“Then you must divide the assets!” her parents said.
“That won’t happen!” I made it clear. “If you want, I can give up the chairs!”
My name is Pedro. I was born in 1990. My parents separated when I was only three, and my mother gave me to my grandparents because she wanted to forget the life she had and start a new family.
I grew up undisciplined, making my grandparents’ lives a lot of work. When I turned 11, because she couldn’t take it anymore, my grandmother gave me to my father, who had already started his own family by that time.
At 13, I decided to drop out of school. I wasn’t doing well; I didn’t understand most of the subjects. I decided to become a bricklayer like my father.
When I was 19, I met my first ‘wife.’ She was my older brother’s wife before me, but he beat her a lot, so she moved back into her parents’ house. That’s when I started going out with her. After two years, I went to introduce myself to her parents; that’s how they found out that we were having a relationship.
By that time, I had been working as a bricklayer for six years. My father said I was old enough to have my own home and family, so he gave me a piece of land on which to build a house. That is where we had our first child.
After three years, I discovered that she was cheating on me. I was furious. How could she do this every time I went out to work? I kicked her out, and she returned to her parents. Yet I still loved her.
After living with her parents for a year, she asked if she could come back. She said she regretted cheating on me, and I decided to believe that she wouldn’t do it again. But she did, and I returned her to her parents’ house. This time, I explained the situation, that she was being disloyal, and that I needed to clear my name. They accepted her.
I lived alone for a year. She had a child with another man. Yet I took her back a second time. I still loved her. We lived together for three years. Once again, I discovered that she was cheating on me. When I returned her to her parents’ house again, they were quite unhappy with the situation.
“This is the third time this has happened,” they said.
“It’s your daughter who isn’t serious about marriage,” I explained.
“If you come back to get her, you will have to get married officially.”
“That’s not going to happen. I don’t want her anymore. I’m fed up,” I said.
“Then you should divide the assets!” her parents said.
“That’s not going to happen!” I made it clear. “If you want, I can give up the chairs.”
At the end of the year, I started dating my current wife. After a while, we married. But as soon as we started living together, demonic occurrences began.
After several episodes and going to see healers, she still had not gotten better. My father advised me to return her to her parents because she wasn’t going to improve, and we were tired of wasting money. I called her father and talked to him about returning her. He sent me a considerable amount of money to continue consultations, but nothing worked.
I began searching for an answer to my wife’s problems and met Francisco while I was building a wall in the region where he lived. He really liked my work and hired me to build a house for him. We soon became friends. During this time, my wife’s condition only worsened, and we continued to consult witch doctors.
I started asking Francisco to pay me in installments so I could take my wife to the healers. At first, Francisco didn’t question it, but after a while, he thought it was strange and asked why I was taking the money little by little. I explained what my wife was going through and that I needed money for the consultations.
Then he challenged me.
“I want you to come to church with me every Saturday for a month. If this ‘illness’ doesn’t go away, you can go on with your life.
I was quite interested when I heard this, but the one who had to accept it was my wife. She was the one who needed help, not me. I decided that if she accepted, we would go.
I talked to my wife on a Wednesday, the same day a witch doctor was scheduled to come to our house to take care of her. I presented the proposal and suggested we postpone the visit until Saturday, but my wife didn’t want to wait. I understood her; these crises were horrible.
The witch doctor came, practiced her craft and took our money, but my wife only worsened.
Saturday came, but my wife still didn’t want to go to church because she had heard several stories about it. She was reluctant to accept the proposal until she was convinced that we were just wasting money on these sorcerers and that they couldn’t help her.
“I don’t want to go to that church. But we have tried everything and have no other options,” she decided.
When we arrived, we were introduced to the pastor and elder.
“We can’t help. The only one who can help you is God. We are going to advise you to start a journey of prayer.”
I was amazed. I expected them to give me an amulet or something. When we got home, my wife and I talked.
“Will this work?” I asked her.
“I don’t know. Let’s try,” she said. We started to pray.
Sometime later, Brother Francisco brought Brother Fernando to study the Bible with me and my wife. Surprisingly, the only times of the day that my wife did not have attacks of demonic possession were during our Bible studies and prayer.
When we noticed this, and Brother Fernando made the appeal for us to be baptized, we accepted. We had learned that only Jesus could free our family from the control of demons.
Today, we are Seventh-day Adventists and witnesses of the grace and power of God. I can happily say that my wife no longer has those horrible attacks. God worked a miracle in our lives and family, and I am no longer cursed. I am blessed.
Pedro and his wife are leaders of our church in Mozambique.
Except for Fernando, our Bible worker’s name, all others have been changed to protect their identities.
