking back as my eyes are opened and I'm saved by His grace, I can have my answers to my "why" questions, I can see the prequel. But the story began with love.
The year was 2005 and me and my family took a vacation to Puerto Rico for a month to visit friends and family. I was invited by my cousin to attend a family reunion at one of our family members home. Everyone was there enjoying the time and eating the amazing food that was being served. My cousin Roxanna a.k.a. "Tany" had invited a friend of hers from church. Her name is Damaris and through out the night we made eye contact several times and unknowingly had a strong chemistry. I am not a person to just approach somebody I like and make contact but we had one mutual person we both knew, my cousin tany. I asked tany to please introduce me to her. I introduced my self and had some nervous conversation but I didn't want to seem too pushy. As the night went on we all played volleyball out in the street and joked around enjoying ourselves. At one point we forgot that there was other people playing and we kept hitting the ball to each other as if no one else existed. We definitely had an interest in each other and everyone felt it, so they made fun and made us blush but it was one of my most memorable moments in our lives. When the night was ending and it was time to go I made sure I said good-bye. I insisted in staying over my cousins house to have her contact Damaris.
That night we spoke for four hours on the phone and ignited a love that is indestructible 'till this day. We spent the rest of the summer together and had an unforgettable time. We exchanged info and kept a long distance relationship. Our relationship was very strong and our chemistry was undeniable but there was just one thing that wedged us apart. My heart and life did not belong to God and that frightened her. As I understood it in that moment in my life, this was extremely important to her. The conversation and discussion was an on going thing for weeks about us being together but having a different view on the importance of religious belief and love. We decided to wait until I paid her another visit and talk a bit more and get more of an understanding. So I traveled back to visit her and decided to go to a service at her church. I accepted the invitation not really thinking anything of it. In my mind I just wanted to spend time with Dama. I had an idea on the rules and regulations to the church because my aunt had been a christian for many years and had invited me a couple times before. I had my embarrassing moments like sitting next to dama and putting my arm around her like an idiot thinking its was okay. I didn't understand with the mind set I carried that there was a way of behaving and certain rules I had to respect. I was bringing my worldly behavior and mind set to an actual, real relationship and it wasn't going to function. There was definitely some growing pains and a couple of empty headed moments but I began to follow with the help of Dama and my aunt as best as I can. I decided that if I wanted to be with Damaris I needed to change my definition of love and re-wire my understanding of a relationship and so I gave in. The service was what an uninterested teen thought it would be, sort of monotone and boring. I sat there hearing everyone around me praising and listening to the pastor preach.
As the pastor ended his sermon I noticed a unique and disturbed individual at the back pacing around angry and frustrated. He paced around in a line and seemed to be held back from coming in. I kept staring at him and felt a really bad vibe coming from his direction. He then walked towards one of the leaders in the church and started speaking this weird and foreign language. The young leader immediately fell on her knees and started to pray passionately out loud. It seemed that her prayers irritated the man even more, as if her prayers were sticking needles into his heart. He started to grab his head and covered his ears. My aunt approached me and whispered in my ear to get on my knees and pray to God for the disturb man and for the church. I immediately kneed down and started to pray as I knew best but at the same time I was very curious as to what was happening. I had one eye closed and the other open to see what was going on. My aunt, making things even more frightening, told me not to look at the man directly as if the man could have transmitted what was possessing him into me. But the monster and demonic screams coming out of the man tempted my curiosity and so I kept looking. At one point the man seemed to have a full blown conversation with the pastors and leaders in this demonic voice. He had a face expression that was not human. His eyes were red and dark in color. As the leaders and pastors continued to pray vigorously over the man, the man started scattering around and screaming as if he was being beaten and abused. The situation had me scared to death. I was paralyzed and afraid of turning around once more. As I closed my eyes and prayed, the thought and image of the man was permanently engraved in my mind. I thought to myself that if I don't accept this man named Jesus as my Lord and Savior I can end up like this man. All of a sudden everything stopped. It got real quiet and the prayers began to lower down. The possessed man, if I remember correctly, got up and left the church. Apparently this man has been causing trouble in the church for the past few service. As I sat there watching this play out I realized that there is a space in this world that we can't see or understand.
There is a supernatural dimension that is not visible to us but can have a negative and positive impact in our lives. There is what we know to be normal and within the logical and natural laws and limits and then there's what is beyond our understanding. This was a moment in my life I just couldn't explain it with science or logic. This moment was one that convinced me of the supernatural. It might not be a very convincing event for many but for me it was enough. It was probably the first time that I could think of that I thought of God and the world we live in. In my mind I thought that if there is a supernatural dimension to life then there just might be a God out there that balances the evil I just experienced. I needed to know more and investigate for my self and so I prayed meaningfully for my first time. After the service was done I spoke to one of the leaders, Neco Santiago, (which I found out later on is my mother's cousin) and explained what I felt and ask him to give me advice on how to start this life we call christianity and that's when I accepted Jesus as my Lord and Savior.