March 05, 2004
Arlin Acevedo
At 17 years of age, I was smoking pot, cigarettes, getting drunk and I had tried acid for the first time. By the time I was 21 I thought life was a big party. I smoked pot everyday, a pack of cigarettes a day, and went dancing at clubs almost every weekend. By the time I was 27 years old I was getting tired of the partying life style. I always knew I had to get right with God again, but I was so far away from him. I didn't know how or when that was going to happen. On September 11, 2001 I was on my way to work in the city when I saw tower 1 of the WTC on fire and the plane hit tower 2 and my bus was hit with debris. I really thought that I was going to die that day and go to hell because I wasn't right with God. My boyfriend had a very good friend who was in jail, which I kept in contact with who became saved and was working on his girlfriend to go to an apostolic church. So she called my boyfriend and asked him to go to a Bible Study one day at Christ Anchored Tabernacle and he told me how much he liked it so I went with him the following week. I've been serving God ever since.
My mother was a devout catholic, so my brother and I were brought up catholic as well. We were christened as babies and made our communion, we even went to CCD every week. Then, as we were getting older my mother saw my brother becoming a bit rebellious as he entered his teenage years and she knew he needed something more. She started looking at different churches and a friend of hers told her of a pentecostal church that she thought would be good for us. So my mother started taking us to Sunday school there while she would leave and go to the catholic church. Eventually, she started coming to the pentecostal church with us and we were all baptized in the titles, not in Jesus' name.
My parents were separated when I was 13 years old and we had to move to Queens for a year. We moved back to Staten Island when I was 14, my parents were now divorced, I started high school and falling into sin. I started getting drunk on the weekends. By the time I was fifteen, I tried pot but I didn't think that I liked it. At 17 years of age, I was smoking pot, cigarettes, getting drunk and I had tried acid for the first time. By the time I was 21 I thought life was a big party. I smoked pot everyday, a pack of cigarettes a day, and went dancing at clubs almost every weekend. I had started doing ecstasy and other drugs any time there was a party or a night out. Needless to say I had not been going to church and it showed. I was just like everyone else by that time, I swore a lot and didn't really care about anything but having "fun". At the age of twenty-two, I moved out of my mother's house but, every time I spoke to her, she would tell me to read my Bible and pray and, even though I couldn't stand it when she would tell me that, it would remind me to do it. I usually prayed every night I could (that I wasn't out). By the time I was 27 years old I was getting tired of the partying life style. I always knew I had to get right with God again, but I was so far away from him. I didn't know how or when that was going to happen. At that time I was in a five and a half year relationship and all the time I was praying for my boyfriend, who was catholic, that he would know the truth about God and be a man of his word and I would talk to him from time to time about God and religion.
On September 11, 2001 I was on my way to work in the city when I saw tower 1 of the WTC on fire and the plane hit tower 2 and my bus was hit with debris. I really thought that I was going to die that day and go to hell because I wasn't right with God. During the first week that happened, I had a dream that God was sobbing and felt such pain and sorrow over what had happened and I woke up sobbing and feeling that what I felt was just a small fraction of what God felt. After that, I felt such a desire and need to start going to church but I didn't want to got to my mothers church and I didn't want to go to church by myself. So I would pray all the harder for my boyfriend to know God or for someone that would want to go to church with me. My boyfriend had a very good friend who was in jail, which I kept in contact with who became saved and was working on his girlfriend to go to an apostolic church. So she called my boyfriend and asked him to go to a Bible Study one day at Christ Anchored Tabernacle and he told me how much he liked it so I went with him the following week. We continued going and we were all baptized a little over a month later in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins. I received the baptism of the Holy Ghost about a week later and I've been serving God ever since.
Agnes Ortolano
As a teenager I was easily influenced into smoking and drinking which eventually led me to using drugs. Of course it just started with one drug but it lead to another and then another. I was getting high all the time and it wasn't till I started getting high on my own that I realized I was becoming an addict. It wasn't till my husband got arrested that reality started kicking in. It wasn't until my husband's first year in prison that he started to preach to me about the Lord. We started reading the Bible together and I even began going to a Bible study once a week. I continued going to Bible study but my husband was leading me to also attend a Pentecostal Church. It was amazing, it was the first time in my life that I felt God was speaking to me and ministering his Word to me. It was at that time that I realized that my husband getting arrested and going to jail was just a blessing in disguise. God had a plan for us right from the very beginning.
I came from a catholic background and Catholicism was all I pretty much knew and what was mostly all around me. I didn't come from a really religious practicing family but, throughout my childhood my parent's put me through Sunday school to make my communion and confirmation. At the time, it seemed like the right and Godly thing to do. But, throughout all the Sunday school sessions and attending Sunday mass, I never really felt like I got anything out of it. I can't really say that I learned too much about God. Attending church was just either something we did on Sunday or on Holidays. That was the extent of it. As I was getting older, church just became less and less interesting. And, of course, that just led me to not go to Church at all, which pushed me further and further away from God.
As a teenager, I was easily influenced into smoking and drinking which, eventually, led me to using drugs. Of course, it just started with one drug but it lead to another and then another. I was getting high all the time and it wasn't until I started getting high on my own that I realized I was becoming an addict. At that point, I slowed down drastically, but I was still getting high on the weekends. I figured if I just had it under control it would be okay. My friends were using it; my husband at the time was using and selling it so it was always all around me. It wasn't until my husband got arrested that reality started kicking in. I guess you could say, that was the first stepping stone towards my salvation though, at the time, I still didn't know it yet. It wasn't till about my husband's first year in prison that he started to preach to me about the Lord. It actually took me off guard because I have never known my husband to be interested in the Word of God. But I really didn't think anything of it at first. I definitely thought it was great that he was reading the Bible, but I didn't take it too seriously. Little by little, he witnessed to me more and more. We started reading the Bible together and I even began going to a Bible study once a week. I was learning about God and learning new things about God and his word that I never knew of before. I continued going to Bible study, but my husband was leading me to also attend a Pentecostal Church. I attended a couple of Churches a couple of times, but that was the extent of it. My husband continued to pray for me but I procrastinated for some time and was a little reluctant. I eventually got the nerve up to locate a Pentecostal Church. I remember the first time I went to Church. I was so hesitant to go. I didn't know anyone and I didn't feel like I was going to fit in. But the Lord was moving in my life and I knew that it was a step I had to make. And I never regretted that day.
It was amazing. It was the first time in my life that I felt God was speaking to me and ministering his Word to me. It was at that time that I realized that my husband getting arrested and going to jail was just a blessing in disguise. God had a plan for us right from the very beginning.
Praise the Lord JESUS!