My name is Aida Chilombo Livala Costa. I am 48 years old, a full member and give service as the assistant of the sun group at the Johrei Center mentioned above.
I was guided to the World Messianic Church of Angola in 2005 by a friend called Isabel, who was a member at that time. The reasons that brought me to the church were: illness, poverty and conflicts. I kept getting sick and this caused a lot of conflicts at home.
Since I wasn’t getting better, I decided to look for sangomas to solve my problems but didn’t find any good results. Since there were many conflicts between me and my husband, we decided to separate and I went back to my father’s house. After some time, I got into another relationship. But my first husband didn’t leave me alone. He would constantly come to my house to wish me bad luck. As I was married, he stated that I couldn’t leave him and, since he was from the family of the traditional leadership of the area, I couldn’t be happy. As I suffered a lot with him, I decided to keep in my other relationship, which also didn’t succeed. I would get pregnant and, after giving birth, the baby would die after some months! The last pregnancy almost cost my life because it was an ectopic pregnancy and I was transferred to the operation block. This way, I lost 3 children.
My husband didn’t accept the constant loss of the babies. He decided to leave me, saying I was sick, and that one day my health would bring him problems or even make him a widower too early. So, I went to sangoma houses that accused my dad’s sister as being the main cause of my problems. Even while doing several treatments with sangomas, nothing in my life improved.
It was in this sea of suffering that a friend told me about the World Messianic Church of Angola and its miracles. At the church I was received by a missionary who guided me the basic practices of the Messianic faith. Before getting out of the church, they gave me a flower to take home. On the way back I told my friend that the church looked full of witchcraft and threw away the flower. Inside me, I said I would never go back to the church. At night, I had a dream with someone saying:” That flower that you threw away, was good for you! That is because everything that was placed in your body was overcome! ”
When I woke up, I decided to go back to the church and follow all the guidelines, which I did with no difficulties. I had to sell baked little cakes in order to eat but, with the channelling of Johrei, a lot of things changed in my life.
In 2006, I applied for a public job in general nursing and passed the test. Nevertheless, I was placed in the municipality of Chitembo. Since it is too far from the capital, my colleagues said that, in order to be transferred, I had to pay 100 dollars. A lot of people payed and were transferred but, since I didn’t have money, I placed everything in Meishu-Sama’s hands! In the following day I went to receive the placement guide, which stated that I would work at the maternal hospital of Cuito. I got very happy! To thank for this miracle that God and Meishu-Sama were blessing me with, I made a donation of gratitude and became a full member to be used as an instrument of Meishu-Sama!
After becoming a full member, my father became very ill and his sister, who was accused of being the cause of all the bad that afflicted me, came to visit him but refused to eat at my house. When my father passed away, this aunt came and apologized to me, saying that we couldn’t carry on living that way and to forget everything that happened in the past. After apologizing, six months later, she also passed away.
With the practice of dedication, I had the following changes: my second husband came to me and asked for forgiveness for the suffering that he made me go through. We forgave each other but didn’t get back together as he is in another relationship. From both of my relationships I remained only with two kids: a son from the first relationship and a daughter from the second.
Thanks to the efforts in the giving of service , my son was able to graduate and works at a private college. My daughter was able to get married and is very happy. With all these blessings, I decided to focus on the happiness of other people.
The testimony of faith that I would like to share with you is related to taking care of people during the global pandemic.
During this lockdown, the churches were closed for almost 4 months. I was guided to give assistance to the members and full members that live in my neighbourhood but wasn’t always able to do so. One day, once I returned from my job, one of my neighbours came to my house and told me about her sufferings. She brought me a prescription that she was told to buy and, since I am a nurse, I gave her a folic acid tablet. I told her that I didn’t have everything from that list but asked if I could make a prayer from my church. She accepted and started coming to my house to receive Johrei every afternoon.
After 3 days she said “Mama Aida, I suffer with filarial, a disease that made my chest feel dry, increased my heart rate, caused a lot of cracks throughout my body – especially on my hands and legs – and prevented me from sleeping well! I didn’t buy the medication nor the ointment that I was prescribed but the scars closed just with the prayer! Thank you very much for everything you did to me!”. I told her that it wasn’t me but the Supreme God who caused those miracles in her life! She is already a member of our church and states that every time she receives Johrei her skin gets smoother. She is receiving Johrei everyday together with her family. They are a total of 10 people and had the permission to participate in the last march of Johrei that took place at the Formation Center.
My 78 years old mother has hypertension and diabetes. She has been having a lot of relapses and couldn’t walk without the help of a stick or touching the wall. Since I started giving her Johrei, she has being presenting a good appearance and is looking younger! She goes out alone and even goes to the market to buy fruits. Every day, before she sleeps, she asks me to give her Johrei.
With this testimony I learned that Johrei is the medicine of the 21st century and it purifies our spirit!
I already guided more than 100 people to the church, of which 4 became full members. I make the donations regularly and have the home vegetable garden.
My commitment is to continue the practice of religious assistance at my neighbour’s houses. Before, when I couldn’t guide people to the church, I started to think that my Johrei no longer performed miracles. With this miracle, my trust was lighten up and with this, my faith to serve the divine light, making others happy, got stronger.
I thank the Supreme God, the Messiah Meishu-Sama and my ancestors for the wonderful, constant blessings and protection.
To the ministers, Center heads, members, full members and to everyone who listened to my testimony of faith, thank you very much!
