Dionesia Dimitriou

Hi, this is an overall account of how I came to know the Lord. I was born on June 12, 1980. I am the oldest of four children 2 girls and 2 boys. I have lived with my parents and my sister and brothers my whole life. I was brought up as a Greek Orthodox because that is what my parents were. I went to church sporadically on Sunday's up until the sixth grade. I also attended Sunday school for a few years. I always have believed in God and Jesus but really did not know anything about the Lord. In church, the sermon was given in ancient Greek and in Sunday school the teachers spoke Greek and my classmates, who also attended school there during the week spoke Greek and learned how to read and write Greek, and so I always felt left out not knowing how to read or write Greek and feeling like I didn't speak Greek well enough either. So for me church was an unpleasant experience of having to dress up and sit and stand for 2-2 ½ hours without understanding anything that was going on.

After the sixth grade my father was working a lot and my mother had now four children to take care of and we stopped going to church except for the occasional Easter in which we would go to light a candle. My grandmother was a faithful woman and would speak to me about the Lord.  She would tell me stories about her mother, my great grandmother, who saw visions and had experienced several miracles from the Lord. I was always interested in these stories but I suppose that at the time I thought that these stories were only stories and that they actually couldn't happen today.

Well my life was simple and with my family and I could say that I was very fortunate. The turning point of my life was when I became 15 and really entered the world of sin. That began a 9 year cycle of friends, boyfriends, drinking, smoking and doing drugs. My "friends" thought it was cool to smoke, so I smoked. My "friends" thought it was cool to drink, so I drank. My "friends" thought it was cool to do drugs, so I did drugs. Naturally it wasn’t there fault, I had a mind of my own but I don’t think I would’ve done half of what I have done without their influence.  I had very strict parents who didn't allow me to go out late or sleep over friends houses, so without many lies and craftiness on my part and the devil who opened every door to allow me to sin, I don't believe I would have gotten to the point I did. So for those 9 years I did many horrible things. My parents had no idea for the most part because although I was sinning a lot I was still responsible for the things I had to be responsible for like school - I got very good grades, I was on the kick line team and I always made my practices and performances, I was a black belt in karate and went to karate 6 days a week and competed in tournaments locally and nationally and I also worked 4-5 days a week.  So I still managed to keep up with my hectic schedule and squeeze in my sins with my friends.

I unfortunately also brought my little sister into this mess of a life I had created for myself.  I justified myself by thinking that she was going to try all these things out anyways so that if she did it with me at least I could watch out for her.  I was terribly wrong. She has a different personality than me and she got hooked. It got to a point where she was doing really badly and I was really worried about her.  She became emotionally unstable and was seeing therapists and my parents didn’t know what to do and I couldn’t tell them anything because I was so ashamed of what I had done.

The weight of sin is so terribly unbearable! Well the glorious Lord in His mysterious way saved us. My dad had returned to the restaurant business and was working late several nights a week and a new man came to work and worked with my father - Jimmy is his name.  Well brother Jimmy had been saved and was baptized with the Holy Spirit and spoke about Jesus all the time. At first my father thought that he was strange, talking about the Lord all day long but brother Jimmy brought in a Bible and they would read the Bible at the end of their shift and so my father started to know about Jesus. Well brother Jimmy brought my father to church and my father loved it. My dad soon got baptized in the water for the remission of sins and started attending this church - the Free Apostolic Church of Pentecost. My father being severely concerned about my sister, told my sister about the Lord and this church and my sister went.  Soon she got baptized as well. Then my sister changed all of a sudden- praise the Lord!  She stopped drinking and smoking. Her asthma was getting better.  She was in love (with her boyfriend at the time who now is her husband) and they decided to get married and stop living in sin. My sister did a total 180. She became modest and was gentle- she was completely new! You would think that I would be so happy! God delivered her and saved her from the hell I put her in! But I didn't see my new sister back then because I wasn't saved- I didn't see her happiness, or the light in her face or her joy or the blessings that God showered her with after she got baptized. I was still in sin and I was blind and I couldn't see. Instead, I ridiculed her and made fun of her, accusing her of being in a cult and not taking any time at all to understand what was happening in her life. I think part of it was that up until the point where my sister had bottomed out and had gotten really bad - we had been best of friends. And after that she was lost to me and there was nothing I could do. Then she met her husband-to-be and then she got baptized and the Lord changed her whole life and she would spend much of her free time with the brethren and we just didn't have anything in common anymore and we couldn’t even talk anymore. It was as if she was speaking another language to me.  In the meantime, I had met someone and was began to date my only 'real boyfriend'. I thought I was in love and that we would marry and live happily ever after- ha ha. How anyone could ever think they could live a happy life on their own and without God is frightening, but I did. Well from the start our 4 and ½ year relationship was tumultuous and rough and I have no idea why we stayed together as long as we did.

