God is Still Writing Your Story 

Trigger warning: Substance abuse

20 years ago, I met a young man 7 years younger than me. The age difference wasn’t the only contrast between us; we were different in every way.  

Daniel was 21 and had a difficult past: the result of an affair, he was not recognized by his father and had lost his mother to tuberculosis 4 years before I met him. I, on the other hand, as he himself said, was a “rich girl”, born in Brazil into a structured family, with everything in place.  

Even with all these differences, we started dating. A year later, I got pregnant. Having a child was something I deeply desired, and I believed it would complete my life, as I thought I already had everything else I needed. 

During my pregnancy, I began to discover a side of Daniel that I didn’t know. Like me, he always drank, but he started to lose control. One day, I saw him using cocaine for the first time. I was shocked, but I still believed I could help him. After all, I had chosen him to be the father of my child. But the situation got worse: he drank and used drugs frequently, until he lost a great job after spending 4 days in a slum. 

6 months later, our son Davi was born, and I had to kick Daniel out of the house. It was like a scene from a movie: I put his clothes in a black bag and threw it down the stairs after he had spent the night out drinking and using drugs. 

A month later, Daniel called asking to see Davi. I agreed, and he spent a Sunday with us. As Daniel walked down the hill from my house, he thought, “God, you have taken everything from me, even my son”. That day, Daniel accepted a cousin’s invitation to attend a Bible study, and that’s where the transformation began. He accepted Jesus, and something miraculous happened: he stopped using drugs immediately, without any withdrawal symptoms. Within 3 months, he also quit smoking and drinking. His deliverance was complete. 

His new challenge was to win back his family, and convince me that Jesus was the way, the truth, and the life. 

About 8 months later, I accepted Daniel back. He was no longer the same person; even his face looked different! One day, he invited me to a couple’s dinner at church. The message that night was about the fig tree, and something began to sprout in me. Still, I resisted. I was a non-practicing Catholic and found evangelicals “too intense”. 

But God works in mysterious ways. We found a young and welcoming church where we felt at home. We started attending, and 2 months later, I also gave my life to Jesus. 

Our lives changed completely. We got married, moved out of my parents’ house, and opened a marketing agency, which to this day is our source of livelihood and blessing. But 2 months after the wedding, Daniel called me to a conversation with our pastors as witnesses, and there he confessed that he had been cheating on me, not just once, but since the beginning of our relationship. 

My world collapsed once again. 

We needed help. Since the church was still new and there was no couples ministry, we enrolled in a marriage course. When we arrived, we discovered that they had enrolled us in the leadership course, which was the training for those who would teach the course. We were perplexed. We needed help, not to teach. But God had bigger plans. 

During the 3-day course, we were deeply ministered to. We learned about forgiveness, rebuilding, and purpose. We left there transformed. 

We presented the course to our pastor, and started a small group. Little by little, the work grew. We started holding meetings and services for couples and were invited to minister in other churches in the city. Over time, we founded the couple’s ministry in our church, then in other congregations of the same denomination, and finally implemented the course in several churches in the state of Rio de Janeiro. 

A few years later, I became pregnant again. My youngest son is now 7 years old. During my pregnancy, he was diagnosed with Down syndrome. It was a time of much prayer, and we had an entire church interceding for us. It is indescribable to feel part of the body of Christ, surrounded by brothers and sisters who pray for you when you need it most. 

But God, in His infinite mercy, performed a miracle: Pedro was born completely healthy, to everyone’s surprise. We lived by the faith that moves mountains and believed that he would be healed while still in the womb, and that is exactly what happened. 

All of this came from a story that, in human eyes, seemed beyond repair. 

I learned that it is when we are weak that God makes us strong. That His plans are much greater than ours. That God’s power is made perfect in our weakness, and that nothing is impossible for those who believe. 

Today, I look back and see how Jesus turned our pain into ministry, our shame into testimony, and our failure into victory. 

May this story inspire you never to give up. Even when all seems lost, remember: God is still writing your story. 

May Jesus reign in your life! 

Thank you, Nathalie, for sharing your story, and for reminding us that God’s plans for us are so much better than we could ever imagine!