I first met Safira when she was a student at my Saturday English course. She was shy and reserved, but little did I know the impact she would have for the kingdom in the lives of those around her.

Here I’ll share the details of her story as told by her:

I met the church of Christ in 2008 through a friend called Pedro who studied with me, but at the time I wasn’t interested in his invitations to visit the church or study the Bible. I was however interested in learning English, and I learned that these classes were offered there. After a while, I eventually visited the church a couple of times, but wasn’t interesting in giving my life to Christ.

In 2010 I started to work at a company called Contax. There I met Tarciana, who was also a member of this same church. She also began inviting me to study the Bible. It couldn’t have just been coincidence that two people from the same church, my friends, were inviting me to study the Bible and so I gave in.

I began to study the Bible and for a year I discovered God’s love for me. Many times we brought the Bible study to my house and my family was able to learn as well.

My decision to follow Christ came after I went through a really hard time in my life. I knew that no one from the world, but only God, would help me through it. And so for two months I attended church every day. Even though I was not member, I decided to take part in one of their evangelistic campaigns called “Time for God”. This campaign taught me that God placed me on earth to serve Him. Seing people on the street rushing around, many times ignoring God’s invitation for their lives, I ended up seeing myself in them. I decided to act differently and, on July 27th 2013, I was baptized.

After following Christ a lot changed in my life. I became closer to my family, started serving at church, and was less of an agressive and selfish person. I believe that these changes were a positive influence in my family. So Tarciana and I started studying the Bible with my mom. Once a week we would meet. I would help around the house more so that my mom would have time available to study the BIble.

The Word of God starting changing my mom’s life even though she thought she could never leave some of her addictions. She was a heavy drink and smoker, and every weekend she would have friends over to drink. But some hard times drew my family closer to each other and to God. And one night she prayed fervently asking God to remove this addiction from her life. The next day she woke up with a disgust towards alcohool and cigarrettes. Something she was never able to leave before. All glory be to God!

On August 24th 2014 my mother, Janete, gave her life to Christ after a few Bible studies at our neighbors house who, providentially, was also a member of the church but from a different neighbourhood. Two weeks later, on September 7th, my sister Sara, who was studying the Bible at the School of the Bible gave her life to Christ and was baptized. My family is now firm in our faith and determined to follow Christ more than ever.

Photo of Janete’s baptism:

Photo of Sara’s baptism: