Prodigal Patient

​“My name is Marcelo. I’m 36 years old and I’ve graduated from law school (though I don’t have the title yet). I am the son of a single mother who was very permissive with me and I had a stepfather who treated me very badly during my childhood. Although I never realized it, since I was very young I had lived a life of self-destruction (drunkenness, promiscuity, drugs when my friends offered them to me, irresponsible driving, etc.) and total destruction of everything else. I have been in long-term relationships with two women and have children from both. I had been irreverent toward religion and, because of the inconsistency I had seen among Christians (Catholics and Evangelicals), I made fun of all of them.

A few months ago, having just been separated from my last partner, by whom I had a son, I left one night and got drunk with some of my friends. Then while driving in a drunken stupor I got into an accident with a bus full of passengers. Fourteen people were hurt; my mother’s vehicle, which I was driving, was destroyed and I was gravely injured with a mutilated knee, two broken ribs, and one of my hips was completely rotated backwards out of position with my femur. The doctors were afraid I would not make it.​

While I was recovering consciousness in the Intensive Care Unit, I had the opportunity to see three of the people that had arrived in critical condition and the doctors trying to save their lives through desperate measures. One of them died there.

​The next day I was visited by a lot of people, family, and friends. Among them I spotted my Uncle Andres (a pastor) and his wife Stella. I felt something strange, so when I saw them I felt I should ask for help as my life was a mess and I did not want to continue that way. The following day I was fully conscious and I talked alone for a long time with Andres and Stella and they prayed for me and gave me a little MP3 device that contains the New Testament in a simple version [BibleStick]. As I had a long convalescence in the hospital, I started to listen when I was alone and I began to understand that God was talking to me and was giving me a second chance.

After I had been listening to the stories of the Bible, listening to Jesus as the Son of God, and being in recovery in the home of relatives, again I received another visit from my uncle, who challenged me to invite Christ into my life and repent of my sins. I did, and although before I had felt that God was watching over me, I realized that my life could not continue the same as it had been before.​

Thanks to all of this, I continue to understand God’s Word through the BibleStick. God has allowed me to recover my life and my family. My partner and I are back together and I’m doing everything I should have done before to keep her – communicating with her, without fear of loving her, and surrender – and am even thinking of legally formalizing my relationship with her in the not-too-distant future. My relationships with others are much better (I do not drink, smoke, swear, or say bad things, because I was not born to do this). And now I give testimony to the fact that God is real and that He changes the lives of people who give themselves to Him.​

I know many of my friends and family still do not believe in the change I’ve had that He produces, but I know it’s real. I only hope to show them through patience, and with the help of God and His Word, that He changed me and I have accepted this new opportunity to put my faith in Him. This would not have been possible without the help of His Word that spoke to my heart. Now I have no doubt that faith comes by hearing the Word of God. Today, I now know that God loves me and was waiting for me to come to Him, for He is the Father I should have always had. Thanks to Faith Comes By Hearing.”​