My name is ANTOINETTE KIM THERON MASHONGA and I am 37 years old. I have been a full member for 7 years now and was guided to the church by sister Elison Esther Smith who is also a full member. The problems that brought me to the church were financial difficulties and conflicts in my marriage and with my family, especially with my father. After following the guidance given, I managed to overcome these problems. The testimony of faith I would like to share is based on Johrei and always following the basic practices of the church.
My 2nd born brother and I are very close. We had a difficult upbringing because our parents got divorced when we were very young. My father then remarried, and my mother was left to raise 3 children on her own and was always frustrated. She turned to alcohol and things got bad. My mother lost her job and at our home, as young people, we had to become financially stable and help our mother with no family support. Thank God and Messiah Meishu-Sama, we were able to do that until my mother passed away in 2007. Due to all our suffering, we decided to never get involved with our family members ever again because they were not there for us and from then, our family was as dead as our mother. Years later, I met Meishu Sama and after some time the Johrei I was receiving made me change that feeling. I wanted to have a relationship with my family, especially with my father. I tried to tell my brother to come with me to go visit him but, he refused to go there. I started giving him Johrei and even took him to the Johrei Centre of Bezvalley, where he bought a flower and took it home. A family member passed away and we had to go to the funeral and after that, my brothers’ attitude towards my family changed. I would visit his home every Christmas and explain to him and his wife about Johrei, the flowers of light and the teachings of Meishu-Sama. I did this for years but, my brother thought I was crazy because my family is Christian. Last Christmas when I got to my brothers’ home, he and his wife were facing extreme purification. Financial difficulties, marriage conflict, fighting in front of their kids, excessive drinking, the atmosphere in their home was a hellish one.
My brother and his wife fought so much that they couldn’t even greet each other or offer each other food and his wife took the kids to celebrate Christmas with her father and left my brother alone. I started giving the whole family Johrei and put the flowers of light all over the house. When his wife came back home, her attitude as well as my brothers had changed. They started speaking again and even the children told us how they felt about their parents fighting all the time. That did bring some peace but, the relationship between my brother and his wife was still very cold. I called my father and older brother and asked them to please intervene however, they never came. My brother shouted at me asking me why I called them because I knew they would never come as they never did before. So, why would they do it now? I continued to give the family Johrei and guided them to use the words thank you all the time and keep the flowers of light at home and went back home. Then in September of this year, my brother and his wife had a fight and he moved into his ex-wife home. I went to speak to them and once again called my eldest brother to help. He did call but nothing happened. The next day I received a sms from sister Elison inviting me to a flower workshop done by Reverend Claudio Pinheiro and I asked my brother and his ex-wife to please attend it and they agreed. My brother was desperate to solve his problems so he was curious to see what would happen. The next day, we all participated in the workshop. When it was over, sister Elison told the reverend about my brothers’ purification. So, the reverend gave him Johrei and guided him to take the flower he made to his wife and say he was sorry. My brother and his wife were not working at that time and my brother felt lost. The next week, my brother called me and told he had found a job. I was surprised to see how fast Johrei had worked! He was still living with his ex-wife and I continued to pray for him. Then, about 2 weeks later he went back home to his wife and they got back together. I was so happy and grateful for this blessing. I was surprised to see how fast the Johrei had worked. I was very humbled and grateful for this blessing.
Two weeks later, I received a picture of my father’s parents who are both in the spiritual world. This surprised me because I have been asking for pictures of my grandparents since last year, before the ancestor’s service but never received any. I thought that this must be a sign from Meishu-Sama. Then, 2 days later I received a picture of my eldest brother and father together. I thought: “Wow, what a blessing!”. The next day, I got a call from my eldest brother telling me they were on their way to my brother’s home to fetch him so that they could have father and son bonding time. That afternoon, my eldest brother sent me pictures of himself, my father, my 2nd eldest brother and his 2 sons. This was a great miracle because up until that day, my father didn’t even know his grandson’s names. It was the first time in 13 years that they got together. I did a prayer to thank Meishu-Sama for this amazing blessing! Something that was impossible, happened. On the 1st of November, I watched the ancestors’ service online and although I didn’t understand everything that was being said, I followed the prayers and received Johrei. During the prayer to invite the ancestors, I felt deeply moved and grateful that I was experiencing it in my home. I thanked God and Meishu-Sama for the feeling. That night I received a call from my niece whom I haven’t seen for 20 years.
I was shocked and asked her how she got my number. She told me that she got the number from my 2nd eldest brother because she had a feeling that she needed to speak to me about a project she is doing. She said that was doing research into my family’s history in order to create a family tree with pictures, dates of birth, marriage and death and life stories about our loved ones who had passed away and of the old people while they are still alive so that their memory won’t be forgotten. She had already collected so many pictures of our family members who have passed away and asked me to help her compile the information. I told her that in 37 years I had never seen a picture of my mother’s father and I have been asking it for years. She immediately sent me a picture of both my mother’s parents and my great grandmother who is my grandfather’s mother.
Tears filled my eyes and I really have no words to express my gratitude to God and Meishu-Sama for this amazing blessing. On November the 4th, was the spiritual upliftment of my mother’s 13th year of passing and at the beginning of the month I had made a commitment to go to my mother’s grave to clean, do the prayers and place flowers. I haven’t been to my mother’s grave in 12 years as her passing was too difficult for me to bare but, after receiving all these signs, I knew that my ancestors were giving me a message. Also, my mother and grandfather are buried in the same grave. So, together with my daughter whom my mother hadn’t met, sister Elison and 2 of my friends, we took 2 shovels and flowers and went to the cemetery. No one in my family even had her grave number. So, we went to the office to ask for it and gave the people who worked there the date of her burial.
They found the grave, told me that there are 2 people buried there and gave the names of my mother and grandfather. I was very emotional and relieved! We prayed, made the grave neat and placed flowers. I took pictures and posted it on a family group chat I created in order to unite my family and show them the importance of remembering our ancestors and celebrating their memory.
What I’ve learned from this testimony of faith is that nothing is impossible for Meishu-Sama! He restored family bonds I thought were destroyed forever. If we are faithful to the guidance and practices of our church, God and Meishu-Sama will align everything in our lives and the lives of our families! I also learned the importance of uplifting our ancestors so that they can be saved, and our families will be saved too!
I’ve seen again and experienced the immense power of Johrei and my respect for the permission to be a full member has grown. Even though our family might be opposed to Johrei, we should not be afraid to offer Johrei and leave the rest up to God and Meishu-Sama!
To show my gratitude to God and Meishu-Sama for these great miracles, I did a donation of gratitude on the day of my mother’s spiritual upliftment and invited a friend to the monthly service of gratitude.
My commitment is to continue to ask Meishu-Sama to use me and guide me in reuniting my family and to pray for families who went through the same problem as the one I had. Also, to guide as many people to the Miracle working power of Johrei!
I would like to thank the Supreme God, Messiah Meishu-Sama and my ancestors for the permission to know and be a part of this path of salvation! To everyone who has contributed to and supported me in my mission, I would like to give my deepest and sincere gratitude. To all ministers, missionaries, full members and members, thank you very much!
To all who have listened to my testimony of faith, thank you very much!