Well a year and a half before I got baptized in the water my sister invited me to go to church. So I went and I remember that it was so different. The men sat on one side the women sat on the other.  The women wore scarfs on their heads when they prayed, I thought to myself what is going on here!  But I heard the sermon and for the first time in my life I actually understood what was being said and I liked it! I felt good. I remember this feeling in my heart or in my soul of peace - I never felt like that before- Praise the Lord!  At the end of the service, my sister introduced me to everyone and everyone was really nice. And I thought to myself as I was leaving that these weren’t the people that I thought were nuts, they weren't in a cult - they're great! And Jesus put love for them in my heart right away and I still remember that I couldn't get over how much I loved these people that I didn't even know. Well I came again and this time I came to church during the prayer, which is an hour before the sermon begins. And I can't say for sure but I'm pretty certain that my sister told me about the Holy Spirit but I still wouldn't have perceived who the Holy Spirit was like at any rate. Well, I was sitting next to my sister sort of worried because I didn't know how I was going to pray for an entire hour and people were praying out loud which was very strange to me and sort of disturbing for me to pray, when I heard my sister speaking in different tongues. I was like wow that was what she was talking about- amazing but what really got me is when a sister (if I remember correctly) had a prophesy and I knew right away I felt it in my heart that the Lord just spoke!  And I cried, I was hysterically crying because God spoke! I mean God actually spoke! I could not believe my ears, I had no idea what God being a living God meant and I was astonished that God who created everything -speaks- today, yesterday and forever! Alleluia!

Well after that I started going to church maybe once a week maybe once every two weeks it was summer so I had time but the second September started I stopped going.  Now at the time I blamed it on work and school but it was really the weight of my sin that kept me from going.  I was still dating and breaking up with my boyfriend all the time and I knew that what I was doing with my friends was wrong- even though by this time I didn't drink or smoke half as much as I had in the past but I still couldn't stop- I just couldn't no matter how miserable I felt with my friends, with the bars, with my boyfriend I just couldn't stop. So in about February, March 2004 I started talking to my sister about my boyfriend and how I wanted to stop sinning with him. I also saw the movie the Passion of the Christ and I was hysterically crying. It was very graphic and it depicted how Jesus was scourged before he was crucified and I never knew how much Jesus suffered in order to save a wretch like me.  I started going to church again weekly and biweekly. Unfortunately the current of the world is very strong and I had planned a trip to Las Vegas- Sin City- great is the Lord’s mercy- with my friends almost a year before and now in April I was supposed to go. I remember how I knew I shouldn’t go but I was too weak to say no and my boyfriend and I had broken up again and I was a mess.

So I went to Vegas with my friends, sinning the whole time. I was miserable when I came back, absolutely miserable. The weight of my sins was weighing me down heavily. I finally picked up a copy of the New Testament and began to read.  It had been my goal for a long time to read the Bible, but never did.  I was blown away by how powerful the word of God is. I never knew that the Bible told you what was right and wrong, that it was Jesus' words, and how you should live your life and all the wonderful things Jesus has done and will do. Well things began to happen- what I had been reading at home was EXACTLY what was being read for the sermon at church- this happened four weeks in a row.  Then a brother was visiting from Greece and came to our church.  Now at the time I didn’t go to church on Friday’s but I remember calling my sister to tell her I wanted to come that night.  Well I went and I was listening to the brother and he asked if there was anyone present who wasn't baptized in the water for the remission of sins.  Well I thought that this was a weird question since I assumed that everyone knew who was and who wasn't baptized in our church (even though I had forgotten that he came from Greece) and although I normally would not have answered out of embarrassment- I raised my hand up.  Well from that moment on the brother- actually the Holy Spirit speaking through the brother- spoke to me directly for the remainder of the sermon- to me and only to me- and he asked me if I knew that Jesus suffered and died for me in order to save me from my sins.  That was what really got me that Jesus died for me and I felt so horrible that I was such a disgusting person.

