My name is João Domingos Samuteba, I give service as the head of the liturgy.

 I would like to share some testimonies I experienced related with the basic practices of faith at home during the lockdown.

With the closure of the churches, we started giving service at home. I started giving Johrei to my wife but didn’t receive. Sometime later, the home vegetable plot dried, I stopped visiting the houses I took care of, I stopped reading the teachings and started to lose strength.

Some days later, the nightmares and cramps I had when I arrived at the church came back. I got desperate and very scared of everything going back to how it was before I was guided to the church. I looked for the center head, who asked me to receive Johrei at his house, but I couldn’t go frequently. Until one day, I got so desperate that I called the head of the liturgy, who went to my house. Seeing my suffering, she decided to call the coordinator of the liturgy, in order to ask for help.

The minister listened carefully to my problems and asked me if I was following the basic practices of faith, one at the time; I said I was not following them. She guided me to renew my home vegetable plot and to start making a march of Johrei together with the reading of Meishu Sama’s teachings at home. She asked the head of the liturgy to help me and my wife do a profound cleaning at home.

On the same day, the head of the home vegetable plot helped me renew my vegetable plot and me and my wife started doing the march of Johrei while reading the teachings. That night, I slept very well and, following the basic practices, our problems were solved. But, as time passed, I became ungrateful and little by little I stopped doing the march of Johrei. Hence, of course, the problems came back.

I was ashamed to call the minister and tell her about my problems that came back but she called me asking how I was. After listening to me, she visited me, prayed with the family, did the march of Johrei and the flower workshop. The minister also asked me to start taking care of houses and for me and my wife to do the profound cleaning and the flower workshop in our house every week. I gained strength to start doing the basic practices of faith and thank God and the Messiah Meishu-Sama everything was overcome

   I now understand that, when we stop giving service, our spiritual level decreases, hence we need to act with prudence!

My commitment is to stay strong with the basic practices of faith, and encourage the people I am taking care of to do the same.

Everyone that shared my testimony of faith my thank you!