A little bit about my history

My personal history has been quite difficult. I am grateful for this, as it has helped me to become who I am and to be able to understand and help people who are going through what I went through, because: 

Whenever we go through crises and problems, we gain more authority (legitimacy) to welcome, help, and guide others who are going through the same painful situations. In this sense, everything I went through and suffered was providential, and I am grateful to God and my parents for everythin(9)

I was born into a home full of dysfunction and family problems. After converting to Christianity, I was fully convinced that all the suffering in my personal and family life was because we did not truly know Christ. This is a common phenomenon in most families where members grew up in Christian cultures [“cultural Christianity”] (10), which cling more to the inherited family religious culture, without an effective relationship and personality with God, with Christ, and with what is — in fact — written in His Word.

However, despite circumstances, God always rescues His own for His Work of Love. 

Through His Mercy, He drew near to me when I was eleven years old. At twelve, I was already baptised and very involved in the ministries and care and counselling (charity) work of my local church, visiting hospitals, children's homes and nursing homes, among other situations of abandonment and risk. 

Very early on, I realised that I had a gift from God, a calling from birth; a mission to His Word, to care for those who suffer

However, the family pains and weaknesses that I carried in my childish soul, having grown up in a family full of problems (dysfunctional), that is:

Without the love, affection, protection and edification that every child should have received, on the one hand, and on the other, having to face abandonment, violence and abuse, which weighed heavily and, sadly, made me succumb in my faith — in the middle of my adolescence...

I ended up distancing myself from God, spending decades wandering around the world — just like the “prodigal son”(11) —, running away from myself and my soul’s pain… As I went through adulthood, despite my apparent “success” as a businessman (owner of several businesses), my personal life was a tragedy:

The existential emptiness was always within me, and the escapes offered by life (sex, drugs, pleasures, etc.) caused me great damage.

Even psychology, medicine, and so many other alternative therapies, in addition to seeking answers in other religions and doctrines, have never been able to stop: 

• anxiety;

• depression;

• panic;

• bipolar disorder (bouts of euphoria and deep sadness);

• escapism (sex, drugs, alcohol, etc.)

• anger and rebellion — against my pain —, etc.

But, above all, they never managed to fill the ‘inner emptiness of the soul’ enough for me to bathe in the daily peace that so many seek. 

That was when, once again, through His Infinite Mercy, God came to rescue me from a dark sea of afflictions, already in my middle age. (12)

I was going through a professional and marital crisis, facing the suffering and pain of a long separation process (which culminated in divorce), in debt, bankrupt in my business, alienated from the presence of my two children. 

It was a complete restart from scratch, from someone who had literally hit rock bottom, to be broken and moulded by God: from businessman to missionary (13).

The formation of the ministry 

In 2012, I understood that everything God allows has a purpose: transformation! (14)

This difficult process and understanding that God always wants a ‘new vessel’ — breaking the old one (15) — to be used in the gifts and talents that, in my case, are in the areas of caring for people, welcoming, counselling, and discipling those who suffer in various ways. (16) 

I confess that these have been challenging and transformative years, of total surrender of my life to God, in missions, studies/research and work, since then, on three continents (Latin America, Africa and Europe).

Among the activities I developed and participated in:

• Care for communities, people, the elderly, and children at risk/vulnerable;

  • social projects;

  • humanitarian projects;

  • environmental projects;

• Counselling, monitoring, and support: 

  • all ages and genders;

  • singles, couples, and divorcees;

  • individualised and in therapeutic groups;

• Discipleship of individuals and churches (apostolate):

  • The Christian journey and its challenges;

  • Alignment/realignment with the Word of God and His Statutes;

  • Seminars and teaching.

The call to rescue

It was during this process that Lion Ministry emerged. A ministry called to fill an existential — and material — void that Western (postmodern) culture has been creating with its disconnected narratives that disconnect people from who they truly are, contained in the One True God: Jesus Christ. (17)

This ministry aims to rescue people:

• who have become disillusioned because they did not find in their family (and marital), spiritual, and governmental authority figures the acceptance, love, affection, sense of belonging, and guidance they needed regarding themselves: the construction and alignment of their Life Missions as ‘Children of God’; (18)

• who are internally lost, in some way in their souls, without care for their pain and provision for their physical, emotional, and spiritual needs; (19)

• who are inside and outside the church (believers and non-believers), who feel in need of guidance for a life that integrates or reintegrates them with God, with themselves, and with their neighbours. (20)

Regardless of who the person is or how they are, without making any distinction based on origin, creed, social status, intellectual status or ‘morals’. (21)