Well that was another turning point for me I felt like I had to be rid of my sin, I finally decided that I wanted to get baptized.  I still had my boyfriend around and knew that if I was going to get baptized I had to change my lifestyle.  Well one night I was so upset and I didn't know what to do and I remember praying and crying to the Lord and asking Him, begging Him in fact, for His help because I wanted to do the right thing but I couldn't do it on my own I was weak. Well my boyfriend was coming over the next day and I asked the Lord to either let me marry him or to take him away forever, I never wanted to see him or speak to him ever again- which was a lot because we had broken up several times throughout the years and had always gotten back together and I live in a town where everyone knows everyone and you always bump into each other.  Well the next day, I saw him, asked him if he wanted to get married and he said no, not- let's wait and see, maybe I'll think about it, soon- just a flat out no.  I told him if that was his decision that I didn't want us to talk or see each other ever again and he was fine with that too.  Although I was devastated I was finally set free.  It's been over a year now and I have never seen or spoken to my ex-boyfriend- Praise the Lord!  Now I finally could get baptized.  I told my friends that I wasn't going to drink or smoke or go to bars anymore and on my real birthday I decided to get baptized in the water and to devote the rest of my life to Jesus.  I remember that the day I got baptized was a horrible day for me, my ex-boyfriend had sent me flowers, I was nervous about my new life if I'd be able to follow Jesus and I had many doubts but  thank God I made it to church to get baptized.  I was excited at the same time however, because this is something I had been wanting badly for the last two months and I was finally going to do it and also because my family was coming to see me and I was finally taking a step toward the Lord.  During the prayer their was a prophecy that was for me and the Lord said that the angels in heaven were rejoicing over my baptism which was so comforting to me! Glory to God! I finally after what seemed like a lifetime in those few short months, got baptized! I felt so happy! I've never felt happiness like the happiness I felt that night. I felt clean and unburdened.  The weight of sin had left and I was new.  A sister had made me a cake for my birthday and everyone ate and celebrated.  I thought it was so sweet of my new sister in the Lord to do that for me, my "friends" that I had my whole life never had made me a cake on my birthday.

My family and I went out to dinner that night, nothing fancy, a small simple place but that was the greatest night of my life.  I think back to that night and I now realize how important it was, I didn’t know at the time but now I know. Shortly after my baptism the Lord spoke to me in many prophecies by name. He told me that He saved me from CERTAIN DEATH and that He was going to make me white as snow.  He told me that He was going to make me like Ruth, that I was going to get baptized with the Holy Spirit with a lot of power and that I was going to receive a family and everything in my heart, even the things I didn't ask of the Lord. Glory to His name! I finished my first year of teaching two weeks later and we had an end of the year celebration with my students, their parents and my parents. It was another amazing blessing- I again felt that enormous happiness. My Lord blessed me and my brother to go to Greece to see my family that I hadn't visited in 10 years (we had gone to Greece actually 5 years ago but it was for my grandmother's sudden death and we were only there for 4 days, so it was the first time it was for a happy reason) and it was amazing, another great blessing.  Since then I have tried to walk on the narrow path the Lord has put me on. From September to May I was mainly concerned with not sinning with my friends, reading the Bible and going to church but then another turning point happened. In May, brethren came from Greece again and it was a great blessing. I saw young brothers who were really rooted in the word of God and who lived a Godly life. I realized that I needed to do better too. I needed to cut off from every worldly thing in my life, I needed to come to church more, and read the Bible more, and to testify the name of God more and to live a Godly life all day every day. I needed to be more active for the Lord and I need to receive His Holy Spirit for I am weak without it.

Two weeks after the brethren left, was my first birthday with the Lord. I was so happy and so relieved because in the beginning when I got baptized I felt that if I made it through the first year then I would be with the Lord forever. Well thanks to the abundant love, mercy and grace of Jesus who suffered and died for me and saved a wretch like me from certain death and gave me a new life- I have been with Him from the day of my baptism and I hope to be with Him forever.  I owe everything to Jesus and I thank Him for giving me everything. The greatest decision of my life was to follow the Lord I have never regretted it nor do I miss anything about my former life, I only wish I had found the Lord sooner because He was always with me but I was blind and weak and I pushed Him away. Nevertheless, I thank God for every minute He has given me with Him and for my new brothers and sisters.  May God bless you and be with you always and may He save our souls and all those we love and take us up with Him in the Rapture. Glory to our great and awesome Lord!

Back to Testimonies

:: Home

:: About Us

:: Word of God

:: Testimonies

:: Links

:: Contact Us

Date: