After I received Jesus into my heart in 1982, I expected big revelations and encounters that would make substantial changes in me and my life. Changed my life He did but it took an extraordinarily long time to change me.

The main sign of change I had the day after I came to Jesus was to stop smoking. However, I did not experience immediate or further changes in my character. I still had a bad temper. Things people said or did made me mad. I was not patient at all. I was offended when people asked me to repeat things because they did not understand my accent in English. I was offended when people asked if I came illegally to United States. “I am a citizen and came with a legal VISA” I responded. I wanted fast results, and they were not coming.

I decided to discipline myself and, even when I am not particularly fond of music, I learned and sang a hymn in Spanish that the friend who led me to read C.S. Lewis had given me.

It was “Jesus es mi Rey Soberano” by Vicente Mendoza. Years later I learned that he was a Methodist Pastor in Mexico who also ministered in California from 1915 to 1921.

The hymn has three stanzas. The first stanza translated to English is:

Jesus is my sovereign King,
my joy is to sing his praise.
He is a King, and he sees me like a brother,
He is King, and he imparts his love to me.
Leaving his throne of glory,
came to pull me out of the scum,
And I am happy, and I am happy for him.

I sang this in my car every time I was driving somewhere.

Years later, when I had to move from Miami to Dallas and I started to be a bit stressed about the situation, I learned from my friend Karelin that praising the Lord takes your mind off your concerns.

So, whenever I was driving in the port of Miami or Miami Beach, I would repeat aloud: “I praise you, Lord; I praise you, Lord!”

At the beginning of my walk as a follower and sister of Christ, I used to read the Bible searching specifically for verses that would justify my conversion. Sometimes I would search for verses that would, according to my interpretation, contradict what I thought being a Christian was.

I would read isolated verses, without reading them in context, and, obviously, did not understand. I tried to read the Bible in Spanish, but the fact that the Lord is called “Señor” did not set well with me. Señor, in Chile, was the way we called every man. We did not use it as a signal of respect; it was just a quite common way to call any guy. I had to read the Bible in English to get the sense of respect the Lord deserved. I also read it in French, the language of love.

Going to different churches of diverse denominations, I suspected that most were after structure. Some were after rules. Some after legislation. Some after control of the mind. Many were only after the members’ tithes. Some were about forming habits, not of discipline or relationships, but just of mindless repetition of prayers. Other churches had unplanned services and let people roll on the floor or shout at will. Most times I came out of masses and services disappointed and empty.

Little by little I learned that I was very cynical in my judgement of different denominations. So, I decided to read about their origin. The history of the formation of many denominations left me totally amazed. However, that was not what I really needed.

I went with friends to many churches that were experiencing “revivals” or demonstrations of the Holy Spirit that made me doubt their veracity. At a Lutheran Church in Florida, I saw people forming lines on a basketball field and, after the person guiding the service preached in tongues. I heard groanings and sounds that were cause me goose pumps. My friend said it was a manifestation of the Holy Spirit, but I knew the experience caused me fear instead of faith.

During a visit to Chile, I heard a university student telling during a conference how she wanted to go to Summer Camp but one of the requirements was to have no teeth problems. She had a big tooth ache and needed to fix a cavity, but she did not have money to pay a dentist, so she prayed for a miracle. Next morning she woke up with a brand-new gold filling in her molar. As a good daughter of a father that practiced dentistry, I was really skeptical about that miracle. Why didn’t God just give her a new molar?

I became interested in prophecy, and I attended a church in North Carolina where I received a ‘word’ about taking care of many children and I was given a Scripture. Later I learned that since I did not have children they spoke about my students.

Years passed and as I started going to the Southwest Believers Convention with Karelin, I definitely experienced a transformation. At the beginning I was very skeptical and cynical, as always. I thought they were only after money. I thought they were exploiting people’s need for emotions and taking that as a sign of spirituality but slowly the light came to my heart. I realized that I was too materialistic and was not open to what, since I was a child, I had had inside but society had trained me to forget it.

Years later I knew that I had started allowing the Lord to change me when one of my students, who I was helping with her doctoral thesis, called me one night. She lived in Mexico. She said, “I want to have what you have.” Right there I was able to testify and bring her to meet the Lord. That also happened with other students. I was very humbled with these events, and I asked the Lord to help me to come closer to Him.

I am still being transformed. I pray in tongues, I read the Bible every night, I watch a devotional every morning and after that, Karelin and I thank the Lord for everything. We pray for the needs of others, for our needs and we also ask for knowing the Lord better and allowing the Holy Spirit in us to continue guiding us. His presence is becoming more and more real.