Great Transformation

Hi, my name is Gil Afonso, I’m 30 years old, I’m Angolan and I’ve lived in Portugal for about 21 years. Today I am an evangelical Christian but I was born into a traditional Catholic family, which made it very difficult for me in the early years of my Christian walk.
Talking about my conversion is sharing about the biggest change I have experienced until today, although I always had a religious family environment, the figure of God was always something distant, for me He simply represented an unknown superior being, something or someone from whom I’ve always heard stories but that I didn’t know well or had any interest in doing so. My parents taught me to go to church, to respect others and to be obedient at home, and for me that was enough, any other form of greater contact with God was too much. I lived like this for a long time, I would say 23 of my 30 years, until the great transformation of my life took place, the day I met Christ!!
The entire transformation process began with my entry into the church of God El Shaddai in the summer of 2013, looking back I can now understand what God was working in me. At first, I didn’t really like going to services, I found it boring and I didn’t understand things very well, I was confused about the way to pray, praise and cry out to God, the reality is that despite everything I continued to go and to participate in some activities, I felt something inside me that kept me from giving up, something superior that I couldn’t understand that gave me a strange hope. Christ appeared and entered my life at the right time, in fact, as always happens with all people, I was at a stage where I felt lost, without direction and without references, which led me to make choices and have wrong attitudes, but Thank God for your mercy!!!
My conversion process was progressive and constant, and above all beautiful and wonderful, I remember the first time I felt the presence of God in me, after a Bible study in which God spoke to me in a tremendous way, I knelt down and prayed , and at that moment I felt a strong presence that made me cry with joy, feeling a mixture of feelings. Since then I have had a relationship of spiritual, physical and psychological growth with Christ, I know I still have a long way to go but I feel excited about living each stage and new experiences with Christ, letting him transform me daily.
The Portuguese reality regarding the gospel is ambiguous, on the one hand, there is a large part of the population the knowledge that there is a God, but, on the other hand, there is a difficulty for people to allow themselves to be totally involved by the Word of God. Another difficulty that exists is due to the spiritual cooling that exists a little throughout Europe, the result of several factors, both social and economic-financial. Despite everything, I have great hope that Portugal has everything to grow and experience a great revival.
Christ is the greatest!!

THE AUTHOR

Gil Afonso

Gil is Angolan and has lived in Portugal for about 21 years.