FRANK TESTA , former Catholic priest
My first experience with the Lord dates back to the age of 17. Until then I had always had a certain fear of the things of God, but the only way I knew to please Him was through mass, by serving as an altar boy.
During the turbulent years of my teens, the Lord touched my heart as I read the testimony of a man condemned to the electric chair. I realized that I was a sinner in need of forgiveness and salvation and then I decided to give my life entirely to serve God. The only way I knew to do it was to become a priest in the Catholic church, so after high school I entered in the seminary. After four years of study, the Archbishop sent me to the university of theology in Belgium for another four years and in June 1964 I was officially ordained a priest and returned to the USA to begin my service in a parish.
For the next 13 years I served in various parishes in large New Jersey cities, often dealing with problems such as racism, poverty, drugs and alcohol. I was nicknamed "Street Priest", because I took care of the recovery of the marginalized and of finding accommodation for the poor. After 8 years of preparation and over 12 years of service as a priest, I realized the compromise and corruption on the part of my collaborators, involved rather in building structures than in the eternal destiny of souls.
During that time of discouragement and depression, I was invited to a Pentecostal Evangelical church. I presented myself to them in my religious robes, and for the first time came in contact with power-filled worship and anointing-filled preaching."Lord, this is what I've been looking for all these years!" In these meetings, I met people who lived what they believed, who knew God's Word better than I did, and that made me feel humbled and hungry to know more. After I finished mass I ran to Pentecostal prayer meetings and for a year I sought the Lord in prayer, with fasts, to receive direction from Him. It
became more and more clear that I could not continue to be a Catholic priest because I studied the Word more of God, the more the Lord opened my eyes to so many teachings that were in contradiction with the Bible. At one point the Lord showed me a passage from Scripture that indicated a clear direction for me:
"Do you not put yourselves under a different yoke with the infidels, because what relationship is there between justice and iniquity? And what communion is there between light and darkness? And what harmony is there between Christ and Belial? Or what part does the faithful one have with the unfaithful? And what agreement is there between the temple of God and the idols? For you are the temple of the living God, as God said, "I will dwell among them, and walk among their; and I will be their God, and they will be my people. "Therefore" get out from among them and separate from them, says the Lord, and touch nothing unclean, and I will take you in, and I will be like a father to you, and you will be for me as sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty ".
Some time after following this direction from the Lord, I found myself worshiping in a Pentecostal meeting, when a light surrounded me and the Spirit of God knocked me down on my face and I began to speak in an unknown language. It was not a mere excess of emotions, I was truly baptized in the Holy Spirit as were the disciples in chap. 2 of the Acts. After an hour of this glorious experience, I deeply felt the voice of the Father telling me: "You are my son, listen to me". What words of comfort! What great joy filled my heart which for years was hungry for joy and consolation!
Two months later I burned all my Catholic vestments and books, packed everything into my car, and left the priesthood and Catholic church with a voluntary step. Even though I was unaware of where to go and what to do, I felt free and had the certainty that the Lord was in control of my life, as it is written in John 8:36: "So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed" . Many in my family rejected me because of my decision to leave the Catholic Church, but I felt a deep peace within me. I was determined to obey God at any cost, and not to love anyone more than Him even if the first enemies were those of my own home.
I continued to work among the poor in the city of Newark even spending many hours a day, for two years, prostrate before God to be taught Scripture again by the Holy Spirit.
As a priest I had lived the life of celibacy according to the Catholic tradition, but now I was free to marry. However, I was so grateful to God for delivering me with the truth, that I was ready to enter eternity as a bachelor if God wanted it to. I'm glad He had other plans for me. From the women's garden of God, the gardener picked a very special flower for me: my wife Joan, who has been a Catholic nun for twenty years. We got married in 1980 and have served the Lord together to this day. For 10 years we have directed a ministry for drug addicts and alcoholics and for 17 years we have been employed in the pastoral ministry. We have always been active in evangelization on the street and in prisons and lately the Lord has opened the doors for us to teach in missions abroad,
My prayer is that this testimony can be an encouragement to Catholics who are hungry for the truth, to whom the Spirit of God is revealing the contradictions of the Catholic religion, in the light of the Bible. God's word exhorts us to "get out of their midst" to adore the Father in Spirit and truth.
