I am Rita, 16 years old. My childhood years were not full of bright and colorful days. I was born and raised in a non-Christian family. Although my parents were with me, I felt myself an orphan.
Our home was a place of constant arguments and physical abuse, which were caused mainly by my grandmother and uncle. It is so terrible to see how your father beats your mother who has done nothing bad, only because of provocations of others. Our uncle even used to beat my brother and me whenever we tried to stand up for our mother. We lived in fear, often having sleepless nights of beatings and tears that seemed an eternity.
One day, during another argument, my father locked my mother in our cellar, depriving her of food, water and any contact with us children. This way he tried to humiliate her even more. He wouldn’t allow us to take care of her, but I was secretly taking food to her. This inhuman situation lasted for several days. Finally, one day my mother and I were able to run from the slavery of our own home. My brother stayed with them.
We moved to Yerevan. Hiding from our own family, we found shelter in a damp and dark room. We felt lonely and forsaken. My mother could not overcome the longing for her son; my father forbade him to have any contact with us. For them, we no longer existed. In this difficult situation, our hope was only in God. Every day we cried out asking Him to open a door for us. Both my mother and I were full of fear. It seemed almost impossible to take any independent steps. I was very afraid of talking to people; I was constantly expecting something dangerous. I lagged behind in school curriculum. Even reading was difficult for me. I had no desire to study.
We started to attend the Word of Life Church with my aunt, and our life totally changed. My mother gradually started to find strength in herself and was able to work and take care of our most urgent needs. In the Church, we learned about the Development Center of the Social Ministry. We were enrolled in the Center, and psychologists started to work with me individually. Every day, I felt how God was restoring me. The most important thing that I understood here was that I have a Father Who loves me, Who will never forsake me and will always take care of me. The Center had such an atmosphere of love and warmness, that I felt myself happy and important, a feeling I had never had anywhere. Before that, I felt that I was unfit for anything, that I was weak and always lagging behind my peers. In the Center, I overcame that as well. They even forbade me to say the phrase “I can’t do it”. With great joy, I started to participate in all the study groups of the Center, and in the events and theatrical performances as well. Now I cannot imagine my life otherwise. In the Center, everything is so dear to me. The great love of God that has come to me through each worker of the Center helped me to be free from the complexes that lasted for years. I had lost love, faith and trust toward people; I had become secluded, unsociable and very diffident. Due to healing prayers, all of it was removed from me. I started to love people and the world around me. Now I study in a college, I have acquired much knowledge and have decided to become a good specialist and a useful person.
Through attending the Center, I learned to dream about the impossible; for isn’t everything possible with Jesus Christ? Due to Him, the broken heart of my mother was restored as well. Today she has an opportunity to see my brother and to satisfy her love and longing for him. God’s love and mercy are so visible and tangible in our lives! I am infinitely grateful to Him, my Almighty God!
