Testimony of Erika Chavez

I was born into a poor family with a lot of needs.  When I was only 4 years old, my dad abandoned the family and my mom was left alone to raise 5 daughters.  At 15, I joined a youth gang where I was trained to perform armed robbery, drink alcohol, and kill if necessary.  Being abandoned by my father began to affect me more when I saw all the needs of our family and all the work my mom had to do just to maintain our lives.  I decided to steal full time, but this brought me many more problems with my mom and my sisters.  During this time, I met a young man named Luis Chila who became my boyfriend.  He was an alcoholic and this brought us many more problems to the point that we separated and gave up on the ‘family’ we were trying to form.  He didn’t know that I had decided to kill myself.  I tried to kill myself twice but without success.

How did I come to know Christ?  My idea to simply vanish was lying dormant in me.  I reconciled with my boyfriend, Luis, and we went back to living together but it was like living in hell.  One day we were invited to an outing where they talked about the love of God and the help that God has for our lives.  These words dug deep into my heart and we decided to give our lives to Christ Jesus.

One of the changes that God brought about in my life was that I left behind my life of crime.  I married Luis and we started to attend faithfully a cell group and church.  We started to work to further the Kingdom of God on this earth and especially in our country.

We gave our entire lives to God and we started working on a strategy to invite people to a cell group meeting.  At that meeting we introduced them to Christ, then we would disciple them.  I am so grateful to God for what He did in my life.  I hope that this testimony is helpful to you.  I also hope that if you don’t have Christ in your heart that you would receive Him.  You don’t know what you are missing.  If you feel lonely, He will always be there to console you.  Christ waits with arms wide open.  It is only a question of whether or not you will let him into your life.