Welcome to Aurelio’s Testimony

I was born in Catania (Sicily), but moved to Verona in Italy when I was 14. I never finished school and went straight into work at the age of 17. I started an apprenticeship as an electrician which, like every other job included pros and cons, but I really loved it. I grew up in a family where my parents  used to take us to the Apostolic church they attended in Sicily but other relatives were Catholic and Jehovah’s Witnesses. I found myself growing up with a big difficulty understanding what everyone was believing as I could not see God and had no personal experience of Him. I got to the point where I was an atheist - I used to say with my mouth that I believed but truly inside me I did not.

In August 2009, I was working in Sambuca in the province of Florence so was away from home. That was the hardest time of my life - mentally and emotionally because I was depressed and living in a broken relationship with my then girlfriend, feeling abandoned from my parents and feeling lonely all the time, even though I was surrounded by friends. In those weeks that I spent in Sambuca being away from home and my comfort zone, my depression was even heavier as I had no one to talk to. Every night after we had tea with my colleagues and my boss I used to go for long walks on the road that divided the vineyards from the town, praying every night the same prayer as an atheist - I was saying to God ‘I don’t know if you are real, but if you do exist like I’ve heard and like people have told me in the past, I need you to show yourself to me and I need your spirit to come and live in me because when I get back to Verona, if you don’t show yourself I will end my life.’

It was a Wednesday night when I decided how to end my life. This would be by driving at high speed on a motor way then going head on straight into a bend. Whilst I was driving around the roundabout I realised that I had to find a different way, I wondered what if that didn’t work and I would be left in a vegetative state. I forgot what I had prayed in Sambuca.

Two days later on Friday night, I saw somebody’s wife that I knew coming out of the shopping centre whilst I was approaching my car to leave. She started calling and shouting my name, I stopped as we hadn’t seen each other for a few years so had a quick chat and catch up. She invited me to her house the day after on Saturday morning to help her husband do an electrical system in their attic. I had just lost my job, even though my depression was leading me to be alone all the time, I needed the money and so I accepted the offer.

The day after, on Saturday morning, I went to their house and even though we were working together and he was showing me what he had already done I was trying my best to hide my frustrations from him as he was talking the entire time about Jesus, His love, the sacrifice of the cross. I remember the only thing that was crossing my mind was to punch him in the face and leave. The anger that I was experiencing during that morning was abnormal. I didn’t want to hear a word about Jesus anymore - I was so tired of listening to him. Whilst I was still working with my back to him, his mobile phone rang from downstairs. He flew downstairs to answer the phone and for the first time in my life I heard His voice. Yes, right there - it was His voice, God’s voice and He said to me ‘ma non vedi che ti sta parlando di un amore che non conosci ancora?’ Which translates as ‘can’t you see that he is talking about a love that you don’t yet know?’ I heard this twice in the room, I’ve got to say that at first I got scared but I examined myself and the only thing that I could feel was a supernatural peace and I could feel love inside and outside of me that I’d never felt before.

A few seconds later the man came back upstairs after his phone call and his face was glowing - I couldn’t understand what had happened to him. He looked at me and asked me if he could pray for me, so I accepted and as he prayed for me the presence of The Holy Spirit was that powerful that my legs began to shake. He asked me several times if I could feel anything and of course, being without Jesus, I lied and said I couldn’t feel anything. Once we had finished the job we sat in their kitchen and along with his wife, they kept talking to me about their ministry life, their experiences with God and the miracles they had seen. I was shocked and didn’t know if I could believe what I was hearing. After spending the entire day at their house, we agreed that I was going to come back the next day to check the electrical system - I had made a mistake somewhere and needed to make a correction in order for it to work. From that day on I never had another thought abut ending my life. I actually carried on going to their house for discipleship and was baptised in their bath the following March!

This experience was the door to the path that led me to know Jesus, having a true and intimate relationship with Him through The Holy Spirit. The Lord almighty has used this couple on many occasions for my spiritual growth through giving advice, guidance, support and sharing their experiences and thoughts through my walk and have been my spiritual parents for many years.

As I was without work I eventually had to move back in with my parents in Liguria. I briefly found work as an electrician on military ships until one day The Lord told me that I had to move to England. This was difficult and I had no desire to move to England, I didn’t speak English I spoke Spanish and wanted to go to the Caribbean, I cried out to The Lord and asked Him for a confirmation, I told Him I was going to open up my Bible and that I wanted an answer from Him. It opened on Jonah so I started reading and began crying - The Lord was telling me that I could go to the Caribbean but England was the place that He wanted me to be. After a few months I obeyed and moved to Keighley in West Yorkshire.

Moving to England was the first step of learning obedience in my walk with Jesus.