I was born on January 7, 1927, in Mogliano Veneto (Treviso) to practicing Catholic parents.
In my youth I attended the Roman Catholic Church, I prayed continually to Jesus and Mary, as they had taught me this way and in the same way I taught it to my family. At night - I remember very well - my mother took me and my brothers to the home of a family that lived near us to say the Rosary.
In 1939 my father, having many children to support and having little work, made the request to go to Libya (Africa) as a colonizer taking the whole family with him. There, too, I continued to attend the Catholic Church.
In 1940, at the beginning of the war, my little brother and I were forced to return to Italy from the provinces managed by the Mussolini government. My parents however stayed in Africa. Here in Italy, I went from province to province; I went to Rovigo, to Cattolica, to Riccione, to Rimini, and then to Fiera di Primiero in Trento.
I witnessed many bombings of which the one that struck me most was that of Rimini. In those days, often during the night, the alarm siren would sound and we would quickly flee to shelters. I often ran the risk of being hit by shrapnel and getting hurt or dying, but God always delivered me even though I didn't know Him.
My mother, who was worried because she hadn't heard from me in a long time, went to her sister in Treviso and told her to come and pick me up immediately and take me home. Then my aunt came to pick me up and during the trip by train, around Padova, the train was stopped immediately and we were all told to leave and escape because there was a bombing going on.
My aunt and I fled to the countryside and thank God nothing bad happened to us. The bridge over which we were supposed to pass with the train was bombed and we had to go back and take another route. Arriving at my aunt's land, things did not change in the sense that the bombings often happened there too, and my aunt was always worried about me.
In 1945, a notification came that all 'Libyan' children could return to their families in Africa, so I returned to Africa with my parents. However, shortly after I joined my parents we were forced to leave Libya as the Italians had lost it to the Allies.
In Italy, we were placed in a refugee camp here in Rome. We found ourselves with nothing, we had no home, etc., we ate what the Italian Government gave us then and slept in a barracks.
A few years later, in 1952, I got married and had two children. But my marriage after about nine years went bankrupt. My husband was attracted to another woman and left me with two children in my arms. One was seven and the other eight. I returned to my mother's house. I had to face life alone. I immediately tried to put my children in school, so that I could find a job for myself and thus be able to live and support them. After a while, I found a job. Shortly afterward I decided to put my children in a school closer to me (they, in fact, were in a school in Gubbio that was too far for me). I was desperate, I didn't know who to turn to.
One night, returning from work while walking down a street close to home, I cried and my thoughts were turned to God even though I didn't know Him.
Suddenly, I heard a voice to my right that said, "Don't be afraid, I am your right hand."
I turned around immediately to see if anyone was close to me, but I didn't see anyone. However, I felt joy within me, convinced that the Lord had answered me. After this experience, suddenly all the doors that seemed hitherto closed were opened, and I managed to put my two children in a school closer to home.
It was not the only time that I heard the voice of God when I still did not know Him. There was another occasion that was very marked to me till to this day when He spoke to me. It was in a dream; I found myself in a Roman Catholic basilica, and while I was in the confessional confessing to the priest I heard a thundering and vibrant voice that said to me, "I am the Lord your God, you will have no other god besides Me."
Then, when I was preparing to go to the priest to take communion, I saw over the priest a large scary animal with a long tail which was walking over him and at a certain point stopped. God already warned me at that time, but I didn't notice His warnings and didn't care about them. I didn't know the Word of God.
When I reached the age of sixty-one, in 1988, it happened that while I was walking down the street, I was evangelized by a believer. Later I learned that he was the pastor of a small Pentecostal community that met near my house. This brother started talking to me about Jesus. He told me that Jesus could save me, that He had died on the cross for our sins, that I should accept Him in my heart as my personal Savior and Lord, that I should go to Him confess my sins and other things about salvation.
However, in the beginning, I didn't pay much attention to his words. Shortly afterward, I met another brother who told me the same things. These brothers then began to come to my house to speak to me about the Lord Jesus, inviting me to go to the community. I accepted and went to a service.
I must say, though, that in the early days not yet fully understanding what the differences were between Roman Catholics and Evangelicals, I continued to attend Mass as well. So I was a little here and a little there. I was confused, not knowing which way to go, that is, I did not know if the right path was the one that the priests had taught me or the one that these brothers had indicated to me.
Therefore, I started to pray in my house alone. And besides, I got a Bible to start reading it and see if the things they had told me were true. I did not know the right path was the one that the priests had taught me or the one that these brothers had indicated to me.
One day I got down on my knees in my room and cried out to the Lord these words, "Lord, if You exist, give me an answer, give me a ray of light, don't leave me in the dark, help me, forgive me my sins."
And God answered me in this way. After praying I got up, and when I was standing in the living room while saying to God, "Lord, I am a sinner and I want to be saved. You tell me which way to go," I was suddenly taken in the spirit and had a heavenly vision.
Here's what I saw. I found myself in front of a large open book, in which there were words I could not understand. I wanted my name to be written in that book, and suddenly an ink pen appeared that I took with my hand and made a point on the right side of the book, a point that slowly became a golden seal.
While I was before that book, in the spirit, I felt very strongly the presence of God, and I felt washed out of all sin, clean, and delivered. All those sins that over the years I had uselessly confessed to priests, I finally felt them disappear from my conscience. The blood of Jesus Christ had wiped them out! I felt reborn. I felt a deep peace and a great joy inside me that I cannot explain.
As I never had such an experience, thinking I was going crazy, on the first occasion I asked the pastor what had happened to me and he very calmly told me that I was not going crazy because what I had was a vision from God.
From that moment on, I knew with absolute certainty that the path to follow was Christ Jesus, the same path that these brothers had indicated to me; not a religion, but the One who loved me and gave Himself for me too. From that moment I knew that I had been saved from eternal perdition.
After this vision, I had another one for a short time. This time, however, I was under a tent of evangelization. While the meeting was taking place, in spirit, I initially saw the Lord Jesus who was suffering bloodied on the cross, then I was shown a short distance from me an idol image that had a crown on my head (the Lord showed me what I had adored in my ignorance for many years), and yet I asked the Lord for forgiveness for all my sins. Then, still in the vision, I found myself above the tent singing songs to the Lord together with a crowd of young people celebrating.
However, I was still smoking. I was a heavy smoker. I smoked about 2 packs of cigarettes a day. I had tried many times to quit smoking but I had never succeeded. I knew that it did not please God, and then one night - it was May 31, 1988 - at around ten at night I called out from the depths of my heart God and said to Him, "Lord, only You can remove this addiction from smoking," and I continued to pray to Him.
While praying, I suddenly stopped speaking Italian and started speaking in a foreign language I didn't understand. For about ten minutes I was unable to speak Italian. The Lord had baptized me with the Holy Spirit. Since that night I have not felt the slightest desire to smoke; God had set me free from that addiction.
Shortly thereafter, more precisely on June 26, I was baptized by immersion in water by the pastor who had evangelized me.
I finish telling my testimony, thanking God for having mercy and grace on me, for having forgiven all my sins. To God be the glory now and forever, in Christ Jesus. Amen.
Maria Benvenuti
[Source: http://portoghese.lanuovavia.org/portoghese_testimonianza_conversione_07.htm]
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