How God used Italian to save a New York Catholic.
I was recently chatting with a person in our church who shared with me a wonderful story about how God used them to lead their aunt to salvation in Christ.
A common theme in conversations with people in our church, is the deep anxiety of their heart that a person in their life or family is not saved.
We have prayed for them for years, and nothing.
God is still at work.
Even when we don’t see it. God is working.
Even when we’ve given up hope. God is working.
Even when we think that someone is beyond the reach of God. God is working.
Here is the story of “Salvation in Italian.”
Salvation in Italian
My Sicilian family resides in upstate New York. I was raised Catholic but praise be to God on December 16, 1978 I came to know Jesus as Lord and Savior of my life!
Over the past several years, I have shared the gospel with my elderly aunt. She is the matriarch of our family and a true gem! Her responses have always been, that she believed in God but did not know that Jesus was God. She was still clinging to her ideas of praying to dead saints, including Jesus’ mother Mary, and placing priests and the pope in high positions.
After sharing with her many times over the years, I felt compelled one day to call her and try to convince her to accept Jesus as her Savior. Unfortunately, she resisted and felt that she was in good shape the way that she was. From then on I would only share with her about the things of the Lord in general and what He has done in my life.
When I hung up the phone the Lord said to me,
“This is the day of salvation“!
On Saturday morning August 15, 2020 (in the middle of the global COVID-19 pandemic), my older sister called me at 6 AM to tell me that my aunt wasn’t doing well and that she just wanted me to know. My aunt turned 87 the day before. When I hung up the phone the Lord said to me “this is the day of salvation“!
I knew I had to talk to her and share the gospel once again in hopes that she would accept Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior.
I sought God’s counsel about how to approach her and He reminded me how much she has enjoyed the letters I’ve sent her written in Italian. So that was my clue to give her the gospel in Italian! I got on Google and translated the sinners prayer into the Italian language.
When I called her we chatted a bit about how she wasn’t feeling well but it wasn’t dire. I asked if I could pray for her and she said yes, and then I told her about the Lord and asked her if she wanted to pray the sinner’s prayer, repeating after me.
She said, “Yes.”
She went right into it without one ounce of resistance! It was beautiful! Then I told her about how Heaven is now her home.
God had been working on my aunt’s heart all through the years. When the time came she was ready. She even revealed to me how she now realized she could go straight to God in prayer instead of to a confessional, and that the priests and the pope were just people like us.
Little did I know when I went to bed the night before that the next morning the angels in heaven would be rejoicing over the salvation of my aunt!
PJ Messimer (Testimony)
Would you like to accept Jesus as savior of your life?
Would you like to know that Heaven is your home?
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