JOAN , former nun
I want to thank the Lord for his great mercy and how he led me out of the darkness to his wonderful light. I grew up in an Irish Catholic family and knew no other way to serve God, other than through mass and sacraments, by praying to the saints. After spending much of my youth in Catholic school, I decided to enter the convent in Nuoburgh (NY) in 1955. I asked God for forgiveness for all my sins and honestly expressed a desire to serve him for life.
My first years spent in this Dominican convent were very happy, living in community with other nuns, teaching children and studying. The culmination of my experience, however, came while I was on a mission in Puerto Rico from 1970 to 1973. I was able to attend a prayer meeting of charismatics and some of those present prayed for me. From that night on, I experienced a wonderful change in my life. My eyes opened to God's word and my heart experienced His love for me. Until then I had always been very afraid of not being able to atone for my past and never being worthy of heaven, but after this touch of love I became thirsty for God and wanted to know him better.
Returning to the United States in the summer of '73, I entered a house of prayer where other sisters like me sought the Lord in His Word. This made me even more thirsty for his Word and I sought special permission to be exempted from teaching and studying further. After this period, I was convinced of the need to seek His presence and share the Bible with others.
The community I belonged to allowed me to move in '75 to Newark, New Jersey, to do this. I started knocking on the doors of the houses with the zeal to let everyone know what the Lord had taught me, and it was then that I met Frank, who was assistant pastor. I worked among the poor in the streets, young and old, black and white, bringing them the comfort of God's Word in the best way I could. It was shortly after this meeting with Frank that he decided to leave the Catholic religion and this decision shocked everyone in the Catholic environment. After a year and a half of prayers and help from the holy women of God, which the Lord himself placed in my path, I too decided to leave the Catholic Church. After 22 years in the convent, I just didn't know what to do or where to go, it was a radical decision for me. Thank God, the truth of the Epistle to the Hebrews chap. 9 and 10, in which it is written that Christ died once and for all, so that his sacrifice could not be repeated, broke the bond that the Mass had on me as a Catholic.
It was especially my experience with the Pentecostal church in Newark that encouraged me to recognize the true worshipers God seeks - those who worship him in Spirit and truth (John 4: 23-24).
Of course my decision to leave the Catholic religion had an impact on my family. My father wept at the news, and the spirit of condemnation, which is strong in the Catholic religion, tried to discourage me, but the Lord supported me and the sisters encouraged me to seek the guidance of the Spirit for my life. As I continued to study the Word, I felt the certainty that my life was in the hands of the Lord, and the same Lord that I strove to serve in the convent instructed me to "get out of their midst", guiding me step by step into his truth. A year and a half later, God led me to marriage to Frank, who had left the Catholic Church three years before me. Together we saw God's mighty hand at work, and our burden is to see others enter the freedom of the children of God, freed from human traditions to enjoy salvation by faith in Christ. To him alone be the glory!
Frank and Joan Testa, former Catholic priest and nun have been in pastoral ministry for over twenty years; working with drug addicts and alcoholics for many years, as well as engaging in extensive street and prison preaching and witnessing. For the past fifteen years, the Testas have been missionary evangelists in Africa, India, the Caribbean, Central America and Europe, especially reaching out to Catcholics with the true message of salvation. They oversee a Bible and missionary training institute in Kenya, East Africa where young Africans are prepared to go exclusively to areas that have never been reached with the Gospel.
"It has been our visions for more than twnety years to see a vanguard of end time Christian workers, filled with the Holy Spirit, going across America and calling Christians and the nation to repentance. Teams of on fire witnesses, free to go forth and be used powerfully by the Lord in these last days. We see the prayer and Christian witness training center here in Christiana, Pa, as a 'school of prophets' sending sanctified firebrands fit for the Master's use throughout this nation in this late hour".
Their ministry website is alphaandomegaministries.info
They shared their testimony on Youtube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqiWMCDBHqM
Obituary
Joan Testa
November 12, 1936 - August 08, 2020
Joan Testa, beloved wife of Pastor Frank Testa, Alpha and Omega Ministries, Christiana, went home to her Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ August 8, 2020 at 83 years of age. She was the daughter of Patrick and Catherine Cahill McIntyre, and leaves behind siblings Patrick, William and Brian, nieces and nephews and many spiritual sons and daughters.
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